Tonight on Movie News After Dark, Community is dead, the documentary is better, AMC is making sci-fi shows now and filmmakers are having their films taken away for no good reason. Everything is a mess, but we’ll sort it out together. How NBC’s Community Died – Over at Pajiba, Steven Lloyd Wilson writes passionately about finally cutting the cord with fan favorite Community. Personally, I’ve been avoiding this latest season of the once-beloved show. I don’t like watching friends die. How Documentary Became the Most Exciting Kind of Filmmaking – David Edelstein takes to Vulture to explain why documentaries are better than fictional films, at least from a filmmaking point of few. A few salient points, but don’t expect me to jump ship and go all-doc anytime soon. Not when there is a new Star Trek movie coming out. Ending with The Rapture – Exiting his post as Av Club Film Editor, Scott Tobias...
- 4/19/2013
- by Neil Miller
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
Remember when MTV showed music videos and the Sci-Fi Channel -- or, urgh, SyFy -- didn’t show wrestling? Those seem like the good old days of bitching about how much TV sucks. Today it’s all shark attacks on Discovery, ice road truckers on the History Channel, and Honey Boo Boo on what used to be known as The Learning Channel but couldn’t possibly reach the vast depth of shamelessness to dare call itself that now. What the hell happened? Steven Lloyd Wilson at Pajiba is furious about this. From “Television Killed Itself: The Rise of Pointless Television”: There is no longer any brand meaning in most of television. History, TLC, A&E, Discovery … the dreck that fills these stations isn’t just terrible television, it is terrible business because it has no connection to its network. Hell, even the Weather Channel has a reality show about a fireworks company.
- 9/21/2012
- by MaryAnn Johanson
- www.flickfilosopher.com
Welcome to the 5th Annual Pajiba Ten: A list of the 10 Most Bangable Celebrities on the Planet as voted on by our readers. Thanks to new rules which elevate celebrities who have been on the list at list twice into the Pajiba 10 Hall of Fame, we actually have seven new entrants onto the 10 in our 5th year. That's fresh blood, folks, for your drooling pleasure. It's also the first year in which four women made this list, instead of the usual three.
If you're curious, there are quite a few who just missed the cut this year, including Rachel McAdams, Marion Cotillard, Benedict Cumberbatch, Donald Glover, and -- sadly -- there is no "Doctor Who" representation this year as our worst fears were confirmed: David Tennant and Matt Smith split the vote, while Karen Gillan simply annoyed too many of you in her latest "Who" run to merit the votes necessary.
If you're curious, there are quite a few who just missed the cut this year, including Rachel McAdams, Marion Cotillard, Benedict Cumberbatch, Donald Glover, and -- sadly -- there is no "Doctor Who" representation this year as our worst fears were confirmed: David Tennant and Matt Smith split the vote, while Karen Gillan simply annoyed too many of you in her latest "Who" run to merit the votes necessary.
- 7/19/2011
- by Dustin Rowles
Bleeding Cool has posted a succinct, but plot-packed, synopsis of Ridley Scott's new directorial project, Prometheus. But by releasing an even more succinct official synopsis, Fox reminds us of the caveat that, of course, this may not be the movie's real storyline. If you feel like reading both, I think you'll agree that the "official" summary doesn't really contradict the "leaked" summary, and considering what both Scott and screenwriter Damon Lindelof said earlier this week, it doesn't actually seem "way off." The Xenomorph is, of course, in the details.
Our very own Stephen Lloyd Wilson's write-up pertaining to Lindelof's interview honed in on the idea that prequels can be, by their very nature, less than thrilling, and how the best ones create new stories and characters that inform and contextualize the events of earlier (timeline-wise, future) installments. X-Men: First Class definitely does this, even in its clunkiest parts. Based...
Our very own Stephen Lloyd Wilson's write-up pertaining to Lindelof's interview honed in on the idea that prequels can be, by their very nature, less than thrilling, and how the best ones create new stories and characters that inform and contextualize the events of earlier (timeline-wise, future) installments. X-Men: First Class definitely does this, even in its clunkiest parts. Based...
- 7/1/2011
- by Rob Payne
The 2011 Comic-Con is set to happen next month, that wonderful time of year where geeks can fly their Geek flags proudly and hang out with like-minded bearded folks, meet their favorite bearded comic-book related people, and see all the new bearded-comic-book related stuff. Or whatever it is that you geeky folk used to do at Comic-Con besides talk about getting laid and spending most of the time hiding out in your hotel rooms.
Whatever that was, it's not what goes on anymore. Geek Mecca has been co-opted by corporate America and, apparently, Seth MacFarlane. Of course, attendees still wear their Browncoats and their Princess Leia costumes, but now they have to share floor space with a few thousand teenage girls hoping to get a glance of Robert Pattinson's chest hair. Having never been there, I can't speak definitively to the transformation, but from what I can gather, the place...
Whatever that was, it's not what goes on anymore. Geek Mecca has been co-opted by corporate America and, apparently, Seth MacFarlane. Of course, attendees still wear their Browncoats and their Princess Leia costumes, but now they have to share floor space with a few thousand teenage girls hoping to get a glance of Robert Pattinson's chest hair. Having never been there, I can't speak definitively to the transformation, but from what I can gather, the place...
- 6/24/2011
- by Dustin Rowles
Storytellers is an ongoing attempt to tease out bits of history or literature that would make damned good films. Because if we throw enough ideas out there, Hollywood might accidentally make something good.
"Science is a differential equation. Religion is a boundary condition." -Alan Turing
Alan Turing was one of the most brilliant men ever spun out of the human genome, a mathematician by trade, a codebreaker during World War II, and in 1936 he published the intuitive leap that invented the information age. He adapted Kurt Gödel's mathematics of logic into the theoretical application that became the basis for all computers. At the time, great machines were constructed by PhDs for various specific sundry tasks of computation. The bastard offspring of pipe organs and telegraphs, these steam punk hybrids filled rooms, chomped on punch card memory chips and ticker tape hard drives, chugging and grinding along like your grandma's ancient sewing machine.
"Science is a differential equation. Religion is a boundary condition." -Alan Turing
Alan Turing was one of the most brilliant men ever spun out of the human genome, a mathematician by trade, a codebreaker during World War II, and in 1936 he published the intuitive leap that invented the information age. He adapted Kurt Gödel's mathematics of logic into the theoretical application that became the basis for all computers. At the time, great machines were constructed by PhDs for various specific sundry tasks of computation. The bastard offspring of pipe organs and telegraphs, these steam punk hybrids filled rooms, chomped on punch card memory chips and ticker tape hard drives, chugging and grinding along like your grandma's ancient sewing machine.
