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  • Trailer Park: Aaron Yoo (FRIDAY THE 13th) – Interview

    By Christopher Stipp

    The Archives, Right Here

    I’m awesome. I wrote a book. It’s got little to do with movies. Download and read “Thank You, Goodnight”right HERE for free.

    And now, you can follow me on Twitter. Find me here, my oh so original name on the thing is Stipp so come on and follow my stray ramblings.

    Aaron Yoo is the funniest person in FRIDAY THE 13TH. It’s not a distinction that serves him well in this regard but Aaron provides some short and snappy comic relief before coming face to face with the homicidal maniac looking to kill everyone. The genuinely nice thing about Aaron’s performance, though, is that he represented one potential kill in this movie about, well, murder. As I mentioned in my review of the film this entry stands heads and shoulders (ones that haven’t yet been decapitated) above its peers if you were to stack it against the “horror” entries of the 90’s. Back then it seemed to be all about irony and not so much about the killin’. This FRIDAY THE 13TH, though, is all about the killing and I couldn’t have been more delighted. The screams are great, the creativity that went into the kills was inspired and you have what is a rock solid reboot of a film.

    The last time I talked with Aaron he was starring last year in 21 and so having the chance to talk to him again was something I could not pass up. I caught up with Aaron a couple of days ago, the night after the film’s premiere in LA, to talk about Voorhees, the nature of horror and whether Jason ever did a little soft shoe right before takes. FRIDAY THE 13TH opens everywhere today…

    AARON YOO: What’s up?

    CHRISTOPHER STIPP: I saw the movie last night.

    YOO: Were you at that big messy thing we were at?

    CS: No man. I live here in Arizona…so I don’t get to do any of that.

    YOO: Oh, OK. I more or less saw the movie last night myself.

    CS: Really?

    YOO: There was more of a disaster around it probably than was going on around your end. It was just the premiere and those are always like the equivalent of a human shipwreck.

    (Laughs)

    Chaos and more chaos and flashing lights and cameras and afterwords you are stranded on an island of alcohol.

    (Laughs)

    CS: Well, what was it like seeing it last night finally all put together?

    YOO: It’s really interesting. I’ve never done a full on horror movie. I found it interesting. I’ve done scare stuff in the past but when you know a scare is coming it’s kind of, it comes sort of as a intellectual exercise so it’s hard to tell. I’m not really sure and curious to know how editors and directors and such of horror films put movies together because if you are not scared by yourself, what’s the mathematics of what scares a person? People were being scared around me and so I was like, “OK…” It’s a really odd experience.

    CS: I was reading a little of what happened on the set and found out that your first day on the set came after you had your appendix taken out.

    YOO: Yeah, I actually had a bit of a complication from appendix surgery from years ago and so it was just something that acted up and was at the Kayne concert and I thought I don’t feel good. So it’s basically the equivalent of having appendicitis again. Brutal to have that twice in your life. I went the morning after and called my cast mate Arlen Escarpeta at 8:30 or 9:00 in the morning and said, “Hey, I think you need to take me to the hospital.” So he was like, “OK, I’m coming.” And then the docs said, “You need surgery.”

    I initially thought it was going to be schedule prohibitive of me doing this movie but give all credit to Platinum Dunes and everyone in the film and Marcus, and Brand, Andrew and Michael over at Platinum Dunes and everybody. They wanted me to stay on the film so they filled the whole schedule around so I could have time off and I came back on set 10 days after surgery or something like that and started shooting again. So it was pretty cool. I did a fair amount of the movie. My own little trivia question is more like how much of the movie did I do? But I did a fair amount of the movie with 18 staples so it was a pretty interesting experience.

    CS: Based on that, there is a lot of wiggling on your part. You get a little physical with Jason.

    YOO: Yeah, if you could have seen ““ I guess what a horror movie is is to see the expressions of my producers every time ““ I did a lot of falls and stuff and did that on purpose and I didn’t really them I was going to do it until I started doing it. And people thought I should say hey, I might fall here. The first time I would do it in rehearsal or do it in a take people were like, “Cut, cut, cut. Are you OK?” And I’m like, “Really, I’m OK. I’m doing that on purpose. Don’t. That’s a good take.”

    So people would just hold their breath. I would freak them out like maybe I should have given them an advanced warning. Andrew Form, one of our producers, would say I was giving him a heart attack every time you do that. But sometimes, and I always feel like, getting to do what we do is a gift so you just have to have fun with it and don’t worry about anything else and you often don’t want to come back and not be doing my job. When I did my scene with Jason they were saying just kind of push him in the wall and mess him up and Derek and I…we were doing the scene and did a couple of takes and it didn’t feel like it was working and I said to him “Can you just push me into the wall?” and he said, “Are you are asking me if that is physically possible? Come on. I could do that with one arm.” So, I said, “OK, do it.”

    And then he threw me into the wall and everyone was, “Whoa!” Because it looked real, right?

    CS: One of the things that makes this movie so great is that it does. It feels brutal.

    YOO: Yeah. I felt like that too, even if you know what’s coming or not, is the brutality of it. There were definitely scenes ““ there were scenes that surprised me and I don’t scare easily in general ““ but there were scenes where people were dying and the first couple of times you could hear the whole theater going, ah, ah, ah, oh, oh, oh. I think my character landed the biggest one of those.

    CS: And well deserved because I was going to tell you when it does happen, and I’m not going to ruin anything for anybody, but it’s definitely one that caused a lot of reaction from the crowd.

    YOO: Can I ask you what was the audience like where you were seeing it? Was it critics?

    CS: No, it was a little bit of both. Very big theater. Maybe a dozen or so critics and maybe 100-200 regular fans.

    YOO: Awesome. Awesome. It’s really interesting to see ““ a bunch of us are trying to see opening night screenings Friday ““ just to see what’s that like. The photographers at the premiere were wearing Jason masks. I was recently traveling out of the country and anywhere I went people knew Friday the 13th. They couldn’t speak any English at all and I’d say Friday the 13th in their language and they would say “Jason”, “hockey mask” and it’s incredible. So, I’m really curious to see what opening night audiences will be like for this movie. Should be a lot of fun.

    CS: I think, genuinely, and I’m being honest, it does count as one of the best entries into the series because it takes out the goofiness and the high sheen of the previous entries.

    YOO: Like what?

    CS: I’m thinking when he kicks over the boom-box in JASON TAKES MANHATTAN.

    (Laughs)

    YOO: You know the whole story about Friday the 13th is about where the hockey mask came from. It was only thing they could find to cover his head up. They lost the original cover they were using. It was a total accident. So, the whole series, the original, it’s amazing the cultural credit it has because there’s, and no disrespect to the filmmakers, but there’s a lot of on-the-fly patching things together in that original series so I think the plan they had over at New Line and Platinum Dunes was that, “Hey, we have this thing that everybody is so part of our sub-cultural sub-conscious but never been done well.”

    I’m not sure what well is but, and you’re probably thinking what the heck am I talking about, this is not going to compete for an Oscar, but it’s a fun, if I may say, it’s a really fun ride.

    CS: It absolutely is. You have Marcus directing and he did a great job of bringing back Texas Chainsaw but when you first initially got around this project, was it, and it’s OK to be honest to say a job is a job and I’ll take it, “I’ll do it” but were there any reservations on your part that it was not going to live up to what people were hoping it was in that this was going to be hopefully a straight up horror movie?

    YOO: Well, I actually took my time thinking of it before getting on board the project. I went back and watched Marcus’s Texas Chainsaw and enjoyed the hell out of it. I was invited to take a look at the script which they were keeping under lockdown over at the Platinum Dunes offices and you roll up and there’s Transformers all over the place and all these posters and it was, I should have never asked the guys if this was done on purpose but they were like, here, why don’t you go take this script and go read it in Andrew’s office. And the office is just covered in mock-ups in pre-production art, costume posters, all this Friday the 13th stuff ““ all over the room. I was like, wow, this is Friday, the f’n 13th. Wow! And I was like, “If you’re going to do a horror movie, this is the way to go.” And it made sense from the beginning, Andrew, Marcus, Brad, everybody were like, we say sex, drugs, and Jason Voorhees. Bring back that kind of horror movie they stopped making in the early 80’s. You get the ones that are totally gruesome then you get all the iterations of the Scream genre and the Japanese and Korean horror remakes where it’s all atmospheric. But Friday the 13th is kind of like a theme park and that was the goal and hopefully it delivers.

    When we were making it we were in Austin, Texas, one of the best places on earth and we said, “Let’s just have fun.” And one of the good things about having surgery while you are shooting is that it really puts things ““ makes things very simple ““ I just had a serious health issue which is now past, and this thing we do is just fun. So I had such a blast.

    CS: I have to know, did you ever stand along side Jason at the craft services table, with him in full regalia?

    YOO: Yeah! Derek and I didn’t shoot a lot of scenes together. We didn’t actually work together for the first month and so we were all hanging out off set and then we would shoot two sets at the same time on stage and we would kick it. Derek is genuinely ““ and I don’t know if I should tell people this because I don’t want to ruin their experience at the film ““ but he’s a genuinely a wonderful human being and hilarious and actually a riot to work with. He will make you laugh with his mask on right before you are about to do a take and then they call “action” and you’re laughing and like, “I hate you.”

    (Laughs)

    “First of all, you ruined me. I can’t do the scene.” It’s interesting. I think maybe it’s best to meet Derek after you’ve seen Friday the 13th. The guy is a specimen. A physical specimen. He’s about 6’7″, maybe 270. He literally could chuck me with one arm, but just a genuine and hilarious human being.

    CS: I saw him last year at Comic-Con when I previewed the footage. It was just sick. It was great when they showed it and Derek seems to know how to make Jason seem more than what he is.

    YOO: Absolutely. We had such a good time working together. Last night I meant to tell him ““ I’m not sure I ever told him ““ that there’s this thing about my death scene with Jason where people say it’s just crazy with this certain thing I’m doing and I basically got ““ Derek and I were riffing between takes and he said this one thing and made me think of this other thing and I tried to do something in the take but it totally failed but in trying to do it, it made the take longer than it was meant to so I died for a really long time and it got really messy, my accident, not intentional at all. I was trying to do something and it wasn’t working but somehow my failure made it a keeper take. I love that how movies and scenes sometimes weird things happen. You’re trying to do something and makes this other thing happen which is what should have happened and everything comes together by mistakes.

    CS: How dis that work out, doing your death scene – When are you blocking it out and is it tightly choreographed? I ask because sometimes it looks like people are flopping around, you in particular, like a fish.

    YOO: It’s very highly choreographed. I don’t know about all actors but half of why I got into this whole crazy business. I remember being in Disturbia I get hit with a bat. I got to do everything except for, David Morse’s character hits me so hard that they wind up having a stunt guy flip over and fall to the ground and I’m watching that and said, I can totally do that. So I fell over the fence and stuff and said, “Why can’t I do that? I can totally do that.” And they said, “Uh, what are we going to do if you break something?” So I always ask to do as much of that stuff as possible because I get such a kick out of it. It’s like playing when you were a kid. You get to mark it all the way through. You play choreographer. We had a lot of fun. You know my death scene came up the day of. There was no blocking. Most of the death’s you have a blocking rehearsal earlier on some day you weren’t shooting and work out the kinks. And you show up the day of and just agree on realities of the day and the space and schedule of shooting and everything but we didn’t even have the set built and second of all in the original script you don’t see me die on screen. Somewhere along the line they said, “That’s stupid. Why are we not showing that?” And so, it was just back and forth and tossing ideas at the brain trust and then the day of we come in in the morning and they say, we got it.

    (Laughs)

    And they told me, “Now we just have to figure out how to make this work by 2:00 this afternoon.” And, of course, we’re shooting other scenes. The special effects dept ““ Scott Stoddard is amazing does all the fake heads and amazing stuff and onset blood ““ very little computer CGI stuff. It’s old school, well done effects. So he had to come up with how it all was going to be done by 2:00 in the afternoon. He had basically 6 hours and we showed up on set and looking at the basic general idea and the tool shed and said, “What if it was over here, and that was over there….” We just kind of made it up. It was really fun. It’s really like when you are 7 years old and say, “No, I stabbed you, you’re dead. Honestly. This is a sword and you are honestly dead.” It’s just that sort of thing and I loved that when I was a kid. The one difference is that you have to get used to being covered in fake blood which is not comfortable after the third hour.

    (Laughs)

    CS: Well, in order to get his up by Friday I have to cut it short but I definitely want to end with a question. Looking back at your experience, seeing the film finished on the screen last night, what did you take away with the nature of what Jason represents to movie history?

    YOO: I think of Jason as the id…No, not really. I can’t intellectualize what I hope is a fun movie. I don’t know when that kind of horror film really came in, whether it was originally Halloween or whatnot, but I think it is the kind of movie that titillates people in a good and healthy way. Like scaring the pants off of you is sometimes good for your general well being. And Jason is the boogey man that you know you are going to enjoy being frightened of. He’s not trying to teach you anything. He’s not trying to scare you for any reason other than for you to have a good time. And hopefully that’s what we are putting in a box and giving people for Valentine’s Day.

    (Laughs)
    —————————–
    And now, for those still reading, who would like to win some FRIDAY THE 13TH swag? I have 6 FRIDAY THE 13TH branded hoodies to give away and if you’re interested in winning just jot me a note at Christopher_Stipp@yahoo.com and just write somewhere in that e-mail what your favorite entry is of this series. These things are L and XL, have a red little swath on the front saying FRIDAY THE 13TH and a pimp looking Jason mask that will always be looking behind you. They’re pretty pimp so big thanks to the sponsors who tossed some my way.

  • Trailer Park: A Donkey Punch and A Slap From Danny Boyle

    By Christopher Stipp

    The Archives, Right Here

    I’m awesome. I wrote a book. It’s got little to do with movies. Download and read “Thank You, Goodnight”right HERE for free.

    And now, you can follow me on Twitter. Find me here, my oh so original name on the thing is Stipp so come on and follow my stray ramblings.

    I swear this is my last time pimping my appearance in a podcast. For now, anyway.

    The fine lads over at Screen Geeks had me on for their Most Anticipated Films of 2009 show and, thankfully, they hadn’t discovered how much of a charlatan I am before letting me shout out such gems as G.I. JOE (If you’re a fan of the 80’s series by Larry Hama run, do not walk, to IDW’s new series that has brought a bit of nostalgia to my pull box.) and FRIDAY THE 13TH. These chaps are top shelf and I thank them one more time for having me on.

    [display_podcast]

    Now, instead of letting pundits and blowhards get their soundbites on CNN without any informed discussion about the allegations surrounding Danny Boyle’s SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE as it pertains to the man’s filming of the movie Mr. Boyle decided to defend his film and thankfully he comes out swinging. I wouldn’t normally run this statement from Danny and Co. but my time with him a couple of months ago was genuinely exhilarating; his gregariousness, his excitement and overall joy at just being in some hellhole in Arizona talking to some no name web journalist left an impression.

    What follows is an answer to those out there in the ephemera who are taking Boyle to task, ignorantly, for what they perceive as bad behavior on his part as he made his film in India.

    FILMMAKERS STATEMENT:

    From the moment that we hired them and long before the press became interested in this story, we have paid painstaking and considered attention to how Azhar and Rubina’s involvement in the film could be of lasting benefit to them over and above the payment they received for their work.

    The children had never attended school, and in consultation with their parents we agreed that this would be our priority. Since June 2008 and at our expense, both kids have been attending school and they are flourishing under the tutelage of their dedicated and committed teachers. Financial resources have been made available for their education until they are 18. We were delighted to see them progressing well when we visited their school and met with their teachers last week.

    In addition to their educational requirements, a fund is in place to meet their basic living costs, health care and any other emergencies. Furthermore, as an incentive for them to continue to attend school a substantial lump sum will be released to each child when they complete their studies. Taking into account all of the children’s circumstances we believe that this is the right course of action.

    Since putting in place these arrangements more than 12 months ago we have never sought to publicize them, and we are doing so now only in response to the questions raised recently in the press. We trust that the matter can now be put to bed, and we would request that the media respect the children’s privacy at this formative time in their lives.

    – – Danny Boyle and Christian Colson

    DISTRIBUTORS STATEMENT:

    The welfare of Azhar and Rubina has always been a top priority for everyone involved with Slumdog Millionaire. A plan has been in place for over 12 months to ensure that their experience working on Slumdog Millionaire would be of long term benefit. For 30 days work, the children were paid three times the average local annual adult salary. Last year after completing filming, they were enrolled in school for the first time and a fund was established for their future welfare, which they will receive if they are still in school when they turn 18. Due to the exposure and potential jeopardy created by the unwarranted press attention, we are looking into additional measures to protect Azhar and Rubina and their families. We are extremely proud of this film, and proud of the way our child actors have been treated.

    – – Fox Searchlight Pictures, Fox Star Studios, Pathe International

    Finally today, what follows here is a chat with Sian Breckin. She’s in a new thriller that is making some lo-fi rounds at the multiplexes and will be out on video in a couple of months called DONKEY PUNCH. For those who are unfamiliar with what this movie is about here is a short synopsis:

    After meeting at a nightclub in a Mediterranean resort, seven young adults decide to continue partying aboard a luxury yacht in the middle of the ocean. But when one of them dies in a freak accident the others argue about what to do, leading to a ruthless fight for survival.

    I have read a lot about the production of this film and was attracted to it for 2 reasons: 1. It was made by a first time director and 2. It was shot on the cheap. It isn’t the novelty so much as I am and have been endlessly fascinated by filmmakers who haven’t made much and want to make a splash without a whole lot of cash to do it. Reviews have been all over the board with this movie, and that doesn’t interest me so much as it does get in the way to the story, but when I was asked to speak to one of the film’s ensemble cast, Sian Breckin, I was in. She’s was a delight to talk to and, oddly enough, her filmography to those who live here in the U.S. equals 1 film. This one.

    I figured that would be just as good as any of a spot to begin our talk.

    CHRISTOPHER STIPP: You’ve made it really hard on me to try to find any kind of question to ask of you based on your many films.

    SIAN BRECKIN: What do you mean?

    CS: Apart from Donkey Punch ““ I don’t know where else or what else you’ve been in. It makes a hard interview.

    BRECKIN: Oh, OK. Lots of theater in London.

    And then lots of television in England on the BBC and ITV networks which are the main tunnels in England, but this is the first time I’ve come to LA or America I suppose because Donkey Punch has just come out here.

    CS: Learning about this film I found out that it was made for a million pounds, it was really low budget when compared to some movies of its kind.

    BRECKIN: I think it was 800 thousand or something. It was nothing.

    CS: Nothing at all.

    BRECKIN: It’s incredible that I’m here to be honest with you.

    CS: Then how did you make that transition? What I know about you here is that this is basically your first movie and this is the first thing you have been in to me here, someone being from the states. How did you make that leap or why did you want to make that leap from theater to film?

    BRECKIN: It was the first thing I did on screen and I think I had watched, have you seen DEAD MAN’S SHOES, which is a British film with Paddy Considine who has been in a few American things which was made by Warp Films and Warp Films sent the script out for Donkey Punch and they made really challenging films I suppose and they are not just pleasing the right wing middle class audience. They are making something I believe in.

    So when I got the script from Warp I thought this was a company I really wanted to work with and they had made some interesting things I liked. So when I read the script I really identified with the characters and with Lisa particularly and then I thought this was a great opportunity to create someone very believable in a messed up situation.

    CS: Right. And I think one of the things that a lot of people, these post modern critiques of horror film, is the helpless female. Looking at this, did you look with an eye towards is this person believable or she is another female trope of “Is she going to break a leg, fall down?”

    (Laughs)

    BRECKIN: I don’t think she’s a helpless female because she’s, particularly for the sex scenes, she’s completely in control. She’s doesn’t get Marcus, the boy she wants, so she fell for somebody else and then when Bluey suggests that Josh gets involved she very much in control and on holiday having a fantastic time and I think she’s a powerful woman who is very sexually confident. And, as an actress I have to think, “OK what are my paranoias and my insecurities?” But they are not relevant because Lisa is very much in control and is having a fantastic holiday and I have to match that. And I thought that was empowering to play rather than thinking of her as a helpless female. I don’t think at any point she’s helpless.

    CS: No, absolutely not. And this film I think challenges that idea. The aim of that question was you see a lot of horror movies where women are relegated to the screaming role. This brought something a little different to the idea.

    BRECKIN: Well, good. I’m glad. Because the women are really strong. There’s one woman that gives up the ghost at one point and she feels she can’t carry on, but I mean I think that Lisa realizes that she doesn’t need Nichola’s character, she plays Tammi. So there are strong women who are in control I guess.

    CS: To that point of the production of the film, I’m always curious when I’m talking to someone who has made a thriller/slash horror film. About the very mundane parts of making a horror film…I read in some interview with you that you were wet, you were cold, really wasn’t conducive for abject horror.

    BRECKIN: Yeah.

    CS: How is that process of actually having to muster up the fortitude to look scared and panicked when in fact it’s rather so planned out and staged?

    BRECKIN: I think that maybe Donkey Punch is different because it was shot in 24 days and rather than having to fly in and fly out for my scenes we were flown in at the same time and spent 6 weeks together. The girls lived in a flat together and it felt very much like a lot of the rehearsing ““ we were working all the time ““ living together we were establishing our relationship and stuff that could have been mundane wasn’t. When you felt terrified ““ I just had the fun stuff ““ but I think they did feel claustrophobic on the boat which was out to sea and there were a lot of people on the boat and you couldn’t get off that. In the beginning we had a lot of fun and really worked very hard and played really hard, that’s the reality but what we were going through was reflected in the film.

    CS: One of those things about it and pointing back to one of those things I’ve read about the production of the film, that Ollie, who is a first time film director….

    BRECKIN: Yea, that’s right….which is amazing.

    CS: How was that?

    BRECKIN: It was amazing because he was very interested in the actors and what we could bring to our characters and wasn’t exclusive with the script. He had his script and had an idea at least of what he wanted and then would let us give as much input as we could, what we wanted to create for the film, which for my first time on screen was incredible because I felt very loose and very free with what I could bring to the film rather than restricted by someone who knew more.

    CS: And how was that coming from the theater ““ the performance you would give ““ given the film as opposed to the theater? Is it more nuanced? Do you find yourself falling back into the ideas of theater acting? Making things grandiose? Or did you find there was an adjustment period?

    BRECKIN: It’s incredibly different. I think I did go through an adjustment period and when I watch the film and know how we filmed in sequence, I can tell where I am much more used to the camera and where I’m not. And when you are on the stage and used to an audience which is far away from you and to do something on the screen, everything you do is smaller and much more focused and intense and it took me a while to get used to that.
    But, I knew who Lisa was and I knew what I wanted to portray and I worked with 6 other actors who had worked on film before and were young and I really learned a lot from them and watching them all the time. Because Ollie was new he let me on the set a lot to watch what was going on and I felt it was OK for me to learn and I did learn a hell of a lot doing that film.

    CS: And you mentioned working with other actors, ensemble acting…

    BRECKIN: Just thinking in terms when you work on a script for theater you maybe spend four or maybe two weeks before you start rehearsing and researching the character ““ how they walk, what they wear, what kind of person they are and because I came from that training background, I brought that into the film and I think again, that was the thing that carried me through. I was very clear of who my character was. Maybe I wasn’t so skilled at working on camera but I was very clear on what I wanted to achieve and I think that helped me through.

    CS: And you mentioned working with the other actors, ensemble acting. You are not the only person up there. This isn’t a movie with one or two people. How was that? You are not just acting by yourself but having to act within these other people.

    BRECKIN: It was amazing. I felt really lucky to have that experience. The whole thing was an ensemble feel to it and it just meant I could learn from the experience from the other actors and they were very accepting into the things that I brought to it. And it was about a group of young people having a lot of fun. And that’s great isn’t it? For a job – go out and have fun. Yeah, I was really lucky.

    CS: They say to never shoot on water. It’s one of the first things they say…

    BRECKIN: Yeah, that’s true. That water that we jump into was freezing cold and we had to pretend it was boiling and we’re having a wonderful time. That was really tough because it wasn’t. It was very cold.

    CS: Yeah, talk about that. I read that the divers that had to be in there with you got hypothermia.

    BRECKIN: Yeah, hypothermia, checking for jellyfish and the tide and current was really strong and you are trying to look like this is great, we’re having a lovely time. Not “Oh my god, there’s a jellyfish and it’s really freezing” but I guess that’s the part that makes you a tougher actor.

    CS: Being on the boat, you mentioned it being very claustrophobic. That’s one of the hardest things to do is make a movie in such a confined space. Talking with Ollie, how did he explain that he was going to make something so thrilling and so horrifying in such a tight, confined area?

    BRECKIN: I’m not involved in that as much. My part on the boat is not as claustrophobic. I don’t know that he explained to the other actors. They would do night shoots and of course they were tired and stressed shooting on the boat just helped added to the fear and experience and I think it was a positive thing. I don’t think it was something he ever explained. We got on the boat on the first day of rehearsal and we knew then, “Oh my god ““ we’re out in the middle of the ocean.” I think it was very trying at times but I think everyone is happy with the end product. We all contributed to what we created in the end I guess.

    CS: Looking back at this, I’m interested to know if you’ve seen your own work and whether you watch it and see imperfections that you might ““ some people look at themselves and don’t want to see what they’ve done on screen ““ anything you would have done differently?

    BRECKIN: Sure. This is my first screen experience. So for me, to watch it was…different ““ I’ve never seen myself on screen and then I’ve watched it maybe about 12 times in different screenings and with different audiences and the main thing for me is watching the other actors and learning from them and thinking what works and what doesn’t and hopefully I’m just bringing something truthful to the character that you can like…I think that’s important for Lisa…and something you can believe in ““ that’s my main goal. There are bits that I’m incredibly proud of and bits that I think are awful and I would change that but I’m only 26 and it’s all about experience and learning from that and everything that I’ve done.

    CS: I know our time is short but I want to ask one more question and that’s seeing what I know ““ obviously me being from America I only see one thing that you’ve done here so basically in my eyes this is my first introduction to you. You now made yourself on a world stage and said, “This is who I am.” How do you look toward the future and what you want to do going from here?

    BRECKIN: The thing that Donkey Punch as brought me is introduced me to a lot of companies that I’ve always watched their movies and thought I would love to work with them. And that’s British companies and now because Donkey Punch is being publicized in America it has allowed me to come out here and hopefully I can establish myself out here. I think American television is fantastic and would love to be involved in that and I think I’m young and I don’t know how ““ I think of this in terms of longevity ““ could involve different things ““ could involve acting, directing, producing but learning as I go along.

  • Trailer Park: FRIDAY THE 13TH and CONFESSIONS OF A SHOPAHOLIC – Reviewed

    By Christopher Stipp

    The Archives, Right Here

    I’m awesome. I wrote a book. It’s got little to do with movies. Download and read “Thank You, Goodnight”right HERE for free.

    And now, you can follow me on Twitter. Find me here, my oh so original name on the thing is Stipp so come on and follow my stray ramblings.

    CONFESSIONS OF A SHOPAHOLIC – REVIEW

    For anyone wanting to know the bottom line on this film here, verbatim, are the notes I sent to the studio rep about the movie:

    “I thought the movie was formulaic, the writing was pretty weak and a little derivative but I thought Isla Fisher was positively effervescent and bubbly. She performed well in the role that she was given with other standouts being Krysten Ritter, who does Winona Ryder better than Winona Ryder, and Fred Armisen who I wished was given more to do. Overall, a movie that will positively work well with women who will gravitate towards the female-friendly material.”

    Those still sticking around to read my additional thoughts on the movie I have to start by saying producer Jerry Bruckheimer was brilliant, getting in on this action. A man who usually has more to do with guns and bombs than he does with pantyhose and bombshells obviously saw something worth producing in a movie that is insipidly simple in its construction and wretchedly executed from the standpoint that there is no thinking involved at all by those in attendance. He saw, or at least I think he did, that there was a story that a large swath of the population not usually served by his usual fare deserved to hear because of what’s popular right now in our female society’s zeitgeist. It’s not a polemic on Middle Eastern relations, it’s a treatise on how one broke woman deals with shopping a lot, wants to write for a fashion magazine and then ends up falling in love.

