movies

When Grown-ups Went To See Films About Grown-ups

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The NYT Magazine had an article about how divorce sucks much more than how popular culture is now representing it few weeks back and it included an interesting sidebar about one of the most famous divorce movies ever – “Kramer Vs. Kramer”
The net/net is that it seems that we’ve regressed a bit, which is pretty obvious if you look at fashion these days: 50 year olds and 15 year olds are both in jeans and sneaks.

“Of the many notable things about ‘Kramer vs. Kramer’ – nine Oscar nominations, five wins – perhaps the most surprising is this: It was the highest-grossing film of 1979.” To repeat: ‘Kramer vs. Kramer,’ a film about divorce, was the highest-grossing film related that year. To further illustrate how tastes in blockbusters has, er, evolved, here are the five top-grossing films of 1979 and the five top-grossing films of 2010:”

1979 2010
“Kramer Vs. Kramer” Toy Story 3
Rocky II Alice in Wonderland
Star Trek – The Motion Picture Iron Man 2
Alien The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
Apocalypse Now Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1

‘Nuff said.

art

Star Wars Photo Fantasies

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I’ve been meaning to post this for a few month’s now. The artist Cedric Delsaux uses his own pictures of cityscapes as the backgrounds for sci-fi fantasies and then digitally inserts Star Wars film characters into his urban realms. The artist’s Dark Lens series started out with his views of warehouses, harbors, and industrial spaces in the suburbs of Paris. He found those pictures a little too ordinary so he then added Darth Vader, R2-D2, Jabba the Hutt, and other Star Wars figures and vehicles to the settings and presto: they were suddenly fantastic!
Cedric Delsaux's "Dark Lens"
From Paris he continued the series in Lille — a medieval city in France — and then Dubai. In case you were wondering, he had the blessing of George Lucas (which has been notoriously tough to get in the past). While the gallery show at Galerie ACTE 2 in Paris is now over, the first link in this post shows you 15 different and great photos. Enjoy.
Via Flavorwire

humor

A Winning Lexicon

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First off, I like many people, such as Darren Franich at Entertainment Weekly am completely and utterly obsessed with Mr. Charlie Sheen. Franich nailed by writing,

“In just a matter of days, Sheen has already become a kind of Internet Megameme — he’s like the perfect combination of Chuck Norris and the Double Rainbow guy, with just a touch of Dramatic Chipmunk.

Speaking of the megameme, he claimed a twitter account and in only a single day amassed over 1,000,000 followers. I just logged in and am following him and he’s now up to 1,076,858 followers. I now use Twitter to follow Phish’s set lists as they happen and Sheen’s words.
Next, keeping the winning theme going, Judy Berman at “Flavorpill” has been nice enough to compile of list of all the winning words and phrases that Charlie Sheen has uttered recently. As she put it,

His language is a thing of wonder, oscillating between slang we haven’t heard since the early ’90s, hybrid terms ripped from the pages of fantasy novels, and words he has completely and totally re-appropriated (e.g., “winning”).

His phrases blow “I’m taking my talents to South Beach” completely out of the water. I have already started to use a few of his phrases in my own life and already am winning more than I used to. I know that it’s too bad that no one else but me can be on the drug known as Jeff Lipson but that’s for everyone’s benefit, because obviously you wouldn’t be able to handle it – your face would melt off and your children would weep over your exploded body.
So, without further ado, the words and wisdom of Mr. Sheen:
Adonis DNA
n. Along with tiger blood, the building blocks of a Charlie Sheen.
“I will not believe that if I do something then I have to follow a certain path because it was written for normal people. People who aren’t special. People who don’t have tiger blood and Adonis DNA.”
Bitchin’
adj. Beyond awesome.
“I’m tired of pretending I’m not a total bitchin’ rock star from Mars.” (Paging David Bowie — don’t you own that one, bro?)
Charlie Sheen
n. Totally bitchin’, incredibly expensive drug that will probably kill you.
“I am on a drug. It’s called Charlie Sheen. It’s not available. If you try it once, you will die. Your face will melt off and your children will weep over your exploded body.”
Cryptology
n. The science of understanding WTF is going on with Charlie Sheen.
“Read behind the frickin’ hieroglyphics… this is cryptology.”
Duh
n. A term that gained popularity in the last two decades of the 20th century meaning, roughly, “Everybody knows that.”
“Duh, winning! It’s, like, guys, IMDb right there, 62 movies and a ton of success. I mean, c’mon bro, I won best picture at 20. I wasn’t even trying. I wasn’t even warm.”
Gnarly
adj. Intense, fucked up.
“[I]t got so gnarly that Stan just went, ‘I’m out.’ That’s fine. That’s how I roll. And if it’s too gnarly for people, then buh-bye. There’s the freakin’ door, you know?”
Goddess
n. One of two women who fell from the heavens (or the strip-club stage, whatever) to fulfill Sheen’s every need.
“I’m not saying that it’s not true. But I’m laughing. And I’m laughing with the goddesses, I’m laughing with my friends.”
Mercury surfboard
n. Charlie Sheen’s vehicle of choice.
“It’s been a tsunami of media. And I’ve been riding it on a mercury surfboard. Right off the bat, sorry.”
Troll
n. Person who has Twitter account and/or understands how to use the internet.
“You look at some of these retarded zombies, these trolls that roll out of there and heading back for the rock to crawl back under before the sun peeks out — and they’re putting so much stock into the words and the thoughts and, as I have said, the gibberish of fools, and not checking anything with me.”
Warlock
n. Male witch, like Charlie Sheen.
“We are high priest Vatican assassin warlocks. Boom! Print that, people.”
Winning
n. The only thing Charlie Sheen is addicted to. Widely believed to be a more potent form of crack cocaine.
“I’m so tired of pretending like my life isn’t just perfect and just winning every second, and I’m not just perfect and bitchin’ and just delivering the goods at every frickin’ turn.”

