Considering that the Oscars have been announced, there must be a lot of proud actors and filmmakers out there. Then there are those who discovered that their films made the Razzies. Oh no.
The Nominees are:
Popularity: unranked [?]
Archive for Uncategorized
For those of you who remember late-night television in the nineties, and early afternoon television sometimes, you’ll remember Lucy Lawless as Xena the Warrior Princess.
Well, Ms. Lawless isn’t getting any younger, sad to say, and thus she’s looking to take a stab at some big screen Xena action before she can no longer do the flips and ululating war cries. Dig the word:
“By the time somebody does come up with that I’m just going to be too old,” she said. “And I’m really sad about that. I feel like it’s a completely wasted franchise.”
But take heart, Xena fans–let us bear in mind that original creator Sam Raimi no longer has the Spider Man franchise to worry about. Plus he’s got mainstream cred all his own and a whole host of properties to develop.
Someone get Verne Troyer on the phone and start up a Jack of All Trades movie, huh? I live not too far from his hometown and I’d be happy to write the script, guys!
Popularity: 1% [?]
One of the more recent book to movie translations was based on a children’s book that almost has nothing to do with the movie, and so, today we’re talking Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs.
Featuring Flint Lockwood, strange shut-in tinkerer who’s been living with his parents his entire life, and has been working out of a treehouse in the backyard that’s been steadily growing over the years, Flint’s made a lot of strange inventions. Strange like the monkey thought translator that doesn’t seem to work very well as monkeys don’t think in complex terms, and the spray-on shoe substance he encased his feet in at the age of five or so and hasn’t been able to extract his feet from to this very day.
But apparently, they DO expand to fit growing feet.
Okay, let’s all walk carefully around that plot hole (well, he could’ve sold the stuff as a new kind of impenetrable armor–the government contracts ALONE would have…okay, around THAT plot hole too) and on into the plot. Flint’s about to test his newest invention, against pretty much everybody’s wishes–a device that converts water into food by means of radiation. Much to everyone’s amazement, the device works. And when a New York weathergirl whose primary qualification seems to be that she’s perky (until later when we discover what she really is) arrives in town to cover the opening of a sardine themed amusement park, Flint’s invention, we discover, works…but entirely too well.
First off, geeks in the audience–you must own a copy of this film. It will give you hope. Seriously, pretty much every closet geek in the audience is secretly wishing something like this would happen, and for the geekish ladies in the audience, know this–the only thing stopping the nerdy boys from hitting on you is their paralyzing fear of botching the job, so feel free to grab one. They will enjoy it.
This movie is pretty much geek heaven. Between Flint and the weathergirl and the surprise appearance of both World of Warcraft pitchman Mr. T and the man himself Bruce Campbell doing voice work and that strange viral video Flint had of a cat rapping “Fight the power”, most likely a reference to classic 4Chan’s “Row Row Fight the Power“, there’s so much in here for the geek crowd it’s not even funny.
This bears almost no resemblance to the book on which it is based. Rest assured of that much. So literary wonks, you will be hugely disappointed, but chances are most of you are geeks anyway so it all works out in the end. There will also be, as I’ve said, loads of plot holes that the simplistic plot just spawns like crazy (indestructible spray-on shoes, did it have to rain food ALL THE TIME?, and so on) but these can be overlooked in the midst of the geekgasm this movie brings to the plate.
Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs is a great movie for both geeks and future geeks, so the Screenhead Ten Scale and I both join in the geek love and hand this flawed pandering parade a seven out of ten.
Popularity: unranked [?]
I am fascinated by how directors work and develop stories through film. I came across an interesting piece in W Magazine about Lone Scherfig. She is a Danish director who wielded an engaging story called An Education by Nick Hornby.
The movie is about a 16 year old girl named Jenny, beautifully played by Carey Mulligan. Jenny meets an older man who takes her on jaunts to Paris, the dog track and nightclubs. It’s a coming-of-age in the sixties story.
