The Seventeenth Drop-- What Happened to Comedy?

You love comedy films don't you?  Who doesn't like to sit down in front of a screen for an hour or so and get a few cheap laughs?  Well I must say that I, personally, have become disappointed with comedy in recent years.  Films like The Hangover or Superbad just don't deliver the kinds of clever laughs that a good comedy does.  They rely on language and low brow sex and drug jokes and have nearly no clever commentary or anything.  In this post, I'll try to talk about some classic comedic films and the various sub-genres of comedy and perhaps talk about some modern popular comedies.  Here we go.

Comedy can be a lot of things, it can be light hearted, it can have a message, it can have social commentary, it can be combined with almost any other kind of genre and it's one of the oldest genres of film ever.  There are tons of comedy types and I intend to let you know about them.

First is the anarchic comedy, which uses stream-of-consciousness and nonsensical humor that spoofs authority.  A lot of the action of the film focuses on non sequitur and often abandons narrative and plot for absurdity.  It uses a lot of other aspects of comedy like farce and slapstick, however, unlike like slapstick it doesn't necessarily focus on violence.  Some examples of this is Duck Soup, Sherlock, Jr, Monty Python and The Holy Grail, and Ace Ventura.

Next up is farce.  Farce uses unlikely situations and verbal humor like sexual innuendo.  It generally has a happy ending.  Films like this are The Pink Panther, Never Give a Sucker an Even Break and The Love Bug.

One of the most popular sub-genres of comedy, especially early on, is slapstick.  This is a type of comedy that draws humor from over-exaggerated violence and nonsensical activities.  There are five conventions of slapstick, pain without consequence, unrealistic situations due to editing, impossible situations, confusing zooms, and off screen sounds.  Some examples of slapstick films are Shawn of The Dead, MouseHunt, Scary Movie, nearly every Three Stooges film.  Slapstick was largely employed by the likes of Charlie Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy, The Marx Brothers, The Keystone Cops, and can also be seen in cartoons like Tom and Jerry.


Another style that is equally as popular is the "fish out of water" comedy.  This is usually where the main character finds themselves in situations where they don't really fit.  Films like these include Some Like It Hot, Big, "Crocodile" Dundee, Tootsie and most Coen Brothers films like The Big Lebowski.

A less common form is called a comedy of manners.  This is where a social group or class is satirized by a stereotypical character.  This is used a lot in mockumentaries like The Office.

Parody or spoof is another style of comedy, it satirizes, uses stereotypes, and mocks scenes of other movies and uses sarcasm.  More or less it makes fun of other things in culture.  Examples, Young Frankenstein, Scary Movie, Blazing Saddles (in fact nearly every Mel Brooks movie), Dark Star, Monty Python and The Holy Grail, UHF, or Austin Powers.


One of my favorite forms of comedy film are black comedies.  These satirize "taboo" subjects and dark subjects like death, murder, suicide, sexual relations, war, insanity, crime, or drug abuse.  A lot of the Coen Brothers' comedies are like this.  Other films that include black comedy are Arsenic and Old Lace, Dr. Strangelove: or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, MASH, or Brazil.

The romantic comedy is about a relationship between a man and a woman (or in very few cases a man and a man/a woman and a woman) and consists of light hearted humor due to sexual tension and general interaction.  Generally the plots end with the couple getting back together after one loses the other.  This is a very common style of comedy and is generally known as a "chick flick" (but I'm sure you know that).  Films like this include Annie Hall, Pretty Woman and Love and Other Drugs.

There's also a style of comedy known as the "gross out" comedy that focuses on vulgarity, profanity, sexual humor or "toilet" humor.  It uses shock value and is generally controversial.  The films in this sub-genre are Pink Flamingos, There's Something About Mary, Animal House, American Pie, or Dumb and Dumber.

Screwball comedy is another form of comedy but is usually combined with nearly all other forms of comedy.  It generally includes quick and witty dialogue, role reversal and happy endings.  One example of this is What's Up, Doc?


There are also buddy films, that generally include two characters that either get along or do not and learn to love one another by going through odd happenings.  They also happen on the road at times, two characters that are forced to work together to get somewhere and go through ridiculous circumstances.  Films like Due Date, Road to Singapore (and all of the Road to... films), and Planes, Trains and Automobiles are all examples of this.

Now there are many transitional genres like action comedy, comedy horror, military comedy, sci-fi comedy, western comedy, dramady, and fantasy comedy.  These are all either comedy films that include other genres or other films that have aspects of comedy.

I think it is time to discuss some of the good comedy films. Films that are actually clever and comedic. Where will I get these films you might ask? Well there's this little group called the American Film Institute, they regularly release film based "best of" lists and of course they have one for the top 100 comedies, so I'll go through a few of those and talk about them.

The number one comedy film on AFI's top 100 comedy list is Some Like It Hot. The film stars Marilyn Monroe, Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis. The film is a classic in comedy cinema, it's the beginning of the edgy comedy. It was a film that involved violence (from the mob), two men in drag (which was taboo at that time), and the sex symbol of Monroe. It popularized the use of taboos in comedy and was really clever about it, it had a lot of social commentary to it also, it went deeper than a lot of comedic films but still kept it light hearted and brought a lot of star power. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053291/synopsis
http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2371683353/

Number three on the list is one of my personal favorites, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love The Bomb.  This is Stanley Kubrick's wonderfully executed commentary on nuclear warfare.  It features a wonderful performance by Peter Sellers, who plays three different roles in the film, including the zany ex-Nazi Dr. Strangelove.  The film has been called "culturally significant" and it truly is.  It has excellent comedy, one of the finest Peter Sellers performances ever, and a spot on commentary of the absurdity of nuclear warfare.  One of my favorite scenes is at the end, when all of the politicians are hiding in the bomb shelter (but I'll let you see the movie, I won't ruin the ending).
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057012/synopsis
http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi3114467609/

The fifth film on the list it The Marx Brothers' Duck Soup.  This film is a classic anarchic comedy, it has ridiculous situations, slapstick, fast paced and witty dialogue and commentary on the government, all wrapped up in a neat and humorous film complete with singing and dancing.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0023969/plotsummary






Now, because I'm a good ole' chap, I'll give you the AFI's top 100 laughs list (information you could easily get on wikipedia):
1. Some Like It Hot (1959)
2. Tootsie (1982)
3. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love The Bomb (1964)
4. Annie Hall (1977)
5. Duck Soup (1933)
6. Blazing Saddles (1974)
7. M*A*S*H* (1970)
8. It Happened On Night (1934)
9. The Graduate (1967)
10. Airplane! (1980)
11. The Producers (1968)
12. A Night at The Opera (1935)
13. Young Frankenstein (1974)
14. Bringing Up Baby (1938)
15. The Philadelphia Story (1940)
16. Singin' In The Rain (1952)
17. The Odd Couple (1968)
18. The General (1927)
19. His Girl Friday (1940)
20. The Apartment (1960)
21. A Fish Called Wanda (1988)
22. Adam's Rib (1949)
23. When Harry Met Sally... (1989)
24. Born Yesterday (1950)
25. The Gold Rush (1925)
26. Being There (1979)
27. There's Something About Mary (1998)
28. Ghostbusters (1984)
29. This Is Spinaltap (1984)
30. Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)
31. Raising Arizona (1987)
32. The Thin Man (1934)
33. Modern Times (1936)
34. Groundhog Day (1993)
35. Harvey (1950)
36. National Lampoon's Animal House (1978)
37. The Great Dictator (1940)
38. City Lights (1931)
39. Sullivan's Travels (1941)
40. It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963)
41. Moonstruck (1987)
42. Big (1988)
43. American Graffiti (1973)
44. My Man Godfrey (1936)
45. Harold and Maude (1971)
46. Manhattan (1979)
47. Shampoo (1975)
48. A Shot In The Dark (1964)
49. To Be or Not To Be (1942)
50. Cat Ballou (1964)
51. The Seven Year Itch (1955)
52. Ninotchka (1939)
53. Arthur (1981)
54. The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (1944)
55. The Lady Eve (1941)
56. Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)
57. Diner (1982)
58. It's A Gift (1934)
59. A Day at The Races (1937)
60. Topper (1937)
61. What's Up, Doc? (1972)
62. Sherlock, Jr. (1924)
63. Beverly Hills Cop (1984)
64. Broadcast News (1987)
65. Horse Feathers (1932)
66. Take The Money and Run (1969)
67. Mrs. Doubtfire (1993)
68. The Awful Truth (1937)
69.  Bananas (1971)
70. Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)
71. Caddyshack (1980)
72. Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948)
73. Monkey Business (1931)
74. Nine to Five (1980)
75. She Done Him Wrong (1933)
76. Victor Victoria (1982)
77. The Palm Beach Story (1942)
78. Road to Morocco (1942)
79. The Freshman (1925)
80. Sleeper (1973)
81. The Navigator (1924)
82. Private Benjamin (1980)
83. Father of The Bride (1950)
84. Lost in America (1985)
85. Dinner at Eight (1933)
86. City Slickers (1991)
87. Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982)
88. Beetlejuice (1988)
89. The Jerk (1979)
90. Woman of The Year (1942)
91. The Heartbreak Kid (1972)
92. Ball of Fire (1941)
93. Fargo (1996)
94. Auntie Mame (1958)
95. Silver Streak (1976)
96. Sons of The Desert (1933)
97. Bull Durham (1988)
98. The Court Jester (1956)
99. The Nutty Professor (1963)
100. Good Morning, Vietnam (1987)

Now, these are are only the top American comedies, it doesn't take into account the foreign comedies that are also classics.