    That’s it. There’s nothing else you need to know about the film because it’s all filler and fodder to push along the 3 basic tenants of debt, shopping and fictionalized love. Isla Fisher, who plays Rebecca Bloomwood, absolutely shines in a role that requires nothing more than to be endearing, funny and charming. And she does it especially well when you consider how painful some other actresses have tried to pull this off in the pantheon of vapid female romantic comedy leads. Isla is a delight every single time she is on the screen and what’s impressive is that she was able to be compelling in her turn as a down-on-her-luck (self-inflicted down-on-her-luck, natch) writer who yearns to be part of the fashion world by writing for a prestigious magazine dedicated to all things glamorous. Her best friend, Suze (Krysten Ritter), is amazing insofar that, like I mentioned, oozes Wynona Rider all over her face but she manages to radiate the kind of peace and love that even Ringo Starr wouldn’t be able to resist autographing; she’s a delight.

    After a series of wacky coincidences and unbelievable opportunities that defy any sense of logic, she becomes a lightning rod of attention for a staid and stuffy financial publication by writing a female-centric column focused on dumbing down complex issues dealing with money in a cheeky fashion. Her editor, Luke Brandon (played by the affable and likable Hugh Dancy), takes a fancy to this young wordsmith and the two end up playing the hackneyed game of girl likes boy, boy likes someone else, boy ends up liking girl.

    Apart from these written elements there is an inordinate amount of slapstick. From fighting over boots at an exclusive sale of couture clothing to Isla actually putting palm to face of a foreigner from Finland at a cocktail party there is more to keep the ladies laughing from start to finish. And that’s the other thing. The movie appeals to women for reasons that should be abundantly clear when you understand that this movie is not predicated on looking at love from the perspective of that other fashion-centric movie, SEX AND THE CITY, as if you were to compare the two SEX would be considered an introverted examination of amour, this film just wants to be easy breezy.

    There is a sub-plot of Isla dealing with a hard-nosed debt collector throughout the film as she avoids his calls, his visits and, ultimately, the fallout was a pleasant diversion that actually pays off at a pivotal moment in the film and there’s no denying that all the roles that are on the screen are used to their greatest potential. It’s not to say that all the performances are great or particularly pleasant, I wish there was more done with Fred Armisen who turns in a sublime and comical performance as Dancy’s boss, but there isn’t any long, drawn out moments that can at times disrupt the quick flow to these comedies.

    In sum, this isn’t a movie I will ever purchase or pay to see again. I think the strongest comment I can make is that it’s a pleasant diversion to some of the fare out there that this could have been a lot worse if not for Isla Fisher. Fisher is the reason why this movie excels and you cannot help but notice that she is a comedic talent who actually manages to delight.

    FRIDAY THE 13TH – REVIEW

    I’m not one to begin with a quote so I apologize in advance. It’s gauche, I know that, I hate it when I see it in other publications, but it’s completely appropriate and relevant to what follows. It comes from SUMMER SCHOOL:

    Dave: Have you seen the movie, Texas Chainsaw Massacre?

    Anna-Maria: No. It is good?

    Dave: Oh, I’ve got to tell you, I love this film. It had passion and a plucky spirit. And, the characters had integrity, like when Leatherface went on that strict diet of human flesh, he had to cut out chicken and fish completely.

    Francis “Chainsaw” Grimp: Dave, I agree with you. I’ll go a step further, sure Leatherface, he wore a mask made out of human skin, and he hung people on meat-hooks, but hey, we’ve all got quirks, I got ’em, you’ve got ’em Dave, that’s what makes this character so, so compelling. Thumbs up for me.

    Thumbs up, indeed.

    FRIDAY THE 13th absolutely deserves to be hugged and coddled by those wanting to go back to the days when horror meant killing, horror meant sparking up a spliff and getting nuts with your lady friend and when horror meant Jason was actually menacing.

    One thing that Marcus Nispel deserves credit for as director on this film is knowing what this property used to mean to those who were weaned on a hearty diet of straight-forward hack/slash films in the 80’s and why it was absolutely time to deconstruct the deconstructors that brought us the SCREAM franchise. Damian Shannon and Mark Swift as writers deserve equal credit for making a movie that walks that fine line of knowing what makes good horror good and bad horror, well, unwatchable. One of the biggest compliments you can give a movie like this, then, is that it managed to actually thrill and excite without it ever feeling goofy or having too high a polish.

    When you look at the pretty teen entries in the 90’s (I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER, SCREAM, FINAL DESTINATION, HALLOWEEN H20, et al.) the clean and clear cinematography put a polish on things stuck out a frayed thread that you wish you could just unravel. These movies are supposed to be gritty, overexposed at times, dirty. Now, while Marcus’ previous reboot of TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE wasn’t deserving of any great praise overall he at least got the atmosphere right. And he gets it right in this film.

    From the start we push right through some of the basic tenants of what made Jason, well, Jason. He sees his mom beheaded from afar in a flashback sequence, drenched in blackness and rain, which takes all of 5 minutes. Whereas some would love to dwell on this moment Marcus and Co. just plow through this information and you can feel this is a story that is going to move at a quick clip. When we get into the actual narrative we’re led to believe that a pack of kids who are off wandering around, backpacks in tow, looking for a stash of marijuana that has been planted somewhere deep in the recesses of tall grass, tall trees, far away from humanity, the backwoods. It’s effective in setting up of how distant all these events are taking place, how susceptible they are to the natural environs or any other danger that will fall upon them. Cell phones don’t work here either, natch.

    The first pre-act, an extended moment really, of the kids looking for a plantation full of weed takes up a solid 15 minutes and is really a definitive look at how the rest of the film will unfold. We’ve got ourselves a story that knows how to pace itself, how to generate good tension with its characters as we all wait for the killing to go full throttle and how to execute its executions.

    I have to hand it to the filmmakers in that they’ve properly figured out the proportions of sex, drugs and violence. The first two kind of take care of themselves, I think Jeffrey Wells won’t want for pictures of these ladies, but the latter was done with a little creativity. It’s hard not to be able and spoil things with descriptions of how there were some quality kills at the outset but it is sufficient to explain that there are messy ways to go here; America Olivio and Jonathan Sadowski both deserve a golf clap for setting things off in the right manner and it’s absolutely terrifying to see Jason have a spring in his step as the conversation, come Monday, will probably revolve around slow lumbering Jason versus Olympic sprinter Jason. I like the fast moving one because you can really feel the physics behind every machete hack and every ax toss.

    As we settle into the story proper I was struck by the pacing. Whereas in the other entries you had Jason mostly attacking people in the night (there are exceptions to this) Jason is not relegated to being the boogie man who only strikes at night. As judged by the preview you do have Jason coming out to terrorize some young swimmer and this only enhances the experience in that you are left to wonder where and when he might strike.

    The main players in this feature, Jared Padalecki (playing Clay Miller) and Danielle Panabaker (playing Jenna) were solid entries as the focus of this film. The two of them are relatively unknowns, most everyone in this film are unknowns, and again this only enhances the experience as you subconsciously are left wondering who is going to be spared and who’s going to die next. Thankfully this movie doesn’t play favorites and this is, perhaps, the film’s greatest advantage. Whereas other films in the 90’s played with young actors on the bubble you had some good beads on who was going to live and who was not. For the most part, this film keeps it all going as we traipse from one kill to another.

    However, I will mention that the Jason Lair is a little goofy and idiotic. Its presence was the one thing that kept this film from being absolutely great and took me out of the 3rd act somewhat. This area seemed awfully well-constructed, not to mention well-lit, for a man who is supposed to be a mentally deficient, homicidal maniac and it’s completely unbelievable in every regard. Also, its eventual use as we head home toward the ending is equally bizarre and logic defying but it does deserve a little credit for reasons that deserve to be seen to be believed.

    One of the other issues that are raised when reviewing a horror movie is that you run in to a lot of things that are simply too goofy to try and be eloquent about: the drug use; the promiscuity; the nudity; the bad choices; and, subsequently, the bad decisions don’t really deserve to be scrutinized in the conventional sense. These elements made good horror films good then and it certainly makes it good now. To pick apart at these things would only serve to unravel the tight noose that is wrapped around your expectations for what you hope this movie will deliver. You go into this film wishing for these things and, if you’re really a fan of the genre, you hope things honor its heritage and you hope its fun. Derek Mears delivers an excellent, reenergized Jason Voorhees and even though there is nothing more to do than to act menacing his performance competes with that of C.J. Graham from FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VI. I am recusing any talk of the subtleties of Derek’s performance as really any talk beyond his form would just spoil the goodness of his heinousness with how he dispatches his victims to the afterlife.

    This movie delivers on delivering a solid horror experience with its thrilling pacing and dark atmosphere. Terror seems to be around many corners and it deserves credit for not only erasing the awfulness and shame the sequels have inflicted on the more respectable entries into this much maligned franchise. There is nothing intellectual going on in these movies and I think this accounts for why many have failed to “get it” when it comes to what makes these good movies. It’s about nudity, about gettin’ high and about how people are gonna die. And this movie delivers on all three. Chainsaw and Dave would have absolutely given this a thumbs-up.

    And now, for those still reading, who would like to win some FRIDAY THE 13TH swag? I have 6 FRIDAY THE 13TH branded hoodies to give away and if you’re interested in winning just jot me a note at Christopher_Stipp@yahoo.com and just write somewhere in that e-mail what your favorite entry is of this series. These things are L and XL, have a red little swath on the front saying FRIDAY THE 13TH and a pimp looking Jason mask that will always be looking behind you. They’re pretty pimp so big thanks to the sponsors who tossed some my way.

  • Trailer Park: CHOCOLATE DVD Giveaway

    By Christopher Stipp

    The Archives, Right Here

    I’m awesome. I wrote a book. It’s got little to do with movies. Download and read “Thank You, Goodnight” right HERE for free.

    And now, you can follow me on Twitter. Find me here, my oh so original name on the thing is Stipp so come on and follow my stray ramblings.

    I loved this film.

    It’s everything that you could want in a season when there isn’t going to be anything this exciting until we get into the summer months.

    I know I usually run DVD Giveaways in this space without much regard to the film but CHOCOLATE is the exception to the rule in that I pursued the opportunity to have a couple copies for our site to give to our readers because I dug it as much as I did.

    As well, I think the studio, Magnolia, deserves a tremendous amount of credit in figuring out that these kinds of films deserve to be seen by everyone who isn’t in the position like myself to preview and then champion these releases. The time has absolutely come to think of a way people can get enthused about a movie that they’ve never heard about and not worry that such a genre pic won’t be coming to their town because they live in Bumbleweed, AK because they will have multiple points of entry. You can see it theaters, you can get it through HDNet Ultra VOD and now DVD or Blu-Ray. There is no excuse anymore for anyone to miss this and huzzah to Magnolia for being on the vanguard of film distrubution in the 21st century.

    I’ve got 2 copies to give out and in order to win you’ve got to do 2 things: 1. Send me a note to Christopher_Stipp@Yahoo.com and 2. Write anywhere in the e-mail of who was the titular actor of Ong Bak. (I want these to go to some fans of the genre…)

    CHOCOLATE is available on DVD and HDNet Ultra VOD Tuesday, February 10 from Magnet Releasing…

    Prachya Pinkaew, director of Ong Bak: The Thai Warrior, returns with CHOCOLATE, an explosive new martial arts masterpiece starring his new protégé, “Jija” Yanin Vismistananda, who spent five years training for the role. Jija plays Zen, a young autistic girl who grows up next to a Muay Thai boxing studio and is raised on a steady diet of chocolate and marathon viewings of Tony Jaa and Bruce Lee films. Zen’s father, a Japanese gangster, has been driven out of the country by a rival Thai gang, so her mother has been forced to raise her alone.

    It becomes clear over time that Zen has miraculously absorbed formidable Muay Thai techniques from watching the boxers next door and repeated viewings of martial arts classics. When Zen’s mother is diagnosed with cancer and the cost of treatments prove overwhelming for the family, Zen sets out with her cousin on a violent mission to collect debts from the corrupt gangsters that owe her mother money.

    Featuring death-defying stunts and a charming newcomer who is sure to blow the minds of martial arts fans everywhere, CHOCOLATE represents Prachya’s proper follow-up to the smash success of Ong Bak.

  • Toy Box: Marvel Universe Surfer, Spidey, Daredevil and Human Torch

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    If you’ve been paying any attention at all over the last 18 months, you know that 3 3/4″ to 4″ scale figures have once again become all the rage. Much of the huge increases in action figures over that same period was blamed on oil prices, though once those prices dropped precipitously, the prices of action figures stayed pretty much ridiculous. It was this same argument that many used to bring back the 3 3/4″ action figure to the shelves in force, but for those of us that love the little bastards, whatever the reason isn’t important. It’s that the scale is getting some love.

    Mattel has their line of DC comic characters in this scale in the DC Infinite Heroes. Now Hasbro has let loose their version for the Marvel characters called Marvel Universe. These are just starting to hit retail, and you can expect to pay around $8 each for them. There are 9 figures in this initial wave that I know of, and I’m looking at four of those here tonight – Silver Surfer, Daredevil, the Human Torch, and Spider-man. I’ll also be looking at the another four – Iron Man, Black Panther, Wolverine and the Punisher – over at my other site, Michael’s Review of the Week today, if you’d like to see more of the wave. The ninth figure, Iron Man in Stealth Armor, is pictured in both reviews in the packaged photo.

    If you have any questions or comments, drop me a line at mwc@mwctoys.com – on to the review!

    Marvel Universe Silver Surfer, Human Torch, Spider-man and Daredevil

    An interesting feature of these figures is the ability to log codes at the site Fury Files. It doesn’t look like that feature is going to be active for another 3 weeks, but once it is it will be interesting to see what they have in store. The success of Webkinz has everyone trying to find ways to connect an online experience with a physical toy, but the results aren’t always what you would hope for. There has been some talk of a Nick Fury mail away – perhaps once you enter in a certain number of codes on the site, you can get your free figure.

    Packaging – ***1/2
    The cardbacks are relatively small, but me thinks that with only one accessory each, they still could have saved a bit more waste. That’s a very minor nit though, and I do love all the personalization each cardback gets. On the front is a large comic drawing of the particular character, with a photo of the actual toy and a decent bio on the back. There are no twisty ties – thank God – although there are a couple rubber bands holding them in the trays. You can’t remove the figure without destroying the card, but you can cut the tape at the bottom and side to remove the S.H.I.E.L.D. information if you wanted to.

    There is no form or mail away insert, but I’m betting that the codes used online could be used to obtain the Nick Fury mail away figure – we’ll see soon.

    Sculpting – Surfer, Spidey ***; Daredevil, Torch **1/2
    While there’s a fair amount of part re-use through out this line (as you’d expect), there’s enough different on each character to make them look unique on the shelf.

    My favorite of these four is the Surfer. He is also one of my favorites of the 12″ Icons series, and his basic metal make up allows for a streamlined, simple design that looks great. I think his head sculpt has the most personality, or at least the most appropriate expression, considering the Surfer’s general lack of personality. The thin, lanky body also works quite well for him, with the exception of the abs.

    There are six pack abs, and then there’s these abs. You could grate cheese on these things. They stick way out from the body, almost like skin lesions. No, it wouldn’t be attractive on a real person, and it really doesn’t work for me here.

    This same tall, lean pelvis is used for the Human Torch, and it doesn’t do him any justice either. In fact, his body is exactly the same as the Surfer’s, with only the head to differentiate them (and the paint, obviously). His head sculpt is designed for fire mode, with the hair done in a sort of flaming doo. That might work if this version was painted up to be on fire, but he’s in his regular uniform with blonde hair, so he ends up looking like a member of a bad 80’s punk band.

    Daredevil sports a different body than these first two, with chunkier thighs, and a thicker, shorter pelvis. He ends up looking a bit stumpy because of it, and while he does have horns, even these seem stumpy and short. He has a sculpted right hand to hold his weapon, as well as a slightly different gesturing left hand.

    Spider-man has two uniquely sculpted hands, his left in a fist, and his right in a web shooting pose. The webbing and symbol on his chest are sculpted as well, and the lean look of the basic body works well for him.

    These stand about 4″ tall or so, depending on the character. I’ve included a shot of them with some other current lines in this scale, so you can see where they can be displayed fit together or not.

    Paint – Daredevil, Surfer ***; Spidey **1/2; Torch **
    Usually with mass market lines, any paint issues don’t end up being specific to a single character across a line, but rather simply a greater problem with consistency across the entire wave. I had issues with my Torch for example, but you could just as easily get a good Johnny – and an awful Daredevil. It’s this sort of inconsistency that companies like Hasbro need to deal with.

    As I said, my problem child out of this set is Johnny Storm. He didn’t look too bad when I grabbed him off the peg, but once I had him out of the package it was obvious that the guy has been snorting Cheeto dust. You don’t need a close up of his face to see the weird yellowish color all around his nose. Find one without this problem, and might be okay, because the rest of his costume is pretty decent. The Fantastic Four symble is a little off center, but it’s pretty minor for a mass market toy, and the dry brushing on his uniform, as well as the glossy finish of his gloves and boots looks good.
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    The Silver Surfer could have just been silver, but they went with a translucent effect that works really well. His coverage is also very consistent and clean, with only the eyes to break up the overall color.

    Daredevil, like Surfer, is predominately one color, this time red. The cut line between the face and mask is a bit sloppy, and I’m not really digging the slightly darker gloves and boots. But at least the coverage is generally consistent, and considering the scale, the issues are fairly minor.

    Spidey has a less consistent coverage, but none of the glaring errors of the Torch. They tried to go for some lighte areas on the blue of the uniform, but it just looks sloppy. There are some random red and black spots on mine as well, adding to the general messy appearance.

    Articulation – ***
    This category was the biggest surprise to me – I was expecting to score them much higher. However, there’s at least one key joint missing, and a couple others that lack the kind of range of movement you’d expect.

    One of those that’s a bit lacking is the ball jointed neck. Because the neck is thick and the head fits down quite far on it, the presence of a ball joint up inside there doesn’t mean as much as it could. The movement is quite limited, and was quite disappointing.

    The rest of the upper body articulation is very solid, however. There’s great ball jointed shoulders, with joints on both sides, single pin elbows, cut wrists, and an ab crunch joing. Spidey adds in a cut waist, but the other three don’t have it. These joints have a good range of movement, sturdy pins, and generally work quite well. My one issue here is that some of the ab crunch joints tend to gap and show quite a bit, particularly when the figure is standing up straight.

    The leg articulation is where the other big disappointment comes in. The ball jointed hips allow for movement out and in from the body, and some forward movement, but almost no backward movement. On Surfer and Torch there’s double pin knees and single pin ankles as well, but no cut joints of any kind on the legs. that means that the feet have to be positioned facing forward with the pelvis and hips. There’s no ability to turn the feet either inward or outward, and cut thighs would have gone a tremendous way to making these better figures. With Spidey and Daredevil, the ankles are actually pin/post type joints, where a post goes up into the calf. That means the ankle can turn…but without being able to turn the knee, the leg still looks awkward.

    On the plus side though, all these joints were tight and well constructed. I didn’t feel as though I was about to break any of them, even the double pin knees, which is a huge improvement over the old Superhero Showdown figures.

    Accessories – Surfer **1/2; Spider-man, Daredevil, Torch **
    Extra accessories aren’t really the strong point for these figures, at least not yet. Each comes with their S.H.I.E.L.D. file, plus one small extra.

    The best extra is with the Silver Surfer, and of course, it’s his board. There are two pegs to attach him to the board, but because of the lack of any cut joints on the legs, he really can’t stand on it with them in a reasonably decent looking way. Only put the front or back foot on a peg, and let the other one stand free, and you’ll have a much better change of getting a good pose.

    Daredevil has his nunchuks, sculpted in a straight line. The plastic is fairly stiff too, but with a little hot water/cold water bath, you can probably get them into any position you want. He has that sculpted right hand to hold them as well.

    The Human Torch, or Johnny Storm, has a small flame attachement for either hand. It seemed to fit the contour of the arm and hand better on the left side than the right, but it wasn’t any great shakes in either spot.

    Finally, it’s probably no big surprise that Spidey’s one accessory is a hunk of webbing, done up like a huge pretzel. I haven’t found a particularly good way to use this yet, though from it’s design it’s very clear they had something specific in mind.

    As I mentioned, all of them come with a small folder with their S.H.I.E.L.D. info in it. There’s a little piece of paper with the code to be entered on furyfiles.com, as well as a thin ‘baseball’ style card with info on the back and a character shot on the front. Finally, there’s a single small page from some sort of dossier, usually between Stark and Harold Pym, discussing some aspect of that particular character. You can see these same pages on the website, but there certain information has been blacked out, whereas the papers with the figure are all legible. I’m not a huge fan of paper add ins, but at least these are all unique to each character. We’ll have to wait and see if the ‘secret codes’ add anything to the overall experience.

    Fun Factor – ***1/2
    The figures themselves, even with the leg articulation limitation, are really fun little toys. Unlike the Superhero Showdown stuff, the joints seem very sturdy, and aren’t any more likely to break than any other mass market toy. Time will tell if the whole Fury Files online experience adds anything, but at least for now kids will get a good sandbox version of their favorite Marvel characters.

    Value – **
    I’ve not yet adjusted to the concept that a figure under 4″ tall, with one tiny accessory, should get $8 at a mass market retail store. Compare this to the four pack of Hellboy II figures you could get for $20 – all with at least one accessory. Add in the amazing paint and articulation, and you can see where I might be having some issues. Even the single packs of the Hellboy figures were about this same price, and yet you were getting much more for your money.

    Still, most everything is up over $8 now, even at a Wal-mart or Toys R Us. Given that, I’m only docking these slightly below average (average being **1/2 for this category), which means the effect on my personal overall score will only be minimal.

    Things to Watch Out For –
    While I didn’t have any joint issues, you will want to still take care when freeing them up. Every figure had at least a couple stuck joints, and you should free them slowly increasing pressure (or with the old freezer trick) to avoid damaging the pins.

    Overall – Silver Surfer, Spidey, Daredevil ***; Torch **1/2
    When I grabbed these off the peg, I was pretty excited. Other than the DCUC figures, I’m not really buying anything right now at mass market, so I thought that perhaps this line would be something new. After having opened eight of them, I’m not quite as sure. There are some winners in the group (check my other review for the Iron Man, easily my favorite of the bunch so far), but there was also one (the Punisher) who was just outright awful. That sort of hit or miss consistency with this line might make it something I get much pickier about, only picking up the must have characters. Out of this set of four, I’m glad I grabbed Spidey and the Surfer, but I think I could have skipped over Daredevil and the Torch without feeling too bad.

    Where to Buy –
    Like I said, these are just starting to hit retail, but there’s a couple online options as well:

    – Past Generation Toys has a huge bunch up for pre-order. Expect to pay $9 – $12 for most, depending on the figure.

    – or you can search ebay with MyAuctionLinks.com.

  • TV Or Not TV: 2/9 – 2/15

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    Welcome back to TV or Not TV where I can’t wait to el fuego my Friday.

    This week FOX both pleases and baffles the heck out of me as they put one of the shows I like and one of the shows I’ve been looking forward to and puts them back-to-back on one of the hardest nights of television. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles returns and Joss Whedon’s new television project Dollhouse premieres… on Friday… the 13th. I’m not one to be superstitious, but this doesn’t make me very happy.

    In case you haven’t noticed, television and Friday in general don’t mix. Yes, there are a few shows that have found their place in the last day of the work week (Ghost Whisperer and… um… Ghost Whisperer) but others usually struggle for ratings or are so cheap to produce that the networks aren’t concerned about what they are airing. Neither of the latter elements are the case for either Terminator or Dollhouse.

    Friday has also not proven itself as a great vehicle for shows on FOX.  The Visitor, John Doe, Dark Angel (although it did get two seasons), and Joss Whedon’s Firefly were all shows that lived and subsequently died on Friday night. Part of me thinks that they have been struggling for years to try to gain back the brief success they had on Friday with The X-Files, and part of me thinks that they are just throwing whatever they can on Friday’s and they are just trying to see what sticks.

    The final reason that I don’t feel good about this is that FOX hasn’t really paired Dollhouse with Terminator. They have paired Dollhouse up with two series that are playing out the final episodes of their current (or maybe final) seasons. Currently Terminator has 8 more episodes and it doesn’t look hopefull (in this writer’s opinion) that the show will get renewed for another season.  After those eight hours are up Prison Break will come back to finish up it’s final season. Why does this concern me? Both shows didn’t post strong numbers in thier fall airings and part of the success in the ratings game is the strength of a shows lead in. If FOX really had a strong desire to have Dollhouse do well it might have been better to pair it with their other new (and successful) show Fringe or give it one of the coveted post-American Idol slots.

    Sure there are indicators that FOX does want to see Dollhouse succeed. The show has been heavily promoted both on television and online for what feels like half the time of forever. The show has also been included as one of the two shows chosen for the networks “Remote Free TV” concept, where they cut six minutes of advertising time and give us six more minutes of show time, for which they charge advertisers a premium on the remaining ad time available. This says that they feel something is there and they are betting on the Whedon fans to come through on ratings. I hope this all works as I’ve been a long standing Whedon fan and I want to see the show succeed.

    With all that said let’s see what’s going on with this week’s television options.

    MONDAY

    ABC FAMILY – 8:00 PM: Ben tells Amy he needs space on the next The Single Life of the American Teenager. Who’d have thought teen pregnancy can put stress on a relationship?

    NBC – 9:00 PM: So Heroes comes back and the producers are really hoping that a plan cash can work to make the show good again. They do know that a plane wreck doesn’t work for every show, right?

    CBS – 9:30 PM: No, you didn’t lose your The Big Bang Theory. It’s just keeping the seat warm for Worst Week here at 9:30.

    TUESDAY

    ABC – 8:00 PM: After the original airing of Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown in 1975 kid’s all over the country sent a sympathy Valentine to ol’ Chuck. In today’s world they’d probably not even be troubled to text him.

    G4 – 8:00 PM: G4 is switching it up 80’s style with an airing of Gremlins followed by Real Genius. Oh so tempting.

    FLN – 9:00 PM: Michael Somerville tries to help the dating hopeless in the new Fine Living Network program Wingman. If I weren’t married I’m sure I’d be his greatest challenge.

    WEDNESDAY

    FOX – 8:00 PM: American Idol narrows it down to the top 36 finalists tonight. I have hard enough remember who is who in the top 12, these next few weeks are going to be tough.

    TLC – 8:00 PM: Tonight on My Shocking Story the 55-year-old “Octoman“, who has four arms and three legs, comes out of seclusion to have his parasitic twin condition examined.

    ABC – 9:00 PM: Tonight’s episode of LOST is titled This Place is Death. Based on the title and what happened last week I’m hoping for a return to the Black Rock.

    THURSDAY

    NBC – 8:00 PM: If the buildup has been killing you than you can rest easy… Mr. Turtle returns tonight on My Name is Earl.

    CBS – 8:00 PM: The castaways are back with the premiere of Survivor: Tocantins. The game begins a lot sooner when they must vote people out based on first impressions before the first challenge even starts.

    SCIFI – 9:00 PM: Get your Whedon fix a day early with the Firefly movie Serenity.

    FRIDAY

    FOX – 8:00 PM: Sarah fights for her life and gets help from an unlikely source on the return of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

    NBC – 8:30 PM: Tonight they are re-airing the first episode of Howie Do It. If you didn’t catch it the portion for Break In Makeover make the show worth watching.

    FOX – 9:00 PM: After everything I wrote above you think I’d not put Dollhouse in the picks too?

    SCIFI – 10:00 PM: The Fith Cylon is back and Anders injury last week leads to a wealth of memories on Battlestar Galactica.

    SATURDAY

    USA – 6:00 PM: Staying in for V-Day? How about Sweet Home Alabama followed by The Breakup?

    AMC – 8:00 PM: Nothing says lovin’ like The Godfather: Part II.

    OXYGEN – 8:00 PM: Some might say the ultimate stay-in date movie is Sleepless in Seattle. Who am I to argue?

    SUNDAY

    CBS – 8:00 PM: Eleven more teams kick off The Amazing Race 14.

    TBS – 8:00 PM: OK, I admit that even though I’m a guy I did enjoy Failure To Launch. I do have to wonder if it is in the Mathew McConaughey contract that he appear shirtless in just about every film.

    COMEDY – 10:00 PM: Want to know where our site sponsor Omni Consumer Products Corporation‘s amazing energy drink Brawndo comes from? Catch Idiocracy tonight on Comedy Central.

    – Will Wilkins does not really suffer from paraskavedekatriaphobia.

  • Trailer Park: HE’S JUST NOT THAT INTO YOU and CHOCOLATE – Reviewed

    By Christopher Stipp

    The Archives, Right Here

    I’m awesome. I wrote a book. It’s got little to do with movies. Download and read “Thank You, Goodnight” right HERE for free.