- 6/24/2011
- by Steven Lloyd Wilson
The Wonky Ratings Stuff: Government-subsidized television in the UK is a mysterious beast, especially to those of us over in the United States that expect solid ratings are all a show needs to ensure a return. It's certainly a huge factor in the UK, but production costs also play heavily into if and how a series is ordered. If I'm not mistaken, because many of the television shows are government backed, a recession can even affect the television schedule (it's why the last few episodes with David Tennant were movie specials, instead of a regular season). The reason why it's taken so long for "Torchwood" to return to the air, for instance, was never its ratings. The matter is one of financing, which is why the UK eventually had to partner with Starz to get the show made. There's also something called the Audience Appreciation Index in the United Kingdom,...
- 6/8/2011
- by Dustin Rowles
I got my first DVD player at the beginning of 2001 when I got a new computer to replace a lemon that had crashed three times per day for three years despite having every single component of it replaced one by one. The case itself was malign, worming into perfectly good hardware through the mounting screws. The DVD drive at that point was a decent bit more cash than a mere CD drive, but still less than an actual DVD player, and since my beast of a Crt monitor was 4 inches bigger than my television, it only made sense.
The first three DVDs I purchased, and the only ones I had for some time thanks to Hollywood Video and being a broke college student, were Fight Club, Office Space, and The Matrix. We're all products of our time, and 1999 was a fine vintage. I watched those three films damned near as...
The first three DVDs I purchased, and the only ones I had for some time thanks to Hollywood Video and being a broke college student, were Fight Club, Office Space, and The Matrix. We're all products of our time, and 1999 was a fine vintage. I watched those three films damned near as...
- 6/1/2011
- by Steven Lloyd Wilson
The down side to just consuming all of one's entertainment off of the Internet is the fact that channel flipping when one can't sleep becomes an exercise in futility. My television gets 22 stations. Half of those are in Spanish. Local access and actual networks make up the balance. So that's how I end up watching "Jesse Stone: Innocents Lost." Jesse Stone is apparently CBS' solution to the fact that they can't run NCIS or CSI all the time, and because Chuck Norris wasn't available to be a gruff older cop who hates youth and their technowiggins.
Tom Selleck plays a small town police chief with a drinking problem. And by drinking problem, I mean that people are constantly counting his drinks for him. Bartenders, friends, colleagues, all grimly declare either "that's one" or "that's two" with mounting menace and horror. He never gets past two drinks, I assume because listening...
Tom Selleck plays a small town police chief with a drinking problem. And by drinking problem, I mean that people are constantly counting his drinks for him. Bartenders, friends, colleagues, all grimly declare either "that's one" or "that's two" with mounting menace and horror. He never gets past two drinks, I assume because listening...
- 5/25/2011
- by Steven Lloyd Wilson
Alexander Payne's 1999 film Election gave us one of the more unique and recognizable villains in film: the overachieving and manipulative Tracy Flick. She's intelligent, ambitious, hard-working and is presented as the nemesis and focus of rage for the nominal protagonist of the film.
Her crimes? A married teacher is fired for sleeping with her and in a fit of fury, she rips down her opponent's campaign posters. The film has the sheer balls to present a thirty-five year old married teacher who has an affair with a friendless sixteen year old as the victim and to present the defacement of high school election paraphenlia as a crime on par with Columbine. Mr. McAllister, our protagonist, is the popular history teacher, the guy who hates the smart kids and is best friends with the dumb ones. Real teacher of the year material this guy, he's the sort who will plot...
Her crimes? A married teacher is fired for sleeping with her and in a fit of fury, she rips down her opponent's campaign posters. The film has the sheer balls to present a thirty-five year old married teacher who has an affair with a friendless sixteen year old as the victim and to present the defacement of high school election paraphenlia as a crime on par with Columbine. Mr. McAllister, our protagonist, is the popular history teacher, the guy who hates the smart kids and is best friends with the dumb ones. Real teacher of the year material this guy, he's the sort who will plot...
- 5/18/2011
- by Steven Lloyd Wilson
Storytellers is an ongoing attempt to tease out bits of history or literature that would make damned good films. Because if we throw enough ideas out there, Hollywood might accidentally make something good.
In the prologues to their respective biographies of Adolf Hitler, John Toland and William Shirer both meditate on the motivation behind writing the life story of a force of evil. The strength and weakness of biography is that it tends to be an intrinsically humanizing light. Great men are shown to have flaws, tyrants are shown to have their reasons. But some crimes are so great that the perpetrators do not deserve a humanizing light, and it seems right that those who would cast the world in black and white should not receive the benefit of a biography that explores all the nuances of shades of gray. The danger of such a biography is that in explaining...
In the prologues to their respective biographies of Adolf Hitler, John Toland and William Shirer both meditate on the motivation behind writing the life story of a force of evil. The strength and weakness of biography is that it tends to be an intrinsically humanizing light. Great men are shown to have flaws, tyrants are shown to have their reasons. But some crimes are so great that the perpetrators do not deserve a humanizing light, and it seems right that those who would cast the world in black and white should not receive the benefit of a biography that explores all the nuances of shades of gray. The danger of such a biography is that in explaining...
- 5/4/2011
- by Steven Lloyd Wilson
There is no more common refrain among fans of a novel than that it could never be adapted as a film, but only as a television series. Preferably on HBO, to add the usual footnote. It reveals something though of how the thought process functions in readers. Films have the bigger budgets. They will look nicer. They will cast more famous actors. A viewer knows upfront that he will get to see the ending, barring exogenous bolts from the blue, because whatever the production's quality, it is certain to at least be finished. Television series do not have any of those luxuries, retaining only the mundane advantage of sheer length. Size matters, and not just with thousand page tomes of fantasy. Readers must be bettors, because we'll always pick the chance at filling a big canvas over the certainty of filling a small one.
It's also a relatively recent phenomenon...
It's also a relatively recent phenomenon...
- 4/27/2011
- by Steven Lloyd Wilson
In an interview with The New Yorker that ran in October 2001, a month after she died, renowned film critic Pauline Kael said: "I still don't look at movies twice. It's funny, I just feel I got it the first time. With music it's different. People respond so differently to the whole issue of seeing a movie many times. I'm astonished when I talk to really good critics, who know their stuff and will see a film eight or ten or twelve times. I don't see how they can do it without hating the movie. I would." That kind of brash commitment is typical of Kael, but though she was a fantastic critic, the sentiment's a remarkably myopic one. Many times, it's possible to see a film and know that you "got it the first time," but any critic can only ever bring their current experience, knowledge, and understanding to the...