I haven't been a fan of the current popular comedy films of the past few years.  I think they're all poorly done, don't supply NEARLY enough laughs and rely too heavily on gimmicks and "toilet" humor or sex humor.  Now, don't get me wrong, I like saying "fuck" and hearing dick jokes as much as the next guy, but comedy films today are becoming WAY too low brow, there's no depth to the comedies, they're all too straight forward.  Films like The Hangover, Knocked Up, Superbad, all rely too much on this.  They don't even do it cleverly like Kevin Smith does in his films.  Overall, modern comedies are disappointing, mindless laughs to fill seats, but hey, it works right?

Anyway, I'm done with this post, if you have a comment or disagreement, let me know.  Goodbye!

The Sixteen Step-- Shit! That's A Load Of Awesome Shit!

That's right, my title is a reference to Radiohead (and I know it's a number off too!).  ANYWHO... I think I'm just going to go and see where my mind takes me on this post, so enjoy!

How are all of YOU? Are you good? How's your grandmother? How's the new job treating you? Thinking about retirement? How's school going? Did you ever get that package I sent you?

Enough of that...  As a man of film, I must say that I love watching movies (way to state the obvious jackass!) but one thing that I find really cool is this distribution company called The Criterion Collection.  Basically, this company sells some of the most important and beloved films from all over the world... and makes sure they get to places that they may not get to normally.  I think this is awesome, they remaster and distribute hundreds of films, some of the most important films ever.  The company was founded in 1984 and started a lot of standards for DVDs, like commentary and bonus features (so thank them for what we know of DVDs).  The company is awesome and I love what they are doing, their films are a bit more pricey, usually ranging from $30-40 as opposed to $15-20, this is the one pitfall, BUT you CAN find some films with Criterion that you can't find otherwise (I still can find Harold and Maude OR Citizen Kane anywhere *sad face*).  Here's the official website though... http://www.criterion.com/, it includes a list of their over 500 films (I'm sorry Chris but Antichrist is one of their films).

I recently purchased a Criterion Collection film, Richard Linklater's Slacker, I haven't watched it yet, but I shall let you know if it is any good.  Here's a trailer...  http://www.criterion.com/films/408-slacker
What you may or may not know is that it's one of the films that inspired Kevin Smith to make Clerks, so I'm interested in seeing it.

In keeping with the whole Criterion Collection theme, they generally change their cover art, I personally like what they do with the art, however, I suppose it can get a bit pretentious and "artsy" and often doesn't do much to explain the film, but most of it looks totally awesome and a lot more like a collector's item then just another movie, it looks like something you'd wanna show off in a collection.  I actually just got distracted by the website haha.  This post will probably take me longer than I expected.  Now, I'm going to go curl up next to the girl of my dreams, I'll start again tomorrow.

Yet another day of blogging.  I'm actually quite disappointed with my most recent posts, they don't really meet my standards and I doubt they meet yours either.  I feel like I had much more to say when I started this blog for some reason.  Maybe it was because it was new, maybe I'm running out of subjects I know a lot about, but that's the whole goal, for myself to learn along with maybe teaching you all something also.  My last post on HUAC could have been much longer and more in depth too, with that one I felt like I was running out of time though.  I'll attempt to return to a high standard with my posts in the future.  If I can't deliver then feel free to abandon my blog, you don't deserve to settle for less.

You may or may not know that I love a good story. The top things that make a movie for me aren't action and sex, but acting and plot. A movie could have not action whatsoever, but as long as it has a good story and is acted well, it's still a good film in my book.  With this, I'm going to talk about one of my favorite writers, Charlie Kaufman.  Kaufman is a writer, director and producer, his films span many genres like drama, fantasy, biography, but generally stays in the realms of comedy.  I love Kaufman's writing, I think he's very clever and intriguing.  His writing has depth and generally gets complex.  One of my favorite Kaufman films is Synecdoche, New York, I COULD explain the film, but it's something that you should see, explain it on your own.  I WILL say though that the story follows a playwright named Caden Cotard (played by Philip Seymour Hoffman), who's life is coming apart.  He eventually starts to cast and direct a play of his life that grows so big that it includes all of New York and a play adaptation of the play.  Plot Synopsis!  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0383028/plotsummary  That's his style, he does these films that go extremely in depth and moves the story around a lot, but, unlike SOME writers, it all makes sense in the end.  I respect that, I hope I can do stories like that some day.  Stories that have some meaning, that go in depth and focus on psychological manners, but do it in a good way.  A way that makes sense.  This little viral trailer shows some of the things that Kaufman has written, gives a look at his style... http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi3579511321/  then, just for shits and giggs, here's the theatrical trailer too... http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2617835545/

Kaufman started writing for television in 1991 after writing for comedy magazines like National Lampoon.  His first film, Being John Malkovich, won him an Oscar nomination and the BAFTA award and really gave him some mainstream notice.  Kaufman is from New York City and attended NYU Film School and currently lives in Pasadena, California.  There are many reoccurring themes in Kaufman's movies and a lot of references to his favorite writers.

As much as I love Kaufman's writing, I must say that there was one thing that I didn't like about Kaufman's second film Adaptation., and that is the fact that the ending becomes an action film of sorts, complete with a chase scene through a swamp.  It would have been an excellent movie, had it not been for that scene.  Here's a synopsis for that film too though...  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0268126/plotsummary

Here's Kaufman's filmography:
Being John Malkovich (1999, writer, producer) (directed by Spike Jonze)
Human Nature (2001, writer, producer) (directed by Michael Gondry)
Adaptation. (2002, writer, producer) (directed by Spike Jonze)
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002, writer) (directed by George Clooney)
Eternal Sunshine on the Spotless Mind (2004, writer, producer) (directed by Michael Gondry)
Synecdoche, New York (2008, writer, director, producer)

I think that's all I have for you this time and it only took me 2-3 days haha.  Anyway, today is a special day (I love you Samantha) and I hope you all have a good day too.  Peace.

The Fifteenth Pair of Pants-- The Cold War and HUAC

Let me start off by saying that if you like film and you don't check out www.imdb.com, you should.  The story updates they have on there is pretty interesting.  I get updates and little news stories from the site that intrigue me.  http://www.imdb.com/news/ni9866427/, for some reason I find this interesting... apparently James Franco is loaded with degrees and is now going to go get his second Ph.D.  I can respect that, he's an award winning actor and has a stable career and still goes off to school and gain his degrees.  That's something I would wanna do, even if I had a career, never stop my studying, as much as I hate going to school, I love learning, and I'd love to teach too (thus is by backup career path), but enough about me...

For those of us who weren't around for The Cold War, the communist scare of the 1950s through the 80s is slightly ridiculous.  Why America took the idea of "commies" as seriously as they did is a bit hard to understand, primarily due to the fact that our biggest threat now is terrorists (and in my opinion radical religious fundamentalists are a bit more frightening than a political ideal) and not communists.  I mean, there are only a few communist countries left and our biggest rival, The Soviet Union, has fallen (although China is suddenly becoming more of a threat).  The Cold War and the "communist scare" affected everyone back then, even Hollywood and one of it's biggest opponents was known as HUAC or The House Un-American Activities Committee, whose sole job was to investigate people's relation to communism.

HUAC had a chance to investigate the Ku Klux Klan but decided not due to the the fact that the KKK is an American institution and instead looked for communists in America.  Due to this, HUAC started to blacklist Hollywood, claiming that communist propaganda has infiltrated Hollywood.  The Committee asked questions of Hollywood "hot shots" and convicted them with contempt of Congress after they refuse to answer the questions.  These writers, producers and directors were known as "The Hollywood Ten" and were the first to be blacklisted by HUAC.



The "Hollywood Ten" are...
Alvah Bessie
Herbert Biberman
Lester Cole
Edward Dymtryk
Ring Lardner Jr.
John Howard Lawson
Albert Maltz
Samuel Ornitz
Adrian Scott
Dalton Trumbo

After some time, over 300 members of the entertainment industry were blacklisted and forced out of jobs due to claims of their association with communism.  HUAC didn't go unchallenged, John Huston, Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, and Danny Kaye started the Committee for the First Amendment to attempt to protect themselves and their fellow artists.  They tried to prove that HUAC was unconstitutional (and they were since being a part of the American Communist Party isn't and never has been illegal).  Some of you may be asking, 'why does this matter?" well, tons of people would never be hired again as soon as they were accused of communist (that's right, the country's hatred was that strong... similar to terrorists and generic arab people now).