movies

Winning!

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I’ve gone from “not caring” to “totally obsessed” with Charlie Sheen in the past 36 hours. While its been proven that he hasn’t had any “foreign substances” in his body for the past 72 hours, I think that whatever toxins he’s been putting into his system for the past few years are just leeching out now and making him flat out crazy. That being said, I cannot decide if it’s crack or meth that is driving his craziness. My co-worker thinks its crack based on his gravelly voice. Regardless of what is driving his quotes and antics, I must say that they are awfully entertaining (his anti-Semitic diatribe aside). For instance, I’m never going to look at the term “winning!” the same way again.
My favorite quotes of his thus far are:

  • “I am on a drug, it’s called Charlie Sheen. It’s not available because if you try it you will die. Your face will melt off and your children will weep over your exploded body.”
  • “I’m tired of pretending I’m not a total bitchin’ rock star from Mars.”
  • “What’s not to love? Especially when you see how I party. It was epic. The run I was on made Sinatra, Flynn, Jagger, Richards just look like droopy-eyed armless children.”

In case you’ve been in a hole, here are a few Sheen related news links for you to catch up on what’s been happening. These articles will have “related news” links at the bottom that you can click through to read up on all of the nuttiness…

movies

Too Many Fall Movies 2010

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I still haven’t really seen any of the movies I wanted to watch for over a year now but they just keep cranking them out. In no order, here is what I want to see: Catfish, Devil, Leaves of Grass, The Town, Enter the Void, Red, Howl, The Social Network, Tamara Drewe, The Hungry Ghosts, Black Swan, How Do You Know, True Grit, The Debt, Wall Street.

movies

The Future is Now

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5 HOURS POST POSTING UPDATE: Before you read the post below, please know that I now know I was had.


It’s always scary when things that seem at one time so far away actually arrive because it shows how fast time can move. To quote a poem I wrote awhile ago, “I merely blinked and then years had passed by.”
I’m sure that this speed issue came into play for those who watched “2001: A Space Odyssey” in the late 1960’s and lived to see the year 2001 arrive. I’m sure they were shocked at how little overall things had changed. Yes, technology had advanced but not to the tune it was prophesied in that movie.
While I wasn’t around in the 1960’s, I was around in 1989 when I watched Marty McFly traveled forward in time at the urging of Doc Brown to help his future self with his future kids. The date that he chose to travel to 21 years ago? Why, it’s today silly! Check out the Delorean’s controls below:
BTTF2
So, where is flying car and hoverboard?!
As an aside, my friend Erik and I worked at Topps Appliance City in Westbury, Long Island together during the summer of 1997 and watched this movie four times a day during our eight hour shift at the electronics counter. At one point I had the movie completely memorized and one of the best quotes from it is an exchange between Old and New Biff that I’ve listed for you below. Enjoy!

Young Biff: Why don’t you make like a tree and get out of here?
Old Biff: It’s *leave*, you idiot! “Make like a tree, and leave.” You sound like a damn fool when you say it wrong.
Young Biff: All right then, LEAVE! And take your book with you!

