tumbledry

Movie: Wanted

Check out a bit of a plot summary for this movie Wanted:

25-year-old Wes (James McAvoy) was the most disaffected, cube-dwelling drone the planet had ever known. His boss chewed him out hourly, his girlfriend ignored him routinely and his life plodded on interminably. Everyone was certain this disengaged slacker would amount to nothing. There was little else for Wes to do but wile away the days and die in his slow, clock-punching rut. Until he met a woman named Fox (Angelina Jolie). After his estranged father is murdered, the deadly sexy Fox recruits Wes into the Fraternity, a secret society that trains Wes to avenge his dad’s death by unlocking his dormant powers. As she teaches him how to develop lightning-quick reflexes and phenomenal agility, Wes discovers this team lives by an ancient, unbreakable code: carry out the death orders given by fate itself.

Continued

Location Scout

Sam Rohn has one of the coolest jobs I can possibly imagine:

I am a location scout & location manager for television commercials, music video & still photography, feature films, episodic TV, etc - working primarily in the new york area for the last 14 years or so

Continued

Koyaanisqatsi

Godfrey Reggio’s Koyaanisqatsi is a cult film I think I might enjoy:

The film consists primarily of slow motion and time-lapse photography of cities and natural landscapes across the United States. The visual tone poem contains neither dialogue nor a vocalized narration: its tone is set by the juxtaposition of images and music. In the Hopi language, the word Koyaanisqatsi means ‘crazy life, life in turmoil, life out of balance, life disintegrating, a state of life that calls for another way of living’, and the film implies that modern humanity is living in such a way.

Continued

Movies from Hell

The Guardian comes to us with a little article called “From hell,” which explores the worst movies ever made. It was written in part to discuss a recent movie made by a certain socialite who will remain nameless — it contains an absolutely fabulous sentence:

Continued

1 comment left

Netflix Algorithm

Ahh, where to start. Well, Netflix (your favorite place to rent movies online, receive them through your mail, then mail them back) has been hosting a competition for a while now. The object is to come up with an algorithm to make helpful suggestions for what a person should rent, based on their rental history. Think of it this way: teams are given access to 2+ gigabytes of data. Within this data are many anonymous movie rental histories. So, let’s say you have a history of 30 rentals from one person. The goal of the competition is to examine the first 15 rentals, then correctly predict a percentage of the next 15 rentals.

Continued

2 comments left

Monopolies Suck

A short piece in which I continually widen the scope of the issues addressed.

The fact that I have precisely one choice for high speed internet in the capital city of Minnesota irks me to no end. For someone who will return to higher education and is currently freelancing doing webdesign, high speed internet is a need, not a want. So, I must pay what Comcast asks, and I have no other choice. As I said in the title, this sucks. Could it get any worse? I’m stuck as a customer of a coercive monopoly so… of course it could get worse. Read on.

Continued

4 comments left

Dragon Movies

Guy talking to his girlfriend at Blockbuster: “See, this one has dragons in it. Every movie is better with dragons. What movie have you seen with dragons in it that you didn’t like?”

1 comment left

Movies: Cloverfield

Here’s the holding page for forthcoming reviews of the scary movie Cloverfield. Quick summary:

Five young New Yorkers throw their friend a going-away party the night that a monster the size of a skyscraper descends upon the city. Told from the point of view of their video camera, the film is a document of their attempt to survive the most surreal, horrifying event of their lives.

Continued

Movie: Atonement

Yesterday, I saw the movie Atonement. For those of you curious about the movie and who also want a vocabulary work out, take a read through the Washington Post’s review by Ann Hornaday. Now, though I still have yet to decide if I liked the movie or was merely enchanted by the cinematography, there is one flat-out great shot in the movie which I can not forget.

Continued

Ebert & A Spot O’ Movies

I once read in some extended piece about Roger Ebert that writing never came with any sort of difficulty for him. Apparently, he’d come in to the office, sit down for a certain amount of time, and stand up with a finished column in hand. Part of this ability surely stems from the fact that he is truly someone who loves movies. From this great love has grown great knowledge of cinema — so what I really appreciate about his writing is his subtle incorporation of that knowledge. While our local yokel movie reviewer always hits you over the head with movies he has seen by name-dropping a slew of films, Ebert incorporates the experiences gained from other films, not necessarily their titles. Therefore, I am inclined to trust his review of the psychological thriller Awake. Ebert’s conclusion, I believe, speaks to his experience as a reviewer:

Continued

7 comments left

The Namesake

VideoETA says that The Namesake will be released on November 27, 2007. When that date comes, you should see this movie. For those who have no idea of what I am talking about, the Chicago Sun-Times had a good review when The Namesake was first released in the US.

Simpsons Reviews

An update from Metacritic, on the eve of the release of The Simpsons Movie: it is slotting in between Hot Fuzz and Knocked up, sporting a strong rating of “82.” This is high enough to merit the movie “universal acclaim.”

Continued

Electric Boogaloo

Always useful for trivia and popular culture, here comes Wikipedia, about Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo:

Since the release of the film, the unusual title suffix “Electric Boogaloo,” a reference to a funk-oriented dance style from the 1970s, has become a running joke concerning movie sequels.

It has also been used to lampoon the actual name of a sequel when it is found to be ridiculous or disappointing.

Continued

Solaris

I’m thinking strongly about seeing the movie Solaris, whose plot revolves around an unknown force that makes manifest people using only the memories from others. Roger Ebert made a striking point in his review of the 2002 version:

Continued

2 comments left

The Fickle Perception of Beauty

The art and science of photograph manipulation and retouching has been evolving for years. And by “years,” I mean for around 150 years. Consider the first example from that link above: Abraham Lincoln’s head is the only original part from Lincoln—his body comes from another photograph of John C. Calhoun. Want to talk about tasteless? How about grafting the head of Lincoln, the man integral to the Emancipation Proclamation, onto the body of a guy famous for his pro-slavery opinions?

Continued

3 comments left

Superbad: Supergood?

The premise behind this upcoming film isn’t too hard to summarize, but since I haven’t seen the preview more than once, I’ll leave it up to Cinematical.

Superbad’s poster does a good job of summing up what the film is about—two awkward kids who are “superbad,” or more accurately, co-dependent and full of separation anxiety when they get accepted to different colleges. With badass 70’s fonts and a trailer that pipes out Van Halen’s Panama, it’s pretty obvious who this flick is meant for.

Continued

1 comment left

Hot Fuzz

I think I’m going to see the movie Hot Fuzz this evening. I’m pretty excited, it’s from “the guys who watched every action movie ever made and brought you Shaun of the Dead,” and it looks pretty funny. Metacritic shows that most reviewers like the movie, rating it an 80, which places it right between Volver and Little Miss Sunshine. Oh, and there’s this scene where the more portly cop crashes through a fence while trying to take a shortcut. I’m a sucker for physical comedy. I’m also a sucker for cool graphic design, and the logo-type thing for the movie is fantastic.

11 comments left

And Once More

Back from the iTunes dead, as it were, the song “The A La Menthe” has been getting heavy rotation lately. And yes, for once you can listen to a song I am raving about … along with the incredible movie sequence it accompanies. Thanks to Ryan Markoe for the original tip on this song, long ago (ok, a year or two ago).

Continued

Mighty Girl on “The Holiday”

Mighty Girl on “The Holiday” - I reproduce Mighty Girl’s key point here, not to dilute her words, but to inspire you to click on to her excellent blog (which, incidentally, has the best tagline I’ve ever read).

Continued

SpongeBob Quote

His chops are too righteous. The helmets can’t handle this level of rock ‘n’ roll.

— Plankton, in The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie

More