In 1950, a film was made called The Hollywood Ten, the film consisted of each of the blacklisted members giving a speech about McCarthyism and HUAC and blacklisting.  Unfortunately, the director of the film, John Berry, was blacklisted after making the film.



"Red Channels" was a pamphlet released in 1950 that listed all of the "supposed" communists in the broadcasting and entertainment industry.   Some of the well known names on this pamphlet were Orson Welles, Burgess Meredith,  Arthur Miller and Edward G. Robinson, among many others. Walt Disney, agitated the communist concerns by declaring in a magazine that communism was the reason for a cartoonist strike (yet another reason to hate Disney).  As HUAC kept going through the 50s, many other names were blacklisted and not allowed work in the US, names like Luis Bañuel.  In order to keep working, many members of the entertainment industry would flee the country or work under assumed names.  The Writer's Guild are still, to this day, trying to correct false screen credits.

HUAC did horrible things to Hollywood in the 50s and early 60s.  Yet great movies were still made (most foreign).  If you're interested, please look up more information.  The Cold War in Hollywood is a very interesting subject and I was intrigued when learning about it in my high school english class for the first time.  There's a start for you though, have a nice day.

The Fourteenth Commandment-- The Clerks Guy (revised)

So, this is probably going to be a short post, mainly I'm only going to talk about a few things. I've spent the last few days watching Sold Out: A Threevening with Kevin Smith, and I kinda want to discuss the man (by the way, that DVD is actually hilarious and I'd recommend watching it). I also have a few other things to say, but let's get on with it shall we?

Okay... I assume you know who Kevin Smith is. If you don't then he is a classic comedy director of such hits as Clerks, Mallrats, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back and others. He is very iconic and his films generally have the same feel to them (he even has his own production company called View Askew Productions). I think Kevin Smith is a funny guy, I relate to him. He's an overweight comic book/film nerd who basically does what I want to do for a living. So I like Kevin Smith,  and his movies. I thought Mallrats was pretty funny and Zak and Miri Make A Porno was decent, Clerks was excellent, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back and Dogma were a bit iffy but still pretty good. Now he's doing a horror film called Red State that look interesting.  On top of that, his stand up is hilarious and informational about film making and I'd suggest watching it.

Kevin Smith is from New Jersey and studied film at The Vancouver Film School but dropped out half way through and took partial tuition reimbursement to fund the making of Clerks. I think that's pretty cool, he made it big with a deep and well recorded first film and did it all without completing film school. I mean, he got lucky that his first movie was so well recieved, but that's still pretty awesome to me (but maybe I'm just lame).

Clerks seems like a simple film at first but there is so much depth in it.  There is so much attention to detail, so much philosophy found in pop culture references, subtle and dry humor and outrageous discussions.  This movie has so much and, as someone who wants to do film, it's a very interesting film to watch.  Make sure to see it if you like Kevin Smith (but if you do, you've probably already seen it) or just because it's a great comedy.

Well, that's pretty much all I have to say about Mr. Smith. I've been thinking about my own short film that I will attempt soon, the pieces are coming together but there are still holes. Hopefully I'll have something for all of you soon (if you're interested in what I have to do). I'm feeling like a failure of sorts with my crazy amount of school work and everything, but I'm hoping doing this will help me (and I'll have something to show for college). That's all for now, good bye y'all!

The Thirteenth Friday-- I'll Bet You 5 You're Not Alive if You Don't Know His Name

So, I've been wanting to do this post for a really long time, pretty much since I started this blog, I've just been waiting for the right time to do it and now seems like a perfect time... I don't know how long it will take me to finish but I hope that it is up to the standard that I want it to be (and the standard you all deserve). Finally I'll be discussing what is probably the most important American film ever made (disagree with me if you would like), Citizen Kane. (I've actually been wanting to talk about this film since my film class).

If you have not seen Citizen Kane, stop reading now. Unfortunately, I'm going to have to ruin the ending of the film in order to talk about the importance of Rosebud. Now, we all know Citizen Kane, whether you've seen it or not. It's generally rated the top American movie of all time (The White Stripes even have a song called, The Union Forever, and all of the lyrics are lines from this film). Anyway... If you have not seen the beauty that is Citizen Kane, you need to stop right now and either buy or rent it, but mainly just watch it!! NOW... Seriously!! I will hunt you all down if I have to (he'll do it!! he's crazy!!)

Anyway, for the rest of you that know the story (because I'm positive that the rest of you 'x'ed out of this blog when I told you to), we know that the mysterious and infamous Rosebud was Kane's childhood sled. Now why would Kane, a powerful and successful man, beloved by some, despised by others, call out the name of a sled as his final earthly words? Well Rosebud is a very important "character" in the film. I'm sure if you like to analyze film and plot like me, you may have your own ideas (either the same as mine or different), and if you do, I'd absolutely LOVE to hear them so post them up!

Rosebud stands for everything Kane wanted but could never be. Everything that was taken from him when his parents gave him up. Rosebud was Kane's only wish in life, he had everything, power, success, fame, anything money could buy... Yet all he really wanted was Rosebud and the simplicity it symbolized. Of course, during Kane's life he lost sight of what he was truly after and Rosebud was lost in his mountains of possessions, this symbolizes that the world had gotten to Kane and buried what he truly wanted. It wasn't until the end of his life that he finally remembered what was important to him and what he really wanted. This is also symbolized in the breaking snow globe, that resembled his childhood home. It's just another way of saying that everything he wanted in life shattered when his destiny was altered. Throughout the film a reporter tries to find out the identity of Rosebud, and goes around to the people who were closest to Kane to get information, no one knows who Rosebud is. This further shows the distance and separation between what Kane has and what Kane wants. He separated his ideal life from the life he ended up with by burying his childhood and not telling anyone about his favorite toy. This also shows Kane's relationship with people, he doesn't let anyone too close to him and certainly would tell no one about his childhood. He's alienated and it's a result of what he lost so young. A great line in the movie that pretty much sums up Kane's entire character is when Mr. Thatcher asks Kane what he would have liked to have been and Kane responds, "everything you hate." This pretty much sums up his feelings toward the man who took him away from his parents, his life and his feelings toward mist everyone who attempts to get close to him. What I love about the character is the fact that by the en of the film, you're not sure if Kane is a great man or if you hate him. I think that's an important character archetype in cinema. Kane is a good man who can't get close to people, and who does many appalling things. I could go on and do many more analysies of Rosebud, BUT... there are still other things I want to talk about concerning this movie (but like I said, if you guys have any analysies of your own, please post it).

Now, for those of you sneaky monkeys who stayed on this post without watching the movie and are probably like, "well I kinda get it but I wish I knew the plot" here's a plot summary... http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0033467/synopsis.

Now, as I've mentioned, Citizen Kane is a very important and innovative film.  It's usually voted the greatest American film of all time and largely due do it's innovations (you may wonder why I specify "American" film... that's because a lot of European films were using a lot of these techniques already... The More You Know!)

Now, one interesting shot in the film is at the end, a scene of a warehouse filled with crates with Kane's possessions.  This shot was redone later at the end of Raiders of The Lost Arc, just one out of many iconic scenes from this delightful piece of cinema.  ANYWAY, let me get on to the actual technical innovations (and stop wasting your precious time, you could be out riding a bike or playing some kind of organized sport after all).  Deep Focus is the name of one of the inventive techniques Orson Welles used on Citizen Kane.  This is where everything, foreground, middle, and background is in sharp focus.  This was all done with the manipulations of light and lenses.  When this couldn't be done, they would often film a scene with the background in focus and then roll the tape back and double it with the foreground in focus also, or use of a machine called an optical printer, or in-camera effects.  One technique that wasn't used much in American film up until that point was low angle shots.  Where the camera was set down and looking up at the actors, one reason for this was the fact that everything at the time was done on a soundstage and no set had roofs.  To remedy this, they used a opaque piece of cloth to make it look like the room had a roof, they also dug a ditch in the floor to get the big bulky camera down lower.  In terms of storytelling in Citizen Kane,  the entire story is told as a flashback as the reporter questions people close to Kane.  This, of course, is very common in film today, but at the time it wasn't done so often.  Another thing that Welles did was change narrators throughout the film.  Each person interviewed takes over as a new narrator and one way of transition that was uncommon at the time was have one character pick up a word or phrase from where the character before them left off.  This wasn't really done before this film and neither was the idea of starting a new scene visually before the old scene's dialogue ended.  The use of curtain wipes and miniatures (namely for Kane's Xanadu) were pioneered in American film with this movie.  The makeup effects to change Orson Welles from a dashing young man to a horrible old man were revolutionary.  Even the soundtrack was unique and new in this film.  So much about this movie was so innovative and started a new and experimental wave in cinema.  Welles, more or less, took multiple styles of film making and mashed them all together to make something new.  You know your favorite movie? well, a lot of experimental techniques used in it came about or where started in Citizen Kane.  I pretty much can not tell enough good or awesome things about this film, it's one of my favorites, and you should watch it posthaste!! (seriously, do it!)

http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi568630553/

In other news, I read the comic X'ed Out by Charles Burns, I believe it'll be part of a series, I would definitely recommend it, I wanna read the next section and find out what happens in the main character's drug induced fantasy world.  One thing I don't like much about it though, is the fact that a lot of the character's facial expressions just kinda look like they're sneezing.  Other than that it's pretty cool, I'd like to write a comic someday also (oh, dreams *sigh*).