- 4/21/2011
- by Daniel Carlson
Good morning, my faithfaul companions. I didn't address the sad passing of "Doctor Who" actress Elisabeth Sladen in yesterday's P. Love because Stephen Lloyd Wilson had already written such a loving tribute. However, I stumbled across this achingly sweet goodbye to Sarah Jane and wanted to share it in case you hadn't seen it yet. Warning, it's sad. It really is. (The Mary Sue)
I did warn you. Speaking of loyal little bots, here's an interesting story about the robots that are helping out at Fukishima. On the one hand I think it's very cool they can go where it's unsafe for human workers. On the other hand. . .damnit James Cameron you've made me paranoid. (Popular Mechanics)
I do know this, come the Skynet apocalypse, I want this badass looking version of Ariel on my side. Flipping your fins you won't get too far, fishy, scaly legs are required for...
I did warn you. Speaking of loyal little bots, here's an interesting story about the robots that are helping out at Fukishima. On the one hand I think it's very cool they can go where it's unsafe for human workers. On the other hand. . .damnit James Cameron you've made me paranoid. (Popular Mechanics)
I do know this, come the Skynet apocalypse, I want this badass looking version of Ariel on my side. Flipping your fins you won't get too far, fishy, scaly legs are required for...
- 4/21/2011
- by Joanna Robinson
My daughter and I were watching YouTube. She's been on a singing and dancing kick lately and after an embarrassing incident looking for ballet videos - "Bikini Ballet" delivers exactly what it promises - I thought she might like some clips from "Kids Inc."
I remembered it was about a group of kids who run their own soda shop/dance club after school. (As Wikipedia says, "the show did not aim for strict realism.") I figured it had to be fairly toddler-friendly since it was from the early 80s, before tween girls regularly used stripper poles in their acts. But as my little girl danced to adolescent covers of "Neverending Story" and "Goonies," I got choked up. Not because she's so freaking adorable (she is) but because I remembered with perfect clarity what it was like to be 13 years old watching the premiere of this show that I never even liked that much.
I remembered it was about a group of kids who run their own soda shop/dance club after school. (As Wikipedia says, "the show did not aim for strict realism.") I figured it had to be fairly toddler-friendly since it was from the early 80s, before tween girls regularly used stripper poles in their acts. But as my little girl danced to adolescent covers of "Neverending Story" and "Goonies," I got choked up. Not because she's so freaking adorable (she is) but because I remembered with perfect clarity what it was like to be 13 years old watching the premiere of this show that I never even liked that much.
- 4/21/2011
- by Dustin Rowles
"Because I'm tired of it! Year, after year, after year of having to choose between the lesser of who cares? Of trying to get myself excited over a candidate who can speak in complete sentences. Of setting the bar so low, I can hardly look at it. They say a good man can't get elected president. I don't believe that, do you?" -Leo McGarry
I started watching "The West Wing" a few weeks ago, the first season DVD set having been sitting half forgotten on a shelf for the better part of five years. I never watched the show when it was on, but always had it in the back of my mind as one those shows that was of reputed enough quality that it should be on the list at some point. Nothing but reruns on television and the Internet, and this set of DVDs had floated to the...
I started watching "The West Wing" a few weeks ago, the first season DVD set having been sitting half forgotten on a shelf for the better part of five years. I never watched the show when it was on, but always had it in the back of my mind as one those shows that was of reputed enough quality that it should be on the list at some point. Nothing but reruns on television and the Internet, and this set of DVDs had floated to the...
- 4/20/2011
- by Steven Lloyd Wilson
In their previous articles about the upcoming TNT series "Falling Skies," Pajiba writers and geek lords Tk and Steven Lloyd Wilson registered their skepticism about leading man Noah Wyle. I believe the term "Librarian-shaped handicap" was bandied about. Judging by the just-released first five minutes of the show, old Doc Carter there isn't the problem. Listen (not having scene those Librarian TV movies), I like Noah Wyle. He was great in The Myth of Fingerprints and the first eleven hundred seasons of "ER." The problem, as far as I can see it, are the stupid CGI aliens. You let me know what you think.
[via /Film]
Oh sure, they dodge a bit of scrutiny by scuttling around in a dust cloud, but, ultimately, I think they look like stupid spider crabs. Possibly tasty in my sushi, but not at all terror-inducing. But, then again, I will concede my bias. I hate CGI.
[via /Film]
Oh sure, they dodge a bit of scrutiny by scuttling around in a dust cloud, but, ultimately, I think they look like stupid spider crabs. Possibly tasty in my sushi, but not at all terror-inducing. But, then again, I will concede my bias. I hate CGI.
- 4/19/2011
- by Joanna Robinson
"Garrow's Law" is a BBC production with one of those oddly designed schedules somewhere between a miniseries and an actual series. It's had two series thus far, each composed of four one-hour episodes. A third series is slated to air sometime this year over in yonder British land, while the first series is currently running on PBS. It's airing on Sunday nights after Masterpiece Theater, which is broadcasting a sequel to the original "Upstairs, Downstairs" if you just can't get enough BBC period drama on your Sunday nights.
Set in eighteenth century London, the show is nominally a legal procedural. The protagonist is the titular Garrow, a young barrister who seeks to inject justice into a system fraught with injustice. Garrow is arrogant, self-righteous, and seems to think that justice could be done with just the proper amount of indignant yelling. And faster than you can retort "I can handle the truth just fine,...
Set in eighteenth century London, the show is nominally a legal procedural. The protagonist is the titular Garrow, a young barrister who seeks to inject justice into a system fraught with injustice. Garrow is arrogant, self-righteous, and seems to think that justice could be done with just the proper amount of indignant yelling. And faster than you can retort "I can handle the truth just fine,...
- 4/13/2011
- by Steven Lloyd Wilson
Marie Curie is a household name in the right sorts of households, the woman who walked into the fraternity of nineteenth century physics and carved out a legend for herself. Her name is synonymous with radioactivity, not just because she invented the term "radioactivity" but because the unit of measure for it is her last name. Curie is still the only person to receive two Nobel Prizes in different sciences, work that did not come without a steep price. She died at age 66 due to complications of decades of exposure to radiation. Her journals and papers are still so radioactive today that they are stored in lead lined boxes and cannot be handled without protection. But Marie's history is relatively well known, still taught in the history books, the subject of several films. Her two daughters on the other hand are a story waiting to be told.
Irene and Eve...
Irene and Eve...
- 4/6/2011
- by Steven Lloyd Wilson
Up until today I have not seen the video of the song "Friday" featuring Rebecca Black. Mostly because when it came out I was at SXSW and just didn't have time and after seeing everyone's reactions to it decided it was best to stay away. Very similar to my approach to "Two Girls One Cup." (Mom, Do Not Google That! Call me if you really want to know.) (Sorry, my parents read my column.) However, it was announced last night on "The Colbert Report" that Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Fallon had raised $26,000 for Donors Choose and so Colbert would be performing Patrice Wilson's (the actual writer of the song, rather than the hapless teenager unfortunate enough to have sung it) "Friday" with The Roots on... Friday. Obviously. So I may have to watch the video just to get the full effect. Oh, and I also saw this video of Amanda Palmer...