    And now, you can follow me on Twitter. Find me here, my oh so original name on the thing is Stipp so come on and follow my stray ramblings.

    Before I turn you loose into Review City I was asked once again to be a part of the podcast over at Screen Geeks. I was there talking about some recent films and what was really the best to come out of last year. If you have some time, please check it out, download it, stream it. I am always flattered to be asked to be on that program and I am sure some day they will figure out how much of a fraud I am. Until that comes, please enjoy my nasally stylings.

    [display_podcast]

    CHOCOLATE – Review

    A lot of this film is very meta.

    What I have come to enjoy out of Tony Jaa films is his rubbery technique when it comes to inventive ways of kicking someone’s head in or how he is able to make his films watchable no matter how preposterous the plot. And, really, these films are not based on their depth so we’ve all bought into the idea that these films are more about the art of action than they are the art of dialog. This is important to realize as you watch CHOCOLATE, the latest from director Prachya Pinkaew and newcomer JeeJa Yanin.

    Apart from the amazing tale, if it is to be believed, that JeeJa gave up five years of her life preparing for this role this film is going to be the one movie that heralds a new standard in action films for 2009. Note well that I am not calling this film an action masterpiece but what I can say is that it is head and shoulders above any soft or weak action movie that has been put out there this year. JeeJa, playing the part of an autistic girl, Zen, who is weaned on action movies (Tony Jaa, natch) and chocolate (don’t over think the why) is arresting as a woman who paints the world in her own shades of colors. She lives in her own mental world and it is absolutely lays the logical foundation as to why she does what she does. An aside: her mother needs help with some medical treatment and the girl plays the part of bill collector as she collects on money owed the family. It’s so convenient but who cares, really?

    The meta of this film is that this is directed by Tony Jaa’s ONG BAK director, Pinkaew, and Zen’s own style of combat comes out of her consumption of Jaa’s films. This whole movie almost feels like a sequel to a Jaa film that everyone might say they’ve seen but this is completely original in the way it executes its action.

    The action moves are wonderfully captured on the screen while the physical odds and ends and detritus that all needed to be in place for these fight sequences to go off, not to mention exact placement of human beings in order to make all of these things happen, is impressive when you consider all the time it takes to get it right.

    I almost feel bad reviewing this film in a conventional sense in that this is not a film that can be “reviewed” in the usual sense as this movie is completely deserving of kudos and accolades on its technical prowess. Much in the same way that RUMBLE IN THE BRONX showed us exactly what we were going to get out of Jackie Chan, someone needs to apologize for all the RUSH HOURs, this is a demo reel of King Kong-ian proportions for what we can expect from JeeJa. As she was careening off the bodies of potential bringers of pain, inflicting physical abuse that even made me wince at times, comes to a head to a climatic scene with a cast of dozens that has to be seen to be believed. I am completely self-aware of this comment but I have to make it: Action never tasted so sweet as it does at the hands of JeeJa Yanin.

    I cannot recommend this movie enough as a winter season treat so I hope that you catch this either theatrtically or when it comes out on VOD or Blu-Ray on February 10th.

    HE’S JUST NOT THAT INTO YOU – Review

    I am a fan of romantic comedies.

    Much like some young men who fancy films with superheroes, explosions and bright lights, as I still do, I also have an affinity for well-crafted films that try and contain the very thing that drives almost every person whether they want to be cognizant of it or not: love.

    It’s a rough thing to try and be faithful to the feeling we get when we meet someone, are pursuing someone and what’s it’s like to finally be with that someone but there are those who are able to get it right. Look at Cameron Crowe’s SINGLES, a movie that melded humor with the suffering tribulations of a pack of people who just want love and to be loved. It’s still a benchmark I judge a lot of other films by when a movie wants to go down that road of mainstream treatise on the commonality of love. SAY ANYTHING, as well, shows how adept he was in taking a lot of that comedy out and laying bare the quietness of people looking to find something special.

    The problem with Ken Kwapis’ HE’S JUST NOT THAT INTO YOU, then, isn’t that there is a lack of understanding of why this genre exists it is the not so great material, the execution of said material and its shallowness/one-sidedness of most the cast that ensures this will not be allowed into the pantheon of good romantic comedies. And, as an aside, this film shares more with tragedy than it does hilarity so if you’re wondering whether there will be yuks and chuckles peppered throughout this film you will be sadly and horrifically surprised at the infidelity, cheating, lying, mean spiritedness and overall dour sheen of the film.

    For those unfamiliar with the plot here is the official synopsis: An all-star cast is featured in the stories of a group of interconnected, Baltimore-based twenty- and thirtysomethings as they navigate their various relationships from the shallow end of the dating pool through the deep, murky waters of married life. Trying to read the signs of the opposite sex, each hopes to be the exception to the “no exceptions” rule.

    One of the first problems with the film, from its printed promotion to its trailer, is that it’s trying to sell you on the idea that this is going to be an amusing romp into some soft territory. What I take issue with is that this movie is confused. It doesn’t know what it wants to be. Apart from Ken’s serviceable directing is his ineffectualness in getting anything compelling out of this material or its players. To put it in terms many would be able and understand this movie reads like a Robert Altman feature without the depth of its characters and feels like a bad Thirtysomething episode, its players looking fresh off the runways of Milan and completely unbelievable as forlorn romantics. What’s more is that the movie tries to shoehorn short scenes with actors who have nothing to do with the film’s content to try and talk amusingly about the pitfalls of love gone bad. These mini “interviews” feel disingenuous when you try and marry them to the movie’s overall story.

    And the stories! This movie spins yarns on top of sticks like plates, trying to keep them all going, and here is a run down of what each has to do with the other:

    Jennifer Connelly: Your everywoman. She seems nice enough in her role as a wife who is in the middle of renovating her home (metaphor alert!) but is having issues with her lying husband.

    Bradley Cooper: Connelly’s lying, cheating husband. He wants to get it on like Donkey Kong with Scarlett Johansson, an aspiring singer (thankfully, we’re not abused with her vocal talents) who pursues Bradley even after she realizes he’s married and is shocked and dejected when he doesn’t leave his wife for her.

    Scarlett Johansson: She plays a shallow tramp of a woman. She’s leading Kevin Connelly on as a sorta, kinda girlfriend.

    Kevin Connelly: Perhaps one of the best things about the film. He’s a guy just looking to make his way through life, trying to balance his professional and personal life. Goes on a date with Ginnifer Goodwin and doesn’t call her.

    Ginnifer Goodwin: The emotional tractor beam of low self-esteem in this movie. She depends on other people for her happiness for 90% of this movie and only, by the end, does she realize only she can make her own happiness. What a shock.

    Justin Long: Friend of both Kevin and personal mentor to Ginnifer of all the ways men like to treat women badly. If you’ve ever seen a film like this you’ll know how this will end and it does it miserably.

    Jennifer Aniston: Common law girlfriend to Ben Affleck of 7 years and conveniently decides in a timely fashion that, no, even though the two of them agreed not to get married ever, she does want to get married. She dumps him.

    Ben Affleck: A man who starts out being confident and emotionally stable ends up neutered by the end. That’s all you need to know.

    Drew Barrymore: A vortex of pathetic. From using MySpace to get a date (you can tell by this how old the film has been sitting on the shelf by how much this site gets mentioned. I’m surprised no one name drops Pets.com) to being a genuinely bad at gaging how regular people are supposed to fall in love.

    As you read the above I can tell you that this represents the major problem I had with this film: these characters are not believable, single-sided and they’re wickedly miserable. If I wanted misery I would just look at the relationships of people around me; I don’t go to the films to be reminded of the misery that real life doles out in ladles on a daily basis. The movie plods along, weighed down by its own moroseness, and once it thinks it wants to end things it can’t do it without seeming incredibly disingenuous.

    I can’t give away how all of this plays out but this is honestly a sad film. I can’t lay too much blame at Ken’s feet for a middling movie but the screenwriters managed to miss or intentionally ignore the reason why there could have been a great opportunity to make a movie where there was genuine comedy and genuine heartache. As it stands, this film wants to tell a couple of handfuls’ worth of stories and can’t keep them all going.

  • Toy Box: Fantasy Figure Gallery Akira

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    Americans like their polystone statues. Or resin. Something with some heft and weight, something you could kill an intruder with if your .357 isn’t handy. Something that makes you feel like you got more than just a geek-on for that insane amount of money you just spent.

    But Asian companies, like Kotobukiya and Yamato, have made a name for themselves worled wide producing their high end collectibles in lighter weight (and usually cheaper) materials like PVC. I have quite a few in my collection, and feel the quality is excellent for the price.

    Yamato has a new series starting called their Fantasy Figure Gallery. I’ll let them explain it to you:
    “The Fantasy Figure Gallery is a groundbreaking union of East and West as the leading sculptors of Asia deliver the worlds of legendary fantasy artists from Europe and the Americas as only they are capable.”

    The first statue in this series is of Akira, based on the work of renowned artist Dorian Cleavenger and sculpted by Plant-jzero Moekichi. Akira is constructed of over 100 individual pieces and features over 400 paint applications, twice the conventional statue. Thankfully however, you don’t have to put the 100 pieces together, only seven. You attach the ornaments to the side of her head, as well as one on the side of her left leg, put the two pieces of the staff together, and attach her to the base. Voila!

    If you have any questions or comments, please drop me a line at mwc@mwctoys.com, or head over to my collectibles review site at Michael’s Review of the Week – Captain Toy for more reviews like this.

    Fantasy Figure Gallery Akira

    As I mentioned Akira is the first in this series. The second is Medusa’s Gaze, based on the work of Luis Royo, and others will follow. Akira has an SRP of $98, but you can find her online much lower than that, and I have a number of suggestions at the end of the review in the ‘where to buy’ section.

    There’s also a limited edition “ivory” version of this statue that looks very interesting. It’s limited to just 300 produced, and has the same SRP as this version. You can pick it up directly from Yamato in their store.

    Packaging – ***
    It’s a large window box, that shows off the statue pretty well, and doesn’t waste too much space considering the size of the various pieces. It’s tough to show off a statue well when it comes disassembled like this, but they do a reasonably good job.

    I also like the blue color and soft, feminine graphics. They give the impression of beauty and art, just what Yamato is trying to get across with this series.

    The package is also collector friendly, if you decide to disassemble your statue later. It’s not hard to do – none of the pieces snap permanently together – and storage is safer in the original box.

    Sculpting – ****
    Yamato likes to say that she’s a ‘mona lisa’, and while she’s quite nice, I’m not sure I’d go quite THAT far.

    She has a beautiful sculpt, with soft curves and gorgeous detailing on the armor and staff. Like all Yamato statues, she’s voluptous and yet innocent in a strange way. The facial expression and sculpt almost have that southern charm to them, sort of like she’s saying “oh maay, maay…did I drop maay little ol’ robe?” The seductive/sweet expression is offset by the sharper, more defined sculpting of the armor and ornaments, giving the statue a nice contrast and realism.

    The statue is fairly large, with her standing about 10.5″ tall, and the overall statue with the base and staff at about 15″. That puts her between 1/7th and 1/8th scale, depending on how tall you think Akira should be. Yep, she’s too small to go with your sixth scale figures or even most of the Kotobukiya statues, but she’s still quite impressive on the shelf.

    By the way, yes, she’s fairly nekkid. There’s nothing really covering her breasts, although the robe and staff hide any possible nipple action. In fact, the left breast lacks any sort of nipple because of the staff, and there is a groove sculpted on her breast, stomach and right arm to accomodate it.

    The pelvic armor only covers the front half of her crotch. The only thing holding it in place is some strong glue and your lack of imagination.

    Paint – ****
    A great sculpt can be ruined by bad paint, and a mediocre sculpt can be brought to new heights with great paint. Since we were starting with a great sculpt, it needed great paint to show it off, and Yamato pulled it off.

    The skin has that slightly translucent quality to it, created by casting the plastic in a flesh tone, but doing it in a way that makes it appear as though there is a thin later of ‘skin’ over top. It’s hard to describe, but it certainly gives their ladies a soft, appealing, natural skin tone.

    The small detail work on areas like the eyes, lips or armor is extremely clean, and there are a ton of paint operations here. In recent months, we’ve seen the paint on both low cost mass market and high end specialty market items drop considerably, as manufacturers try to find last minute ways to cut costs and improve profits. It’s nice to have a statue where it’s clear that there was no cost cutting on the paint operations, where the number and quality are both extremely high.

    Design – ***1/2
    I love the overall look of this statue, particularly the way the head of the staff and her headdress both flow, giving her a dynamic and deadly appearance, even in a static pose.

    I did have some minor issues with getting the feet attached to the base. The fit was a bit rough, and it never did quite line up flush. You may find that you need to prune the plugs to get the kind of seamless look that you’lle expect with a high end statue.

    On a purely artistic note, I would have also preferred if the staff wasn’t pressed so deeply up against her right breast. It looks fairly…uncomfortable to me. This is more of an aesthetic issue though, so your mileage may vary quite a bit.

    Value – ***
    You can find this guy for no more than $90, and even closer to $80 with a little looking around. Hey, I have some excellent suggestions just below! Considering the quality of the work, as well as the size of the statue, that’s a slightly better than average value right now.

    Things to Watch Out for –
    Make sure you pay attention to how the pegs attach on each of her extra pieces. Take your time with the staff as well, since it’s very thin and could break with too much pressure.

    Overall – ***1/2
    I’m not one to usually go in for the nekkid chick statues, but I have to admit that this one is mighty fine looking. Fans of Akira should be pleased, and the sculpting, paint and quality are all top line. If your sensibilities run more Amish than freakish, then it’s probably not for you, but the human form as art has been a long standing tradition. Slap on some cool, strategically placed armor and it just gets better!

    Score Recap –
    Packaging – ***
    Sculpting – ***1/2
    Paint – ****
    Design – ***1/2
    Value – ***
    Overall – ***1/2

    Where to Buy –
    While her SRP is close to $100, you can actually find her at a number of retailers below that:

    – Urban Collector has her at just $82.

    – Circle Red has it for $90.

    – Entertainment Earth has her at $90.

    – Sidehow is carrying the regular and ivory editons. This special ivory version is limited to just 300!

    – or you can get her directly from Yamato USA for $98. They also have the limited edition of the “ivory” version. Just search for “akira”.

  • TV Or Not TV: 2/2 – 2/8

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    Welcome back to TV or Not TV where I didn’t actually watch the Big Game.

    Please, don’t call me un-American. Somehow I never got in to sports. I don’t know how it happened with an entire family of guys that follow sports, but somehow it just never took hold. I’m sure that some of it comes from having no natural athletic ability and too much of a fascination with computers at too young of an age. Whatever the reason I just didn’t tune in.

    Don’t let that make you think that I didn’t have anything to do during the Big Game today. Like any movie loving, television addicted guy I went out of my way today to get a pair of Intel sponsored 3-D glasses just to watch 90 seconds of commercials (wow, that really comes off a little bit sad now that I read it). I’ve also been a sucker for the concept of 3-D entertainment, and thankfully the glasses have never bothered me, so when I learned about these commercials I made sure that I watched the clock while doing the yard work to ensure that I would catch them.

    In case you missed what I’m talking about, the movie Aliens vs. Monsters by Dreamworks had a special 3-D commercial (with co-sponsors SoBe and NBC) because the movie itself will also be in 3-D. After seeing the commercial while wearing the glasses I’m not sure I’m sold on the concept, especially since within the first 5 seconds of the commercial we were handed a horrible example of 3-D. A character is hitting a paddle ball in our direction and this thing just look like a red ball with an evil blue twin floating off to the side. I don’t know how much the movie itself will have cost to make, but I’m sure the SoBe commercial afterward was a fraction of the cost and it pulled of the 3-D effect a lot better. I’m sure somewhere right now the execs at DreamWorks aren’t very happy they were outdone by dancing football players and lizards.

    If you didn’t watch the big game but are a fan of The Office than I’m sure you were aware that they were doing a special hour long episode immediately after. This was something I was dreading since last season’s hour long episodes almost always felt like they were painfully stretched out. I really want, with every fiber of my being, to tell you that I didn’t get the same feeling with this episode. Sadly I did. Please don’t take that as me saying that the episode didn’t entertain me. The painful insertion of the movie staring Jack Black, Chloris Leachman, and Jessica Alba felt more like they tried to shoehorn a webisode in to the episode. Thankfully the memory of Dwight wearing the freshly removed face of a CPR doll got me through those parts.

    Enough about the Big Game and it’s afterlings. There’s a big week ahead of us with the return of a lot of shows on NBC. Chuck, Heroes and Medium return on Monday.  I’m really hoping that Heroes is able to turn things around because if they can’t they are going to become some bad meat stuck between two great slices of bread. Life returns on Wednesday. All good reasons to tune in to the Peacock. Wait, why am I telling you this here? Let’s get on with it!

    MONDAY

    NBC – 8:00 PM: The 3-D fun from the Big Game continues tonight with a 3-D episode of Chuck. I’m hoping it’s not 3-Dreadful. LOST fans can find Dominic Monaghan playing another rock and roll star tonight, so that should be reason enough to endure those whacky glasses.

    CBS – 8:30 PM: Robin is facing deportation without work so she actually let’s Barney help out with a video resume. Might this mark the return of Robin Sparkles? We can only hope.

    SPIKE – 9:00 PM: Some comedies for me transcend time and just hold up. Stripes is one of those movies. Three words people: Aunt Jemima Treatment.

    FOX – 9:00 PM: After the past few seasons I really didn’t think 24 held much hope for me. Man was I wrong. Sure this year’s plot seems a little lifted from Live Free or Die Hard but it is working for me.

    TUESDAY

    NBC – 8:00 PM: Let me get you caught up on The Biggest Loser: Couples. For 30 days they sent 1/2 of all but two of the couples home. This week they are back and they are getting weighed in. Let’s just say some of the numbers these people put up aren’t going to inspire.

    ABC – 9:00 PM: Someone must be serving up freshly mixed crazy in the Scrubs writer’s room. In the first ep they have Dr. Cox actually reaching out to Dr. Kelso for (dare I say it) guidance. In the second half hour the devoid of joy Ted goes on a real date with a real girl. What’s next, the Janitor and JD having a bromance?!?

    WEDNESDAY

    NBC – 9:00 PM: LIFE is back tonight and we may or may not get to know who shot Charlie Crews. This show is good so really, give it a chance.

    ABC – 9:00 PM: Tonight on LOST we see Kate put her mean momma smack down on and I hear we may finally find out something about Jin.  Do you really need a reason to watch after last week?

    THURSDAY

    FOX – 8:00 PM: Back in the first season of Bones we were introduced to The Gravedigger. This guy kidnaps, buries the abducted with enough air for 24 hours, and will reveal the location if you pay up. Looks like Boothe is getting buried tonight.

    CW – 8:00 PM: If you pay attention to the previews than it looks like Lex is doing his best Jigsaw impersonation on tonight’s Smallville. Don’t go looking for Michael Rosenbaum though as this Lex has a very obstructed face.

    FRIDAY

    HBO – 8:00 PM: This season of Big Love has impressed me more than last season and you can catch the firth three episodes tonight to get all caught up.

    SCIFI – 10:00 PM: So last week I didn’t write about Battlestar Galactica and boy did the $h1t hit the fan! Needless to say tune in tonight to what a friend recently described as “the best soap opera for guys on TV.”

    SATURDAY

    ABC FAMILY – 8:00 PM: Last week I admitted I love Happy Gilmore. This week it plays back to back with the other Adam Sandler film that I really enjoyed: The Wedding Singer.

    COMEDY CENTRAL – 9:00 PM: After falling in love with Broken Lizard’s Super Troopers I’ve really wanted to love their follow-up films, including Beerfest. I mean I really really wanted to love it. Really.

    SUNDAY

    CBS – 8:00 PM: The awards show season continues with The 51st Annual Grammy Awards. See live performances from all of the latest, hardly any of the greatest.

    HISTORY – 9:00 PM: Four hours of Monster Quest takes us through Mutant Canines, Lions in the Backyard, Death of Lochness and Jaws in Illinois.

    FOX REALITY – 8:00 PM: Four hours of the Solitary 3.0. Hopefully you won’t be sitting alone in your room watching people alone in their rooms.

    – Will Wilkins clearly shook off the feelings of being a corporate shill.

  • Backlash: The Bat-Oscars

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    Are the Oscars As We Know Them Doomed? We Can Only Hope….

    As the entire world seems to pause for a moment for the Inauguration of President Barack Obama, some of regular life goes on, even in Fantasy Land, better known as Hollywood, USA. The Motion Picture Academy announces their nominees for the Oscars this week and with nothing better to do than talk out their collective asses, a fair portion of the entertainment media are squawking about whether or not the awards can survive if they don’t crown a ‘popular’ film Best Picture (read: Batman: The Dark Knight).

    There’s some logic to the argument if you look at the awards in a purely television special / ratings extravaganza event. Last year’s Oscar telecast was one of the lowest rated in years and some attribute that to a lack of a popular choice among the moviegoing public, something for them to ‘root for’, as though this were a NASCAR race. I’m sure the network would love for there to be a choice like The Dark Knight among the Best Picture nominees on Thursday and they might get their wish. Fact is, Christopher Nolan made a pretty good film in a year when some of the most interesting films to come out of Hollywood were in genres traditionally ignored by the Academy. Filmmakers have finally figured out that viewers can take their heroes with some flaws, something comic readers have been able to handle since the 1960’s. The heroes of Iron Man and The Dark Knight appeal to the general public in a time when the world is viewed in ever-darkening shades of gray, making those films as relevant as any to hit screens in recent years. If Warners can manage to not completely fuck up Watchmen (which I still have my doubts about), it might even be in this conversation a year from now. But to actually state that not nominating a film like Dark Knight for Best Picture could signal the end of the Oscars as we know it is such a complete load of bullshit that you could smell the odor in Australia.

    It has also been something of a banner year for the much-maligned (usually with good reason) Animated Feature Film (or, as I like to call it, “The Oscar We Just Give to Pixar Every Year They Release a Film”). Pixar, as usual, made a good showing, this time with Wall-E and proved once again that the important part of any film, animated or otherwise, is a good script. For that reason, Wall-E is even being mentioned as a potential nominee in some of the non-traditional categories for animated films, such as Best Screenplay and even as a possible longshot for Best Picture. Disney, long absent from any conversation concerning a good animated feature that wasn’t co-produced with the aforementioned Pixar, managed to release Bolt, a film that looked a whole lot like it escaped from Pixar (in some respects, that’s just what it did). Even some of the releases geared straight for the kid market weren’t as mind numbing as they’ve been in the past. Just as a bit of full disclosure, I have actively voted against some Pixar films in the past when I’ve thought another film deserved the honor more, which is why the critic’s group I was a member of at the time gave the award to Wallace & Gromit over Cars. There will be a year when an animated feature is in the mix for Best Picture but this won’t be that year. The year it does happen, that film will have to defend itself against some pretty good animated films that came before it.

    First of all, the argument that the nomination & win of a “populist” film would be some sort of groundbreaking event is not only inaccurate, it’s ignorant. Titanic was a massively popular film, the highest grossing film of all time to date (Dark Knight currently sits at number two) and it took home the Best Picture award that year. So there’s the ‘blockbuster’ argument cut off at the knees. You can’t even make the ‘fantasy film’ argument any more since Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King made a pretty good showing that year, including taking that Best Picture statuette home to Hobbiton. Previously, high grossing science fiction or fantasy films would be thrown the bone of a nomination without a snowball’s chance in hell of winning. Films like Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark and others really just took a spot away from films that might have had a slim chance of winning Best Picture. The way the Academy is structured now, any SF / fantasy film that is good enough to get a nomination in the Best Picture category has as good a chance to win as any other film that’s nominated.

    Which brings us back to The Dark Knight. I can’t remember a year when everyone from the film fans to us blowhards in the media haven’t carped on and on about how lousy the films were all year, only to be faced with a pretty tough decision when comes time to vote for the various awards. This year is no exception, with some really good films being considered as the nominations are being made. Gran Torino is possibly one of the best films Clint Eastwood has ever made. Slumdog Millionaire is this year’s “out of nowhere” film that is not only an art house choice but popular with general audiences that have seen the film. There are far more than five films that can be mentioned in this conversation but only five will be nominated. To say that Dark Knight should only be considered because of its popularity is the traditional slap in the face that these kinds of films almost always get from the ‘traditional’ press and members of the Academy who rely on the DVD screeners because their iron lungs won’t fit into the theaters. Thankfully, those contingents have been getting marginalized as time goes on, partially due to the internet but also because so many of the ‘old guard’ are either passing away or have figured out that a fantasy film no longer involves Buster Crabbe and might really be worth watching, even if the great-grandkids have a picture from the film on their lunch box or have downloaded it to their iPhone.

    The Dark Knight won’t be any kind of ‘hero’ to the Oscars regardless of whether it gets a Best Picture nomination or not and it shouldn’t be. The history of the Academy Awards is full of Best Picture winners that are little more than cheap rentals (if you can find them on video at all) while the runners up have gone on to become cherished classics of the medium. I have no doubt that, a decade from now, Dark Knight will be remembered and viewed a lot more than most of the films in the Oscar discussion this year. But the Oscars shouldn’t be about what film will be best remembered a decade from now but what the voters believe is the best film now. And that’s the way it should be, regardless of ratings or any other external influence. Of course, it won’t be that way, it probably hasn’t been for a whole lot of years and may never be that way again but we can all hope.

    –KJB

  • TV Or Not TV: 1/26 – 2/1

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    Welcome back to TV or Not TV where I tried and tried but didn’t find much to recommend this week.

    I know that as a respectable journalist (I use the term loosely) that I should remain impartial and just write something informative about television that is on the air and then report my picks for the week. This week, however, is a light week and I’ve already talked about Battlestar Galactica and LOST (which, by the way, had what I felt was a very strong season opener). I also don’t care much about who is playing in the SuperBowl and for some odd reason this week I feel that if I talk about what is on the major networks I’m just being a shill for the man.

    With all of this in mind I will let you know that the suggestions for this week are, just as the TV listings grid was when I read it, light. I tried, at all times possible, to avoid anything from the four major networks. In some cases, it was unavoidable (or too good to resist). So when you get to that part of this week’s column I suggest you prepare a grain of salt to take them with.

    In something completely unrelated I feel compelled this week to take a moment to talk about the CW’s Smallville. Last season we heard that two of the major characters of the show were going to be leaving. The executive producers of the show were taking their leave. All of these indicators and the near painful season we had just endured were pointing towards the current season of the show being an abysmal farewell for a show that outstayed its welcome. During the summer we even heard that they were bringing the character Doomsday to the show which is a bad sign since he, in the comics, brought about the (near) death of Superman.  Even I, someone who had watched the show from the beginning, tuned in to the beginning of this season thinking the premiere would be the last show that I watched just so I could have closure on last season’s cliffhanger.

    Boy was I wrong! I have been watching ever dang week! Even with budget cuts and two characters taking their (in one’s case partial) leave of the show this season has been strong and consistently entertaining. Through reinventing itself the show has found a level of charm that has been missing over at least the past three seasons. Of course I could just be nerding out now that the show seems to be getting down to the bit of business of Clark Kent finally learning the life lessons he needs to so he can evolve into the selfless hero Superman (even though even under a new regime we are still told “no flights, no tights” for this Clark Kent).

    What I am really getting at is it is nice to see a show that you loved that had seemed to lose its way finally come around again. Not a lot of shows can boast that they were able to turn it around. Usually they flounder and simply vanish. If this is in fact the last season of Smallville I hope they keep up what they are doing because it is working great and they will go out strong.

    And with that out of the way I present to you the weak week of picks.

    MONDAY

    AMC – 8:00 PM: Tonight why don’t we find out if Caddyshack still holds up?

    TUESDAY

    ABC – 9:00 PM: In the scariest example of corporate synergy ever, Elmo guests on tonight’s episode of Scrubs.

    WEDNESDAY

    DISNEY – 8:00 PM: Can you guess who needed the money more in doing Bob the Butler? Was it Tom Green in the title role or Brooke Shields?

    CMT – 9:00 PM: I don’t know how I missed Beer for My Horses last year but how bad can a movie based on a country song be? Remember The Gambler? Oh wait…

    THURSDAY

    CMT – 9:00 PM: If you thought The Man Whose Arms Exploded was a story of overcoming tragedy or a a tale of spontaneous combustion you will be disappointed to find out it’s about a guy striving to be the man with the world’s biggest arms. 28 inch biceps and I bet he can’t even scratch his own nose.