There you go though, everything you need (for now), look up more if you're interested and feel free to shoot me a comment if you'd like.  I always wanna hear from whoever wants to talk.  Catch you cats later.

All apologies,

D James (sorry about the spoof)

The Twelfth Place-- There And Back Again

Alright, I'm going to kick off this post with something a tad off topic. I love beatboxing, I'm fascinated by it, I dabble in it a bit (I'm no good though) and I'm totally amazed by people who can do it well... So... My girlfriend Samantha and I found this website that's pretty cool,  http://www.beatboxbattle.com/ (and I'm sorry if your computer isn't like mine and can translate it from German), but there's a guy on there named Skiller who is very good and if you enjoy beatboxing I'd say look it up, but anyway, on with the post...



Now if there's any one movie that I will be looking forward to in the next few years it's the two part film adaptation of The Hobbit, I'm a huge Lord of the Rings fan (although, admittedly, Star Wars was always my primary nerd obsession of choice, but that's beside the point).  I loved The Lord of The Rings, I read the books, watched the movies, looked up the history, did it all, but I'd always thought that The Hobbit was the best of the books (and many LOTR fans may disagree with that statement).  Now, after years of rumors, they are finally and definitely making a Hobbit movie, and guess what, none other than Peter Jackson himself is coming back to direct.  I'm psyched, and THIS... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUvirzQ4P9A, just makes me that much more excited!  To add yet ANOTHER rung to my ladder of excitement,  Martin Freeman will be playing the roll of young Bilbo... AWESOME!  If you don't know Martin Freeman, he played Tim Canterbury in the British Office, (another thing I'm a HUGE fan of) and Arthur Dent in the movie adaptation of The Hitchhiker's Guide To the Galaxy (yet another thing I enjoy).  So to know that he's playing Bilbo just makes me happy... also, Ian McKellen is returning as Gandalf, Andy Serkis is coming back as Gollum, Cate Blanchett, Orlando Bloom, Elijah Wood and Christopher Lee are reprising their roles and they are in negotiations with Hugo Weaving and Ian Holm to come back as Elrond and Older Bilbo (respectively).  Part one is planned to be released in 2012 and part two will be released in 2013 and I'll be there to see it.

Enough with the "nerding out" now (maybe).  I like Peter Jackson (I dunno if you do, but I do).  I thought what he did with The Lord of The Rings trilogy was great, it was a solid movie, a good adaptation of the book (with the exception of leaving Tom Bombadil out of the first one... and other little changes), and I wouldn't be as fine with anyone else directing the film.  When Peter Jackson decided not to direct the film, New Line hired Guillermo Del Toro to direct the film.  Now, if there was ANYONE that I would have liked to see do The Hobbit other than Peter Jackson, it would be Del Toro.  There are probably a ton of directors that you like that could probably direct The Hobbit amazingly, and you're probably thinking "why would he want to see Del Toro direct The Hobbit? why not (insert director's name here)?" well the answer is... I like the way Del Toro does fantasy.  It's slightly dark, slightly creepy, using make up and puppets over CGI, I liked The Hellboy movies and it would be interesting to see what he would have made The Hobbit.  Del Toro was going to redesign the look of the Goblins and the Wargs and try to make the Mirkwood Spiders look totally different from Shelob.  After all of the delays, however, Del Toro left the project.  After this there were many other directors that were rumored to be on the project, but ultimately Jackson ended up as director once again.

But ANYWAY, enough with my excitement... I WOULD give you more information about the book or The Lord of The Rings in general, but you should either read the books or at LEAST watch the movies. I'll be there, first in line to see this new two part adaptation and I hope that I'll see you guys there too, and if you're a huge LOTR fan like me, you're welcome for the info (if you haven't already looked all this stuff up anyway).  In other news, I'm totally swamped with work right now so my next few posts will probably all be very short and very few (if I'll be able to fit in any at all).  This sucks cuz not only do I have to put off my blog, I also have to put off the writing of a script for my first short film (hopefully will be made shortly with the help of my friends).  If I don't see you sooner I'll see you later... keep a look out for more posts, hopefully they won't take to long.  Buh-bye.

The Eleventh Day-- What A Twist!

That's right, if you hadn't guessed by the title (but you wouldn't get the reference if you don't watch Robot Chicken), I'm gonna talk about M. Night Shyamalan, and my supreme hatred of his movies. Unlike his movies my blog WON'T have some shitty twist ending where you find out I actually love his films.  Furthermore, I will openly warn you now, that I intend to be an asshole and tell the ending of his movies for two reasons: one, you probably already know them and two, if you don't I plan on saving you some time to go watch some GOOD movies. You'll know the ending, you won't have to sit through the rest. If you really REALLY want to watch them still, stop now and move along and no harm will be done.

Okay, I'll now give you a bit of background about this Indian-American man (I'll need to consult Wikipedia, I certainly have no information about him in my head).  Shyamalan was born Manoj Nelliyattu Shyamalan in 1970 in Puduchery India. He spent his childhood in Philidelphia, Pennsylvania and attended school at New York University. ANYWAY... I think that's about all you REALLY need to know about him.

Let's start now with his break through movie The Sixth Sense. This was probably his most decent film, telling the story of a little boy who can see the ghosts of the wrongfully dead, who then ask for his help in correcting their end. Bruce Willis plays the boy's counselor, and, what do you know, it turns out that HE was dead the entire time! Shocking. Now this film wasn't all bad, the acting was decent, the story was intriguing and the twist was unexpected. The downfall of this film is the fact that once you know the ending, you might as well not bother watching it and of course EVERYONE spilled the secret immediately, thanks a ton world! Now with this paragraph you're probably thinking, "oh, he isn't THAT harsh on Shyamalan" haha, just wait, it gets worse, as his films do.

Speaking of "worse", let's move onto Signs. First off, let's talk about one major flaw with this movie... It stars Mel Gibson (blegh). The second problem with the movie is the fact that it is all aliens (and you should know I think aliens are a total cop out). I don't want to know that the writers of a movie are so uncreative that they choose aliens to explain the unexplainable. Finally, a major downfall of the movie is the fact that water kills the aliens. You would think a race that is smart enough to make it here from, God knows where, would know not to invade a planet that's mostly water... If water is their one weakness (maybe I'M the only one thy would think that). One plus of the movie is Joaquin Phoenix, in my opinion he is a fairly good actor, and anyone who is willing to nearly ruin their career to make a movie gets respect from me. Overall though, the movie wasn't my thing (to say the least) even though it got pretty good critical reviews.

So, now on to the The Village.  Yet another Shyamalan film that Joaquin Phoenix could not save.  The one major flaw with this film is the twist ending, one that has already been done before in a children's book called Running Out of Time by Margret Peterson Haddix.  The story is that of a colonial town that no one can leave due to a monster that stalks the surrounding woods.  When one of the young girls finally gets out, she discovers that the town is actually in modern times and the only reason she couldn't leave was because the adults of the town wanted to keep the children away from modern problems.  Everything but the monster was already in Haddix's book.  Not necessarily a problem, but I dislike Shyamalan, so the lack of originality is a strike... AND the movie was just poorly done overall.

Next up is Lady in the Water.  It's a modern take on a fairy tale, with a man finding a water nymph and setting up a group of people to protect her from a wolf creature trying to kill her.  This one doesn't really have the "Shyamalan twist" but the movie was horrible AND got very low critical reviews.  Even though the movie was largely a disappointment, I couldn't totally hate it.  I like Paul Giamatti AND I was intrigued by the story (I'm usually interested in fantasy and fairy tales).  The movie was in no way a good movie, but it wasn't the worst movie ever by Shyamalan.