- 3/31/2011
- by Intern Rusty
When judging any work of art, there's a fuzziness to the process. If there were just one dimension of quality, handing out a number of stars would work just fine, but how do you reconcile The Godfather and Ghostbusters? They just don't aim to accomplish the same thing. Along one dimension The Godfather is the best, but if you want to laugh, it's just not as good of a movie as Ghostbusters. Subdivide the judgment too much and it's pointless, then you just get the car industry, where everything that's got four wheels is the best-in-class according to J.D. Powers. But stick to too monolithic a measure and you're stuck trying to compare Ghostbusters and The Godfather and nobody ends up winning except my right shift key and the letter "g."
But there is one dimension that we can agree on: fundamental story-telling competence.
In other words, there is...
But there is one dimension that we can agree on: fundamental story-telling competence.
In other words, there is...
- 3/30/2011
- by Steven Lloyd Wilson
The American remake of "Being Human" defies all expectations in that any completely unnecessary Americanization of a contemporary British show is naturally expected to be atrocious. That's not to say that that the show is terribly good, but it's certainly better than most Americanizations, which is as faint of praise as one can give short of saying that at least it's not Hitler.
Although it's easy to say that the problem with Americanizations is that they inevitably dumb down the concept and add elements from a shared checklist of "improvements" that are inexplicably irresistible to producers whilst offending any viewers with taste, the root of the problem is a lot simpler. Mimicry might be the sincerest form of flattery, but it rarely exceeds the original. Just look at covers of songs. Sure, we remember the Sex Pistols making "My Way" their own, but we desperately try to forget the versions...
Although it's easy to say that the problem with Americanizations is that they inevitably dumb down the concept and add elements from a shared checklist of "improvements" that are inexplicably irresistible to producers whilst offending any viewers with taste, the root of the problem is a lot simpler. Mimicry might be the sincerest form of flattery, but it rarely exceeds the original. Just look at covers of songs. Sure, we remember the Sex Pistols making "My Way" their own, but we desperately try to forget the versions...
- 3/23/2011
- by Steven Lloyd Wilson
Simon Pegg and Nick Frost have a bit of a cottage industry going on in which they move from genre to genre making films that simultaneously belong to the genre in question while gently mocking the conventions therein. It's been a good combination for them, and one that's endeared them to genre fans because the duo's efforts, even when lambasting a genre, are so obviously invested with a love for the target that it doesn't offend. It's the difference between a stranger mocking your love handles and your grandma doing so.
Pegg and Frost applied their formula to zombie films (Shaun of the Dead) and buddy cop movies (Hot Fuzz) and now turn their attention to first contact science fiction with Paul. It's a hilarious film, and while it has its warts, it holds up well to both Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz.
The story plays out as the trailer sets it up.
Pegg and Frost applied their formula to zombie films (Shaun of the Dead) and buddy cop movies (Hot Fuzz) and now turn their attention to first contact science fiction with Paul. It's a hilarious film, and while it has its warts, it holds up well to both Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz.
The story plays out as the trailer sets it up.
- 3/16/2011
- by Steven Lloyd Wilson
Morgan Spurlock's The Greatest Movie Ever Sold is one of the most fantastically meta films I have ever seen, drawing a perfect recursive picture that contains itself. Spurlock sets out to show how product placement and advertising dominate the film industry. There's a straight-forward way of going about this: just conduct the usual interviews with talking heads, interspersed by voice overs and a camera moving slowly over still frames. Spurlock does some of that, it is a documentary after all, but the bulk of the film is devoted to the film's central gimmick of financing the entire documentary itself through product placement and advertising.
It's clever as a gimmick, but it moves far beyond the gimmick stage in that the exercise becomes documentary performance art. For the most part, Spurlock does not tell us (or have others tell us) how advertising works. Instead, he demonstrates it by documenting his meetings,...
It's clever as a gimmick, but it moves far beyond the gimmick stage in that the exercise becomes documentary performance art. For the most part, Spurlock does not tell us (or have others tell us) how advertising works. Instead, he demonstrates it by documenting his meetings,...
- 3/15/2011
- by Steven Lloyd Wilson
Storytellers is an ongoing attempt to tease out bits of history or literature that would make damned good films. Because if we throw enough ideas out there, Hollywood might accidentally make something good.
"My dreams are going through their death flurries...they are dying before the steel javelins and arrows of a world of Time and Money." -Barbara Newhall Follett
It's said one of the most terrible fates is to be born out of time and place. Geeks like to think that if they'd only been born a few hundred years previously, they'd be the ones to watch the apple drop or fly the electric kite. Really most of them would be dead by age 20. Not because geeks are inherently less durable, but because everyone's survival rate diminishes as the clock is turned back before antibiotics and germ theory, let alone notions of equal opportunity. The greatest violinist in history...
"My dreams are going through their death flurries...they are dying before the steel javelins and arrows of a world of Time and Money." -Barbara Newhall Follett
It's said one of the most terrible fates is to be born out of time and place. Geeks like to think that if they'd only been born a few hundred years previously, they'd be the ones to watch the apple drop or fly the electric kite. Really most of them would be dead by age 20. Not because geeks are inherently less durable, but because everyone's survival rate diminishes as the clock is turned back before antibiotics and germ theory, let alone notions of equal opportunity. The greatest violinist in history...
- 3/9/2011
- by Steven Lloyd Wilson
There used to be something so cool about the fact that it took Johnny Depp 15 years, starting with Nightmare on Elm Street, to finally land a $100 million movie. He was celebrated, in part, because he turned down franchises and opted, instead, for riskier, oddball movies. He chose projects based upon the cast, on the directors, and on the merits of the scripts. His first $100 million movie, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, didn't really alter his project choices. He had a great run between 1999 and 2003, starring in From Hell, Chocolat, Blow and Before Night Falls. His second $100 million movie, in 2003 (Pirates of the Caribbean ) was really the tipping point from cool flicks to blockbusters. Not that his big movie choices have been all bad, and he has managed to mostly maintain that cool-guy image, even as he rakes in the cash. I guess after a certain point Depp was like, "Screw it.
- 3/7/2011
- by Dustin Rowles
So Kyle is a douchebag. He goes to the billion dollar a year private school in Manhattan, the kind that looks like a modern art gallery rather than an educational institution. He doesn't run for class president, he runs for president of The Green Committee because environmentalism will look good on his resume. And he runs on the platform of not caring about the environment, insisting that everyone should vote for him because he's rich, handsome, and popular.
Kyle spends his spare time dressing in thousand dollar suits, mocking anyone he thinks ugly, and of course exercising without his shirt on. Or writing without his shirt on. Brooding without his shirt on. Sleeping without his shirt on. Seriously, other than the suits in the film's first act, this kid had like a $17 wardrobe budget.