    FRIDAY

    BRAVO – 9:00 PM: One of my guilty pleasures (and one of the few Adam Sandler movies I think is easy to stomach) is the movie Happy Gilmore. I know it isn’t a landmark piece of cinema, but I can watch it time and time again.

    TBS – 9:00 PM: I’m still trying to figure out at what point Chris Rock actually thought the movie Head of State was a good idea. Better yet, at what point did he realize it wasn’t?

    SATURDAY

    AMC – 5:30 PM: Oh man… get dinner ready and make sure you are all settled in before the trifecta of Spaghetti Westerns with A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More and The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly.

    SUNDAY

    NBC – 3:00 PM: You may have heard something about some big football game today. SuperBowl XLIII has the Steelers against the Cardinals, and again I don’t even care.

    ABC – Half-Time: The Alphabet rolls out a special SuperBowl halftime episode of Wipeout.

    – Will Wilkins really hopes you bought that corporate shill thing as the reason why he slacked off this week.

  • Trailer Park: Emma Stone

    By Christopher Stipp

    The Archives, Right Here

    I’m awesome. I wrote a book. It’s got little to do with movies. Download and read “Thank You, Goodnight” right HERE for free.

    And now, you can follow me on Twitter. Find me here, my oh so original name on the thing is Stipp so come on and follow my stray ramblings. The nice thing you should know is that I don’t machine gun blast with the number of tweets I put out there, I’m fairly mellow….

    As well, pick up the latest Geek Monthly magazine. I have an article profiling the antics of Kevin Pereira and Olivia Munn on Attack of the Show. You’ll only be able to witness my greatness or awfulness, depending on where you fall on the issue, for another week or so before I’m whisked off the shelf and replaced with next month’s issue.

    I dig being a part of the Screen Geeks podcast. For every week they have me on it’s nice to be able and actually verbalize what has been richocheting off in my head all week when it comes to what is the latest in film; it’s cathartic in a way.

    I know there are a megaton of podcasts devoted to what’s happening in film but how many of them have me in them? Only one, friends. If you have an inkling to listen to the lastest ramblings of a non-drunken idiot please give this a spin online or download it for your audio pleasure. This episode is devoted to the worst films of 2008 and it was an episode that just left me angry. Talking about what was wrong in cinema last year could only enrage a person and indeed it did. Hopefully some people will check it out and enjoy the Ray Romano-ish voice stylings of yours truly. As well, where else could you find Keifer Sutherland attacking a Christmas tree in a true drunken rage? In real life. It’s great.

    [display_podcast]

    THE ROCKER INTERVIEW

    This movie was damn terrible. It really was a painful experience to have to sit through this film. Strangulation by a plastic Ralph’s bag would provide for more entertainment than I got out of this beast.

    No knock to Jason Sudeikis, because this is the honest truth, but his parts in this film were the best thing about this motion picture. He’s a witty dude and knew how to make something out of his cliched, tired old character that we’ve seen dozens of times in pop culture. The other bright light was the light and airy Emma Stone. Quickly surpassing her peers as the go-to gal as a funny lady who can hold her own against her comedic male foils (Superbad being one, natch). Much like Sudeikis, she isn’t given much to do and that’s another crime that, thankfully, was punished by audiences everywhere unlucky enough to witness this waste of everyone’s time.

    This interview, which I have been holding onto like a Bob Dole’s Bic ballpoint, in a messianic death grip of sorts because I wanted *something* positive to come out of this experience, was even plagued by disaster: it was a roundtable. You had your usual suspects of film writers in the valley descend to a swanky hotel in Phoenix to talk to this native Arizonian, Lord knows I would have come down with food poisioning had I known that before I showed up (I’m still smarting from bailing on the Seann William Scott roundtable for ROLE MODELS but I’m not regretting having to parse through everyone else’s quotes just to get my stuff out of there) but oddly enough there was a representative from Spawn.com. For those who don’t know or are unfamiliar, Spawn is a comic book franchise built on the ginormous ego and talent of Todd McFarlane. I don’t begrudge the local boy (his empire squarely rests in a local suburb in Arizona) from doing what he does, I interviewed him to boot, but go ahead and look at the man’s site. It’s about Todd. All about Todd. I have no clue why I was jockeying for questions with a rep for Spawn.com but it is what it is and it’s why I really don’t like to be reminded of how bad I suck whenever I do a roundtable.

    THE ROCKER is coming out on DVD next Tuesday. And I hear that every purchase comes with a zip tie that you can fasten around your neck just in case you get too despondent after realizing you rented, or worse, purchased this film. For those brazen enough to actually wade through this interview I hope you see that even though there might be some harbored feelings that I genuinely, homogeneously suck at doing interviews I don’t stray afield into the land of Insipidness as some of these people. Be thankful…

    QUESTION: What was it like watching the movie with an audience? Did you get to do that before?

    [Ed. note – Yeah, these guys are really bringing the heat right out of the gate.]

    EMMA STONE: It was awesome. This was the second time I’ve seen it with an audience. The first time was CineVegas which was the film festival in Vegas but this was so cool because it’s my home town. It’s cool to be at the Esplanade. It was fun.

    QUESTION: It was cool to be at the Esplanade?

    [Ed. note – Fuck…me. Seriously? A follow up to this shitty question?]

    STONE: Houston’s. Morton’s. It was great.

    QUESTION: Do you have any resemblance to your character? Your character in the movie described yourself as kind of punk. Based on what I read, you like Beetles and Simon and Garfunkel, is there any sort of musical resemblance to you two?

    STONE: No. That’s what I liked about it. She felt different than me. She’s not a smiler and looks at the dark side of things more often and I’m a little more silver lining in my life so that’s what kind of drew me to it ““ especially in a comedy. Finding a character like that in a comedy that is so sardonic ““ a challenge of not smiling and not cracking jokes”¦

    QUESTION: Did you have to do a lot of research?

    STONE: Not really. She’s just a creation ““ she’s not too dark ““ she’s very teenage ““ teenage angst. I learned to play base ““ that was a big part of it because that’s where she puts all her passion.

    QUESTION: Did you pick it up pretty quickly?

    STONE: Yeah. Relatively quickly. I went to bass lessons everyday in Toronto but I learned all the songs for the movie and just practiced until I had it down.
    [ad#contestbox]
    QUESTION: Do you play another instrument?

    STONE: I dabble ““ not well no. I played a bit of guitar, a bit of piano.

    QUESTION: But you sing? You are musically inclined.

    STONE: Yeah. In a sense, but I’m by no means a musician by trade. I will not be making an album.

    QUESTION: How much free reign did you guys have with the script? Jason Sudeikis would come on screen and just fire off stuff ““ like there’s no way all that stuff was scripted.

    STONE: Yeah. The majority of Jason’s stuff was improved. There were hysterical things he said and did that were not scripted and he had us dying. I’ve been really lucky to have a bit more reign like in House Bunny and Superbad ““ this one was quick ““ we knocked it out pretty quick ““ two lines I wrote for this movie but that’s about it. That was my free reign.

    QUESTION: At least you had a little something.

    STONE: Yeah, it was great. Amelia is not too funny by any means. She’s not really coming up jokes all the time so what was scripted was good.

    QUESTION: Did you guys rehearse for this?

    STONE: Yes, we did. All the band. Absolutely. We needed to have the camaraderie of the band so about two weeks before we started shooting we rehearsed as a band in a big empty warehouse in Toronto. Pretty much every day.

    QUESTION: Were you a temporary little band?

    STONE: We were a temporary little band.

    QUESTION: Did Rainn have to learn to play drums too? He looked natural on screen but you could tell”¦.

    STONE: Yes. He had a drum coach named Stu and he was hysterical and picking up chicks all over the place.

    (Laughs)

    QUESTION: So the movie was about him?

    STONE: Yeah ““ the movie was about Stu. No, No, he was awesome. He taught Rainn how to do drum fills because you can’t really fake drum fills so Rainn practiced his ass off and Walter, his son who looks exactly like him ““ looks like Rainn in that poster, wants to be a drummer, so he passed it on to his child. He had to really learn and buckle down.

    QUESTION: Do you think he might do a show out here?

    STONE: Hopefully. Rainn and Walter together. Drumming it up.

    QUESTION: Coincidentally there is a metal punk band out here called ADD.

    STONE: Are you serious?

    QUESTION: Totally serious.

    [Ed. note – Just shoot me. Please]

    STONE: Who knew?

    QUESTION: I did.

    [Ed. note – Aaaand that makes this guy a douche bag for bringing it up.]

    QUESTION: What was it like making a movie like Superbad and Rocker without being 21? Everybody else party without you or how did that go?

    STONE: Um, well Superbad was ““ oh man, I was 17. Chris who played Fogell was 17, Michael was 18, Jonah was over 21 but they are not really partiers as they say so it wasn’t too bad. And the Rocker ““ Teddy was young and I was young and I’m not really big on the scene so it wasn’t too bad.

    QUESTION: Keep out of the tabloids that way.

    STONE: No complaints there.

    CHRISTOPHER STIPP: You started your career locally here in Arizona, you moved from Scottsdale to Los Angeles and obviously you got a big break with Superbad and House Bunny and now The Rocker. How is life been as a working actress now that you seem to be on an ascent of sorts?

    STONE: Different than it was the first 3 years I was in LA and not a working actress. There is a lot of rejection for many years. I convinced my parents to let me move out there when I as 15 and you can probably imagine what it was like. I was not really working and I should have been in high school and I was just auditioning and auditioning and nothing was happening so I’m incredibly grateful at this point that this much has happened and I don’t have a job lined up next.

    But as a working actor that is just what comes with the territory, so you never know after movie. Working actor. But, I’m not really working right now. It’s interesting.

    CS: How did you convince your parents to let you go?

    STONE: The power of my presentation. I made a PowerPoint presentation.

    QUESTION: Do you still have that?

    STONE: It was on a virus running computer. It’s been extracted by an IT guy at my dad’s company. So I have a loose outline ““ all the text is there.

    QUESTION: What was the most funny, memorable part of making the movie on or off screen?

    STONE: One night when we were shooting the arena scene at the end when we open for Vesuvius, we shot from 4:00 PM until Noon the next day so it went from light to dark to really bright and three of us hallucinated. We saw a little boy and we know we were going to talk about it later on. Maybe it was Walter running around drumming ““ yeah, who knows. It was really bizarre.

    QUESTION: Did you actually get to perform in front of 20,000 people?

    STONE: It was about 700 extras and then with cg they just multiplied, and multiplied, and multiplied. It wasn’t quite 20,000 but it was still pretty nerve wracking to be in front of 700 people playing base which I am sub par at.

    QUESTION: So would you rather be a movie star or a rock star?

    [Ed. note – Why didn’t this asshole just ask if she could be a tree what kind of tree she would be? Seriously, this is killing me.]

    STONE: Oh man”¦well I don’t really know too much about either quite yet but I don’t really know how much I’ll know about rock star but it was pretty awesome to be in rock stardom for a day.

    QUESTION: Have you seen the Vanity Fair shot yet?

    STONE: Yes.

    QUESTION: And you tell us you are not a movie star? That’s big, young Hollywood right there.

    STONE: Man, it was pouring rain and 30 degrees. What you don’t know is that Olivia’s dress is completely soaked in the back. Yeah, it was sweet. I can’t believe you can’t tell that it’s raining but if you look at the background ““ that was pretty cool.

    QUESTION: Who had the biggest fear of heights?

    STONE: We were all just freezing and it was raining ““ we were just ready to get out of the rain.

    QUESTION: You did a lot of touring in the movie, do you do much traveling as an actor?

    STONE: Well, I haven’t really traveled too much for acting. We shot Superbad in LA, Rocker in Toronto, House Bunny in LA and The Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, which I just finished, in Boston. I know a lot of actors that say, “I went to New Zealand”. My roommate, Martha, who is the other girl in Superbad just went to Cape Town, South Africa and now she’s in Vancouver so she’s getting to go all over the place so hopefully I’ll get to travel more.

    QUESTION: There are big name actors in the The Ghosts of Girlfriends Past movie. Were you excited about that?

    STONE: Yeah. It was pretty cool. The only person I really worked with because I play a ghost and the only person I was doing scenes with was Matthew McConaughey and he’s great. He’s funny.

    QUESTION: Did he keep his shirt on?

    [Ed. note – This was perhaps the best question of the bunch]

    STONE: Everybody always asks that! “Did he keep his shirt on” and,  “What’s he going to be like as a Dad?” Yes”¦and great.

    QUESTION: In the movie, Fish likes to rock out, anything you like to do to get pumped up before you go out to perform?

    STONE: Probably drink a Red Bull or some water. There’s some seriousness going down.

    QUESTION: As an out of work 15 year old actor what is the worst advice anyone gave you in LA?

    STONE: Not some bad advice but some pretty bad auditions definitely. I was pretty lucky.

    CS: Based on where you are now in your career, the kinds of scripts you are being offered now as opposed to 3 years ago, being a working actress, how picky are you regarding things you are looking for? Do you do things as a way to keep money coming in or can you afford to be choosy?

    STONE: I, thankfully, have never had the mentality that I have to do this because I need the money for this. I have to find aspects that I would love to be able to do it. However, the next script I do, I absolutely have to love it or I will go crazy. I’m going to hold out as long as I absolutely have to and it probably won’t be a studio comedy. I think I’m excited to get into the more human and relatable the better ““ like Harold and Maude ““ I love that stuff.

    It taught me so much in my life. I would like to be able to do that for other people. So the next thing that comes along that makes me feel the way those movies made me feel, that’s what I’d like to do.

    QUESTION: You have a lot of fans in the comic book industry”¦

    [Ed. note – Woah! Guess which guy asked that question?]

    STONE: Seriously? I didn’t know that.

    [Ed. note – She didn’t know that because we were all pretty sure it wasn’t true.]

    QUESTION: So I guess any kind of comic book related movie is not a part of what you are looking for in the future?

    [Ed. note – This was one of those awkward red carpet/Tiki Barber moments but it was in full living color.]

    STONE: No. Not necessarily. That would be awesome. I know there is some graphic novel that they are making soon that sounds pretty cool. There is some cool stuff coming up ““ The Jetsons. But that’s a cartoon. Why comic books?

    QUESTION: Because you are a hot chick.

    [Ed. note – Douche bag. Seriously, it’s this kind of shit that makes every Internet “journalist” suspect as skeevy wretches.]

    STONE: Man, that is so funny. I had no idea.

    QUESTION: Any character you can think of maybe?

    [Ed. note – Akward moment #2]

    STONE: I would have loved to have played Mary Jane. That would have been really cool.

    QUESTION: What makes you an Arizona girl? What have you brought from Arizona to LA?

    STONE: It’s hard because I’m really bad with the heat. Growing up in Arizona I really struggled with the heat. So I guess I just stayed inside and watched movies. So all those movies just came with me and continued on. Who knows, if it wasn’t so hot out I wouldn’t have stayed in and watched movies so”¦.

    QUESTION: There are some really interesting one line pick up lines in the movie. Can you remember any that you received?

    STONE: I don’t really get pick up lines.

    QUESTION: Are you a fan of The Office?

    STONE: Yes. That was one of the main reasons I wanted to be involved in The Rocker for sure. He’s just hysterical and Fish is so different than Dwight so it was fun to see him branch out into that territory. Because Dwight is not crazy at all.

    QUESTION: When he was the naked drummer did you get to see more of him than the audience got to see?

    STONE: No, that was a closed set and I was reacting to nothing. I was reacting to the idea of him being naked on screen. But it worked out.

  • TV Or Not TV: 1/19 – 1/25

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    Welcome back to TV or Not TV where I am blown away by last week, I am looking forward to change and getting LOST.

    Tuesday January 20th brings the events of the 2008 US Presidential Election to a close with the inauguration of the 44th President of the United States.  This event has reached an epic status, so much so that you can’t open your email without getting spammed by offers for the Obama coin. Amazing Spider-Man #583 had a variant cover featuring the President Elect in the foreground that sold easily on eBay for $100 and up. I’d say the country has Obama fever, but I feel more like we have had enough of the George W. Bush flu and we’re ready for what we hope is the Obama cure to this condition. I don’t envy our new President as he has a lot to deal with in handling the monumental task of getting things back on track. I hope his inauguration is at least one heck of a celebration that can create fond memories for him to remember in the difficult days ahead.

    In speaking of our soon-to-be former Preisdent I think, in looking back at last week, it is kind of interesting that George W. Bush‘s farewell to the nation was overshadowed by something that also gives us hope for the future. The US Airways plane crash into the Hudson River gave us something to hold up as proof that even when things appear to be at their worst great things can happen. An airline pilot made all the right decisions, everyday people banded together to help one another, and 155 lives were saved. I’d gladly take this tale of near tradgedy and heroic deeds over a speach attempting to tell everyone why the past 8 years weren’t so bad.

    Of course I can’t talk about plane crashes without discussing this week’s season premiere of LOST. The plight of Oceanic Flight 815 is back and we begin our journey of discovering why and how the Oceanic 6 get back to the mysterious Island as well as what happened after they left. Don’t worry about an entire season of “How do we get back?” however. According to executive producer Damon Lindelof, “The conventional thinking might be that we’re going to spend the entire season telling the story of how and if these characters are able to make it back to the island. That’s not what we’re doing, not by any stretch of the imagination.”

    I have very high hopes for this season of LOST because we are embarking on the final 34 episodes of the series (17 this season and 17 next season). With a finite set of episodes I’m hoping for lots of relevant content and not a lot of “filler”. Last season, which was whittled down to only 14 episodes due to the writer’s strike, was what I would call a nearly flawless execution of content minus filler. The only weakness of the season, for this writer, was having such a powerhouse episode such as The Constant followed up by the lackluster episode The Other Woman.  The writers have their road map, they know how long it is going to take to get us to where they want us, and all they have to do is now get us their in a way where we aren’t screaming in the back saying, “Are we there yet?!?”

    In my hopes I’m trying to ignore the change in story telling that has to occur now that we have two different stories that have to be told. “The show is taking on a new model, in terms of the way we tell stories, and finding a balance between what’s happening off the island and on the island,” says Lindelof. “We’re really happy with the scripts that we’re writing, but at the same time, there’s this complete sense of fear and second-guessing, in terms of whether or not the audience is going to groove on what we’re doing.” In Season 3 the producers were able to quickly compensate for fan dislike of Nikki and Paulo. I only hope that before the show airs they aren’t so deep in the production that they won’t be able to error correct again if we don’t actually groove on what they’re doing. At least we know that they pay attention to fan feedback and, should we not dig it,  I hear you can work miracles in post-production.

    That all being said, let’s take a look at the shape of things to come this week.

    MONDAY

    FOX – 8:00 PM: I’d love to recap 24 so far but it’s already getting pretty convoluted and we’re only at episode five. I’m still going to watch though.

    FOOD – 8:30 PM: Food Network comes up with their own version of Dirty Jobs with Will Work for Food. Next Food Network Star alumni Adam Gertle does the not-so-known jobs in the culinary world. This week? Working on a lobster boat and harvesting honey.

    HIST – 9:00 PM: The History Channel brings out their special from last August that shows us what it is like to fly in the highest of classes in Secret Access: Air Force One.

    TUESDAY

    ABC, NBC, CBS Morning: The time for change is here with the inauguration of Barack Obama as our 44th president.* You can also watch it through CNNLive with all your friends on Facebook.

    FOX – 9:00 PM: Fringe returns tonight. Want to get caught up? Go here.

    ABC – 8:00 PM: The Alphabet Network gets my vote for best night of inauguration programming. The Neighborhood Ball: An Inauguration Celebration has Beyoncé, Mary J. Blige, Mariah Carey, Faith Hill, Jay-Z, Alicia Keys, Shakira and Stevie Wonder scheduled to perform. Even if my neighborhood had a ball it wouldn’t be anything like this.

    * Check local listings.

    WEDNESDAY

    FOX – 9:00 PM: Tim Roth comes to the little screen as a man so schooled in human behavior and mannerisms that he is a walking polygraph in the new drama Lie to Me.

    NBC – 8:00 PM: I’m having flashbacks of 1982 as Knight Rider brings out the bad version of KITT named KARR. Peter Cullen adds to the deja vu by reprising the vocal role of KARR.

    ABC – 8:00 PM: If you want to finally get in on the LOST experience then tune in at 8 PM for LOST: Destiny Calls where they try to get us all caught up and ready for the two hours of LOST‘s season premiere that follow at 9.

    THURSDAY

    NBC – 8:00 PM: I have no idea what NBC has planned since (at press time) this week’s description of My Name is Earl reads as part 2 of the episode that didn’t actually air last week. Maybe we’ll get part 1?

    FX – 8:00 PM: Witness the horror of Van Helsing. I’m talking about the film itself. UGH!

    AMC – 8:00 PM: Watch The Untouchables and you’ll never look at a baseball bat the same way again.

    USA – 10:00 PM: The cool as a cucumber former spy is back with tonight’s return of Burn Notice. Apparently the near-death experience last season may have shaken some of the frost off of Michael’s cool exterior.

    FRIDAY

    NBC – 8:00 PM: OK, I might have originally mocked the idea a little but I actually did chuckle at Howie Do It and you might to.

    CBS – 8:00 PM: The discovery of a mass-grave leads to a mass-haunting on Ghost Whisperer.

    HIST – 8:00 PM: The 2003 special The Kennedy Assassination: Beyond Conspiracy used computer modeling of the Zapruder film and Dealey Plaza tries to answer the who and where of what happened on November 22, 1963.

    SATURDAY

    TOON – 8:00 PM: The direct to DVD cartoon Superman:Doomsday was an interesting adaption of the Death of Superman saga. There’s no “Reign of the Supermen” portion, but it is still entertaining.

    USA – 8:00 PM: All the flash and glamour within can’t reproduce the cultural experience of the time of the original TV series in this film version of Miami Vice.

    HALMARK- 8:00 PM: Clint Eastwood directed the captivating motion picture Unforgiven. Morgan Freeman came along for the ride, and I promise you this is no Bucket List.

    SUNDAY

    AMC – 6:00 PM: See how one former vet becomes a one man army in First Blood followed immediately by Rambo: First Blood Part II.

    ABC – 8:00 PM: Prepare to have the ol’ heart strings tugged at a bit with two hours of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition where the team rebuilds the home of an injured war vet who’se home was damaged by a tornado.

    NBC – 9:00 PM: Another network attempts to tap in to the DaVinci Code and National Treasure vibe with the Mira Sorvino driven adaptation of the book The Last Templar.

    – Will Wilkins fears the frozen donkey wheel.

  • Trailer Park: Darren Aronofsky Part 2

    By Christopher Stipp

    The Archives, Right Here

    I’m awesome. I wrote a book. It’s got little to do with movies. Download and read “Thank You, Goodnight” right HERE for free.

    You’ve just to meet the twins.

    The Massie Twins are perhaps the best thing in the world to happen at interview sessions when you find yourself cursing your lot at not having access to a 1:1 with a true visionary. These guys, genuine twins, are perhaps the nicest, kindest, honest to a fault interviewers that I wish were at every interview situation. The talent that sees them just fall over themselves as they look at these grown men who dress and look alike. Myself, I do want to throw the yellow foul flag in that these guys like to think that since there’s two of them that in a roundtable situation they get 2 questions when everyone else their 1 but I’m quibbling and this was a chance to talk to Darren Aronofsky after all.

    When I had the chance to say hey once more to the guy who genuinely mixes enthusiasm for his job and a jaunty introspection in the way he speaks I could not pass it up. Darren is kind of person who is more interested in knowing what you thought about what he made than he is to tell you about it. When he rolled in with his tall tea, working a small packet of honey into his drink and then working his way though an orange, there is just no way you would guess by his humble persona that here is a man who has brought the world a film that is being mentioned in the same breath as other Oscar worthy productions; he defies the stereotype that you have to be a thick willed fist thumper to be great.

    Darren is great simply for spending time with some schlubs to chitter chatter about THE WRESTLER. I know a lot could be made of all the different people I am able to talk to but getting time with this guy simply trumps 99% of everything else I am able to do throughout the year. My inner nerd was satiated thoroughly for weeks after.

    CHRISTOPHER STIPP: I have been reading the interviews that after The Fountain you wanted to get back to basics. You just wanted to work with actors again. How does this experience, obviously they are two different movies, compare to The Fountain?

    ARONOFSKY: Well, ultimately it’s all very similar, the work. You have a very limited amount of time, amount of money. It doesn’t matter the scale of the film. You end up doing very similar stuff. There is just different challenges specific to the projects. This was the Mickey Rourke challenge for this film. Otherwise it was very similar but it’s amazing how quick it goes when you don’t have to do special effects. We finished shooting in March, so it’s been 6 months from the time we finished shooting that we were at the Venice Film Festival. So, that’s great. It was a lot of fun. I kind of admire Woody Allen for just being able to clock them out one a year.

    QUESTION: How do you go about choosing your next project? How did you go from The Fountain to this?

    ARONOFSKY: Well I was just looking for an actor’s piece. I looked at everything we had in development and this seemed like one of the strongest contenders as far as that. You never really know. When people ask me what’s next, I never really know. Until I have a script that’s like, “OK, I’m confident enough to jump in.”

    But I was looking for something that was an actor’s piece and I was kind of nervous about the wrestling elements because they were action and they would take their time because all I really wanted to do was like two actors in a room talking and see what I could do with that. But it seemed like the best thing I had ahead of me. Everyone else thought I was out of my mind. “What are you doing? A wresting picture with Mickey Rourke? Are you out of your mind? ”

    Now, in retrospect, the Mickey Rourke in the part makes sense but back then, no one wanted to support it.

    QUESTION: When you first got into it, Mickey Rourke was already attached to it?

    ARONOFSKY: I brought Mickey Rourke into it. I had an idea that when I graduated from film school in ’94 or ’95, I sat down and made a list of possible ideas for films. And the Wrestler was on that list. I can’t imagine the exact thought process but I think it came out of the idea that no one had done that world in a serious way. But then in about ’02, when The Fountain fell apart the first time, before I put it back together, I got together with this producer Scott Franklin who had been a producer on my first two films, together we started to work out story ideas and do some research and I chose him to produce it because he was a wrestling fan, more than me. So together we started to develop some stories and then about ’04 or ’05, we found Rob Siegel who was the editor of The Onion for 7 years and then he just seemed right for the material and that was about the same time the light bulb for Mickey Rourke went off.

    CS: Building on that, the light bulb for Mickey Rourke, and now it looks like a master stroke, one thing I noticed watching the movie is that I didn’t know where The Ram stopped and Mickey Rourke started.

    ARONOFSKY: Sure.

    CS: And everyone is talking about that part at the end when he talks about redemption.

    ARONOFSKY: You thought that moment worked?

    CS: I choked up myself.

    ARONOFSKY: Did you? During his speech?

    CS: During his speech. Like writers say, you have to earn it, you have to earn that moment. And not only did you earn it but I think Mickey earned it.

    ARONOFSKY: Well, Mickey ended up rewriting that to make it more personal. What happened, was me and Rob, the writer, went to this one match out in Long Island and this young wrester who was part of the Hart family which is a kind of a big famous wrestling dynasty, got up there and made this speech about very personal, a little too personal and I looked at Rob and we said, “Yeah, The Ram has got to make a speech at the end.”

    Rob wrote a speech at the end that was great but about 2 days before Mickey said, “I think I have some ideas for that, mind if I work on that?” We said “No, go ahead” and came in the day of and showed it to me and I said, “Do you really want to say this?” Because I knew what he was doing but we never talked about it. Never talked about the connection between the character and Mickey. It’s not really my business. Now we are very good friends and I talk to him about everything. But back then, our relationship was young. So he said “Yeah, I want to give it a shot” and basically we had 2 takes on it because there was a crowd of 2500 ““ 3000 people and the first take didn’t go too well.

    Then I talked to the crowd what the moment meant and the second take was that take.

    That take is all the way from him walking out of the curtain, going around the ring, and then he enters the ring, there was a second camera in the ring, and then that first camera ran around and up a ladder to shoot Marisa for that closeup while that second camera continued as he went and did the whole speech. So all of Marisa’s close-ups and Mickey’s speech happened at the same time. So, it was pretty cool and a lot of fun.

    QUESTION: How about Marisa and the rest of the cast? What was the casting process like?