The Happening is an excellent example of a horrible Shyamalan film (and really just film in general).  Not only did this pathetic piece of cinema have awful acting, but an equally awful story.  One thing about this film was all of the "hubub" about the fact that it was Shyamalan's first R-rated movie (oh God! it's rated R! whatever will he do?!?!?! I can't WAIT to see what kind of CCCRRRRAAAAZZZYYY stuff he can do with an R rating!!).  Anyway, the R rating didn't help this film at all, nothing in this film even really deserved the R rating.  The most violence that was shown was the implication that a man was run over by a lawnmower.  PLUS, I don't know why an R rating would make a movie more interesting anyway, you can add more hard hitting subject matter, but if you can tell a good enough story, it doesn't matter WHAT the film is rated.  The acting was so bad, I mean the film starred Mark Wahlberg (who I will admit isn't ALWAYS awful) and John Leguizamo.  The plot is what really did it for me though, I thought that the idea that a neurotoxin that made people kill themselves was interesting (and luckily the alien cop out wasn't used for this one).  What ruined it was the fact that the neurotoxin came from the plants... and on top of THAT, is the fact that the main characters could out run it... AND were safe when inside (even though OTHER characters weren't safe inside).  More or less this movie deserved the horrible critical response it got... please, do yourself a favor and never watch this movie.

Finally I'll talk about The Last Airbender.  Now if you weren't aware, this movie is based off of a Nickelodeon cartoon called Avatar: The Last Airbender.  Now what Shyamalan did with this film is take a pretty bad, but not totally horrible cartoon and make it into a really awful movie.  The CGI was bad, the acting was bad, the pronunciation of the names was off, the story was off, pretty much everything was off.  The ONLY thing that was interesting was the bending itself, it was kind of cool to see fire and water flying around (but that's literally the ONLY thing that was done decently).  I'm not even going to say more about this film.

I haven't seen Devil or any of Shyamalan's other films, but I doubt I need to (I didn't even know how to spell Shyamalan til I did this post, another useless thing I know now).  ANYWAY... this is a message for Mr. Night Shymalan himself...

M... can I call you M? Please, PLEASE stop, for the love of God stop making films... they progressively get worse and no one wants to sit through them anymore.  Do the world a favor and get a more helpful job, please.

If you think this post is harsh I'm very sorry.  There are a lot of things I like about India (like their delicious food) but M. Night Shyamalan isn't one... and if you were waiting for a twist... fine, I'll give you one.  I, in no way, like the music of Seal, but whenever I hear "Kiss From a Rose" it takes me back to when I was 5 years old and Batman Forever came out.  Now in my previous comic movie post I told you how horrible the original Batman films were (and I stick by that), but when I was 5, they were the shit.  I loved them and that song reminds me of being a child and how much I loved super heros (mainly Batman) and movies.  That's why I'll always (kind of) like that song... Unfortunately that was ALL unimportant, but there it is.

You guys have a wonderful day and if you LOVE M. Night Shyamalan, feel free to call me a bastard.

The Tenth Lecture-- You Monster

GOOD MORNING VIETNAM!!!!

To keep with the slightly horror theme of the post before last, I'm going to do this one on good old fashioned movie monsters. Now, you should all know that I have always had a soft spot for monsters and folklore.  I've spent quite a bit of time reading about eastern and western European folklore about werewolves and vampires and what not and I'm not talking about you're, preteen, love story, romance Twilight vampires.  I'm talking rip your throat out and have your blood run down his face vampires (or at least sophisticated ones like Dracula).  ANYWAY... I'm going to give you a bit of monster background and tell you my favorite monster flicks (or at least ones I find entertaining).



First off, let me say that Dracula is pretty much my favorite book ever (even if that's lame).  I think it's a great work of literature, the journal style is great, the book is frightening and the story is interesting.  In my opinion NO ONE can make a Dracula movie that will ever be worth watching because none can compare to the book (yet everyone tries).  However, the most worthwhile Dracula made to date, at least in my opinion, is the 1931 Universal film. Now here is where I get all the notes and letters and messages saying I'm wrong and how there are better Draculas but hear me out.  Maybe I'm sentimental to old film, but I like the film for what it was.  It wasn't Dracula, it wasn't the book, it wasn't necessarily close and I can't watch the film while thinking about the book but I liked it for what it was.  A classic vampire movie from a classic film company in a time when they were making some of the most beloved and enduring horror films ever.

Now time to tell a little bit about the folklore behind it.  Everyone knows what a vampire is, undead ghoul, sucks blood, turns into bats, yadda yadda.  Not all of that is true though...  A vampire is an undead entity or demon that survives on the life force of others and they have been around since the beginning of man, however, the popularity of vampire lore started mainly in western Europe.  Largely in the Balkans and Romania.  The frequency of the myth actually lead to corpses being exhumed and staked in some cases.  Vampires could look like anything the people in the area decided, many could be bloated rotting corpses or completely normal humans but what started the modern vampire was the novella The Vampyre by John Polidori.  This vampire archetype was carried on and expanded on in Bram Stoker's novel Dracula, the most well known and beloved vampire story ever (Twilight can fuck off).  In most vampire stories, vampires didn't turn into bats, instead transforming into a wolf or similar animal, also, not all vampires have fangs or lack a reflection or shadow.  Stakes were always a fatal weakness to a vampire, however, what the stake should be made of varies.  Decapitation is fatal and so is fire and drowning.  Garlic and holy symbols are weaknesses and many vampires suffered from arithmomania, which is the obsessive need to count (making the Count from Sesame Street have some connection to real vampire lore).  With Bram Stoker came the ideas that vampires can't cross running water, the sun weakens them and that they can only enter a house is invited, this, however, is not found in traditional lore.

Next is Frankenstein.  There haven't been nearly as many Frankenstein films as Dracula films, but once again, one of the best films is the 1931 Universal film.  Just like the Dracula film, Universal's Frankenstein, does not match the story that it takes it's name from at all (the monster doesn't even talk), but what makes this a good movie is it emotional depth (the perfect example is the scene between the monster and the little girl... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MA9opHsLACk, which also happens to show the fact that this movie was pre-code era).  The movie doesn't reach the depth that the novel does, but it's still a great example of early horror, with Boris Karloff's silent portrayal of the Monster being quite jarring at times.



The Wolfman, was another Universal monster film that is a classic of horror cinema.  It wasn't based off of anything except gypsy and voodoo lore and therefore has nothing to compare to, however, the film, made in 1941, doesn't reach the depths that Dracula or Frankenstein did.  The movie was a pretty straight forward monster movie.  I was very excited to hear that a new Wolfman movie was going to be made, so I was in line to see it.  The 2010 remake was a very decent movie until the end (and I won't ruin it, but know that it's ridiculous and ruins the whole movie more or less).



The idea of shapeshifting humans have been in mythology forever, however, the werewolf ideal gained popularity in western Europe, specifically in gothic horror tales.  The werewolf started as a victim of black magic, but as the stories progressed they became part of Satan's army and developed a taste for human flesh.

So there it is, the big three are out of the way... however, there are many more monsters in cinema like zombies and other creatures (I could do a whole post on zombies, and Chris already has).  The other creatures just shown in the Universal monsters series are The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Phantom of The Opera, The Mummy, The Invisible Man, The Creature from The Black Lagoon, The Mole People.

 

Gonna finish this up talking about Lon Chaney, Sr. who is also known as "The Man of a Thousand Faces".  Another thing you should know about me is that I'm completely mystified by make up artists and what they can do and the creatures they can create and Lon Chaney was the master of portraying tortured figures and doing monster make up during the silent film era.  Two excellent portrayals were The Phantom in The Phantom of the Opera, and Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame.  Any serious costume designer or make up artist has to pay some respect to Lon Chaney, he started and popularized serious make up artistry, he made the make up part of the character, not just a cover for the character and he made make up an art.



So there it is, monsters, one of my favorite things in film (and one reason I really enjoyed the Hellboy movies, or really most things by Guillermo Del Toro).  Hope you've enjoyed it and if you want any more information about monsters or folklore/mythology, don't be afraid to ask.
See you cats later.

The Ninth Song-- A Bit of Comedy

So since I haven't done anything in a day or so, here's a short comedy skit script I wrote a while ago...

(Scene opens on a tennis court, two people playing tennis and minding their own business, when from the distances we see a man approaching, he enters the court and the two tennis players stop and turn to look at him.  He’s carrying a badminton racket, is wearing a polo shirt and has a sweater tied around his neck, he has kaki shorts on and a headband and wristbands.  His hair is long and in a ponytail and he’s wearing aviator sunglasses.)

Badminton Man: (cocky) I see you bitches is enjoyin’ some badminton.

Tennis player 1: (surprised) Uhh… no… this is tenni…

Badminton Man: (interrupting) Mmm, y’all may have come here to play some badminton, but I came here to play the BADDESTminton!

(The two tennis players give each other a look that says they think Badminton man is an idiot)

Badminton Man: (cocky) Now… which one ‘a you bitches is first?

(The two tennis players look at each other again)

Tennis player 1: (indifferent, taking a step forward) yeah, sure, I’ll go.

(They begin to play tennis, start montage, the tennis player does a good job as Badminton Man runs around swinging wildly at the ball with his badminton racket as it repeatedly goes past him.  Badminton Man grows noticeably frustrated.)