The problem is that he pisses off a witch. Literally. One of those "Full House" twins (let's be honest,...
Kyle spends his spare time dressing in thousand dollar suits, mocking anyone he thinks ugly, and of course exercising without his shirt on. Or writing without his shirt on. Brooding without his shirt on. Sleeping without his shirt on. Seriously, other than the suits in the film's first act, this kid had like a $17 wardrobe budget.
The problem is that he pisses off a witch. Literally. One of those "Full House" twins (let's be honest,...
- 3/5/2011
- by Steven Lloyd Wilson
It had been my intention to post a review from every Cannonballer before posting a second one by a specific author (see there is a method to my madness); however, the timing of this review from Lennon has led me to temporarily suspend that plan, as it was too good to pass up, even though I just posted something by him earlier this week.--Tu
It's a very difficult thing to review a series as known, beloved and exposed as Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. Countless people have done it before you and undoubtedly many of them did it much better. People with fancy degrees in this sort of thing have dissected, analyzed and probed every battle, every song and every family tree to exhaustion.
As if to ever so cruelly illustrate this point, the day I began writing this review a think piece is published on Pajiba in which...
It's a very difficult thing to review a series as known, beloved and exposed as Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. Countless people have done it before you and undoubtedly many of them did it much better. People with fancy degrees in this sort of thing have dissected, analyzed and probed every battle, every song and every family tree to exhaustion.
As if to ever so cruelly illustrate this point, the day I began writing this review a think piece is published on Pajiba in which...
- 3/4/2011
- by Tamatha Uhmelmahaye
"There are two novels that can transform a bookish 14-year-kld's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish daydream that can lead to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood in which large chunks of the day are spent inventing ways to make real life more like a fantasy novel. The other is a book about orcs." -Raj Patel
In 1978, Michael Moorcock wrote an article called "Epic Pooh," which lambasted many components of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings along with other authors who followed in his footsteps. The title of the article derives from Moorcock's opinion that Tolkien was moralistic comfort food in the vein of Winnie the Pooh but cast in an epic mold for palatability. It remains a controversial piece, to say the least.
I read The Lord of the Rings the first time when I was nine years old.
In 1978, Michael Moorcock wrote an article called "Epic Pooh," which lambasted many components of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings along with other authors who followed in his footsteps. The title of the article derives from Moorcock's opinion that Tolkien was moralistic comfort food in the vein of Winnie the Pooh but cast in an epic mold for palatability. It remains a controversial piece, to say the least.
I read The Lord of the Rings the first time when I was nine years old.
- 3/2/2011
- by Steven Lloyd Wilson
Ah, the eighties. When action films had gratuitous nudity and ultra violence, and every protagonist and antagonist was a traumatized Vietnam veteran. From a cynical cinematic point of view, Vietnam was timed precisely so that just as it was becoming too much of a stretch to say that contemporary movie characters were World War II or Korean War veterans, there was another war which could be used for cheap and easy characterization. Need an edgy character with a thousand yard stare? Just say they were in the last war.
When I first saw Lethal Weapon, I was ten years old and home sick from school at my grandma's house. My grandma was decidedly old-fashioned when it came to nursing sick children. She believed that there was no sickness that could not be healed by giant Costco hot dogs, bowls of ice cream big enough to induce diabetic seizures, and shoot-em-ups.
When I first saw Lethal Weapon, I was ten years old and home sick from school at my grandma's house. My grandma was decidedly old-fashioned when it came to nursing sick children. She believed that there was no sickness that could not be healed by giant Costco hot dogs, bowls of ice cream big enough to induce diabetic seizures, and shoot-em-ups.
- 2/23/2011
- by Steven Lloyd Wilson
Well this is just disappointing. I spent the entire morning before going to the movie thinking of all the permutations of "I am number 2" that I could use in the headline to this review, and then the damned thing wasn't half bad. I cultivate low expectations in order not to be disappointed and instead I get this, the no win scenario in which I'm disappointed by not being disappointed enough, but don't enjoy the film enough to make up for it.
The novel version of I Am Number 4 was the next logical step for James Frey's writing career. An artist's natural progression throughout history has been to start with passing fiction off as biography and then to move on to adolescent half baked science fiction with a coauthor under a shared pen name. The book managed to sell the movie rights a year before it was published, so that...
The novel version of I Am Number 4 was the next logical step for James Frey's writing career. An artist's natural progression throughout history has been to start with passing fiction off as biography and then to move on to adolescent half baked science fiction with a coauthor under a shared pen name. The book managed to sell the movie rights a year before it was published, so that...
- 2/19/2011
- by Steven Lloyd Wilson
"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man." -George Bernard Shaw
I didn't think much of "Parks and Recreation" when it first started airing a couple of years ago. It seemed like a low rent "The Office," with characters more or less mapping onto each other. That wasn't too unexpected, after all the show was envisioned as an "Office" spin off early in production, centered around Jim's ex girlfriend Karen. The actress remained, the focus shifted. The first plot arc, of a local citizen pushing the Parks Department of small town Pawnee, Indiana to renovate the pit behind her house into a neighborhood park just seemed to fall flat. It served as an introduction to those wacky Parks department employees and the hilarity that ought to ensue. It didn't.
I didn't think much of "Parks and Recreation" when it first started airing a couple of years ago. It seemed like a low rent "The Office," with characters more or less mapping onto each other. That wasn't too unexpected, after all the show was envisioned as an "Office" spin off early in production, centered around Jim's ex girlfriend Karen. The actress remained, the focus shifted. The first plot arc, of a local citizen pushing the Parks Department of small town Pawnee, Indiana to renovate the pit behind her house into a neighborhood park just seemed to fall flat. It served as an introduction to those wacky Parks department employees and the hilarity that ought to ensue. It didn't.
- 2/16/2011
- by Steven Lloyd Wilson
Storytellers is an ongoing attempt to tease out bits of history or literature that would make damned good films. Because if we throw enough ideas out there, Hollywood might accidentally make something good.
The headhunters of Borneo are one of those fascinating historical groups like pirates and ninjas that are not only real, but of whom the legends are pale shadows of actual historical events. When movies are made out of these sorts, they tend to get toned down, because the real events stretch the suspension of disbelief to a breaking point once the story is cast as fiction.
The background of the story is fairly simple. The tribes of the interior of Borneo had long practiced head hunting as a ritual, but the tradition offended civilized British and Dutch sensibilities. And so through a great deal of effort, and imperial leverage, they managed to mostly suppress it. Then along...
The headhunters of Borneo are one of those fascinating historical groups like pirates and ninjas that are not only real, but of whom the legends are pale shadows of actual historical events. When movies are made out of these sorts, they tend to get toned down, because the real events stretch the suspension of disbelief to a breaking point once the story is cast as fiction.