movies

Too Many Summer Movies 2010

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Just in time for the summer blockbuster season is my list of movies that I will hopefully see either in the theatre or much more likely on my television screen at home. This is the fourth time I’ve made such a list and its been very helpful in remembering what movies I (at least at some point) wanted to see.
In updating these previous posts to cross off the movies I’ve actually seen, I was disappointed to note that I only saw 1 out of the 11 films I wanted to see over this past holiday season. Also, in the process of checking up on my viewing progress, I decided to rename two previous posts where the word “Winter” was replaced by “Holiday” as these movies covered the 2009/2010 holiday season and not winter (which is technically December 21st through March 21st).
So, here in order of release, here the 37 (!) films that I would like to watch this coming summer season: The Infidel, Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll, Babies (playing at “The Paris” – I hope to see it there as I’ve never been to that classic movie house before), Iron Man 2, Robin Hood, After the Cup: Sons of Sahknin United, Holy Rollers, Macgruber, Perrier’s Bounty, Solitary Man, Sex and the City 2, Agora, Micmacs, The Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, Get Him To The Greek, Killers, Whiz Kids, The A-Team, Jonah Hex, The Last Airbender, Twelve (must read book first), Cyrus, Despicable Me, Predators, Inception (new by Christopher Nolan – one of my favorite directors), Dinner for Schmucks (also known as any holiday meal – I kid, I kid…), Life During Wartime, Centurion, The Other Guys, Animal Kingdom, Down Terrace, The Expendables (starring Sly Stallone, Dolph Lundgren, Eric Roberts and Mickey Rourke – I am not making this up), Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, A Film Unfinished, The Freebie, The American, Born To Be A Star

art

Pixel Perfect

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When you receive a video from two different people who found it on two different sites, you know its probably going to be good. That’s what happened today with the video “Pixels” by Patrick Jean which is embedded below.
First, I received an email from a friend with a subject line that read “Very cool video” but I was too busy to watch. Then, later while at work, I received a company-wide email that was sent by a co-worker which only had a subject line that read “Pixels.” Someone responded a few minutes later with “That was dope” so I watched and agreed – it was dope. After watching the video, I then went back to my buddy’s email and sure enough, it was a link to the same thing.
So, check out the video below and let me know what is your favorite part. Mine is the Tetris scene. ‘Nuff said.

PIXELS by PATRICK JEAN.
Uploaded by onemoreprod. – Discover more animation and arts videos.
UPDATE: My RSS feed had an article from the NY Daily News about how Pixels is burning up the Net
Via Neu and Erick

art

12,000-Faceted Diamond

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The NY Times has all sorts of specialty blogs devoted to different topics and their Lens Blog – which features photography, video and journalism – just had a great post which tells the story of the Yankees recent World Series victory in time lapse photography – 12,000 shots to be exact. Sick.
Mr. Caplin, who is just 26, said he wanted the montage to seem as if it had been made a hundred years ago — “You know when you look back at old movie footage and they were cranking it? And it was really jumpy and slightly faster than normal?” The game is played to Chopin’s Waltz No. 5, a score Mr. Caplin chose to complement the antique sensibility of the piece.
I love the punny way that diamond – baseball and jewels – has been used. I love the movie and itself. Hopefully you will too. Happy Friday.

movies

Too Many Holiday Movies 2009

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Just in time for the holiday season is my list of movies that I will hopefully see either in the theatre or much more likely on my television screen at home. This is the third time I’ve made such a list and its been helpful in remembering what movies I at least at some point wanted to see. I add “at some point” because Speed Racer was on my “Too Many Summer Movies 2008” list and I do not think that I will ever watch that drek.
So, here in no particular order are the 11 films I would like to watch this coming holiday season: The Fourth Kind, The Men Who Stare At Goats, Precious, Pirate Radio, Up in the Air, The Slammin’ Salmon, Avatar, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Sherlock Holmes, Me and Orson Welles, The Book of Eli.
The two that I’m most excited are Avatar because I just cannot wait to see if/how James Cameron transformed the movie experience (which is something some critics are saying he did – I mean, he did make Aliens, T2 and Titanic) and The Slammin’ Salmon because its from the “Broken Lizard” comedy troupe who also made Super Troopers, Club Dread and Beerfest, some of the funniest movies that have been made over the last decade.
Like how I’ve done it in the past, when I see a movie, I’ll cross it off the list and possibly write a review blurb as well.
UPDATE: I went to see an Avatar 3D IMAX showing back over the holidays and it just blew my mind. I literally needed about a day to recover. Ever come in from the backyard into a house on a really bright, sunny day and feel that everything in the house is just washed out colorwise? Things look faded, not as sharp, and it takes your eyes a few minutes to adjust to the dimmer indoor light before you see that the couch is still the same, the carpet is still the same, etc. Well, after witnessing this 3D extravaganza, I looked at the real world for about 24 hours the same way – it felt washed out and faded. I basically had to strong arm my buddy Erik to come along with me (and boy was he glad he did) and while the movie had been out for weeks already, when we got there about 45 min early there already was a ridiculously long line. After seeing the movie, I could understand why and I feel that the hype, and ticket sales, were justified. James Cameron is responsible for about 12 billion dollars of movie ticket sales with just two movies – Avatar and Titanic. Sick.