Badminton Man: (out of breath but still cocky) Uhhh… Good game… one day you’ll learn to play kid… it was close… keep playin’, you’ll get there…

Tennis Player 1: (slightly confused) But, I wo…

Badminton Man: (interrupting again) now on to you! (Points his racket at the other player)

Tennis Player 2: (indifferent, shrugging) Yeah, sure, whatever…

(Another montage of Badminton man running and flailing wildly as he misses tennis balls or hits them in the wrong directions.)

Badminton Man: (extremely out of breath) Good try, good try… I… think you were better than your… bitch ass friend over there… keep practicing… you’ll get to my level one day…

Tennis Player 2: (still indifferent) Uh-huh, yeah, well it was nice meeting you I guess, but we’re gonna go…

(The two tennis players pack up their stuff and leave the courts.)

Tennis Player 1: (yelling back) See ya’ later JACK ASS!

(Badminton Man stands in the court mentally congratulating himself on a job well done, not paying attention to who is approaching.)

Unknown Person: (yelling, equally cocky) So… you think you play some BADminton eh?

(Badminton man turns and looks at the man, the tension is thick, even the two tennis players stop and turn back.  Camera does a full body pan from head to toe of this man.  He’s wearing sandals, extremely tight jeans, a black vest and aviator glasses; he has a long piece of straw sticking out of his mouth.  He’s holding his badminton racket over his shoulder.  The tennis players move up to the fence to watch the showdown.)

Unknown Person: (still cocky) Looks like I’m gonna have to send you back to Switzerland boy…

Badminton Man: (Noticeably angry, eyes squinted, close up on face) you KNOW I’m not from Switzerland… Dennis!

Dennis: (shocked, turns to angry and takes off his glasses sharply, close up on face) Mmmm… it’s on, ain’t it?

(Both walk out onto the court slowly, quick glance at the tennis players watching intently.  Dennis picks up one of the balls from the side of the court and serves… it hits the net… Badminton man then tries and it goes over but Dennis misses… many scenes of them both repeatedly missing the ball and flailing and running around wildly.)

Dennis: (suddenly, throws down his racket, triumphant) I did it! I won!

Badminton Man: (appalled) like HELL you did!

Dennis: (defensive) No way man, I totally got more points than you!

Badminton Man: Now way! (yells over to the tennis players) HEY! WHO WON?

Tennis Player 1: (yelling back) Who cares! You both suck! You’re not even playing badminton dip shit!

(Both men pause, then begin to argue over one another about how they won, eventually pushing one another and getting into a fist fight.)

Tennis Player 2: (turning to tennis player 1) I dunno about you, but I’m ready to go, these guys are idiots.

Tennis Player 1: Yes, let’s get out of here.

(The two tennis players walk away from the court leaving Badminton man and Dennis wrestling in the background.)

So if you hate it, I'm sorry, if you don't awesome... but that's all for now... good night

The Eighth Night-- And As A Candle, The Light Goes Out

Warning: This post is about a questionable topic and may not be something you would want to read about... if you DO, don't think oddly of me...

Well, today's post was intended to be on narrative structure, however, I need to ponder that one a bit more I think... so instead, today's post is going to take a more... morbid turn (don't judge me).  While doing some research, I came upon the topic of "snuff" film.  This is a very disturbing and unsettling topic and something I'd generally shy away from but the myth intrigues me and I've been reading a lot about horror from Chris Jones' blog (http://musingsofamoviedouche.blogspot.com/) and thought why not? (I'm not trying to compete though haha).

If you are not aware what the genre of "snuff film" is, it's the visual depiction of a person's actual death with out visual effects for the intent of profit (more or less horrible).  Generally this type of film is a myth (seeing as how it's illegal and morally appalling... but you already know that).  There ARE, however, filmed documentation of murders and executions in existence.  They are NOT sold though and if you can find one anywhere, it somehow just got out without the intention of monetary gain.  At times a documentary film crew will catch an execution or accidental death (great example is the JFK assassination).  There is even a documentary called Executions that include people who have been sentenced to death.  Sometimes a death will be caught by accident, like the suicides of Ricardo Cerna or Bud Dwyer (who killed himself on a news broadcast).  At times, serial killers will tape their murders (it was rumored that The Manson Family was doing this)... however, NONE of these are considered snuff films due to the fact that the act was not performed for the intent of sale.

In this idea though, there have been actual motion picture who have dealt with the subject, such as the 1976 film Snuff, which was actually portrayed as a real snuff film.  It started as an average slasher/splatter film that was taken by a producer and (without permission) was changed to include a new ending that was done to look like an actual murder.  After this film was released, many other films tried to cash in on the myth, like The Brave, 8mm, Snuff-Movie, and Vacancy.

There have been many controversial films made that were close to depicting actual snuff films.  One of these was the Japanese Guinea Pig film series.  The first two films of this series The Devil's Experiment and Flowers of Flesh and Blood were done to appear to be low budget and home recordings of actual snuff films.  They so closely resembled snuff films that the creators got investigated by the FBI and repeatedly taken to court and interrogated.  Another film that is very close to an actual snuff film is the Italian film Cannibal Holocaust.  In the film, six animals were actually slaughtered and it very graphically depicted sexual violence and was thought to have shown actual murders (in fact the director was arrested in charged with making a snuff film almost immediately, he eventually had the charges dropped).

This film myth is so jarring because, while actual film of real murders does exist, it is usually kept locked away, only occasionally being leaked.  The idea that a commercial film could include a real death for money is a bit unsettling... and what's more disturbing or frightening than your murder being taped and sold to everyone?  It's a very disgusting concept and myth that, apparently, makes for good fringe, gore film plots.

Well, now that THAT disturbing topic is over, I can bid you all adieu.  I'm sorry for yet another short post.

The Seventh Sense-- Because You Care

Howdy everyone... sorry I wasn't able to do another post yesterday, but I shall make it up today, and discuss a lot of things, including some more personal things and ambitions because I've been thinking a lot about what I want to do lately (and also I know you care SO much).

Alright, first on the agenda... apparently Ingmar Bergman is going to be on the banknotes of Sweden, that's pretty sweet (if you don't know Bergman, check out The Seventh Seal or The Magician... or better yet ALL of his movies), that's quite an honor and I personally think it's cool of Sweden to put important figures (who aren't just leaders of the country) on their money (what do YOU think America?)... but here's a bit more on it...   http://www.imdb.com/news/ni9359902/

Secondly, for me personally (if I can one day become a filmmaker) I want to tell good stories, the stories (real or imaginary) that really make people think, that can really make people feel.  I'd love to write my own films (but I'm not sure I'm a good enough writer)...  One story I've been thinking of lately that I'd like to do eventually is the story of the Young Bosnians at the start of WWI, perhaps telling the story of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand (it's a story that I always picture in film when I hear it).  One thing I always picture (especially when I'm out in secluded areas in nature) is how I'd love to make a really good modern western film... I mean, what do YOU think when you see a scene like this?   (ignore the road)

When I see this I think of what it'd be like in the 1800s, when there were fewer people.


Anyway... there are a LOT of things I wanna do some day, I wanna make all of these movies and I'd love to do something really trippy and surreal also, something that's like a major acid trip, or a dream.  Or, at some time, a documentary.  There are so many great stories out there and I'd love to tell them all.  However, I AM the kind of guy who would take ANY job in film, just to be doing what I'm passionate about (teaching film would be awesome too).

On to the next subject (because I don't wanna bore you)...  I'm going to go onto my next topic...
The importance of film, this is a wide and opinion based topic I know, but I'm gonna try it anyway...  Film is a very important art form (and if you say it's not art, you're wrong, I'm sorry) perhaps the most important modern art form.  It is both effected by and effects culture and can communicate any literal or abstract idea the creator or audience chooses.    Film is a great way to see what was going on in society at any given time, because it reflects things.  A crime film, for example, will reflect the thoughts and feelings of the people they're portraying while trying to teach people about things, maybe there are reasons for the people to commit these crimes.  It can be used to teach people, to guide people, to change things to show people many different sides of an issue or just life in general, maybe things they've never seen or thought about.  Film is one of the most important and moving art forms (at least when done right) and I'd feel so lucky to be involved in it.

Anyway, I'm gonna finish it up with some recommendations for all of you, these are some of my favorite films and they deserve to be seen (if you haven't already seen them)...
Donnie Darko, this is one of my favorite films ever, it's odd, it's deep, it's suspense and horror and everything... I'm not sure why but I got lost in it, it's a good film.  127 Hours, True Grit, and Black Swan, The Big Leboswki, Synecdoche, New York, all I've already talked about.  Persepolis, and animated film about an Iraqi girl who goes to France during the Iraqi civil war (and a very good comic adaptation too).  Citizen Kane, a classic in American cinema and a film I will DEFINITELY talk about in a post to come.  Repo! The Genetic Opera, a low budget horror musical about a company that repossesses organs.  There Will Be Blood, Harold and Maude, The Departed, No Country for Old Men, A Beautiful Mind, Army of Darkness and Into the Wild.  Freaks, a movie that, for a long time, was outlawed for it's disturbing images of real physically deformed people and horror.