    ARONOFSKY: Mickey was the first step. I didn’t really want to cast the daughter until we knew it was Mickey for sure, so once we figured out how to make the film with Mickey, Evan Rachel Wood seemed like a good option because I thought they had a similar round face and the lips were similar and I thought it was passable. It’s always hard when you cast two famous people as say, father/daughter or siblings, always a tricky thing. That worked out and then it was a very hard role to cast the stripper because every actor knows that within a few months of the release of the film those images are going to be on the internet forever and that’s part of the deal.

    But, I was just very clear that we are doing a very realistic film so the nudity had to be real. I about peeve when you see a couple waking up after having sex in a movie and they are trying to hold on to sheets so their privates don’t show. It’s just so unreal and pulls you out but this film was just so important that they are artist with their bodies and have to show their bodies. It’s all about that. So I put that out there and Marisa was a very early choice because I think her complexity is rarely tapped. She’s often playing very cutesy but I could tell she had a lot of depth. She brought a lot of life to a role that could have very easily been a cliché.

    QUESTION: So were you a fan of the whole independent wrestling circuit before this?

    ARONOFSKY: No. Not a fan now. I wouldn’t go back to a match ever.

    QUESTION: Before this did you go to a bunch of different matches?

    ARONOFSKY: We did a ton of research and went all over the place. Long two/three hour drives to go to places where sometimes there would be more wrestlers than there would be fans. We went to one autograph signing that totally inspired the autograph signing in our film where there were all these legends from Jimmy Snuka to Ricky Johnson, the Rock’s uncle, Captain Lou Albano was there, Iron Sheik was there, Nikoli Volkoff was there, it was a huge, great legends there. It was so sad for these legends. So sad.

    QUESTION: Where did the staple gun come from? Did you see that?

    ARONOFSKY: Oh yeah. Much worse. Necro Butcher is this kind of underground cult American hero. He is the marquee, top billing draw to a lot of these events. When he comes out the crowd goes crazy because they know they are going to get their blood. It’s a funny story actually. We were casting all day and it was tough. We cast in my office. My office ended up smelling like Ben Gay for weeks afterwards. And these guys would come in and I wanted to see their gimmicks. That’s what they called their costumes. Their costumes are their gimmicks. So they would slather themselves with Ben Gay. It was a long day and a lot of them were terrible actors, some were OK.

    Necro Butcher lives out in Pittsburgh, doesn’t have a cell phone and just drives everywhere. Pittsburgh to Manhattan is probably about 12 hours so no one had heard from him, called his girlfriend, she was nervous because he hadn’t checked in. I was leaving and I got on the train and my phone doesn’t usually work on there but the phone rings and they said Necro Butcher just showed up. And he’s like the only guy on the planet, except for maybe George Clooney, who could have shown up in my office that I would have gone back because I was so exhausted I just wanted to go home. So I got out, went back and he was the sweetest guy in the world. He’s a military guy so everything is yes sir, no sir, thank you sir. When he read the script he said thank you for making a movie about my life sir, it means so much to me sir and then”¦ he’s this sick mother fucker. The guy in the hardcore match. He’s a great guy. That scene when they talk about the staple gun, that was just improvised. I said “Have a conversation, tell him where you’re from, tell him about the match” and they just came up with the lines themselves and that’s what happened.

    CS: The music. Two things about the shift from your previous films ““ you went through a very long, long stretch in the beginning of that film and you just don’t hear anything. What was Clint’s job when he said, “What do I have to do with this?”

    ARONOFSKY: We almost went without a score with this one. The film ultimately didn’t need one but because whenever we stuck score music in it kind of made the emotion of the scene collapse. I think just because there was such a tender line and so naturalistic that if you stuck something unnatural like a score, it really hurt.

    So it was a very slim score but probably the hardest score he’s ever done according to himself. And I think the reason for that is because it just had to be atmospheric. It had to just kind of create the mood but not add to the emotional content of the actors. So, that’s what the score is doing. When we started to hear guitars that’s when we came up with the idea for Slash so he came in the recording. He’s a great guy. Really sweet guy. Not your typical rock star.

    And then the Bruce song was all because of Mickey. Mickey wrote him a letter and they are old friends and ended up doing it for free just to support the film. And to support Mickey really.

    THE MASSIE TWINS: You refer to your films”¦

    ARONOFSKY: Do you guys really wear the same shirts?

    (Laughs)

    THE MASSIE TWINS: It’s for a picture with you afterwards.

    ARONOFSKY: Oh, OK. You don’t do that everyday? That would be really upsetting.

    (Laughs)

    ARONOFSKY: One of you has got to get Lasik and screw with the other one.

    QUESTION: You refer to your films as wild style. How would you refer the Wrestler?

    ARONOFSKY: Wild style has definitely taken a trip away so I don’t know. I think, if I was going to use a hip-hop term because I used a hip-hop term back then, it would be something like, it’s more of a tag. Do you know what that is? It’s just very street style. I call it pro-active documentary style because I wanted to do a documentary style because I’m a verite but because I knew somewhat what the actors were going to do and what the plot was you can lead them a bit or be ahead of them a tiny bit or really work with them almost like dancing with them. We knew what they were going to do so we were with them. If something different happened, we were able to adjust as well because there was a human operator holding the camera. That’s why it’s a proactive documentary style.

    QUESTION: Online it shows that you are going to be associated with the Robocop remake. Any truth to that at all?

    ARONOFSKY: Well, we’re working on a script. It’s just a development deal but we have a long way to go. We have a great writer and we’ll see what happens.

    QUESTION: Do you use the internet for feedback? Do you Google yourself and see what people are saying?

    ARONOFSKY: Not too much. I look at some of the film blogs just so I know what’s happening in the film business. Like Slash Film, Hollywood Elsewhere. There are a few sites I’ll check once a day just to see what’s the latest news is. But I think it’s bad to read your reviews because that’s not what it’s about. It’s about making stuff and then moving on and keep making stuff and you’ve wasted time looking at stuff.

    CS: I read an interview with Mickey Rourke when you approached him to do it. It was basically a Come to Jesus meeting of you telling him what you expected out of him. Can you explain the process of convincing the people who had the purse strings that he was the person you wanted and then to Mickey telling him, “There’s a lot on the line right now…”

    ARONOFSKY: First I went to Mickey because I knew it would be difficult to raise the money for Mickey but I first wanted to be sure that if I wanted to do the hard work of trying to find money to finance a film that he would show up and want to do it and wanted to get back to work. And once I got that kind of understanding with him, it was really hard to find the money. It took us about two years to finance the film and every single financier in the business said no.

    Every single financier in the business said no. Everyone.

    We went to all kinds of different types of financing ““ studios passed. Everyone passed. Independent. International. Except for one French company that was offering way too little money to make it but they at least were supporting us with full creative freedom. So we figured out how to make it for 6 million dollars and we did it.

    QUESTION: You have incredible detail for the visual elements, how was your dynamic with your cinematographer?

    ARONOFSKY: She was great. It was the first time I worked with Maryse Alberti. The whole crew was an improvement. I wanted to do something very different and reinvent myself. I’ve joked that if Madonna taught us anything, it’s that you need to reinvent yourself and I think that’s true as a creative person, you have to just keep mixing it up and changing and moving forward. So, Maryse was an interesting candidate because, not only has she done some great features like Happiness and Velvet Goldmine back in the day but then she ended up doing a lot of documentaries like Crumb and Enron and Taxi to the Dark Side. She had exactly what I needed, had a film background plus documentary. Once I heard about her I was very intrigued. We talked on the phone and got along pretty well. She’s a spunky French girl and she was just great. Basically I only had to wait 5 minutes, the longest time I had to wait. She would just go in, light it, no baloney and we would shoot.

    QUESTION: Do you have any plans on doing cameos in your films?

    ARONOFSKY: I used to back in the day but it’s too stressful and there’s enough people who do it. I’ll just stay behind the camera. I’m not really actor.

    CS: When you were writing this script and coming off The Fountain where your head was at after it got the reception that it did, how did you know that The Wrestler was going to be the one? The only reason I’m asking this question is that I’ve read about you wanting to make a tent pole, that you have the ambition that you could. It’s not that you want to be an independent guy for the rest of your life. This is a $6 million dollar picture and not a tent pole, was there any impetus for wanting to go the tent pole route or get back to basics with this?

    ARONOFSKY: It wasn’t about that. There was no tent pole that was that interesting which is probably going to be the case for a long time. This was the most interesting project in front of me. For me, The Fountain was the exact film I wanted to make and it’s got a great split of people who hate it and people who love it and I think the people who love it are starting to win as time goes by and I think choosing The Wrestler really was not a reaction to anything about The Fountain except that the first three films was the same filmmaking team, the same producer, the same dp, the same production designer, the same editor and it kind of just was the end of an era and I was a dad and just wanted to do something different. I looked for the most radically different thing I could do and it just seemed like it, and it was. It didn’t fit into anything I had done and I liked that idea of breaking out of molds.

    QUESTION: Did you see the film with an audience?

    ARONOFSKY: Yes, at festivals.

    QUESTION: What did you think about the reactions? There are some parts where people were laughing and they were comedic at a superficial level but if you really thought about it they were really tragic. Did you notice that?

    ARONOFSKY: Yes. I love that there’s humor. And yes, they are laughing at things that are really kind of tragic but it’s meant to be funny. That’s part of what Mickey brought to the table. It’s OK to laugh at him sometimes and it’s OK to laugh with him and he’s laughing a lot and even in sadness there’s a lot of humor. But even that deli scene, it’s a really sad scene that this guy’s been reduced to this level but you just kind of root for him deep down. I think it means they are connected with him. You are never really laughing at The Ram in a way that he wouldn’t be OK with.

    QUESTION: Building on that, how was it at Venice and getting the Golden Lion?

    ARONOFSKY: To be honest we finished the film two days before. And about two weeks before we were thinking about pulling out. Not because we weren’t going to finish but because I wasn’t sure the Venice crowd would go for it. It’s a small film and they like literary efforts it seems like. Everyone dreams about winning a gold medal but to be honest, I never, ever dreamt that the Golden Lion would be possible. I didn’t even fantasize about it. I just thought “OK, we’ll go, and hopefully survive and get some good notices internationally and maybe might get recognized” because I knew that Mickey was doing some good work but it was a complete surprise.

    I remember the first thing that happened was that we went out to lunch after the judges had seen the film and we were at lunch with one of the distributors and she got a phone call and she said the jury really liked it. So I thought, that’s cool. I still never put it together of what that meant because she kind of slipped it. But then we had a press conference and the press gave us a standing ovation which is something I’ve never seen. The press is usually jaded.

    (Laughs)

    At the film festival we were the last movie, the last film of the festival and usually the last film of the festival is the crappiest film because it’s the worst lot because everyone has left by that point. The sexy part is the first weekend and we were the final, 10th day or 12th day, the last film. So half the audience stood up and I’m like “OK, that’s weird” because the press was very friendly which in Venice they can be really tough and after our public screening, which was great, the audience really liked it. They didn’t really laugh at the humor which concerned me but I think the humor was very American and subtle in a lot of ways.

    The head of the jury pulled us into his office and popped some champagne and said you guys are going to have to stay. I said, what do you mean I’m going to have to stay? We have to go to Toronto to sell the movie. And he said, no you have to stay. So I said, do I have to stay or does Mickey have to stay? He said, no you both have to stay. So I said, do we sorta have to stay or do we really have to stay? I mean, how much? And so it was just wild. Way beyond our expectations.

    Wednesday we finished the film, Thursday we got to Venice, Friday we screened, Saturday we won The Golden Lion and Sunday we woke up at 5:00 AM, flew to Toronto, got there at 3:00 PM, screened it at 6:00 PM and sold it at 5:00 AM in the morning to Fox Searchlight. So it was really like in 6 days it was one of those things. It all seems surreal but it was a good time.

  • Toy Box: Hot Toys Dark Knight Joker/Batman Busts

    toybox.jpg

    Right now, I’m running my annual Poppies and People’s Picks awards over at Michael’s Review of the Week. What are those? Well, the Poppies are an industry award event for pop culture collectibles, where about 150 judges made up of people from companies large and small, retailers, media, artists and well known collectors get together and vote on their favorites for 2008. The People’s Picks are the same thing, only the only people judging are all the readers. You can see a list of the judges for the Poppies here, and you can vote yourself in the People’s Picks by going hiere. But hurry – you can only vote for a couple more days!

    Why am I bringing that up? Because I’m going to be looking at a pair of busts today that are likely to do very well in the Best Bust category, from a company that’s likely to do very well in the Best Company category, based on a movie that’s likely to get several key Academy Award nominations. That company is Hot Toys, and if I were a gambling man, I’d say they are odds on favorites for the win this year. The movie is The Dark Knight of course, and the busts are their versions of the Joker and Batman, done in 1/4 scale.

    This shipped originally last summer, if you lived overseas or had ordered them through an international dealer. If you ordered through a retailer that works with Diamond to get these, like I did, they finally just started shipping in the last couple weeks. Retail on them is around $60 – $70 for these, depending on the retailer. As always, I have some suggestions where you can pick it up at the end of the review.

    If you have any questions or commments, feel free to drop me a line at mwc@mwctoys.com, or check out my site for more reviews like this. On with the review!

    Hot Toys Dark Knight 1/4 scale busts – Batman and the Joker

    I review a lot of busts, generally manufactured by companies that specialize in them, like Gentle Giant or Bowen. Busts aren’t Hot Toys specialty, but they’ve made a name for themselves this year already in this facet of pop culture collectible. There’s two differences between these busts and the majority that are on the market worth noting. First, the size. As I mentioned, they are 1/4 scale, whereas most others are around 1/6 scale. Second, these are made from a hard plastic, not resin or polystone.

    Packaging – ****
    Of course, these come in boxes. Most busts do, and these are housed in hard foam inserts, just like the more fragle resin versions. Regular readers know I also appreciate it when there is a windo provided, so you can at least see the head of the bust, and that’s here as well.

    What really sets these apart though is the colorful graphics and design. Hot Toys is stepping it up on their packaging across their various product lines – figures, busts, etc – and these are a terrific example of their better work.

    Sculpting – ****
    The best sculpting in the industry is coming out of Hot Toys right now, no matter what the license. Oh, they still have their occasional blip, but you can generally guarantee that if Hot Toys is doing it, it’s going to get done right.

    From a purely technical perspective, both of these busts are outstanding. One of the trademarks to Hot Toys work is the texturing given to the skin that creates and almost spooky realism, and both Batman and the Joker sport that type of detailing. The light texturing to the lower face of Bale is offset by the smooth surface of the cowl, making the bust look much more like the real deal.

    Of course, this skin detailing is much more obvious with the Joker, where the heavy caked make up would naturally make any wrinkles even more obvious, and in fact, the make up itself creates additional texture. This is translated perfectly here.

    It also appears as though the Joker’s costume is actually built up from separate pieces of plastic, rather than a single cast hunk. This is only possible when working in plastic, and this gives both the sculpt AND the paint much sharper lines.

    Both busts look not just like the characters, but the actors playing the characters. Often, one of the failings of movie character based sculpts is that they look like very accurate cosplayers dressed up like the character, but it’s tough to actually see the actor underneath. Here that’s not an issue, as both of these look very much like Bale and Ledger in the costumes. Oddly, this is true moreso for Bale than Ledger, even though only Bale’s lower face is visible. While the Ledger look is there, I do think that there’s a couple areas (like the thin lips) that aren’t quite dead on. This Ledger head sculpt is better than the work they did on the very first sixth scale Joker, but not quite as good as what we’ve now seen on their Bank Robber Joker version.

    The extreme detail and texture on the head sculpts does not translate to the lower part of the overall bust. The clothing on both is smooth across the board, much like any standard bust.

    Paint – ***1/2
    Overall, the paint ops are much higher quality than average, even for specialty market busts. The colors are consistent and clean, and any cut lines are sharp with no overspray or slop. The work on the face’s is particularly well done, with a couple minor issues.

    The couple minor issues that holds them back from a perfect score generally relate to the eyes. Both have slight eye issues, with Batman’s not qutie as clean as I’d like, and the Joker’s gaze slightly off. His right eye is slightly off gaze with his left, but it’s only on close inspection that any of this issues are noticable.

    They did manage to do an excellent job with the red lips, especially on the scarring, making it look very accurate to the film. I already mentioned how building up the Joker’s body from separate pieces of plastic allows for much sharper cut lines between the paint, but it’s certainly worth mentioning again. This is possible because of the plastic construction – had these been made from polystone, they would have been a solid cast.

    Articulation – Batman Bupkis; Joker ***
    One feature of a plastic bust that is generally not possible with resin or polystone is the ability to add a ball jointed neck. The Batman does not have this, as his cowl would obviously not allow it. Hey, that’s why he had Lucious redesign it. But the Joker has the jointed neck, allowing you to give the bust some personality, tilting and turning the head in just the right way to recreate his look from the film in your eyes, not the eyes of the original sculptor.

    Design – Joker ****; Batman ***1/2
    I always include this category for statues and busts, since these are more ‘art’, and while the sculpt can be technically perfect, the design can make or break the final result.

    The Joker is outstanding, and part of this is because of the articulated neck. Rather than being locked into a single appearance, you can adjust his look to your tastes. That kind of flexibility is greatly appreciated. The Batman bust doesn’t work quite as well for me, because the tilt of the head and the far away gaze makes him look a little too wistful. He appears to be contemplating that girl he knew in 8th grade, and where she might be today, when he should be contemplating how many ways he can kick the Joker’s ass.

    As I mentioned earlier, these are quarter scale, making them much taller than the usual mini-bust. I’ve included a photo below of the busts with a standard Gentle Giant mini-bust, as well as the Hot Toys 1/6th scale Batman for reference. This increased size translates to a bust that stands around 10″, and allows for much greater detail than the smaller versions.

    Value – **1/2
    Most 1/6th scale mini-busts run around $40 – $50, and have for years now. These are larger, which would imply a slightly higher cost, although the perception for most folks is going to be that the plastic should be cheaper than polystone or resin. I’m assuming you’re paying around $60 or so, which seems about right to me. If you get up to $70 or more, you can deduct another half star fro this score.

    Things to Watch Out For –
    Not a thing.

    Overall – Joker ****; Batman ***1/2
    The sixth scale figures that Hot Toys is producing aren’t everyone’s cup of green tea. First, they are mighty expensive (the Bank Robber Joker runs around $170 right now), and second, their ‘doll’ nature isn’t something every collector is in to. These busts can be a great substitute however, particularly if you’re looking for a lower cost option.

    Regular bust collectors may not appreciate the switch to a larger scale, but Hot Toys is producing similar products across a number of licenses, including Rambo and others. Once you have a few of these on the shelf, you won’t look back.

    Where to Buy –
    While some comic shops might carry these, your best bet is online:

    – Urban Collector has them for about $60 each.

    – Entertainment Earth has them for $64.

    – Showpiece Collectibles has them for $68.

    – CornerStoreComics has them for $68 as well.

    – Things From Another World has them for $72.

    – If you’re in the U.K., Forbidden Planet has them for about 53 GBP.

    Related Links –
    This week, I’ll be covering a number of Hot Toys Dark Knight items, so you’ll want to check my other reviews as the week progresses. I’ve already had a review of the very cool first version of their sixth scale Joker and original suit Batman.

  • TV Or Not TV: 1/12 – 1/18

    tvornottv-header.png

    Welcome back to TV or Not TV where I am very glad (and sad) that the FRAK is BACK.

    In June 2008 we were given a view of something I didn’t think we we would see half way through the final season of Battlestar Galactica: the fleet found Earth.  Since this is the dark and dirty world of BSG we didn’t, however, have a happy ending at that point. If you’ve seen the show you know what I mean. If you haven’t you will be in for a nice surprise when you get caught up.

    So here we are, seven months later, and we’ll be starting a 10 episode journey to the end of this amazing series on Friday, January 16th. There are plenty of questions for them to still answer. If that was Earth they found, now what? What’s with the Final Four cylons, and how did they get here? Is Starbuck really the harbinger of destruction? Has all of this happened before? Will all of this happen again?

    The big question I think everyone who watches the show is eager for an answer on is “Who is the Fifth Cyclon?” I have to admit that in light of the last episode we saw this question isn’t so big for me. The Fifth isn’t really that important anymore. In Razor we found out the the Fifth cylon is “still in shadow” and “clawing toward redemption.” This ominous sounding bit of foreshadowing describes about 99.9999% of the characters on BSG so they’ve got a hatfull of names they can just pull out, right? I only hope this question gets answered for us on the season premiere so we can all focus on what else is actually going on in the remainder of the series.

    Battlestar isn’t the only show returning this week. ABC Family will have it’s original series Kyle XY returning on Monday night, which is up against night 2 of the return of 24. Ratings behemoth American Idol returns on FOX Tuesday night. Smallville will be coming back Thursday night to The CW and Bones switches to it’s new night on FOX. The HBO original series Big Love returns for it’s third season Sunday night. Lots and lots of shows out there to enjoy.

    That all being said, let’s just get to what’s coming up.

    MONDAY

    FOX – 8:00 PM: It’s Jack Bauer against Tony Almeda in the second night of 24.

    NBC – 8:00 PM: Is Superstars of Dance the next big thing that I’m missing a second weke in a row? Yup.

    ABC Family – 9:00 PM: As mentioned above, Kyle XY is up against the second hour of 24, but since the two shows don’t share a core audience I’m sure it will do fine with it’s lead in ofThe Secret Life of the American Teenager (if it can hold those viewers).

    TUESDAY

    NBC – 8:00 PM: Wow, did The Biggest Loser throw me for a loop last week. Even though season title is Couples they sent 1/2 of 9 of the couples home last week. If their counterpart is still on the Ranch 30 days from then they get to come back. Talk about pressure.

    FOX – 8:00 PM: Whether you like it or not American Idol is back. This year they promise more competition in Hollywood and less of the disaster auditions. Do they realize why people watch this show for the first three weeks? Now we’re going to miss out on the next William Hung.

    ABC – 9:00 PM: I know it is petty of me to complain that the lighting just looks wrong on Scrubs and I should judge the show on the actual content. I just can’t get past that with the new network it looks like someone is trying to save money on the electric bill.

    FOOD – 10:00 PM: If you like food competitions and seeing people get cut from the running than you may enjoy Chopped. Four chefs are put to the cooking tasks with the show winner taking home a clean cut $10,000. By the way, don’t watch this after The Biggest Loser, it’s counter-productive.

    WEDNESDAY

    FOX – 8:00 PM: Night 2 of American Idol and I will probalby tune in to see if there is a cat fight between Paula Abdul and that other new lady judge.

    NBC – 8:00 PM: OK, check this out… so Michael and KITT have this bomb in the truck that will explode if they go less than 100 miles per hour. Sorry, Sandra Bullock is nowhere to be found in this episode.

    ABC – 8:00 PM: The Alphabet Network is hoping you won’t notice the lack of Pushing Daisies on tonight by re-airing all three hours of LOST‘s season 4 finale to get you caught up before next week’s premiere.

    PBS – 8:00 PM: Billy Crystal hosts the six-part hour long series Make ’em Laugh: The Funny Business in America. Amy Sedaris also joins in to narrate this examinition of over 100 years of comedy in the US of A.

    THURSDAY

    FOX – 8:00 PM: Brennan and Booth go undercover as a husband and wife knife throwing act to infiltrate the circus (really?) on tonight’s return of Bones.

    TheCW – 8:00 PM: The Legion of Super-Heroes travel back in time to try to help Clark lay the smack down on Braniac for the nasty gift he sent to Chloe’s wedding. There’s also this guy called The Persuader who shows up with an ax that can split atoms. OK Persuader, you’ve got my attention.

    CBS – 9:00 PM: As one of the few Americans who doesn’t watch CSI I feel is should still let you know that if you don’t watch tonight you’ll miss seeing Grissom leave the show.

    NBC – 9:00 PM: If you didn’t see Darnell‘s witness protection being blown on My Name is Earl than I hope you are at least watching the show down that occurs when Andy learns that fiance Angela has been getting the Schrute from Dwight on the side.

    FRIDAY

    USA – 9:00 PM: Detective Lassiter may hate Shawn and Gus but tonight he’s in the hot seat and he’ll be calling our favorite psychic detective agency tonight on Psych.

    FX – 8:00 PM: I was shocked to learn that The Devil Wears Prada wasn’t completely a chick flick, and it’s safe for guys to watch.

    SCI-FI – 9:00 PM: Friday nights finally got a little less sucky with the return of Battlestar Galactica.

    SATURDAY

    TVLAND – 3:30 PM: With so few quality choices today how about five and a half hours of 3rd Rock from the Sun ?

    NBC – 8:00 PM: It’s the next to last episode of Crusoe. Yeah, I know… I didn’t watch it either.

    TBS- 9:00 PM: I can give you no logical reason why I enjoy You, Me and Dupree but for some reason I do… and it’s on again tonight… and it doesn’t suck as much as some of the other choices out there… and I needed to fill this spot with something.

    SUNDAY

    NBC – 9:00 PM: No, Sherman didn’t set the Wayback Machine… since we are almost to the inauguration of our President-Elect NBC is retreading this special from pre-election night.

    ABC – 9:00 PM:Beau Bridges‘ eyebrows (and the rest of him) guest star as the neighborhood handyman who passes away on tonight’s 100th episode of Desperate Housewives.

    HBO – 9:00 PM: OK, last season was very unbalanced for me but I’m still going to give Big Love another chance.

    – Will Wilkins doesn’t know what the frak is going on… but can’t wait to find out.

  • Trailer Park: Attack of the Article

    By Christopher Stipp

    The Archives, Right Here

    I’m awesome. I wrote a book. It’s got little to do with movies. Download and read “Thank You, Goodnight” right HERE for free.

    And now, you can follow me on Twitter. Find me here, my oh so original name on the thing is Stipp so come on and follow my stray ramblings. The nice thing you should know is that I don’t machine gun blast with the number of tweets I put out there, I’m fairly mellow….

    Now, as for this special edition of Trailer Park I have to start with a question: How many times do I come out and shill for something?

    Exactly, none times. Anyone pointing to my free book up there doesn’t count as I’m truly giving that away.

    I want you to spend $5.99 on a copy of the January issue of GEEK MONTHLY. Or, at the very least, read the teaser page right here and see whether you want to read the rest. That’s fair, isn’t it?

    I’m proud of the little article that could and I am indebted to the fine folks at Geek for thinking that Kevin and Olivia of Attack of the Show would make for a good story. And they did. Olivia even gives an excellent conclusion to the time I spent with her on the phone.

    The thing about the article was that the time I spent talking to Kevin and Olivia was interesting insofar that these hosts defy the usual definition of what it means to be a television host. You never know what you’re going to get on the phone or what will be sitting across from you when you get set up for one of these interviews but both of them proved not only to be just as razor sharp about technology and what is on the horizon with technology but they were flat out fun to talk to.

    The chemistry the two of them share transcends the page when you hear the inflections and manner in which they talk about one another but thankfully it also came across in their seriousness about what they value more than anything when it comes to the program: honesty.

    Frankly, it’s their honesty to call out anything and everything that earns my respect as a viewer. I hate being smiled at by a vapid talking head but Kevin and Olivia just like to say it like it is. For those who wonder whether it’s really their opinion at times just watch a gadget review if Kevin happens not to like a product; it would be enough to make an entire PR department run screaming from their lily white office spaces.

    Hopefully that comes across in the article I wrote and I can’t tell you how appreciative I would be, if you are not related to me by blood, semen or any other fluids, if you bought a copy, and if you dig it, to write in and let them know about it.

    Regardless of what happens with this, I am thankful just for the opportunity to write for a magazine that I, myself, buy on a monthly basis and it really is a thrill to think that I have my name in something that can be bought anywhere from Seattle, Washington to Chicago, Illinois to New York, New York. You’ve just got to geek out about that and I know how lucky I am that I can cross this accomplishment off my life list.

    Special thanks to Comic101’s and raconteur extraordinaire, Josh Jabcuga for the heads-up that it came out.
    And now, a little sumthin’ sumthin’ from Ray “Don’t Hurt ’em Hammer” Schillaci…
    [ad#contestbox]

    Worth Reviving: Animal Instincts Prevail

    When people mention classic monster/horror movies, usually Frankenstein, Dracula, The Mummy and The Wolf Man come to mind. On a rare occasion you may get somebody bringing up the disturbing Todd Browning’s “Freaks” which is like the Ark of the Covenant of horror with it’s combination of dark brooding direction and story. But the one that rarely gets mentioned and is a tent pole of freakish horror is the 1932 version of H.G. Wells’ “Island of Lost Souls”. Upon it’s release the film was banned in the UK till 1958 with Britain labeling it “a crime against nature”. Some scenes actually caused some to vomit in the theater in the U.S.