The background of the story is fairly simple. The tribes of the interior of Borneo had long practiced head hunting as a ritual, but the tradition offended civilized British and Dutch sensibilities. And so through a great deal of effort, and imperial leverage, they managed to mostly suppress it. Then along...
- 2/9/2011
- by Steven Lloyd Wilson
Life As We Know It: "Jackass 3: Life As We Know It contains only one stunt, and unfortunately, that stunt takes place off-screen, though we are led to believe that it entails driving a car into a ravine. The stunt leaves its two participants, Hayes MacArthur and the lovely Christina Hendricks -- who is sadly never thrown bikini-clad into a bouncy house with a python -- deceased. Knoxville and Heigl are left to deal with the aftermath, which includes taking custody of the dead couple's child, Sophie, and moving in together, an unexpected progression for the series." - Dustin Rowles
You Again: "Now, onto the obligatory nitty gritty details of a story that, much like Bride Wars, involves spiteful, territorial behavior at a wedding. First, we meet poor little Kristen Bell as Marni, a complete high school nerd with spectacular acne, awful hair, and ill-fitting glasses to match.
You Again: "Now, onto the obligatory nitty gritty details of a story that, much like Bride Wars, involves spiteful, territorial behavior at a wedding. First, we meet poor little Kristen Bell as Marni, a complete high school nerd with spectacular acne, awful hair, and ill-fitting glasses to match.
- 2/8/2011
- by Intern Rusty
For a movie that in pre-release looked like nothing more than an atrociously boring James Cameron vanity flick, Sanctum isn't actually all that bad. I went into the movie fully prepared to hate it. Correction: I went into it already hating it. From the trailers you basically get five things:
there's a cave 3D James Cameron based on true events did we mention the cave?
This was my initial reaction to each of these:
What kind of monsters are in the cave? The 2D version is playing an hour before the 3D version, so you can keep the funky glasses and I can keep my other $5. When James Cameron strays from sci-fi, it wounds me. All films that feel the need to tell us they are based on true events are terrible. What do you mean there aren't monsters in the cave?
The film lives up to the abject disappointment...
there's a cave 3D James Cameron based on true events did we mention the cave?
This was my initial reaction to each of these:
What kind of monsters are in the cave? The 2D version is playing an hour before the 3D version, so you can keep the funky glasses and I can keep my other $5. When James Cameron strays from sci-fi, it wounds me. All films that feel the need to tell us they are based on true events are terrible. What do you mean there aren't monsters in the cave?
The film lives up to the abject disappointment...
- 2/4/2011
- by Steven Lloyd Wilson
"Iron Chef America" is one of those things I watch in the background while cooking or while I can't sleep late at night. I'm not talking about that unfortunate first attempt to translate Iron Chef into American sensibilities, the one that ran as a special and just featured Shatner in Alton Brown's position Shatnering all over the proceedings. There is a time and place for Shatnering, but it shouldn't be near food preparation.
The set up is simple and runs identically in every single episode, even down to the precise rendering of phrases and hand gestures. The Chairman introduces the challenging chef, asks if they are ready for the competition with some terrible pun, asks them to select which Iron Chef against whom they will compete, and then pronounces "let the battle begin" directing them towards the stage with a stabbing wave complete with whooshing sound effect.
Mark Dacascos...
The set up is simple and runs identically in every single episode, even down to the precise rendering of phrases and hand gestures. The Chairman introduces the challenging chef, asks if they are ready for the competition with some terrible pun, asks them to select which Iron Chef against whom they will compete, and then pronounces "let the battle begin" directing them towards the stage with a stabbing wave complete with whooshing sound effect.
Mark Dacascos...
- 2/2/2011
- by Steven Lloyd Wilson
Prisco wrote a series of fantastic articles over the last week on the set of genres with which we are cursed and blessed. You should go read them. Repeatedly. From different IP addresses. Not because the amount of cigarettes put out the soles of our feet are inversely proportional to the ad revenue we bring in or anything, but because between his words and the comments, each is an encapsulated summary of what works and doesn't work in each genre.
But why do we have genres in the first place? They are at face value just vague bins into which we toss stories. Spaceships? Science fiction. Swords? Fantasy. Guns? Action. Love? Romance. But there's more to genre than just the bins, even if that's all they originally were. They have rules and norms. In fancy-speak, genres have become reified in a sense, we've invested concrete meaning and structure in something abstract.
But why do we have genres in the first place? They are at face value just vague bins into which we toss stories. Spaceships? Science fiction. Swords? Fantasy. Guns? Action. Love? Romance. But there's more to genre than just the bins, even if that's all they originally were. They have rules and norms. In fancy-speak, genres have become reified in a sense, we've invested concrete meaning and structure in something abstract.
- 1/26/2011
- by Steven Lloyd Wilson
I'll say this for No Strings Attached, it's not as bad as When in Rome. Granted, there are dental operations done without anesthesia that aren't as bad as When in Rome, so it's not a major step up.
Ashton Kutcher plays Adam, the son of an aging television star who hates his father and wants to be a writer. "Be a writer" means that he works as a gopher on a "Glee" rip off and wrote a single script for an episode before the film starts. I emphasize that this was before the film to make sure you don't come away with the impression that the character actually does anything throughout the entire course of the movie, because that would be misleading.
Natalie Portman plays Emma, a doctor still in residency. She has daddy issues too and is thus afraid of commitment and unwilling to fall in love or even have a steady relationship.
Ashton Kutcher plays Adam, the son of an aging television star who hates his father and wants to be a writer. "Be a writer" means that he works as a gopher on a "Glee" rip off and wrote a single script for an episode before the film starts. I emphasize that this was before the film to make sure you don't come away with the impression that the character actually does anything throughout the entire course of the movie, because that would be misleading.
Natalie Portman plays Emma, a doctor still in residency. She has daddy issues too and is thus afraid of commitment and unwilling to fall in love or even have a steady relationship.
- 1/21/2011
- by Steven Lloyd Wilson
I wrote last year about getting rid of cable and just watching television through the Internet. It's been a smashing success, although the disappearance of a lot of episodes into Hulu Plus has left the concern that they are not so gradually lulling us into an outright pay model. I have the full intention of uber geeking out at some point and building a linux based media box so that via remote I can watch DVDs, internet video, Netflix instant, and live television with DVR capabilities. But that stuff takes time, so late at night when I can't sleep I flip channels through the dozen or so channels I get without cable. The funny thing is that I find myself watching a hell of a lot of PBS because the networks are simply dead zones late at night or on the weekend. Ah, PBS, supported by viewers like you, the...