Sorry about another short one (but I'm feeling a bit lazy today), I promise more to come but here's some good stuff to tie you over... http://musingsofamoviedouche.blogspot.com/

Hasta La Vista!

The Sixth Post-- The Fab Four

One thing you should know about me (and a large majority of the world) is that I'm a big fan of The Beatles.  I generally like all 60s music but The Beatles hold a special place in my heart...  Now, this is a movie blog, you may be thinking "what is this kid talking about The Bealtes for? THIS IS A MOVIE BLOG!!" well, I assume you also know (at least if you're a fan of The Beatles or movies) that the band had created many movies during their 7 year run... well I'm going to take the time to tell you a bit about them, and perhaps do a review of sorts.  Enjoy!

A Hard Day's Night was the first Beatles film.  It was made in 1964 and directed by Richard Lester.  The film was a very interestingly done comedy film and was done in the style of a mockumentary (a fairly entertaining style that was used in other films and TV shows such as This Is Spinal Tap, The Rutles, Orson Welles' The War of The Worlds and The Office).  The film shows the Beatles going to play a show in London with Paul's grandpa and once there, skipping out until the last minute to randomly run around an empty field.  The film was actually fairly well written, the dialogue, while being hard to understand mostly, is actually perfect for a group of people who aren't professional actors.  More or less the screenwriter, Alun Owen, attempted to make the dialogue consist of things the four would actually say.  The story is also really well done, being a tale of The Beatles and their need to escape their fame for whatever amount of time they can manage (although, that deeper message requires a bit of digging).  Overall the movie is a classic example of the light-hearted popular cinema of the time, and more importantly a great example of British comedy (the movie actually influenced a lot of British comedy films to come).  It's a classic and definitely worth a watch (especially if you're a Beatles fan).  PLOT SYNOPSIS!  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058182/synopsis

Help! was the next in the line of Beatles films and this one was much more ridiculous than A Hard Day's Night.  Richard Lester directed this 1965 sequel that involves a religious cult, a war scene, two crazy scientists, a London flat cut into fourths and Ringo Starr being chased to be sacrificed.  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059260/synopsis.  This movie I personally preferred to the last, it's WAY more ridiculous and psychedelic, the humor is absurd, but still really funny.  Check this one out also, but be aware, there is almost no depth and the comedy is absurd and slightly pointless but it's good for some cheap laughs.

Yellow Submarine came next, it's a 1968 animated comedy, I've never seen it, so I can't really give a recommendation but here's the summary... http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063823/synopsis

Finally was the 1970 documentary Let It Be, this film was ill-fated and you actually can't find it anywhere anymore.  The Beatles kept the movie from sticking around due to the poor view of them that it cast.  It shows the rift in the band (including Paul McCartney's overzealous control and John Lennon's silence in any band issues) and how horrible things were up until their split.  I really wish I could tell you more, but alas, I have not seen it either (even though I really REALLY want to)... all I know about it is what I've read, here's the summary... http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065976/synopsis

Anyway, no one can deny how influential and important The Beatles were (even if you hate them).  Check out the movies they're pretty funny... but sorry today's post was so short, here's a gift to end it out... http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2110954777/

Could be entertaining or SUPER lame, we'll see (my vote is for lame cuz Ryan Reynolds sucks, however, I like the Green Lantern so I wish it would be good)... anyway, have a great day and see you on the flip flop!

The Fifth Verse-- Taking A Trip To The Moon

I'm gonna start this one off by saying that, according to imdb.com, Arnold Schwarzenegger loves Soviet leaders... or at least has too many statues of them http://www.imdb.com/news/ni9241041/ (I've noticed they do a lot of stories about him) but that's besides the point...

Sci-Fi is the point!  Sci-Fi has been in film sense the beginning, at least 1895... La Charcuterie mécanique is a French film made in 1895 and is considered the first sci-fi movie.  One of the earliest influential sci-fi films was Le Voyage dans la lune, or A Trip to The Moon by Georges Méliès.  This 14 min, silent film uses tons of visual effects and trick photography (including a man's face covered in some kind of cream to represent the "man in the moon").


What's great about this film is the fact that, not only did it influence filmmakers to come, it included certain things that have become common place in film, such as multiple cuts of scenes in different views and time-lapse photography.  Even though the editing was a bit lacking, the film was so influential it was also copied by The Smashing Pumpkins for the music video "Tonight, Tonight" and The Mighty Boosh's character of the Moon is based off of the moon in this film (if you can't tell).

But here's the movie is you want to watch it... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JDaOOw0MEE

After Le Voyage dans la lune, there were many sci-fi films made, but the next major example of an important sci-fi film is Metropolis by Fritz Lang (released in 1927).  It tells the story of a futuristic struggle between the upper class and the working class.  What's important about this film is the story... it uses sci-fi to tell the story of the age old struggle of the bourgeoisie and the proletariat in capitalism.  It takes a futuristic and scientific view of this ideal, which is important to the legitimacy of the sci-fi genre.  Without a message, a meaning and a strong plot, sci-fi is a bit of a ridiculous genre and very rarely after Metropolis, do you see a sci-fi movie with a real message.  (here's the synopsis...  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0017136/plotsummary).

Through the 30s, 40s and 50s, sci-fi went underground.  Mainly consisting of b-movies, low budget and campy sci-fi horror films, none are really too important.  The major sci-fi films of the 30s and 40s especially, such as Frankenstein, King Kong, or The Invisible Man were more widely known as horror films and it wasn't until the early 1950s that the sci-fi genre started to make a come back.  Films like, The Day The Earth Stood Still, The War of The Worlds, Invasion of The Body Snatchers, and The Blob, were big movies in the sci-fi genre... but still focused quite a bit on the horror aspects (which is common for sci-fi most of the time).  Toward the end of all of this b-movie action comes what is generally considered the worst movie ever made... Plan 9 From Outer Space.  This film was made in 1959 by Ed Wood and features the last performance of Bela Lugosi (even though he died in 1956).  It involves a plan by aliens to stop Earth from creating a doomsday device by creating zombies (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052077/plotsummary).  Why is this "the worst movie ever made"? Well it has poor acting, horrible special effects, continuity mistakes, miserable dialogue, mics in shots, noticeable wiring and many other mistakes.  This is the frequent trend in the science fiction films of this time and it didn't really change and progress until the 1960s.

There weren't many sci-fi films in the 1960s but, questionably the most important one was Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey.  Made in 1968 it's one of the most important sci-fi movies ever.  It gave realism and believability to the genre... it had it all, a philosophical stand point, a sweeping plot, realistic visual effects (some more realistic than later movies), and technology that is actually scene today (a few of the computers in the film look just like the modern day iPad).  It deals with evolution, alien technology, the loneliness and solitude of space, technological advancement, and time warps.  This movie, even with all of it's importance and grandiose scale and arching, sweeping subject matter, is horribly boring (at least in my opinion).  It's a slow movie with a confusing ending, however, the entire section of the movie that involves the supercomputer HAL, is entirely genius.  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062622/synopsis.  This movie effected and influenced every sci-fi movie to come.  Other major 60s sci-fi films that weren't nearly as influential were The Planet of The Apes, Barbarella, Alphaville and Godzilla (even though the first Godzilla film was done in 1954).

By the 70s and 80s, sci-fi was making a come back (a large part because of the moon landings), many good sci-fi were made at this time, Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange, Soylent Green,  and other films that deal with the paranoia of technology and the government... There was sci-fi horror like Alien, and popular films like Close Encounters of the Third Kind, RoboCop, Blade Runner, The Terminator, (Schwarzenegger DOES fit into this post!), Back To The Future and ET: The Extra-Terrestrial (that was a rip off of a scrapped Indian film).  The biggest movie of this period was probably Star Wars.  I don't think there could EVER be a sci-fi post WITHOUT mentioning Star Wars.  It's one of the most important films of the past century, developing many things like the production company ILM, use of grandiose and detailed models and puppets, and many cutting edge visual effects.  Telling an epic story that becomes more complicated with each installment, it influences and effects things to this day, the story never ends, only becomes more dense, and it's still as popular today as ever.  Star Wars is in no way a perfect movie, Luke whines too much (which you find out fast when playing the drinking game), the dialogue is poor, the acting is poor, the plot was taken from other stories and it has some continuity errors but it is a great and important work of cinema (which I may do a whole post on at a later date).

The 80s saw sci-fi movies become international phenomena, and ridiculous action packed affairs that had very shallow story lines but kept the public entertained.  The Terminator being a prime example, the story has twisted and become odd and lush, but still doesn't have the depth of some movies before it...  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088247/synopsis

With the internet came a different kind of sci-fi film... it included more technology and stories based around the internet technology, Total Recall and The Matrix are examples while others dealt with disasters (Armageddon), invasion (Independence Day) and experiments (Jurassic Park).  The Matrix was another monumental science fiction film.  It changed the way that action sequences were done, primarily the slow motion bullet sequence.