    Now with all this hype one may go into this film with extremely high expectations ““ don’t! Remember, this was the 1930’s. But the film is a great piece of cinematic history that has somehow missed the video revolution. Other than a few terrible pirated versions, “Island of Lost Souls” still remains unavailable to this day. This is a shame since the story itself has inspired countless sub-par rip offs and a horrible bastardization starring an over indulgent performance by Marlon Brando with make-up effects that were laughable at best. There is no comparison to the original with the eerie performances by Charles Laughton and Bela Lugosi. The make-up creations (for back then) for Pig Man, Manimal and several other man-beasts is the stuff of childhood nightmares with sound effects that linger in one’s memory long after.

    The story, if you are not familiar with it, involves Edward Parker who is thrown overboard while getting into a fight with the captain of a ship that makes deliveries for a nefarious doctor on an uncharted island. The obsessed, sociopath, whip-cracking Dr. Moreau is conducting human experiments involving evolution. He has established himself as some God-like deity to the misfortunate ones who have survived as mutated half human/animal abominations. Moreau prefers to be secretive about his work and becomes incensed when he is visited upon by Parker, who happens to take an interest in one of the doctor’s more successful experiments, Lota, the beautiful panther woman. Parker eventually disrupts his plans, causing all hell to break loose amongst the mutated half-human/animal kingdom.

    Bela Lugosi gives his best performance since Dracula as the Sayer of the Law. The raw power that emanates from the last fifteen minutes of this landmark film rivals that creepy last scene in Todd Browning’s “Freaks” where the sideshow performers hunt down Cleopatra during a storm-filled night to show her what it really is like being a freak. This film is a flat-out classic that deserves a Criterion release. There are so many interesting background stories that surround the film; it would be a shame to put out a bare bones edition. Of course, at this point many of us fans would be happy with any kind of decent release and one cannot help wonder what has held this great film back from the public. For now, there is only a VHS version of the film from Universal. Perhaps a letter (or email) campaign can spur the studio that prides itself as the home of monster classics to release one of the very best.

  • Trailer Park: Darren Aronofsky Interview – Part 1

    By Christopher Stipp

    The Archives, Right Here

    I’m awesome. I wrote a book. It’s got little to do with movies. Download and read “Thank You, Goodnight” right HERE for free.

    While you’re at it, follow me over at Twitter! You can find me here at: Twitter.com/Stipp I’m not sure what I’m doing, I’m not positive I’ve gotten down what a “hash tag” is but I do know I haven’t asked anyone to get off my virtual lawn.

    Darren Aronofsky got jailed in East Germany. I had no clue. The arrest and the subsequent punishment made the press day all that more hilarious…From hiking mountains, his honest view of The Matrix and the latest Star Wars entries, what got Marisa Tomei in tip top shape to play a stripper, why we re-named a mountain because of its derogatory implications, why he’s angry about the digital releases of his films and oodles of completely useless but fascinating information.

    This is going to be a funky 2 part interview. I’m actually reversing things. Usually you would get the proper interview and the outtakes but I’m flipping it here because I feel like it. What’s contained in this thing was just too good not to run first. You’ll get the straight laced interview next week so I hope you dig this.

    What follows is, genuinely, a lunch with Darren Aronofsky. I talked to the guy, along with some other journos, during the Phoenix press day for THE WRESTLER. The interview was odd, and I’ll get into this later, in that it was just me and one more film site and then another guy who accidentally showed up late with about 5 minutes left in the interview. The situation was absolutely bizarre in that to further increase the oddity factor this interview was not held in some hotel room, it was in a vacated condominium. After I was about to leave the hotel where the interview took place, and I could have had the opportunity to talk to Marisa Tomei with the other guys, but I didn’t and don’t belong to the Phoenix Film Critics Society and was, therefore, denied entry into the interview room.

    Lord knows I would never be part of club that would have me as a member but considering that of the whole city of Phoenix you had 2 outlets representing the entire metropolitan area it didn’t make sense that my conditional membership would have prevented me from asking a few questions. Believe me, there were no sour grapes at all as I am comfortably numb to just go with the flow. One of the solid PR reps who has been an absolute godsend in my tenure here in the Phoenix area – he was the very first guy who helped me get Darren the last time he came through town for THE FOUNTAIN – suggested I walk across the hall to another abandoned condo that was being set up for what was a Meet and Greet luncheon with both Darren and Marisa. The spread was phenomenal. Meats and cheeses of all different varieties. Fruit and veggies and breads of various kinds. Now, while Darren eventually saddled up close to me at the one of two tables for the event (I believe there was only about a dozen or so people who were invited to this mid-day hootenanny) I decided to click on my recorder and capture some real interesting tidbits about THE WRESTLER and when we can expect a better version of PI on DVD.

    CHRISTOPHER STIPP: Was the deli scene improvised or was it all scripted?

    DARREN ARONOFSKY: It was 50/50. A lot of it was improvised. We couldn’t close the deli in the supermarket, people were coming by and ordering stuff, and I said, “Mickey, go serve them,” and he just said, “Do you mind if we shoot you?” People couldn’t really recognize him, he couldn’t really be famous, his hair was up. It was hard to recognize him.

    CS: Was the potato salad lady real?

    ARONOFSKY: A little more, a little less? She was a real actress. The woman who ordered the fried chicken was fake, half of them were fake. And at one point the manager of the deli came over to me and said, “Can you ask Mickey to improve his handwriting? ” And I said, “What are you talking about?” I guess people were really buying the meat!

    He was scribbling nonsense. Between takes he’s not sterile…he’s wiping his nose….

    (Laughs)

    QUESTION: The character reminds me in some odd way of Charlize Theron’s MONSTER. He’s not the kind of person that you would associate with, and you would almost avoid him, but he has so much heart, so much humanity that you are just pulling for him all the way. And I felt like, Marisa’s character, I didn’t want him to go in that ring, I wanted him to go with her. And of course I loved that you just leave it up to our imagination what happened there. You just root for him all the way.

    ARONOFSKY: Thank you so much. I’m glad. It’s kind of the magic of cinema. I’ve been watching My Neighbor Totoro, the Miyazaki film, with my 2 ½ year old and we watch it over and over again and that’s about a 7 year old Japanese animated film and that’s the beauty of film is that you can connect with Randy the Ram or a 7 year old animated Japanese girl and it’s just humanness.

    QUESTION: I was talking to Marisa, she mentioned that one of her favorite scenes was shopping for the clothes, and I said it was nerve wracking when he pulls out that sweater and I’m thinking, “You made the wrong decision.” And then here’s the second package and she said originally that there may have only been the one gift.

    ARONOFSKY: Yeah, the pea coat evolved because we realized that it was just too ridiculous just like that. It made sense because it made him more thankful to Marisa’s character and she kind of saved him as well. The script evolved a lot. There must have been 25-30 drafts. I tortured the writer. Normally I torture myself so it was really nice to have someone else do the heavy lifting.

    (Marisa Tomei enters the luncheon)

    Hello Marisa. Everybody this is Marisa.

    MARISA TOMEI: Hello everybody.

    (Applause)

    [Ed. note – I have no idea why people felt compelled to clap. I kept eating my hummus and pita.]

    SOME RANDOM A-HOLE: You look beautiful.

    [Ed. note – I have no idea what sycophant tossed this out there but they obviously had grand illusions of possibly scoring with her at the hot artichoke dip table]

    ARONOFSKY: Tell them your secret.

    TOMEI: Hula hoops.

    (Laughs)

    ARONOFSKY: Yeah, she had the hula hoop everywhere.

    QUESTION: How often do you hula hoop?

    TOMEI: I do do it everyday.

    QUESTION: How long to you do it?

    TOMEI: The longer you do it, the better. Less than an hour.

    ARONOFSKY: Would you drop it after an hour?

    TOMEI: I won’t do it longer than an hour anyway.

    QUESTION: You are a tough interviewer.

    [Ed. note – No, this person was not being ironic.]

    ARONOFSKY: She talks about it all the time and I never really asked.

    TOMEI: I try to get people into it. I gave a lot of people hoops for Christmas last year.

    QUESTION: Did you take a lot of dancing classes, especially with the pole work?

    TOMEI: I took pole classes. The pole is different than stripping. It’s more athletic, more like gymnastics. Like doing the uneven bars. I was always a balancing, floor work kind of girl. When I was young I went to tap school and jazz school and I do have a natural flexibility. I tried to use the assets that I had and then learned more skills. It’s very hard.

    He has a new found respect for wrestlers and I have a new found respect for strippers. It really is not easy.

    QUESTION: What attracted you to the role?

    TOMEI: Part of it was that. I wanted to do that. I wanted to work on this film.

    QUESTION: It was moving and I was really touched.

    [Ed. note – Can you see what I am up against here?]

    TOMEI: Women like it better than the men ““ at least my character. They really have a reaction.

    QUESTION TO ARONOFSKY: When did you finish the movie?

    ARONOFSKY: We finished filming in March. It was really quick work. We started filming in late January or early February. It took a long time to get the money ““ about two years. And during that time we kept working on the script.

    QUESTION: How’s Noah’s Ark?

    ARONOFSKY: Working on it. We’re doing a graphic novel of it. That will probably come out first probably. We’ve been interviewing a bunch of people and negotiating because we don’t know where we’re going to get the money for it.

    QUESTION: The guy who did The Fountain graphic novel is doing the story board for the Jodorowsky film, King Shot I believe it is?

    ARONOFSKY: Kent Williams? Really? So Jodorowsky is working now?

    QUESTION: Yeah, he’s working with Marilyn Manson and Nick Nolte in King Shot.

    ARONOFSKY: Have they started shooting?

    QUESTION: I think they were scheduled to start.

    ARONOFSKY: That’s wild. What’s the premise?

    QUESTION: It’s set in the desert and there is a casino which is the head of Christ, beard, everything. Marilyn Manson is going to be the pope.

    ARONOFSKY: Geez. So it’s buried up to here? Up to here? And the top is Christ’s head.

    QUESTION: Yeah, casino slash bar or whatever.

    ARONOFSKY: And some drama unfolds inside.

    Good for him. I met him at a film festival in Spain at a sci-fi fantasy film fest and he came to a screening of The Fountain and he was great.

    QUESTION: Have you read his comics?

    ARONOFSKY: A bit. But don’t really care for them too much. I like his films but his comics go too far I think. I think it’s good that he has limitations. But, he’s getting rediscovered now. His DVD boxed set. So, it’s pretty cool.

    QUESTION: Where’s the Aronofsky boxed set?

    ARONOFSKY: We’ll see.

    CS: Do you have any involvement in that at all?

    ARONOFSKY: A little bit. They did do a Pi / Requiem boxed set but I was pissed off.

    CS: You didn’t like that one?

    ARONOFSKY: No, because what happened is that I called them up and said it was the 10th anniversary of Pi. “We should do a 5.1 mix for it,” I said. We did it old school with a stereo mix. I think it might have surrounds but it’s not 5.1. My crew wanted to go in for free and just wanted to update it and they said, “Why don’t we just put out a box set?” I said, “No, I don’t want to put out a box set. I want to do a re-mix of Pi.” But they wouldn’t do it.

    The film comes back to me in 10 years. I sold it for 20 years. And at the time I remember they almost broke the deal. They said, “We’re not giving it back to you.” And I said, “Then I’m breaking the deal. I want it back.” And now it’s been 10 years. Amazing how time goes by. Maybe then I’ll do a 5.1 update.

    QUESTION: Any special edition for Requiem?

    ARONOFSKY: We got everything out on that DVD. It was a good DVD. There was so much on there ““ Easter Egg ““ we worked hard on that.

    CS: Not so much on The Fountain?

    ARONOFSKY: The Fountain? I was pissed off as shit, man. Whatever. It made less money internationally than Requiem did. Made less than Pi did. They just completely dumped it. If it doesn’t go for blockbuster they just”¦. I said, “Just do an art house release, you’ll get your money back. There’s enough people out there…” But they didn’t. When it went to DVD they just kind of dumped it and I didn’t give them any support.

    CS: The commentary track you did was a rare freebie.

    ARONOFSKY: That’s cool. It was one way of doing it. But at some point I’ll get enough power to put that out in the right way.

    (Laughs)

    It’s all about power.

    QUESTION: Is it out on Blue Ray yet?

    ARONOFSKY: It is out on Blu Ray. It looks OK and sounds OK. My sound guys still think it’s the best mix we ever did. So I think the sound mix is good.

    CS: Some filmmakers make their films, shooting material specifically for the DVD ““ this obviously was a low budget film. Did you do anything special?

    ARONOFSKY: For the Wrestler? Not really. There is going to be an hour long documentary which is going to be really great. I’ve already seen a trailer for it and it’s really cool. Same guy who did the documentary for The Fountain

    It’ll be a good one.

    CS: Commentary?

    ARONOFSKY: I don’t think so. I don’t think I have the energy to do it. Maybe if I can get Mickey to do it with me. We could just sit there and joke and smoke a couple cigars to get through it.

    CS: Do you have an aversion of seeing your films or are you just done with it?

    ARONOFSKY: I just think you shouldn’t go back there. You watch it so many times when you are finishing it because you have to go over it inch by inch and then when all the technical stuff you have to go over it and by the time you’re done you are so exhausted from it.

    CS: Why does Lucas keep going back to the well?

    ARONOFSKY: Howard the Duck.

    QUESTION: That was supposed to come out on DVD.

    ARONOFSKY: It’s not out on DVD?

    QUESTION: Not officially. But you can get it.

    ARONOFSKY: Those second pre-Star Wars sucked, didn’t they?

    CS: Yes.

    ARONOFSKY: Indiana Jones sucked.

    Question: But a lot of critics liked that one. They said it was right in the same vein as the other ones ““ and it was like, “No, it’s not. It’s terrible.”

    ARONOFSKY: I actually liked the aliens part of it ““ when the thing took off – I liked the ending but the action scene through the jungle and stretching of the jeeps and stuff…it was just terrible action.

    QUESTION: Cate Blanchett. She looked cool in the trailers.

    ARONOFSKY: She did look cool in the trailers.

    Question: I was waiting for the face melting off scene but then it was so stupid ““ just this blur of special effects ““ couldn’t even tell what was going on. What was funny that a lot of people don’t realize that early on she was supposed to have psychic powers and she goes to Harrison Ford “You’re a hard man to read” and then the rest of it was supposed to be about her powers.

    ARONOFSKY: She was supposed to have powers?

    QUESTION: Yeah, she was supposed to have psychic powers but couldn’t read Indiana Jones.

    ARONOFSKY: She quit. The other night I saw the 2nd or 3rd Matrix while I was surfing through the channels on TV. Oh man, that’s bad. I really kind of like them too but it doesn’t really hold up. There’s a scene in Zion…the costumes are terrible.

    The Massie Twins: The whole story falls apart because they tried to split it between two movies so then number 2 doesn’t make sense and number 3 doesn’t do a good job of resolving anything. It’s too abstract. Although I like the action in number 2. I liked the drunk.

    ARONOFSKY: I don’t remember the drunk. Oh yeah, the albino.

    The Massie Twins: Yeah, he dresses up for Halloween ““ we bought the official costumes from Matrix.com and had all the makeup.

    ARONOFSKY: Did you look good?

    The Massie Twins: Yeah, I thought we did.

    (Laughs)

    The Massie Twins: We were over on Mill Avenue and thousands and thousands of people gather there people were taking pictures. We took like 3rd place for the costumes. That was the best part about Matrix is the fact that they created those characters.

    ARONOFSKY: So, there you have it.

    (Laughs)

    CS: You mentioned you started out not knowing a whole lot about wrestlers.

    ARONOFSKY: Yeah.

    CS: On the other side when you saw that moment when The Ram was sitting at the table for a signing and you see a guy with a catheter and a lot of other broken men. Did you see a lot of that, guys all busted up?

    ARONOFSKY: We went to an autograph show that was just desperate. All these legends and nobody there. It was just desperate. The catheter and the urine bag was fictional but there was a guy in a wheelchair that we saw. Actually Lou Albano was there. I think I talked about that, but he looked terrible. I didn’t even recognize him, that’s how bad he looked. He had a lot of strokes and it was just sad, holding on to that glory.

    Can’t you wait to see what Paris Hilton will turn into?

    (Laughs)

    ARONOFSKY: It’s the reason I stay alive, just to watch her decay.

    (Laughs)

    CS: So how much longer are you on this tour?

    ARONOFSKY: I’m almost done. I’ve got two more cities. We’re going to go to San Francisco and Seattle. I’ve never done Russia so I want to go. My grandparents came from Russia and I’m very curious to see it.

    QUESTION: How many places have you been too before here?

    ARONOFSKY: Too many.

    Question: All over the U.S.?

    ARONOFSKY: Not really, just major cities. San Diego, Boston, D.C., Miami, Dallas.

    QUESTION: If they make you go all over the place they should make you go in a straight line.

    ARONOFSKY: Did Will Smith come through here for Seven Pounds? He seemed to be one city ahead of us. I think he’s doing St. Louis, Cleveland, he does tiny towns. I was talking to his people in Dallas, he comes with a private plane, 4 SUV’s, they got two giant tour buses that are wrapped with the poster and his face.

    (Laughs)

    It’s just like a circus. The fact that he does that at that level just shows you how hard a job it is. I guess he does it for every movie.

    QUESTION: What about Mickey? Did you try to get him to come on this thing?

    ARONOFSKY: I don’t think he could have handled the pace of it. He’s actually 57 years old or so ““ I don’t know how old he is, so don’t quote me on that, I don’t think he can handle it. I’m getting a day off tomorrow and I’m going to stay here. It was between here or going to San Fran. I know what San Fran looks like and I’m so glad I’m staying. I’m going to climb Camelback tomorrow. I’m very excited. And go to the Botanical Gardens, that’s my day.

    QUESTION: Take lots and lots of water.

    [Ed. Note – Keep reading this stream of consciousness. I have no idea who was talking but it’s quite a bizarre, hilarious exchange.]

    ARONOFSKY: Even though it’s cold you have to just keep drinking, right?

    QUESTION: Yes. And Run from the bees.

    ARONOFSKY: What bees? What are you talking about?

    QUESTION: Swarms.

    ARONOFSKY: There are bee swarms?

    QUESTION: Along the mountains there are.

    ARONOFSKY: Really? Tell me more.

    [Ed. Note – Point, Aronofsky]

    QUESTION: Mountain lions, jack-a-lopes.

    ARONOFSKY: Any of you climb that thing?

    QUESTION: Yeah.

    ARONOFSKY: Is it hard?

    CS: No. It’s all relative. You are not running up the mountain.

    ARONOFSKY: Four hours, right?

    CS: No, not a chance. Unless you’re 80 and have a heart condition. Maybe 45 minutes. Depending on how fast you move. Are you taking a leisurely stroll?

    ARONOFSKY: Yeah.

    QUESTION: It’s tougher than Squaw Peak.

    ARONOFSKY: I’ve heard that. That’s been renamed right? Is that because it’s a racist term?

    QUESTION: That was part of why they wanted to rename it. There was just a real outcry that she be recognized, which was nice.

    ARONOFSKY: Who was she?

    QUESTION: Laurie Piestewa was the first Native American killed in combat. She was ambushed with Jessica Lynch.

    ARONOFSKY: Was that the first Iraq war or the second Iraq war?

    QUESTION: That was the second one.

    ARONOFSKY: Jessica Lynch was the second war? This war?

    QUESTION: Yeah, can you believe it?

    ARONOFSKY: When George W. was in office?

    QUESTION: Yeah.

    ARONOFSKY: That’s crazy. That feels like the first war. Really? That’s when we were all pro-war and she was a hero and everything.

    QUESTION: It would be nice to be living in a time when we didn’t have a war.

    ARONOFSKY: Yea. Well that’s these kids. When were you born? 80’s?

    The Massie Twins: ’84.

    ARONOFSKY: Right when the Cold War was winding down. You don’t even remember the Cold War do you? But you’ve heard about it, right?

    The Massie Twins: Yeah. Just what’s in the history books.

    ARONOFSKY: I got arrested in East Berlin.

    CS: Really?

    ARONOFSKY: For stealing an East German flag. I was there on May Day and there were flags everywhere and I told someone I was going to steal a flag. So I lowered a flag and stuffed it down my pants and I hear, “Passport!”

    And they took me to this East German jail. We had to be back across the border by 10:00 PM to get through Checkpoint Charlie. So I was in jail. They took away my shoelaces, took away my belt so I wouldn’t hang myself. It was a concrete room with just a little peephole.

    I was crying.

    I was 17-18 years old. I was just sobbing. And finally they came and said they would let me go if I just raised the flag. I said absolutely. I don’t care. I’ll raise your flag. So we go and me and the Australian kid raised the flag and he said what are you doing because we were raising it upside down.

    (Laughs)

    We walked across Checkpoint Charlie at 1:00 o’clock in the morning.

    Question: That’s amazing.

    ARONOFSKY: It’s a good story though.

  • Toy Box: Batman – The Brave and the Bold Deluxe Aquaman/Blue Beetle

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    Cartoon Network recently started a brand spankin’ new Batman cartoon on Friday nights, with a lot of your favorite old time characters. Batman – The Brave and the Bold has a Super Friends look, with some witty banter and interesting relationships between characters like Aquaman, Green Arrow, Green Lantern, Plastic Man and even Blue Beetle. The stories and writing style are very much directed at that 5 – 8 age range, but adults can enjoy the show as well.

    Mattel has also released action figures based on the show, and they seem to be hitting the New Year hard with plenty of different characters. I reviewed the regular single pack Batman, Aquaman, Kanjar Ro, and Black Manta over at mwctoys.com just last week, and over the weekend picked up the single pack Red Tornado as well. Today I’m checking out the deluxe Aquaman and deluxe Blue Beetle, which come with a larger, action feature based accessory.

    If you have any questions or comments, drop me a line at mwc@mwctoys.com, or swing by my site at Michael’s Review of the Week – Captain Toy.

    Batman The Brave and The Bold: Deluxe Aquaman and Blue Beetle

    You can expect to find these at mass market retailers, like Target, Meijers, or my least favorite, Wal-mart, where they’ll run you right around $8 for the singles, and around $11 for the deluxe sets. There are also a couple vehicles hitting right now, including the Batsub, and you should see quite a bit of the product as part of the new Target reset.

    Packaging – ***1/2
    I’m digging the packaging, largely due to two aspects. Yes, the design is attractive, and I like the retro feel to the graphics and colors, but those aren’t my main pluses. I really like the personalization on each cardback and bubble, with specific graphics and text for the character housed inside. Also, there’s no twisties or rubber bands anywhere to be found. They’ve used intelligently designed interior trays to hold the figures in place, making their removal a much easier process.

    Sculpting – Beetle ***; Aquaman **1/2
    The show has a very Super Friends feel to it, and Mattel has added to that some of the characteristics of their recent Super Friends line of figures, designed for that under 5 set. The larger, blocky feet and legs are obvious on most of the characters, but some (like Beetle) lack the huge honking feet.

    Most folks will either hate or tolerate the accessory holes on the figures. Nobody over 8 (and probably not many under) are going to love them, at least from an aesthetic point of view. These holes are on the back, shoulders, forearms and calves of most of the figures, but interestingly, Blue Beetle does not have them on his forearms, and he’s the better looking figure for it. I don’t mind the one on the back of course, and the one on the shoulders actually looks fine on Beetle. It also helps that he has some cool looking armor pieces as part of this deluxe set that can snap on his shoulders. Had they dropped the calf holes, I may have even gone another half star on this figure.

    Aquaman has that smart ass grin, and as voiced by John Di Maggio, he has that attitude on the show too. I love the chiseled head sculpt, but I’m less enamored with the standard body sculpt than in my first review. The longer I look at certain characters (like Aquaman and Batman) the less tolerant I am of some of the holes. The ones on Aquaman at the shoulders and elbows are way too obvious, while his calf holes are fine – completely different than Blue Beetle. I think it’s the rounded shoulders and skinny elbow joints that are doing it, whereas the more square shoulders (like on Beetle or Red Tornado) don’t look quite as bad with the holes.

    These figures stand about 5″ tall, making them slightly shorter than The Batman figures. They are also stockier, so they don’t really work together, but I included a group shot that has the Batman figure from the eariler line in back for comparison. It will be the last photo in the review.

    Paint – Beetle **1/2; Aquaman **
    These are mass market figures, and they have very mass market paint jobs. Poor Aquaman also suffers from a rather dopey looking color scheme.

    Blue Beetle looks good, although it’s a bit of a variation on his suit in the show. The suit tends to morph a whole lot though, so you can give them some leeway there. He has some overspray, weak cut lines, and the occasional rub mark, much like your average run of the mill big toy store figure. And by ‘big’, I mean the store, not the figure.

    Aquaman has a sub par paint job, even for a kid’s toy. There’s plenty of slop between the green and gold, and there’s even inconsistent coverage with both colors. Cut lines are weaker than Don Knotts after a weekend bender, and there’s a fair share of stray marks. Most of these issues are on the body though, with the paint job on the face and hair a bit more similar in quality to Beetle’s.

    I was very happy with the paint on the first four figures I picked up, so this is a huge step backward. What this really means is that the line is very inconsistent with the quality of the paint ops, so be careful picking them off the peg.

    Articulation – **
    The articulation is the most disappointing for me, but as a kid’s line, I can understand the decision behind some of the missing joints.

    These figures only have cut neck, cut shoulders, pin elbows, and cut waists. Oh, and don’t forget those old school T hips. I’m not surprised they dropped the knee joints, as these tend to break a lot when kids get their hands on them. But ball jointed shoulders would have been nice, particularly with figures like Aquaman and Batman who already have rounded shoulders. Yea, those dopey holes probably made it impossible, but it’s still disappointing. I’m also disappointed that there are no cut wrists or ball jointed necks, as these would add a lot to both the playability and poseability of the figures.

    Accessories/Action Features – ***
    Ah, those goofy peg holes on the bodies might look odd, but they do serve a purpose. Now it’s time to break out the accessories and add them to the mix.

    Beetle is the ‘bug zapper’ version. Generally he’s the only bug in the fight (unless we get to see a Blue Beetle/Killer Moth battle royale!) so having a ‘bug zapper’ doesn’t make a lot of sense to me, but I’m sure somebody was very proud of themselves when they came up with that name.

    His zapper is actually made up of several interchangable parts. There are small articulated bug wings, two blade like side attachments, and the main zapper body that fires a small projectile. The entire attachment can be put together as a single unit (and worn on his back), or you can pop off the blades and attach them to his shoulders, put the wings on his back, and even have him hold the zapper body in his hand. Because of the multiple holes, you can attach these things in a whole lot of different ways.

    Aquaman also has a fairly large contraption, called the “aqua pack”. It has a center backpack piece, as well as two fan blade like attachements, and two long sorta Trident looking front blades. When these blades are attached to the main backpack and the button on top is pushed, they spin menacingly.

    Like the Beetle’s weapon, these can all pop apart and be reattached to Aquaman on any of his peg holes. I’m not sure why he’d want the fan blades on his shoulders, but I gave that a try anyway. These can also be used on any other version of Aquaman or on any other figure in the series for that matter, making the build/accessorize feature pretty cool.

    Fun Factor – ***1/2
    Sure, these aren’t exactly a collector’s line, but kid’s should have a lot of fun with the build/accessorize feature of the accessories and holes. They are also very solid figures, so breakage should not be much of an issue. They’ve aimed these squarely at the 5 – 8 range, giving smaller kids DC figures before they are old enough to enjoy and appreciate something like the DC Universe line.

    Value – **
    Eleven bucks for a 5 inch action figure with an accessory – even one that can be used as armor – is not a great deal. The regular figures are eight bucks or less, and the action feature of this slightly more complex accessory is not worth another three bucks.

    Things to Watch Out For –
    Of course, always watch that mass market paint, but otherwise, you shouldn’t have any issues.

    Overall – Beetle ***; Aquaman **1/2
    This is quite clearly a line – and show – designed primarily for kids. But just like Playmobil or Lego, that doesn’t mean they can’t be pretty damn cool. So far, I’m liking this line more than I’m disliking it, and I suspect it’s going to grow on me over time. If Mattel can get a nice healthy line up of figures on the pegs, that’s going to go a long way as well. It’s only been out a couple weeks, and I already have six different characters, and I’m on the hunt for that Batsub. However, if the distribution ends up being as crappy as their DC Infinite Heroes line, it’s going to die an early death with me.