- 1/19/2011
- by Steven Lloyd Wilson
As Steven Lloyd Wilson reported back in November, Steven Spielberg's ambitious television series, "Terra Nova," has been beset by production problems and massive delays. At this point, the show is slated to debut in May of this year and run through the summer. The show follows a family from the future (2149) as they travel back to the prehistoric era to save humanity, or step on butterflies, or something. Oh that's right, folks, here be dinos.
Fox (yup, yup, Fox, get your hankies ready, sci-fi fans) has released images of the cast and set. I have to say, they look pretty sweet. You can see all the photos and a full press release here, but I've amassed for you what I think are the top four, highly intellectual reasons you should tune in on May 11.
1. Jason O'Mara is rather dreamy and it's not his fault at all that "Life on Mars" was so bad.
Fox (yup, yup, Fox, get your hankies ready, sci-fi fans) has released images of the cast and set. I have to say, they look pretty sweet. You can see all the photos and a full press release here, but I've amassed for you what I think are the top four, highly intellectual reasons you should tune in on May 11.
1. Jason O'Mara is rather dreamy and it's not his fault at all that "Life on Mars" was so bad.
- 1/12/2011
- by Joanna Robinson
When Dustin asked all the writers to put together their top ten films of 2010, I was a bit hesitant.
"Should they be films released in theaters in 2010?" I asked.
"Of course, you ignorant carbuncle," Dustin said.
"Well that gets me seven, but what should I do about the last three?"
(Actually this conversation never occurred in this manner. It was far more abbreviated, less eloquent, and via email. But it's far more dramatic when recounted this way, don't you think?)
I watch a decent number of films each year, though nowhere near the prodigious input of Dan, Brian, and Dustin. A hundred and fifty films each! Two hundred! They went to the theater more times than I went to the bathroom. See, part of the problem is that theaters have some truly loathsome qualities. They are expensive, frequently contain people, and are outrageously hostile to a cup of coffee. Top...
"Should they be films released in theaters in 2010?" I asked.
"Of course, you ignorant carbuncle," Dustin said.
"Well that gets me seven, but what should I do about the last three?"
(Actually this conversation never occurred in this manner. It was far more abbreviated, less eloquent, and via email. But it's far more dramatic when recounted this way, don't you think?)
I watch a decent number of films each year, though nowhere near the prodigious input of Dan, Brian, and Dustin. A hundred and fifty films each! Two hundred! They went to the theater more times than I went to the bathroom. See, part of the problem is that theaters have some truly loathsome qualities. They are expensive, frequently contain people, and are outrageously hostile to a cup of coffee. Top...
- 1/5/2011
- by Steven Lloyd Wilson
10. The Client List: Uh oh -- the Lo-Ho family is in financial straits -- hubby has a bum knee (I know because they've already it said three times), and the bank manager is a jerk. J-Lo-Ho flashes cleavage to try and convince him to help. I'm not sure how people are going to end up shocked when she ends up hooking. She's complaining about sub-prime loans -- gosh, Lifetime is so topical! My God, this movie is chock full of sexist stereotypes. Mrs. Tk has described it as "some of the most fantastically one-dimensional stereotypes I've ever seen in my television-watching life." She's not incorrect. J-Lo-Ho and her friends (the Skinny Friend, the Blond Friend, and the Black Friend) just spent five minutes complaining about how men only want sex. I've never wanted to Human Centipede three people more. -- Tk
9. Skyline: Skyline is perhaps the worst movie I...
9. Skyline: Skyline is perhaps the worst movie I...
- 1/4/2011
- by Dustin Rowles
It really is a slow news day people, so let's venture into rumor territory. It's a Monday, the first day back to work and school and we're all fairly miserable so I picked the prettiest rumor I could find.
We know Ron Howard is going to make Stephen King's The Dark Tower through a combination of films and television. We know Steven Lloyd Wilson is both horrified and intrigued by this idea. And we know there will be casting rumors every week from now until production on the project starts. Or will there? Because according to the NY Post, Javier Bardem is currently the favorite to play gunslinger Roland Deschain, with Viggo Mortensen next in line. (Note to self: I've got to get in the middle of that sandwich.)
I submit photos of these two fine, strapping men for your consideration.
(I like Javier's little tear; he already knows...
We know Ron Howard is going to make Stephen King's The Dark Tower through a combination of films and television. We know Steven Lloyd Wilson is both horrified and intrigued by this idea. And we know there will be casting rumors every week from now until production on the project starts. Or will there? Because according to the NY Post, Javier Bardem is currently the favorite to play gunslinger Roland Deschain, with Viggo Mortensen next in line. (Note to self: I've got to get in the middle of that sandwich.)
I submit photos of these two fine, strapping men for your consideration.
(I like Javier's little tear; he already knows...
- 1/3/2011
- by Cindy Davis
Steven Lloyd Wilson came up with this idea, another means to idle some time away as the year comes to an end. Below are the 25 most long-winded commenters of 2010, which is to say: The 25 with the highest word count.
For comparison's sake, note these word count statistics from Wikipedia:
Novel: over 40,000 words
Novella: 17,500 to 40,000 words
Novelette: 7,500 to 17,500 words
Short story: under 7,500 words
I appreciate you devoting those words to us, instead.
1. Robert: 101,936 words.
2. figgy: 97,634 words
3. superasente: 95,380 words
4. ,: 84,199: words
5. PaddyDog: 70,829 words
6. Kballs: 69,239 words
7. Yossarian: 65,288 words
8. Slash: 64,686 words
9. TylerDFC: 64,494 words
10. D-Day: 61,630 words
11. Mm: 61,342 words
12. DarthCorleone: 60,800 words
13. RobP: 57,956 words
14. Jo 'Mama' Besser: 57,893 words
15. idleprimate: 56,605 words
16. Mrs. Julien: 56,384 words
17. BWeaves: 55,945 words
18. Nadine: 54,524 words
19. Fredo: 52,549 words
20. bleujayone: 42,407 words
21. Kayanne: 42,045 words
22. BierceAmbrose: 38,743 words
23. BarbadoSlim: 38,328
24. admin: 37,754 words
25. Cindy: 36,969 words...
For comparison's sake, note these word count statistics from Wikipedia:
Novel: over 40,000 words
Novella: 17,500 to 40,000 words
Novelette: 7,500 to 17,500 words
Short story: under 7,500 words
I appreciate you devoting those words to us, instead.