The look of sci-fi became sleek and modern, slow motion action scenes were edgy.  It really changed the look of things and the kinds of action that people expected.  In the 2000s now though, the world is obsessed with the end of the world, sci-fi now focuses a lot on alien invasion and other things that signify the world ending.  District 9, 2012, Battle: Los Angeles and Children of Men all deal with either aliens or the world ending.  Avatar, while I personally disliked it, DID have a solid story about conservation and not wiping out a race (a tale that was already told in a story called Pocahontas). Whether this makes for good movie or not is up to you.

Sci-fi is a very wide reaching style, one that you can mix with nearly anything.  It's often mixed with horror, disaster, noir, comedy, action, even westerns (as seen in the upcoming film Cowboys & Aliens).  More or less the genre is broad and can be adapted into nearly everything.  So if you like sci-fi, way to go, there will be tons of it and it'll come in all different styles...

And there's your lesson for today, peace!

The Fourth Act-- Untitled Comic Book Movies Reboot

Since my previous post was put up late, I've decided to keep with the same subject (I realize I have more to say). Yesterday (or today technically) I made reference to some things I want to touch on more. I mentioned the importance of the Spiderman franchise and how it caused this resurgence in the superhero movie, but now I want to talk about the importance of The Dark Knight. I think it's safe to say that the Batman series of the 80s and 90s left a bad taste in our mouths (being some of the worst movies ever, at least in my opinion). It was time for a redo, especially during a time when superhero movies were becoming more popular. What we got with Batman Begins, however, was quite spectacular. A gritty, adult, real world retelling of the Batman story... It didn't totally follow the comic but it did a hell of a better job than the Tim Burton film. It was believable, it had an edge (no Mr Freeze "cold" puns), Batman wore body armor and drove a tank, the villains were actually psychotic and not just retarded (see Mr Freeze reference), it just worked. Then came The Dark Knight... Not only did we get a good, gritty and believable story, we got a wonderfully twisted Joker and probably the best acting in a superhero film (and it's definitely not Christian Bale).

The movie was far from perfect, the dialogue is a bit corny (it IS a superhero movie after-all), the acting was poor, at least from Bale (he was good in The Fighter, but then again he was born to play a crack addict). However, what was so impressive about this film was that it really made everyone else in the comic movie community realize how bad their movies sucked.

This brings me to my point, The Dark Knight brought about the sudden surge in franchise reboots. Everyone's doing it, movies that aren't too old, like Spiderman or The X-Men are ALREADY getting a redo, Superman is on his second reboot attempt now, everyone wants their superheros gritty and real, just like Batman... All of the new superhero movies to come will probably be darker and grittier, that's just the influence of this movie... It's changing the way movies like it are done, and it's making people rethink the comic-based "mistakes" they've made in the past... I wouldn't be surprised to see every franchise rebooted a few times, people wanna remake things that will make them money, and doing a superhero movie like The Dark Knight will...

But anyway... Sorry for making today so short, I'll see you all next time.

The Third Stanza-- No More Comic Movies

Let me just start by saying, this one's going to be fun (and probably full of bitching!). Now, we all like comics (maybe), and who doesn't wanna see a real live Spiderman flying through the building tops of New York on a tiny string, am I right?... But, the thing about comics, is that the stories work unbelivably well as year long sweeping, arching story lines... but not so much as empty, stripped down, action packed two hour long films. Comics have depth (especially modern comics); They tell deep and thoughtful stories (mostly) through the eyes of unlikely characters, and already use visual depictions!! Almost no comic translates well into film (I'm sorry if you disagree) and ESPECIALLY not comic book series'. On a very rare occasion does a series make a good film (the rebooted Batman series is a good example of that occasion). One reason for this, in my opinion, is the fact that comic movies don't generally delve deep into a story and just focus on mindless action, which is what most people want (do you wanna see Ironman deal with drug and alcohol abuse or see him shoot lasers at another dude in a metal suit?). My problem with comic movies is that fact that they can never follow the stories they attempt to... And I know, they have time constraints to deal with and blah blah blah, but do they always have to kill off enemies that never actually die in the books? (Doc Ock didn't need to die, he didn't even stay evil).

Not only do comic book series' get poor film treatment, but one shot graphic novels do also.  One prime example is The Watchmen (*gasp* he's badmouthing The Watchmen?!?!?!).  The Watchmen, like all Zach Snyder films, was an over-the-top production that focused WAY too much on visual effects and fight scenes; even though there were only a few. I get a bit tired of the dramatic, slow motion cuts and zooming during every single action sequence (A staple in every Snyder film); Admittedly, this wasn't as frequent in The Watchmen as in 300 (*shudders at the thought of 300*).  This, however, isn't a blog about Zach Snyder (that may come eventually).  The soundtrack in The Watchmen didn't always fit the scene (such as "All Along The Watchtower" being used when approaching Ozymandias' lair. I would have gone with dramatic score, personally) and the acting wasn't the greatest either.  Admittedly, Jackie Earle Haley, DID do a good job portraying Rorschach.  The ending of the movie was an interesting change (and one that I actually enjoyed), and it made a bit more sense than the actual book ending (no offense to the comic, which I love).

Even so, I do not believe all comic-based films are totally awful. V for Vendetta, for example, was a very good comic-based film. It didn't disgrace the graphic novel it is based off of, the acting was good and the story got fairly deep (although not as deep as the book of course).
Another one I want to mention; The Dark Knight, which was a very decent adaptation of a comic series (although the more you watch it, the worse you realize it is). Heath Ledger's roll as The Joker was excellently acted. Questionably, the best acting in a super hero movie, ever.  The action was very well done and the dark tone was an excellent addition.  I'm actually excited for the next installment of this Batman series (unfortunately it's titled The Dark Knight Rises).  Another comic-based movie I enjoyed (even though the creator himself disliked it) is Tank Girl. The movie really doesn't follow the comic and is also fairly ridiculous, but it was a very entertaining (and very 90s) movie.  I suppose more than anything it took me back; It reminded me of the slightly ridiculous movies I used to watch as a kid. The characters with bad attitudes, the lame 90s style and cultural references, the overall cinematography... it just screams 90s!! (that's one interesting thing... even if you don't know when the movie was released, the cinematography can tell you a lot).
I also didn't really mind Hulk, the Ang Lee one (but I'm not saying it was good). They focused on the psychological side of the character and the way it was laid out like a comic, with scene in scene, was really intriguing.  Most people complained that there was not enough Hulk and that may be true, but at least they focused on a story (however, they basically did not stick to the comic at all... major strike against it!!).

I feel like I need to discuss the Spiderman franchise now. It wasn't in any way the first superhero movie, but it DID kick off this new resurgence of superhero movies' after the success of the first one. It seems like Marvel and DC are doing film adaptations of every single one of their series'.  Spiderman was a hit for a few reasons:
1. Spiderman is a popular superhero (the most popular in the Marvel lineup),
2. Seeing a real Spiderman swinging around New York was amazing at the time. And finally...
3. The general public loves lame action films.
The first Spiderman was decent, nothing more than an origins film. The second was okay, actually adapting one of the more striking story arcs. The third... awful, a waste of a great villain, a waste of a great story (That was told wrong), horrible acting, AND it, in no way, followed the comics!  I like Sam Raimi, I liked the Evil Dead films and I really want to see Darkman,  The Spiderman films though, not worth it (and now they're rebooting the series... already. Let's see how that goes).

Who knows, maybe it's just Marvel, because the X-Men series is another that is progressively getting worse... the first movie wasn't bad, just a bit slow.  The second was okay but they ruined it by including Wolverine's story which, for one, made him the center of attention and, for two, was wrong... then there was the disaster of the third one (enough said) and finally X-Men Origins... horrible acting, horrible CG, horrible (and totally wrong) plot and they even went as far as ruining Deadpool.  Then again, DC continually messes up Superman movies, so I suppose they both suck...

Alright, I'm done complaining.  Now, to add a few more things;
A few upcoming superhero films that I'm not particularly looking forward to, but may see anyway...

X-Men: First Class
Thor
Green Lantern
Captain America: The First Avenger
Cowboys & Aliens
Luke Cage
Y: The Last Man
Wonder Woman
The Amazing Spiderman
The Dark Night Rises
The Avengers
Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance
Superman: Man of Steel
The Wolverine
Doctor Strange
Nick Fury
Kick-Ass 2: Balls to the Wall
Shazam
Sin City 2
Justice League: Mortal
Ironman 3
The Flash
The Crow
Runaways
Ant-Man
Deadpool
Daredevil reboot
Silver Surfer
Sub-Mariner

Enough about my preferences.  If you're a fan of comic-based movies, then more power to you.  I just happen to be disappointed by the disregard of the books and the lack of anything that could make them redeemable (Daredevil and Elektra for example).

On that note, it's 2:30 AM, I'm going to bed and so should you (if you read this immediately).  Good night.