    Where to buy –
    These are hitting mass market retailers like Target and Meijers right now.

    Related Links –
    As I mentioned earlier, I covered several of the single packs last week.

  • Opinion In A Haystack: Buck Shots – Round 2

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    Money Shot (Wikipedia): provocative, sensational, or memorable sequence in a film, on which the film’s commercial performance is perceived to depend.

    Buck Shot: moments on which a film’s cheese-factor is based, often underlining the tone of the entire production and providing the viewer with the opposite effect intended.

    Round 2: WET MUSCLES AND DOOKIE!!!

    (Here’s Round 1)

    No Holds Barred (1989) ““ HULK HOGAN PONDERS A FAMILIAR SCENT

    Tag Lines:

    • No Ring. No Ref. No Rules.
    • The battle of the super tough guys.

    Who would have thought that only 19 years after No Holds Barred that a celebrated filmmaker, Darren Aronofsky, would take the subject of wrestling and make an Oscar worthy piece of art along side one of the greatest comeback performances in the history of cinema? The end of 2008 has brought us a film, The Wrestler, which proves that no genre is too silly or maligned to not only be salvaged, but perfected to the point of beauty. However, in no way does this take any of the joy out of watching a genius piece of camp like No Holds Barred, easily Hulk Hogan’s greatest screen performance (right above Suburban Commando of course.)

    NHB, as it’s called on the streets, is one of those glorious titles that is made up of almost 100% Buck Shots. This is due to several competing factors. Hogan’s plethora of skin tight, rainbow tinted, spandex outfits worn through out the film to Tiny Lister’s extremely heavy breathing every second he is in frame to the great Kurt Fuller playing an evil fight promoter that calls everyone a “JOCKASS,” this movie is brimming with endless moments of pure delight. All of this is complimented by the awesome 80’s fight scenes, the rouges gallery of silly contestants, the title of the film’s fight competition: THE BATTLE OF THE TOUGH GUYS (yeah, no joke) and the single greatest “poopy scene” of the entire decade. The plot is simple. Hulk Hogan, showing his acting range, plays the world wrestling champion named Rip. His catch phrase is, you guessed it: “RIP “˜EM!” He is challenged to a NO HOLDS BARRED fight by an ex-convict named Zeus, played to hardcore perfection by Tiny Lister (best known as Debo from Friday, or the President from The Fifth Element.) Rip initially refuses to fight him, but eventually gives in due to various factors and they have an all out brawl in which no holds, NONE, are barred.

    Hindsight is 20/20, and it is easy to look back on movies like this and laugh, but I will admit that I unabashedly love this movie in all its zany, kick ass, and slightly homosexual tension. It might be because of the camp, it might be the nostalgia, but I love it. Sue me. I even own the VHS and One sheet. You need to have a firm grasp on crap to know the opposite of such, and there is a lot of crap that is truly great”¦No Holds Barred being that very crap. So as someone who knows every inch of this Rocky 3-rip-off-cheesy-wrestling masterpiece I can safely say that the following scene is the greatest moment of its run time. Here we have Hogan, LITERALLY, explode out the top of the top of the limo in which he is being held captive. The heavy guitar starts up, Hulk begins throwing bad guys left and right. He tosses two full grown men completely over the limo, then one into the windshield, then back-punches a guy through the passenger window, followed by stuffing another bad-dude into the roof hole. The violent rage is just too much for the driver, as he sits in fear of what the Hulkster will do next. Hogan pulls the driver out of the car”¦and”¦well”¦one of the greatest dialogue exchanges of all time then occurs between them. The actor playing the limo driver has the edge here for most “buck-shoty,” but Hulk’s use of breathing and overblown eye movements keep him right up there as well. It’s one of those “How did this make the cut and what were they thinking?” moments. Watch:

    R.O.T.O.R. (1989) ““ R.O.T.O.R. vs. BOB’S COUNTRY BUNKER

    Tag Line:

    • Judge, Jury, and Executioner.

    R.O.T.O.R. or, more specifically, the Robotic Officer of the Tactical Operations Research unit is probably the best example of the sheer glut of uninspired low budget dreck that was churned out during the VHS boom all those centuries ago. No part of this movie is even remotely original. The poster, as admittedly awesome as it is, is completely stolen from Mad Max. The plot is completely ripped from Terminator, sans the time travel. The only reason one can’t rag on it for stealing Judge Dredd‘s tagline is that it was released prior. Also, the title is excessively annoying to type due to the damn periods.

    I was lucky enough to stumble onto the destruction path of R.O.T.O.R. through the miracle of Cinemax circa 2000. My friend, I shall refer to him as Pie, caught it around the same time and both of us marveled at how downright awful it was. Luckily the video store I was managing had a VHS copy so I could spread the joy among the unenlightened. It’s mostly (mostly…not totally) boring, incompetent and completely devoid of coherence. As Pie pointed out, the entire film seems to be completely over dubbed with separate audio, and upon further viewings it became exceedingly obvious that the editors chucked out some underlying story lines which culminated in the main character getting shot in the back while walking to his car AFTER the R.O.T.O.R. was dead and gone. I’ve watched the movie all the way through about three times and still don’t understand why exactly that happens, but it makes it all the funnier.

    The plot is a tale as old as time. A “special unit” laboratory creates a police robot to fight crime, something goes wrong, robot malfunctions, robot drives away on it’s motorcycle and begins murdering innocents that don’t realize he is, in fact, a robot. If only all Sci-fi characters would heed the words of Jeff Goldblum: “your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.” However they don’t heed those words and this is what happens”¦a robot with a mustache punches them in the face.

    As boring and uneventful as the film is, there are at least 3 solid Buck Shots to be found in it, so expect for this title to pop up again in a future entry. The scene I have chosen is easily my favorite of the whole movie, when R.O.T.O.R. attacks the diner. The obvious cheapness displayed in this clip gives you a feel of the whole production. Things to pay attention to are the constantly looping synthetic music, the shiny bald eagle sticker on R.O.T.O.R.’s helmet and the cook’s painfully fake front teeth and country accent, perhaps the only sign that the movie was laughing at it self (or was it?) The best moment is of course when the super strong R.O.T.O.R. tries to attack a waitress, but is hindered by the featherweight tables. As she runs away, three “good ole boys” mosey on in, each of them prepared to take down the evil cop in their own fashion. The first guy is the ignorant redneck brawler, who sexually harasses the waitress as she panics in fear, then immediately tries slugging the Robot whom he addresses as a “Faggot city cop.” The second guy, surprisingly, knows karate”¦which of course is no match for the likes of the R.O.T.O.R. Then of course, the third dude steps up to the plate. He stands around 6 feet tall with a hair helmet and a 3 inch thick mustache. He proudly questions the R.O.T.O.R. “How about a real man now, asshole?” He then proceeds (I’m giggling as I type this) to rip off his pre-torn shirt, give a huge bicep flex display, then grabs the R.O.T.O.R. in the most sexually tensioned “are they going to make out?” manner possible. It’s quite the sight. Also, all of this is done in one master shot, only cutting away once”¦very artistic, almost documentary style (I will admit that the slow move-in shot on the Robot in the doorway is pretty bad ass, I’ll give them that.) I think that the slo-mo at the end of the clip works wonders here:


    That’s all for round 2…Thanks for reading!

  • TV Or Not TV: 1/5 – 1/11

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    Welcome back to TV or Not TV where I am knee deep into a The Secret Life of the American Teenager marathon.

    This week I was originally going to talk about the finer points of the television cliffhanger. The Secret Life of the American Teenager is something that I didn’t catch on its original run, however, and the show is entertaining and very engrossing. In typical fashion I neglected watching the show due to a perception of what the show was about rather than what it was really about.

    When the show originally premiered I thought The Secret Life of the American Teenager was a show produced to tap into the Juno Oscar popularity. I thought this because the concept seemed similar: the story of a 15 year old teenager that gets pregnant. I’m sure based on just those words you might think the same thing. What I discovered was an ensemble show that featured not one life but an entire class of american teenagers, each facing the pressures and frustrations of “coming of age” in the new millennium. Even though each character represents a stereotype that is something that has to be forgiven since the stereotypes are needed to provide the conflict needed to keep the stories moving. Besides, high school is all about stereotypes, isn’t it? Everyone picks a niche to fit into in order to define their own character on their journey to find themselves (at least in this writers opinion).

    Another tricky thing that the show does is makes each character have redeeming qualities, as well as setting people in a realistic light. The womanizing boy that knocks up the main character, Amy, has a history that makes you sympathetic to why he does what he does. Although the nerdy boy that is pursuing Amy did so originally in his pursuit of sexual growth he turns out to be a very sympathetic character who seems to genuinely care about her. All of the other characters also have their own personal dillemas and character flaws to deal with and each gives me that flashback to life as a teenager (although no where near as dramatic or complicated).

    As you will see below The Secret Life of the American Teenager has its season premiere on Monday. I only wish I had recommended last week for you to watch the marathon that I’m currently watching.

    Now, to get back to the concept of the cliffhanger. There is a fine art to the use of the cliffhanger. Anyone attempting to write a good cliffhanger has to do so with great caution since a good cliffhanger makes you want to tune in while a bad cliffhanger frustrates you so much that you have to tune in later. I really prefer to watch things out of desire rather than spite.

    One great cliffhanger was Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s season 2 finale with Buffy leaving town after plunging a sword into her vampire love Angel‘s stomach and sending him into a hell dimension (wow, that reads a lot nerdier than it was to watch). This cliffhanger gave us solid payoff with a sucker punch and the stunned wonder of what was next. Last year’s mid-season finale of Battlestar Galactica accomplished the same goal with humanity finding Earth, the joy and excitement of this accomplishment and the payoff that Earth seems to be an irradiated wasteland of devestation. Was that really Earth? What happens next? Questions that make us eager and not angry (at least not this particular viewer).

    One lousy cliffhanger was the first season of LOST. After all the great episodes that season had we were left stunned by the kidnapping of Walt and not one single glimpse of what was inside the mysterious hatch that had just been blown open.

    This brings me to the final aspect of the cliffhanger: the payoff. If you write a cliffhanger you can’t string the audience along when you get back, and you better have had your payoff planned when you wrote the cliffhanger. LOST was guilty of poor payoff both with the season 2 opener (too confusing) and the season 3 opener (too boring… and confusing). The season 4 opening to Charmed had to recover from a cast shakeup with the exit of Shannon Doherty. The writers had the challenge of wrapping up the previous season’s cliffhanger as well as introducing a new character to keep the show going. Somewhere between the two they made it very unclear how we got from the season finale to the current episode. Great cliffhanger, lousy followup.

    Now that I have given you the followup to last week’s cliffhanger about the discussion on cliffhangers, let’s look at what is available for viewing this week.

    MONDAY

    ABC Family – 8:00 PM: The next season premiere of The Secret Life of the American Teenager picks up tonight where it left off. If you missed the Sunday marathon (or if you watched it and discovered there’s two more episodes they didn’t show) you can catch the last two episodes of last season two hours prior to the premiere.

    ABC – 8:00 PM: Get ready to say “Awwww” as the single father rejected on The Bachelorette makes a TV spectacle of himself again with 25 hopeful women on The Bachelor.

    SCIFI – 8:00 PM: Last season of LOST brought us many new characters, 4 of which we really got to know. You can see them again tonight with the syndicated running of the episode Confrmed Dead.

    TBS – 10:00 PM: See how it all began with the pilot of My Name is Earl. To bad you can’t relive all of those magazine inserts with Jason Lee talking over and over again.

    TUESDAY

    NBC – 8:00 PM: Another season of The Biggest Loser starts with another run at “Couples“. This time they are boasting the eldest player and the heaviest/youngest player ever. As long as they really are improving lives I’ll reserve judgement.

    TheCW – 8:00 PM: The hyper-real 90210 returns tonight, but after the simple lives in Secret Life it’s going to be hard to take this show seriously.

    ABC – 9:00 PM: I’ve been waiting a long time to see Scrubs come back on it’s new network and tonight with guest star Courtney Cox.

    CBS – 9:00 PM: If you’ve been watching The Mentalist from the beginning than you’ve been waiting for the moment where Patrick Jane finally gets down to finding Red John. I’m sensing a false lead with this one.

    WEDNESDAY

    NBC – 8:00 PM: The three episode arc for retooling Knight Rider starts tonight. Even though I haven’t been watching these next three ep’s will close up more of the “government conspiracy”, show us the evil KITT counterpart KARR, and lead to more stand alone episodes. Is it enough to save the ratings challenged but well sponsored show?

    ABC – 8:00 PM: The Alphabet Network is hoping you won’t notice the lack of Pushing Daisies on tonight by re-airing last nights premiere of Scrubs.

    CBS – 9:00 PM: The 35th Annual People’s Choice Awards are on and I get a chance to see again just how much my choices aren’t like the choices of others.

    MTV – 10:00 PM: Seven strangers are once again picked to live in a house with the premiere of The Real World: Brooklynn.  I’m going to tune in for the nostalgia but will probably just grumble about “kids these days.”

    THURSDAY

    NBC – 8:00 PM: My Name is Earl is back tonight with tonight’s episode titled Got the Babysitter Pregnant. I was already going to watch but now I’m REALLY going to watch.

    HIST – 8:00 PM: Cosmic collision, environmental disasters and Armageddon are all the uplifting topics discussed in Nostradamus: 2012.

    NBC – 9:30 AM: 30 Rock also returns tonight and Liz is dating guest star Peter Dinklage. I’m guessing the relationship will be short lived (oh no I didn’t!).

    FRIDAY

    NBC – 8:00 PM: Howie Mandel leverages his Deal or No Deal fame into a Candid Camera knock-off called Howie Do It.

    USA – 8:00 PM: The Magnum P.I. inspired commercial for the new season of Monk has had me waiting eagerly for the shows return. Tonight the wait is over.

    SCIFI – 8:00 PM: Tonight the series finale of Stargate Atlantis kicks of with a re-airing of the Vegas episode before the 9 PM airing of Enemy at the Gate.

    USA – 9:00 PM: Psych is back with Shawn investigating the death of released sea lion. What, you expected a serious investigation?

    SATURDAY

    FX – 8:00 PM: See the love begin to bloom between Brad and Angelina in Mr. & Mrs. Smith.

    AMC – 8:00 PM: Are you strong enough for six hours of Charles Bronson? If so, then try to sit through Death Wish through Death Wish 3.

    CMT – 11:00 PM: Nothing reminds me of childhood more than watching Burt Reynolds and Jerry Reed getting the best of Jackie Gleason in Smokey and the Bandit.

    SUNDAY

    Tonight is nothing but a flat out face off… everyone else against Jack Bauer.

    FOX – 8:00 PM: Nobody likes Jack Bauer’s tactics until they find out who is behind a terrifying terrorist threat with the return of 24. After an entire year without the show I bet everyone at the network is sweating the ratings.

    NBC – 8:00 PM: Can The 66th Annual Golden Globes defeat Jack Bauer? Doubtful.

    ABC – 8:00 PM: The alphabet network stands by their regular schedule with Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and Desperate Housewives to try to bring down Jack. I think they stand a better chance than NBC.

    – Will Wilkins is living the Not-So-Secret Life of an American Middle Aged Guy.

  • Toy Box: Rayman Raving Rabbids

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    Sometimes, you just can’t convince a licensor that their characters are NOT for kids. Case in point – the Simpsons. FOX never understood that their line of action figures were never going to be a big hit with kids, but had tremendous collector appeal. That’s a more common situation than you might believe.

    Less common is the reverse, where a license is actually perfect for kids, and yet it ends up only in specialty market stores or in limited distribution, destined for collectors and adults. But here’s one of those times – Rayman Raving Rabbids. A spinoff of the Rayman video games, the Raving Rabbids games were developed for the Wii, and kids love it. While the ports to other machines like the PS3 or PSP have not been that successful, the Wii versions (which take advantage of the unique controllers, including the Wii board) are extremely popular. And as you’d expect, that means it’s the under 10 set playing these games.

    Ubisoft gave the license for figures to NECA, and while these were released to Toys R Us, only three figures were done in the U.S. – a regular screaming white Rabbid, a black suit Splinter Cell style Rabbid, and an Assassin’s Creed style Altair version. Can you see the focus? Not too any 8 year old kids really care about either the Splinter Cell or Altair figures, but clearly UbiSoft thought that was the route to go.

    They also released a five pack of figures, but only in the U.K. This pack contains those three figures, as well as another plain white Rabbid with a ‘relaxed’ expression, and an all white unpainted Rabbid that you can decorate yourself. The five pack is 30 GBPS, while the single figures in the U.S. are about $6 each.

    To round things out, UbiSoft also has a small PVC style statue of Rayman riding on the back of a screaming Rabbid. This is a little out of scale with the other figures, but I picked it up (again, a U.K. only release as far as I know) to go with the rest. This slightly smaller PVC is 7 GBP. NECA originally showed several other versions but their fate is up in the air.

    If you have questions or comments, drop me a line at mwc@mwctoys.com, or check out my site at Captain Toy – Michael’s Review of the Week.

    Rayman’s Raving Rabbids!

    The initial shipments of these guys sold quite well at Toys R Us – and they sold to kids too. My son loves his set, and this is a line that adults are far less likely to find interesting than kids. It’s too bad most of the true fans of the games are unlikely to ever get their hands on them.

    Packaging – figures **1/2; boxed set **
    The boxed set comes in as plain of a box as you can get, short of being straight white. It is collector friendly, since you can easily pull the Rabbids out and pop them back in, no problem, but it’s still mighty dull.

    The figures come in a small blister card, which shows off the figure nicely, but is tough to find on the pegs.

    Sculpting – ***
    The figures are pretty basic, but that’s the beauty of the characters as well. They stand about 3 1/2 inches tall, making them seem in scale with 6″ figures, at least to me. I’d expect them to be about waist high.

    The Altair version has the rubber head covering, which I couldn’t get off, at least not without trying to pop off the ears. Considering my recent luck with breakage, I figured I was better off leaving well enough alone.

    The figures have sculpted hands that could hold little toilet plungers, and when they were shown at SDCC last summer, the regular screaming white version had said plunger. Unfortunately, they were not released with any accessories.

    I also wish that the screaming mouth had been sculpted, similar to the additional PVC with Rayman. That would have gone a long way to giving him quite a bit of personality. Simply using paint for the mouths on the others works, since they are all closed mouth.

    Paint – ***
    The paint is pretty important here, since only the eyes and appendages are sculpted. It’s fairly clean, and the tempo style work is decent, but there are a few scratches and smudges here and there.

    Of course, the completely unpainted white version has the most perfect paint of all. You get to do it yourself! It’s a pity that these blanks aren’t more readily available.

    Articulation – *1/2
    No, these aren’t articulated. There’s cut shoulders, and that’s it. I was surprised there wasn’t a cut neck joint, but that would be the only additional joint you could add to these stubby little bodies.

    The PVC with Rayman riding the Rabbid doesn’t even have that – it’s merely a solid figure.

    Accessories – Bupkis
    Nope, no plungers here.

    Fun Factor – ***1/2
    Yep, they aren’t exactly great collectibles, but they are really fun little goofy figures. You can put them on your desk at work and amuse your friends, and your kids can have all kinds of awful fates befall them. Good times.

    Things to Watch Out For –
    The cut joints at the shoulders can be a bit sticky, and can tear if you go overboard trying to loosen them up. Use the old ‘freezer trick’ to avoid damaging the only joint they have.

    Overall – ***
    This is a line that I think could do well with kids, if kids could find them. They’ve been selling out at Toys R Us pretty consistently, and if they added a few more visually interesting figures to the mix, they could have a hit on their hands.

    Where to Buy –
    Toys R Us is your best bet in the States, and you can hit the UbiSoft site to pick up the U.K. exclusives.

  • TV Or Not TV: 12/29 – 1/4

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    Welcome back to TV or Not TV where I am currently on vacation.

    I know, a confusing statement right? If I’m on vacation why is there a column this week? Well, I’m on vacation from what I think of as my “real” job. This has afforded me the time to document just what exactly went in to the writing of this week’s column. I know, you thought maybe an indepth article about the art of the mid-season finale cliff-hanger may have been something more suited for my time (and your readin), but as I said I’m on vacation so the effort just wasn’t there this week (although you now may know what I’ll be writing about next week).

    When I write the column the first thing that I usually do is get the viewing items completed first. They are probably the most tedious as I try to scroll through seven days of television options. I try to keep an open mind and not just gravitate to the things that I watch (as my viewing menu is very limited) and all in all that process can take as much as 8 hours alone (which explains why Entertainment Weekly goes into more detail and has several people writing their recommendations). This process is filled with constant distractions as research leads you down a path of web surfing that sends you three clicks more than you should really follow.

    This week, for example, Monday lead to a 30 minute loss of productivity while I tried to determine if I caught the original airing of this week’s How I Met Your Mother repeat. First I looked for a synopsis, then I tried to see if I could watch it. 30 minute, gone just like that.

    Another 45 minutes was lost on the discovery of G4‘s airing of Tron. First I wanted to see information about how the movie supposedly didn’t shoot the real ending because the production ran out of money. Then I wanted to see if there was any information out there about TR2N (the sequel teaser shown to Comi-con attendees this year). The Wikipedia page about Tron lead me to reading about the home video game collapse of 1983 and laughing at how the lead identifier of the collapse was the Atari 2600 game ET: The Extra Terrestrial (which truly did suck). Some how this also lead me to reading about the proposed video game for The Last Starfighter and trying to install an actual game made by Rogue Synapse (which I have yet to try to play because, well, I’m trying to finish this column).

    Lunch time for my daughter and myself brought another 30 minute respite from writing until I came back and tried to find out more information about the New Year’s Eve shows that were available, what was this about a 50 foot robot in the Tournament of Roses Parade and some how I wandered into wondering if NBC was bringing Medium back in 2009 (the answer is yes by the way, it’s returning February 2nd).

    I then spent about 20 to 30 minutes ruminating about whether I was ready to tackle the topic of what makes a good cliff-hanger and what makes a frustrating one. During that time I decided it would be better to take the lazy path that you now read before you (which itself has taken 10 minutes to commit to print).

    You may not believe it folks, but you take those distractions and combine them with actual reading/writing and you have something that took around six hours this week to compile. Is the final product worth it? I hope you think so.

    Now that I’m done blogging here’s what’s coming up this week.

    MONDAY

    ABC – 8:00 PM: Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl was a major surprise to me and far less confusing than the two sequels.

    NBC – 8:00 PM: One more installment of Greatest Holiday Moments chimes in before the New Year with Hilarious Home Video Countdown. I predict a whiffle ball bat and someones crotch in at least one video.

    CBS – 8:30 PM: If you missed the story of How I Met Everyone Else than I highly recommend tonight’s episode of HIMYM.

    MTV – 9:00 PM: Brody Jenner of The Hills is looking for his own BFF in Bromance. I really need to work on coming up with my own clever combo word… like maybe watching this would make me bromit?

    TUESDAY

    ABC – 8:00 PM: Happy New Year, Charlie Brown has never been released to DVD so you may want to watch. I’m not sure how entertaining it will be to watch that bald kid try to cram reading War and Peace and writing a book report on it is, but it is based on an original strip from 1964 to 1965. What the heck, I’ll give it a shot.

    G4 – 8:00 PM: Anyone that was a nerdy child in the 80’s I’m sure has soft spot in their heart for TRON.

    ABC – 8:30 PM: OK, the story for Rudolph’s Shiny New Year may not be as confusing as those Pirate movies but it still doesn’t make that much sense to me. I’ll probably sit through it for my daughter regardless.

    WEDNESDAY

    C’mon… it’s New Year’s Eve! If you’re a shut in you’re watching rented movies and if you aren’t you are at a party that is going to have one of the three major networks on. Watching Dick Clark on ABC now is at the point of almost being painful.  If you watch FOX you get to see David Cook, Scott Weiland and Robbie Knievel jumps a volcano. NBC offers up Carson Daly with T.I., Ludacris and Katy Perry. I say just go with ABC, turn the sound down and watch the ball drop. Oh, there is one thing I have to mention…

    USA – 6:00 AM: The movie Elf has been mentioned more than once in this column in the month of December. What better day to send off the old year and the month with a 24 hour marathon. The residual checks off this movie must be insane.

    THURSDAY

    USA – 6:00 AM: If your New Year’s Resolution is to be more tidy than you might enjoy the 24 hour Monk marathon. If you have a season pass you might want to make sure your DVR doesn’t try to record it all.

    NBC / ABC – 8:00 AM: The 120th edition of the Tournament of Roses Parade will feature a 50 foot robot, 46 floats and Cloris Leachman as the grand marshall. That’s pretty interesting since I think she was the grand marshall at the first one as well.

    TBS – 8:00 AM: My niece Katelynn will be thrilled to know that there is a 16 hour marathon of Bones on today.

    NBC – 10:00 PM: I have no idea why they are running last season’s finale of The Office but it is a fine show to watch. It is filled lost of funny both from straight forward laughs and awkward moments and misunderstandings.

    FRIDAY

    TNT – 8:00 PM: Once again looking at the programming grid makes me chuckle. My Big Fat Greek Wedding followed by The Wedding Date. The only thing that would have made this better would have been if they were followed by The Breakup or Irreconcilable Differences.

    SCIFI – 9:00 PM: Although I’ve never actually watched an episode tonight’s ep of Stargate: Atlantis sounds intriging. Titled Vegas we find an alternate universe where John Sheppard is a Detective in Sin City. The working title was CSI Atlantis so that should give you an idea of what they were going for with this.

    SATURDAY

    CBS – 8:00 PM: What do you put on when you think no one is watching? The Ashton Kutcher produced Game Show in My Head. Contestants have to perform tasks and follow instructions via hidden earpierce. Sounds like a demented twist on Cyrano de Bergerac.

    ABC – 8:00 PM: Sleepless in Seattle is weird for a romantic comedy film in that the lead characters are never on screen together until the very end. Maybe the guys from Bromance can curl up on the couch together to watch this.

    SUNDAY

    MTV – 11:00 AM: I don’t know how I feel (other than old) that The Real World is now entering it’s 21st season (and 16th year), but if you are an addict you may want to catch the teaser show Real World Secrets Revealed before the Wednesday premiere.

    VH1 – 8:00 PM: They’ve tried to help people find love, they’ve tried helping people in rehab, and now VH1 is going to try to help former heart throbs deal with their lack of current fame in Confessions of a Teen Idol.

    FOX – 8:00 PM: If you missed 24: Redemption than you now have another chance to take it in before next weeks 2-night, 4-hour premiere.

    NBC – 9:00 PM: Superstars of Dance is like the international dance Olympics. It’s hosted by Riverdance front man Michael Flatley and it is something I have absolutely no interest in watching. You can just tell that someone wanted Dancing with the Stars ratings when they came up with this one.

    – Will Wilkins wishes you all a Happy New Year.

  • Trailer Park: End of Year Holiday Cornucopia

    By Christopher Stipp

    The Archives, Right Here

    I’m awesome. I wrote a book. It’s got little to do with movies. Download and read “Thank You, Goodnight” right HERE for free.

    Merry Christmas, Happy Kwanzaa, Delightful Hanukkah to you all…I’ve got tons to talk about today…

    I think years of doing my favorite trailers has become a little same ol’ same ol’. This time, however, for those keeping track of me as I’ve been doing this column now for almost 5(!) years now it looks like I need to shake it up a little bit. No one hates lists more than me, I rarely do them, so I figure I would just stick in some of the more memorable moments from this last year. From the good to the bad, I figured I would reflect on what 2008 has brought me. So, I’ve interspersed two film reviews, a check-in call from Ray Schillaci along with a DVD giveaway (among the other ones I’m runnin’) as I keep it loose and informal. Should anyone have anything to add as their own BEST/WORST for aught 8 feel free to leave it in the comments section below as I’m interested to hear about your own Best of 08.

    BEST FREE T-SHIRT GIVEN AWAY AT COMIC-CON: THE WATCHMEN

    This shirt made the wait to not only catch the panel that showed some of the best footage that we had seen to that point. Zach Snyder cut together a loose trailer that played more than a few times and, to be honest, it triggered the same response in the crowd as when he played the trailer for 300. To boot, the interviews I did on site right after the panel, even though they were not exclusive, made the trek from Arizona worthwhile. The ravenous scramble for this free piece of merch was not unlike the running of the bulls in Pamplona. Seriously, some of these kids need a Stairmaster or get on some kind of cardio program. I want to see future nerds in better shape than what I’ve been seeing at these conventions.