1. Robert: 101,936 words.
2. figgy: 97,634 words
3. superasente: 95,380 words
4. ,: 84,199: words
5. PaddyDog: 70,829 words
6. Kballs: 69,239 words
7. Yossarian: 65,288 words
8. Slash: 64,686 words
9. TylerDFC: 64,494 words
10. D-Day: 61,630 words
11. Mm: 61,342 words
12. DarthCorleone: 60,800 words
13. RobP: 57,956 words
14. Jo 'Mama' Besser: 57,893 words
15. idleprimate: 56,605 words
16. Mrs. Julien: 56,384 words
17. BWeaves: 55,945 words
18. Nadine: 54,524 words
19. Fredo: 52,549 words
20. bleujayone: 42,407 words
21. Kayanne: 42,045 words
22. BierceAmbrose: 38,743 words
23. BarbadoSlim: 38,328
24. admin: 37,754 words
25. Cindy: 36,969 words...
- 12/31/2010
- by Dustin Rowles
Yesterday, in unveiling the 10 Bitchiest Commenters of 2010, I noted that we used to rank the most prolific commenters each year but that, with 430,000 comments in the system, it would no longer be feasible. I was wrong. Steven Lloyd Wilson showed me how to do it on the site's Mysql database (which I like to pronounce My Squall to annoy programmer types). Steven Lloyd Wilson is some kind of genius. Seriously, people -- most of you probably don't realize how incredibly brilliant Slw is: You know he's got a Master's in Engineering, a Master's in History, and he's currently enrolled in a Ph.D. program from political science? Dude's got both sides of the brain covered.
Anyway, once he showed me how, it took about 30 seconds to come up with the list of the Most Prolific Commenters of 2010, which thus allows me to name check everyone who commented more than 200 times this year (sorry,...
Anyway, once he showed me how, it took about 30 seconds to come up with the list of the Most Prolific Commenters of 2010, which thus allows me to name check everyone who commented more than 200 times this year (sorry,...
- 12/29/2010
- by Dustin Rowles
When I told Dustin that I was thinking of doing a year in review for science fiction, I had in mind a sweeping discussion of the genre. I envisioned an embarrassment of riches, an article easy to make long and difficult to make concise. Then I pulled down a list of the science fiction films that hit theaters this year, and started to have that plummeting feeling in my stomach, that one that detonates when you realize that you've finished half the exam but there are only ten minutes left in the hour.
I started pulling off the ones that might technically be science fiction, but really fit within a different genre more cleanly. Megamind really fit the animated kids genre more precisely. Iron Man 2 has all the power armor that science fiction loves, but just squarely falls into the realm of comic books. Splice felt more horror than...
I started pulling off the ones that might technically be science fiction, but really fit within a different genre more cleanly. Megamind really fit the animated kids genre more precisely. Iron Man 2 has all the power armor that science fiction loves, but just squarely falls into the realm of comic books. Splice felt more horror than...
- 12/29/2010
- by Steven Lloyd Wilson
Tron is a visual masterpiece. It is also inexplicably derivative and boring.
The funny thing is that the best parts of the movie are in the first half hour, before the characters even get to the world inside the computers. It's got the wonderful setup of Flynn disappearing in the middle of the night and his son Sam growing up to become something of an anarcho-libretarian hacker even while living off of his controlling stock in Encom, his Dad's company grown into an obvious Microsoft analog. And because the strength of capitalism is that it systematically coopts any revolutionary impulse into being part of the system, we get to have Disney pictures make a film spouting the hacker ethos of information needing to be free even while Mickey stays out of the public domain until the sun burns to a cinder. Irony aside, the set up portion of the film works.
The funny thing is that the best parts of the movie are in the first half hour, before the characters even get to the world inside the computers. It's got the wonderful setup of Flynn disappearing in the middle of the night and his son Sam growing up to become something of an anarcho-libretarian hacker even while living off of his controlling stock in Encom, his Dad's company grown into an obvious Microsoft analog. And because the strength of capitalism is that it systematically coopts any revolutionary impulse into being part of the system, we get to have Disney pictures make a film spouting the hacker ethos of information needing to be free even while Mickey stays out of the public domain until the sun burns to a cinder. Irony aside, the set up portion of the film works.
- 12/17/2010
- by Steven Lloyd Wilson
Tossed off a boat with a thousand others, no training, no equipment, no camaraderie. Only a tattered uniform on their backs, sometimes recycled ones stripped off of the dead. There are not enough guns, cheap little five shot rifles that the howling uniforms lucky enough to be behind the lines toss to every other man shoved off of the boats. One for every two, they say. The one with the gun shoots, the one without follows. If the first dies, the second picks up the gun. The masses are shoved forward, no brave sentiment and calls to country in their hearts, only animal terror. They turn to run, to swim across the half frozen river if they must, but are stopped by the machine guns of their own soldiers. Cannon to the front of them, cannon behind. The only way out is through fire, whether their own or their enemy's.
- 12/16/2010
- by Steven Lloyd Wilson
Everybody knows that everything was better when they were kids. Movies, television, breakfast cereal, it's all better when you're eight. It has absolutely nothing to do with remembering things as better than they were at the time, right? Well, thanks to a little database work and some graphs, we can test out that theory on the movies of our childhoods. As long as by childhood you mean after the eighties, because that's how far back the data goes.
The raw data here is from Box Office Mojo, and is composed of each movie in their database back to 1982, along with the genre of the film and what its average grade is among users. For ease of calculating averages, I've just converted the grades into a standard 4 point scale (where 4 is an A, 3 is a B, etc.).
The first graph we've got is the average grade of all movies in the database broken down by year.
The raw data here is from Box Office Mojo, and is composed of each movie in their database back to 1982, along with the genre of the film and what its average grade is among users. For ease of calculating averages, I've just converted the grades into a standard 4 point scale (where 4 is an A, 3 is a B, etc.).
The first graph we've got is the average grade of all movies in the database broken down by year.
- 12/8/2010
- by Steven Lloyd Wilson
As you've probably figured out from this weird week of content, there's fuckall going on these days in Hollywood. December means little news, and bracing yourself for shitty holiday pictures, award season, and the inevitable January/February dead zone where all of the cinematic garbage gets dumped upon us.
But there's still some nuggets to be found, and since we all love horror movies (we do, don't we? Anyone who doesn't gets hit in the face with my car), here are a few of the lesser-known, but still interesting trailers out there.
First, a music video of sorts for the Norwegian film Troll Hunter that Steven Lloyd Wilson first mentioned a couple of months ago. Goddamn, this movie looks fun.
Next, the trailer for the very low-budget-looking, but still pretty goddamn freaky Luster, starring Billy Burke (known for playing Bella's dad and one of the few decent actors in Twilight...
But there's still some nuggets to be found, and since we all love horror movies (we do, don't we? Anyone who doesn't gets hit in the face with my car), here are a few of the lesser-known, but still interesting trailers out there.
First, a music video of sorts for the Norwegian film Troll Hunter that Steven Lloyd Wilson first mentioned a couple of months ago. Goddamn, this movie looks fun.
Next, the trailer for the very low-budget-looking, but still pretty goddamn freaky Luster, starring Billy Burke (known for playing Bella's dad and one of the few decent actors in Twilight...
- 12/2/2010
- by TK
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