    Coming in a close second would absolutely have to be the TERMINATOR: SALVATION shirt that was given away after the Terminator panel which surprised even me; I wasn’t expecting much and was more than pleasantly surprised to see what G was up to with this property and, as a topper, a sweet ass shirt to wear to the gym.

    As an aside: Check out Rich Johnston’s WATCHMENSCH comic that is coming soon to your local comics retailer. Not even Alan Moore is above a little parody.

    BEST REASON TO HATE PUBLICISTS: The Kids in the Hall 2008 Tour

    One of the really nice things about writing for this site is that I basically dictate my own material. I lick my thumb, stick it up in the air of my own mind and then determine what way the wind is blowing. For those who know me, which isn’t many of you and I know that, I am a Kids in the Hall mark. I own all their damn DVDs, I drove 6 hours just to see a live show they did years ago, I bought a lot more merchandise than anyone whose name is Mark David Chapman shouldn’t and I have always maintained they really were an influential force in modern sketch comedy. Now, when it was announced they were doing a spring tour I was all about finding a way to talk to one, perhaps all if I was particularly lucky, of the KITH. I figured one PR rep would know the other and that it would be a smooth process. Who would’ve thought that the Kids in the Hall only had one publicist? I was thrilled when I eventually landed to the person who handles them and was actually enthused that I showed an interest in covering their tour. Their publicist wrote back quickly. I was amazed. They were interested. What did I have in mind, they asked. So, I make every possible concession I could in order to get these interviews. I was in rare form; I was giving away the Featured Interview space, I was willing to do these interviews at all hours of the day, I was whoring myself to every degree. All I wanted was some exclusive content and some time with the Kids.

    It worked.

    They wrote back, giving the site some non-exclusive (Hint #1) content and some ambiguous time about when to set all these interviews up (Clue #2). Like a sucker, I posted it. However, they wrote back letting me know how great it was that I posted some generic information linking back to a site that wasn’t ours and content that was branded as such.

    I am absolutely, totally, and completely in love with you. I just thought you should know that before we go any further 🙂

    Seriously, this is great – now we need to get you on the phone with the guys so that you can have some fresh meat for the site beast. Let me get them safely on the road, and then let’s talk about anything and everything you might want to do!

    Thanks again, Christopher – it’s truly a pleasure to work with you on this (I don’t get to say that often!)

    Well, what would you think? Yeah, that you were the f’ing man, I tell you that. And I think you would be right. Who wouldn’t believe that pile of steaming BS? Fast forward 3 weeks of teasing. I was so hungry for this that I thought it was in the bag. The only bag I was in, I take it, was some Nigerian 419 scam. Like a loser I kept going forward and the following e-mail came in when I could tell it wasn’t me she was hoping to hook up but, rather, the overlord of everything here at the site, Mr. Kevin Smith, that they was ultimately interested in. This is speculation but since I never was able to produce the man or even play with the thought of forwarding her half-assed invitation to anyone who I thought would even come close of pushing this up the ladder (the world became clear when I saw the line) I will never know for sure. Why I couldn’t see that this was the first move of the Bad PR person’s Heisman play against me I don’t know…

    Hey!

    I don’t care what you have to do – rent a horse, or a zeppelin, or a trolley car. Get yourself to one of the LA area shows. It will be WORTH the trip, I swear: the new show is fantabulous. The guys are having a blast – we just wrapped up four shows in NY and they’re headed to Texas next to tackle Houston and Dallas.

    Dave has written what is perhaps the most classic, textbook sketch I’ve ever seen him produce – it should be taught on college campuses because it’s that good, and round, and premise-perfect. Bruce has contributed a truly hilarious bit called “Grade 8 Dance” that audiences howl over.

    The Russo brothers directed a clip that’s featured in the show – it’s called “Carfuckers”, which probably gives away the premise a bit. It’s in the main viewer on Funny or Die today (a deal done with the company that produced the piece). Go check it out!

    Not sure how to accomplish this, but we’d love to invite Kevin to the LA show as well – I think we’re going to be hosting a reception afterwards, and it would be good to shake hands and that sort of thing. Can you tell me how I might reach him to invite him too?

    If you’d like to speak to any of the guys, let me know and I’ll arrange it. If you have a preference for one over any other, just tell me and I’ll take care of it on this end.

    Hope you’re doing great – but you shouldn’t be reading this email anymore. You should be on Orbitz right now, booking a flight to LA for May 9 🙂

    SIGNED,

    BAD PUBLICIST

    So, did you all see the interviews? Did any of them materialize? Check out my archives. Then, if you had the opportunity, check out my SEND box in my Yahoo account and tally up every unresponded to e-mail I tossed their way when I felt things were going south after I couldn’t magically produce her real quarry. Again, I realize I’m not from Rolling Stone, I know I don’t write for Slate but this is just another example of why I abhor all the sketchy, over-promising publicists who dangle the carrot and then see which of the litter they can get to bite at it. Invariably I end up being picked last but take a look at the archives this year; I’ll just find someone better to talk to.

    BEST GRAPHIC NOVEL: Too Cool to be Forgotten

    To talk too much about this graphic novel would take away from the funny and heart-breakingly sad moments in this traveling back in time story about one man who revisits his high school years as he tries to kick his smoking addiction and, instead, is given another chance at his formative years. It’s Alex Robinson’s compelling artwork and delicate care with which he handles his characters that make this an easy pick.

    BEST GRAPHIC TRAVELOGUE: Moresukine

    Imagine you are a stranger in a strange land. You don’t speak the language. You want to do as the Romans do but what if you don’t know what it is they really do? You ask the Internet, of course. Dirk Schwieger consulted the ranks of folks who visited his comic blog to offer up things, dares really, that explored Japanese culture and customs. From having Dirk figure out how to use a mechanized toilet to actually using a capsule hotel there are small pieces of real life that show us how the other half really lives. The reason it makes my list as best travelogue of the year is because it’s the kind of work that is absent in so many travel guides or personal narratives. This is one of the best ways to take a fly over of a country and peek into what you or I would be interested in knowing. The bigger question that you should find asking yourself after reading this fascinating book: What would foreigners be dared to do if they’ve never been to America?

    BEST REASON TO THINK THAT SETH ROGEN WAS NOT THE MOST INTERESTING FUNNY MAN OF 2008: Danny McBride

    Did anyone here see Tropic Thunder, Pineapple Express or even The Foot Fist Way? The latter I had to see right after I saw Tropic Thunder as I just savaged the trailer when I first saw it. I didn’t get it and the trailer was horrible in relaying the kind of comedy that Danny dabbles in. He’s irreverent in a way that’s not a soundbite and he’s genuine dead-pan delivery separates him from the rest of the herd.

    FAVORITE INTERVIEW: Danny Boyle

    This cat not only made a movie that would become the movie I took my wife on our 1st date but he was just the nicest and most gregarious person you would ever want to meet in a closed room. Too many times you get stuck in moments that become rote wherein you just want to get your questions answered and your piece posted. Danny wasn’t like that insofar that he had a real openness about him. His genial nature made for a relaxed atmosphere and he was happy as a clam to answer any question asked. It was a dream interview and for him to have been so accessible was reason enough for me to question any “artist” who thinks that in order to be great you have to be elusive.

    BEST REASON TO LOVE PUBLICISTS: Name Redacted

    I worked with a ton of excellent PR firms who helped land interview people from the likes of Henry Rollins (not up yet), Jesse Ventura (not up yet), Darren Aronofsky, Danny Boyle and tons of others through the year. These people don’t like being mentioned by name (but make sure you get their client’s name right!) but I make it a point to always send a thank you e-mail whenever possible to say how much I appreciate them getting me in to do my thing.

    These things don’t happen in a vacuum so it’s nice to recognize those who are merely standing in the way of you and the subject. I don’t know if they appreciate hearing it but it’s important to know there are a few who will go the extra mile to get you your story.

    BEST FILM: The Wrestler

    This film redefined what the word “resonate” means.

    It’s not enough to just talk about the performances on the screen from Mickey Rourke and Marisa Tomei. They’re captivating. What is really of note that explains why so many people have loved this movie is that it stays with you. The moments and words in this film are like oatmeal to your mental ribs; as such, it’s satisfying and you are not left wanting.

    A longer review will be coming but it’s enough to know that this film should be seen by anyone who wants a movie that stirrs you from the inside.

    BEST SURPRISE: Tropic Thunder

    I wasn’t sure what to make of this film when I saw the trailer. It was interesting and it seemed like a goofy comedy.

    And then I saw it.

    The satire, the raw viscera of seeing Steve Coogan’s head held up with Ben Stiller drinking its juices, listening to Robert Downey Jr.’s treatise on going retard, Danny McBride’s turn as a pyromaniac hell bent on visual spectacle and, as a capper, Tom Cruise playing a role that I will go on record as saying it was the best he’s ever done in my eyes (he made me laugh for the 1st time…intentionally).

    WORST INTERVIEW: Dicky Barrett from The Mighty Mighty Bosstones

    I don’t know if he just hated the way I talked or if he didn’t care for the simple questions I was asking but homeboy was not enthused to chat with me about his latest album. They all can’t be winners, I know, but looking back at how curt and matter-of-fact things went reinforced the idea that you just have to be ready for any situation that comes up and to make do with you’re given. Sometimes, that’s not much and this one still spooks me every time I have to do a phoner.

    BEST ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN: The Dark Knight

    Who else got wrapped up in the un-campaign that drew in followers from all over the U.S. of A as people looked for bowling balls, got cakes in the mail, went to campaign rallies for a candidate that didn’t exist and other on-line scavenger hunt that added up to one of the largest films that ever was? I sure did and I loved it. There’s something to be said about marketers that want to take things to the next level and this campaign did not disappoint. For every person who was annoyed by the ploys to get people more and more hyped for this film there is no denying that by the time the movie opened the core audience was ravenous to see what was going to be on the screen. Nolan didn’t disappoint but Bale’s voice came awfully close to ruining the whole mystique.

    BEST REASON TO LOOK FORWARD TO 2009: I’m not sure

    One of the things that make life on this side of the fence so much fun is that you never know what might come out of the year. I’ve had a lot of other small bits that are just too numerous to mention but, like I mentioned, since I am slowly growing tired of critics’ Top 10 list of the year I figured I would try and put this year into a different kind of perspective. At the end of all of this, though, is the appreciation for all of you. You allow me to knock on the virtual doors of publicists everywhere as I wonder whether I’ll be deemed good enough to be let in through their door. With every passing week and every passing interview I hope this process gets easier and easier.

    Now, let’s give away a movie…

    DEATH RACE

    This was a much maligned movie. Some people have problems with it but I don’t share that opinion. The movie was a real gas for what it was and I enjoyed all the incredibly unbelievable and impossible things that went on it. Jason Statham proves why he is the go-to man for these movies and for anyone else to say different has something against genre flicks. Since this is the holidays, I’ll make this really easy for you. E-mail me your name at Christopher_Stipp@Yahoo.com. I’ll choose at random some readers who haven’t already extorted free stuff from me in past few weeks.

    BONUS FEATURES ““ DVD AND BLU-RAYâ„¢ HI-DEF:

    • THEATRICAL AND UNRATED EXTENDED VERSIONS OF THE FILM
    • START YOUR ENGINES: MAKING A DEATH RACE: From pre and post-production to the casting of Jason Statham, this bonus documentary takes viewers on set to see how a huge, stunt-driven Hollywood movie was made.
    • BEHIND THE WHEEL: DISSECTING THE STUNTS: In this featurette, the many jaw-dropping stunts in the film are documented including interviews with the cast and crew.
    • FEATURE COMMENTARY WITH DIRECTOR PAUL W.S. ANDERSON and PRODUCER JEREMY BOLT (Unrated Version Only).

    SYNOPSIS: Terminal Island: The very near future. The world’s hunger for extreme sports and reality competitions has grown into reality TV bloodlust. Now, the most extreme racing competition has emerged and its contestants are murderous prisoners. Tricked-out cars, caged thugs and smoking-hot navigators combine to create a juggernaut series with bigger ratings than the Super Bowl. The rules of the Death Race are simple: Win five events, and you’re set free. Lose and you’re road kill splashed across the Internet. International action star Jason Statham leads the action-thriller’s cast as three-time speedway champion Jensen Ames, an ex-con framed for the murder of his wife. Forced to don the mask of the mythical driver Frankenstein, a Death Race crowd favorite who seems impossible to kill, Ames is given an easy choice by Terminal Island ‘s ruthless Warden Hennessey (Joan Allen): Suit up and drive or never see his little girl again. His face hidden by a hideous mask, he must win the insane three-day challenge in order to gain freedom. But to claim the prize, Ames must survive a gauntlet of the most vicious criminals – including nemesis Machine Gun Joe (Tyrese Gibson) – in the country’s toughest prison. Trained by his coach (Ian McShane) to drive a monster Mustang V8 Fastback outfitted with 2 mounted mini-guns, flamethrowers and napalm, an innocent man must destroy everything in his path to win the most twisted spectator sport on Earth.

    MARLEY & ME: A REVIEW
    I don’t read any newspaper writer whose musings deal with the mundane or observational, I depend on the comedians of the world to skewer day-to-day life in the way that the successful ones can, but I certainly don’t believe that a newspaper columnist’s sense of wonderment at the “ah, shucks” level of life warrants a cinematic envisioning.

    One of the issues I have with MARLEY & ME is its dependence on the dog as a metaphor for all the bad and good things that happen in the lives of Owen Wilson, portraying the milquetoast, middle-of-the-road Andy Rooney like pundit John Grogan. It isn’t that your average canine isn’t capable of imbuing your life with a little bit of humanitarianism, I know I grew up with those commercials that talked about how owning one could help geezers lower their blood pressure, but to have this as the basis for a full length movie where we’re bashed over the head with enough obviousness that this dog represents everything good and fair in this man’s life is a little hokey. I think the movie will play well with those who take stock in books written by Mitch Albom as the reasons why they love reading and why the Hallmark channel still churns out yarns that even Laura Ingalls Wilder would say are obnoxiously sentimental.

    But that’s fine, you see.

    This movie isn’t for me. It’s not even for those who I could engage in a debate about whether THE FOUNTAIN is pure genius (it is) or whether it was an exercise in artful indulgence. This movie is for people like my wife who love movies that want to make you feel all gooey inside, to hell with real conflict or dramatic infusions that would deepen the film’s original meaning. No, instead I get the story of how one irascible and temperamental mutt chews everything these people own as John pines to have the life of his fellow reporter (not columnist. The film will also take its time differentiating these two professions to the point that if you don’t get the difference by the end you have no business watching this) and best friend in human form, Eric Dane. In fact, I would posit that I wish we could have followed the life of Dane as he seems to be going off to Columbia, traveling all over the country, simply living the life of a newspaper Lothario as be beds scads of different women (the movie makes sure to point this out) while Owen Wilson is trapped writing dissertations on whatever people who read the newspaper to get their slice of life read about.

    It’s not so much the mundaneness that I mind, actually I mind it to the point that I wonder why there is a shockingly dangerous moment that is inserted right in the middle of the film, his neighbor is stabbed in her own driveway, if for no other reason than to move the plot as this chunk of actually interesting material is dealt with in such a flippant way I actually feel let down. What an opportunity to deal with the dark underbelly of life in any community where there come the moments when a columnist like John could talk about how this altered his sense of purpose.

    No, it’s just used to talk about how he gets the hell out of his neighborhood.

    I know like it seems I’m being hard on this film for how soft a sell this is going to be for all involved but there are some real wasted opportunities in this movie. As well, you have Jennifer Aniston turning in a performance that is alarmingly casual, someone forgot to tell her this wasn’t just a longer episode of Friends and I am serious when I say that either this woman can’t turn in an actual performance when needed or she’s mildly retarded for not understanding the ways life changes you when you go from no kids to 3 kids and being bitchy doesn’t count as a stretch for the end zone, and let’s also talk about Kathleen Turner. I apologize that I haven’t seen her in anything since WAR AND THE ROSES but I literally rocked backward when I saw Large Marge personified as a dog trainer and realized it was Turner. I’m not sure where she’s been or why she would take a truly thankless role but she turns in a performance that genuinely makes you want to take out your pocketbook to donate to whatever organization has been established to help her get back on her feet. A real reversal of fortunes and the reason why I bring this up is that it’s glaringly obvious to anyone who knows who Turner is. It’s distracting. However, there is a bright light in this film. Alan Arkin. The man can take a role as the editor in charge and turn it into something special. It’s hard to pin down why Arkin is the conduit through which all the life of this thing genuinely flowed through but he’s the real mentor of Grogan. While we don’t get a lot of time with him Arkin doles out the fatherly advice while being the calm voice in the cacophony of averageness.

    To say why the dog isn’t deserving of any real judgment by me in this review would to say that there was something special about the trained animal in this movie. The dog is a dog and in order to make sense of Owen Wilson’s hypothesis about why this dog represents the kind of humanity that warranted this film it is on the shoulders of all the other actors in this piece to make him relevant. Unfortunately, everyone is too busy chewing up their own scenery that the dog is an afterthought until it’s time for the movie’s penultimate moment. And the moment isn’t deserved. It’s rushed, it’s hokey and it doesn’t do anything to contextualize the almost 2 hours I spent trying to figure out the answer the question of why we’re watching a movie about a dog. Any answer wouldn’t be a good one as this film would belong better on ABC, interspersed with commercials for Purina Puppy Chow.

    VALKYRIE: A REVIEW

    The sooner you realize that Kenneth Branagh isn’t really in this movie the better you’ll be off in realizing what is at issue with this film.

    Branagh is billed second in the movie’s IMDB page and it made we wonder as I watched this movie about why that’s the case. I hope I’m not spoiling anything by saying that we only see him as he takes the first crack at killing Der Fuhrer in this film, a token appearance later and then once more in a moment where he’s all by himself at the end of the picture. I just couldn’t grasp why there was such a Houdini act with some of the players of this film but it’s really representative of why this movie only deserves to be a thriller when you look at the last half of the movie, the first half deserving to be lost in whatever editing bay it came out of.

    The problem with the first half is that we have a few issues that need hammering out. First of which is why Tom Cruise’s portrayal as Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg starts off with a rather compelling moment in his career, a real watershed that made him the linchpin of this whole attempt to kill Adolf Hitler (an attempt that would the last one and 9 months before he committed suicide before the allies had the chance to grab him), and I don’t know if it was brevity or the fact that they were running short on time but the man flips awfully fast. The way in which Cruise is approached and the manner in which he accepts not only the offer to kill Hitler, never once minding the fact that his family’s life, his children and his wife, would then be targets on the acceptance of this opportunity, but the swiftness from how he goes from conflicted military man to full on freedom fighter is alarming. It defies any sense of logic if you were to wonder what it would take to get you to kill your own president if you happened to have a beef with what your government represented.

    The second problem of the first half is its History channel treatment of the events that took place leading up to the assassination attempt. I was less shocked at the swiftness of Cruise’s acceptance to be a party to off Hitler than I was at the cold and detached nature in which we’re treated to everything that leads up to the film’s exciting second half. To wit, Cruise and his German buddies want to rewrite the failsafe plan, Valkyrie, which would go into effect should Hitler be pronounced dead. Long story short, and this is a really long explanation that goes to support the claim the 1st half is nothing but a long litany of factoids punctuated with moments of superficial sentimentality between Cruise and his wife/family, Cruise needs to get Adolf to sign off on the altered plans for Valkyrie as this is the first step in seizing control of the country after they kill him. The issue becomes that this tense moment should have been a true jewel of the film but it’s treated, honestly, like the re-enactment all the players involved were probably trying to avoid.

    Now, as much as Cruise has been maligned in the production of this film in the press I can tell you that it’s all unfounded. It’s not Cruise that is the problem here as he submits a solid, bombastic free turn as this ripped from the history book figure. He’s honestly one of the best parts of the movie. His quick flip not withstanding Cruise is a delight as the man who would try everything he could in order to defeat and kill the personification of evil. The second half is his, thankfully, and one of the things that adds to the movie’s distinctions as an honorable thriller in the true sense of the word is that it’s near bloodless. The entire last half hinges on how well the movie can propel itself forward without resorting to the usual violent trappings of other WWII film not to mention that they’re having to depend on actual events which were, themselves, bloodless to begin with.

    Thankfully the intrigue that follows as soon as the final plan is put into motion is indescribable. The events on the screen surely can be described, and they are as if we were following the 9/11 time line, but it is the nuances of Cruise as he plays von Stauffenberg, lurching ever closer to fulfilling what he went out to do and then how he deals with the aftermath. Cruise displays the kind of chameleon like qualities that warranted him a Golden Globe nomination in TROPIC THUNDER. The reason why that worked so well, and why actors like Robert Downey Jr. gained some attention, is that they gave themselves to the parts they were playing. Tom Cruise gave in to what von Stauffenberg was about in a way that not only felt genuine but impressed me with his taciturn delivery of the film’s key moments when it isn’t words that pay off, it’s the expressions that do.

    And I think this is why I’m so disappointed with the end result of what we have. You have Cruise leading the charge to make this movie so much more than just a re-creation, what this film mostly feels like, but everyone else on the periphery just feels like British (Branagh, Bill Nighy, Terence Stamp) and American (Tom Wilkinson dominating everyone else) actors just playing their parts. If you look at why a film like SAVING PRIVATE RYAN worked so well or why DOWNFALL starring Bruno Ganz was so affecting it really comes down to how well you cast your parts. In RYAN you had a clear verbal demarcation that Americans, well, were going to sound like Americans while the Germans, we all remember the one that gets away and comes back to haunt Hanks and Co., were going to sound like Germans. In DOWNFALL there wasn’t any of that clap-trap going on. It was a full-on German production that cut right to the core of bringing to life as to why this was a sinister regime that needed to die; I would dare any of you to find a better Hitler anywhere else on the screen who manages a 1/10th of the evil that Bruno Ganz brings to life.

    VALKYRIE doesn’t have any of that. We have countries of all kinds filling in for the Germans and while I guess that works fine for some people it’s a distraction to others. It was to me and it took away from what should have been a movie about the last throes of Adolf Hitler, the walls slowly and steadily closing in on the Nazi party while a pack of men seek to euthanize it sooner rather than later. Instead we have a movie that won’t make you too angry that you just spent $10 on a story that could have been delivered so much better if everyone else shared the passion Tom Cruise delivers throughout the entire production.

    And let’s finish out the year by letting Ray Schillaci get the last word…


    Don’t Judge a Movie by its Title

    When was the last time you sat in a movie theater and found that you discovered something special? A future talent that could get you excited again to go to the movies rather than wait to see it on DVD. Someone who you could look forward to screaming out, “Ya gotta see this person’s work!”

    I remember the debut of “Tattooed Love Boys” by the Pretenders or “Psycho Killer” by the Talking Heads and running out and telling all my friends that these people were going to leave a mark in the music industry. I was shunned in the beginning. They did not have the foresight. The same went with a little Canadian horror show entitled, “Shivers”. I raised my glass to its fledgling director, David Cronenberg. Once again, my friends abandoned me. But they thought I maybe on to something when I lead them to a little known street thriller called “Assault on Precinct 13″ directed by newbie John Carpenter. I was finally vindicated with the sneak preview of Carpenter’s next outing, “Halloween” which all of us jammed the theater time and time again.

    Later, I would find some really cool minor “B” classics that my friends looked forward to me recommending which included “The Hidden” and “Vice Squad”. The talent might not have moved onto greater things but there was no denying the raw power behind the creative force. This leads me to introducing a must-see movie (for all you horror/action/suspense fans) and director that I happened to catch at the International Horror and Sci-Fi Film Festival in Phoenix last month.

    The title is terribly misleading, and the director and writers have nothing to do with it. Unfortunately, it is the product of an unimaginative marketing department, which could hurt this fantastic fun film. The title alone had me dread going into the theater for the viewing, but its director, Ben Rock was such a nice sincere guy who had a genuine love and wonderful knowledge of the genre it peaked my interest enough to give it 10 minutes or so.

    Boy, what a surprise! Ben Rock’s “Alien Raiders” KICKS ASS!! This movie is everything we love about escaping into a dark movie theater ““ the adrenalin rush, the unnerving creepiness that almost makes you want to close your eyes, but you’re too excited to see what the director has up his sleeve next. I’m sorry if I’m raising expectations too high, but I went in expecting low-rent, unimaginative Roger Corman or worse Uwe Boll. This movie has it all, engaging characters, an eerie setting and a director at the helm that is ready to take you on a roller coaster ride you won’t soon forget. There are images that stay in your mind (empty supermarket aisles, a handwritten blood-stained window front, to name a few) and make you wonder, “What’s next?”

    If it was not for the lame title, we the audience would start off thinking this were a possible political/terrorist thriller. That soon changes after ten minutes and we get a hint of something out of a cool X-Files episode. I’ll be brief and stay to my m.o. of being spoiler free. A small band, of what appears to be, masked militants break into a sleepy little town’s supermarket and begin a hostage situation along with a couple of chilling killings. This is not by-the-book suspense. The scene is unnerving and is like watching Hitchcock for the first time. Don’t worry; Rock does not get carried away with himself with this wonderful piece of pulp. He tends to throw in quips and situations that elicit nervous laughs and make one enjoy the ride. Adding to the fun are not only a team of talented writers and crew, but a great cast lead by Carlos Bernard (of “24” fame) as well.

    Turns out, our militants are actually rogue scientists seeking out a very dangerous group of aliens disguised as human beings. I know, sounds bargain-basement, but Rock and crew elevate the tale much like “The Hidden” did, which became a sleeper at the box office and went on to spawn a sequel. Yes, the story has many elements that we will recognize from other films (The Mist, The Hidden, Carpenter’s The Thing, to name a few), but in many ways we end up appreciating it more than some of the bigger budgeted and CGI ridden spectacles that have trashed our theaters of late.

    At the Q&A a couple of people had some great suggestions for replacement titles, Raw Feed and Warner Brothers should take note (because you have huge potential with this Rock and his film). One tongue-in-cheek title proved to be fun and go along with the tone of the film, “Clean Up in Aisle 13″. But the one that won me over was a wonderful play on words “Aisle 51″. The entire setting is in a supermarket, much like “The Mist” but contains far more dread and proves to be much more satisfying.

    I urge all of you to email or write Raw Feed and Warner Brothers and push for a theatrical release, rather than the usual direct-to-video. This film deserves to be seen on the big screen having its audience scream and laugh with it. Hopefully a title change will ensue, a theatrical release date will be granted and I (along with many others) will see a sign of cinematic hope from a bottom-dollar industry that caters to bigger budget fare that lacks the creativeness that Ben Rock, cast & crew have displayed.

  • Trailer Park: WALL-E Giveaway

    By Christopher Stipp

    The Archives, Right Here

    I’m awesome. I wrote a book. It’s got little to do with movies. Download and read “Thank You, Goodnight” right HERE for free.

    WALL-E was one of the best films to come out of 2008.

    Disregarding the moniker of “animated film” the movie was simply head and shoulders some of the best moviemaking to come to the masses. To boot, the film played well to kids as well. I take back a lot of what I initially thought about this film, namely that it cribbed from SHORT CIRCUIT (although, come on, the similarities are alarming) as the quality of the movie was superb.

    Now, I am in the position to give away 5 (five) triple disc sets for this film during this holiday season. Now, if you want one drop me a line at Christopher_Stipp@yahoo.com. To make this fair, if you’ve already won something from me in the past 30 days, sit on your hands and let the other kids have a chance…

    About the film…

    What if mankind had to leave Earth and somebody forgot to turn off the last robot? Academy Award®-winning writer-director Andrew Stanton (“Finding Nemo”) and the inventive storytellers and technical geniuses at Pixar Animation Studios transport moviegoers to a galaxy not so very far away for a new computer-animated cosmic comedy about a determined robot named WALL”¢E. After hundreds of lonely years doing what he was built for, WALL”¢E (short for Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class) discovers a new purpose in life (besides collecting knick-knacks) when he meets a sleek search robot named EVE. EVE comes to realize that WALL”¢E has inadvertently stumbled upon the key to the planet’s future, and races back to space to report her findings to the humans (who have been eagerly awaiting word that it is safe to return home). Meanwhile, WALL”¢E chases EVE across the galaxy and sets into motion one of the most incredible comedy adventures ever brought to the big screen. Joining WALL”¢E on his fantastic journey across a universe of never-before-imagined visions of the future is a hilarious cast of characters including a pet cockroach, and a heroic team of malfunctioning misfit robots.