Scherfig is a student filmmaker of Lars von Trier (Anti-Christ) Dogme 95 stripped down film movement, which explains the rather simple way An Education is told.
The older man is played by Peter Sarsgaard, a playboy in his 30’s. He opens a new generation to Jenny. Both embark on a relationship that has sparked controversy from audiences. Yet, the film is very engaging and true to the period of the sixties. One can’t help but enjoy the simple story of a changing generation.
“She could see better than people who’d grown up within the culture what was strange about it, funny about it, the details that spoke volumes.” In the mock-Tudor house in which much of the action is set, she found “a striving for beauty,” says Hornby, where most Brits would see only “suburban tedium.”
The interview with Scherfig is worth the read at W Magazine.
Popularity: unranked [?]
The economy, folks, has done very unpleasant things to lots of people for some time now. So it’s not much of a surprise to see film starting to ape that effect. Jigsaw’s kidnapping corrupt mortgage brokers and health insurance sleazebags in Saw VI, and now, we’ve got Head Shot Lay Off, a short film that explores one crucial theme:
You don’t have to pay unemployment benefits to the dead.
The difference between this short and real life is that, in real life, first they’d take a huge life insurance policy out on you with quintuple indemnity in the event of murder by head shot.
In this one, though, it’s a slow afternoon at VHS Rewinders Inc, and it’s come time to do some very unpleasant things. No, not team building exercises–layoffs. And the chosen method for layoff is a bullet to the head.
It’s a pretty clever little short–granted, it probably would’ve been a bit more exciting if it had been a mass layoff rather than just one guy getting canned, but still, this was pretty funny and fairly well done. In fact, they’ll even tell you how to do some of the special effects.
The Screenhead Ten Scale hands this fairly well done short a six out of ten for being entertaining but somewhat disappointing.
Popularity: 1% [?]
So this is only tangentially related to movies, but still, when you consider that someone’s doing something with Muppets again (Disney, for crying out loud, you’ve GOT Muppets, USE THEM!), it’s definitely worth discussing.
Anyway, Disney’s built this whole interactive site around doing good and volunteerism and whatnot, but of course, since they got Muppets involved, it’s really only a matter of time before the whole thing degenerates into an orgy of good natured destruction.
And they really did make it a big deal, too–if you have a fairly common name (Steve worked just fine when I tried it, but testing the system with “Tibor Takacs ended up pushing it to kind of a generic setup) you’ll get a thoroughly personalized experience that includes your first name.
You’ll even get the opportunity to have a small selectable adventure with the Muppets (and putting Animal in a french maid’s outfit is just HILARIOUS), so head on over here and check it out. It’s great fun, even if your name is a little too weird for Muppets to process.
Popularity: 1% [?]
If you’ve seen the Dawn of the Dead remake on DVD, you’ll know that one of the extra features is a small featurette revolving around the news of the Zombie Apocalypse. Zero Hour, a YouTube short, will attempt to do much the same thing.
Basically, plotwise, this is basically a bit of introduction and then a short vignette into the word of the post-Zombie Apocalypse.
And these guys clearly must’ve seen the same footage I just described because not only does their intro mirror the newscast I described above, but they’ll also be inserting portions of Dawn of the Dead–the remake version–into their own film, which is a practice I generally disapprove of. Guys, make your own movie, huh? Don’t go inserting bits of other peoples’ into your own!
Thankfully, this incursion of stock footage is pretty short and we’re into the meat of the movie, a well executed film that really goes nowhere in rapid fashion, though that’s sort of the problem with ALL zombie films. They don’t really ever end–by their very nature, they can’t, as there’s always another day unless you’re dead–rather, they just kind of stop.
And though the plot is a bit muddled, the execution is still fairly solid, especially for a short film.
Thus, the Screenhead Ten Scale hands over a seven out of ten for a job at least passingly well done under extremely difficult circumstances.
Popularity: unranked [?]
This is generally the worst possible question ever to ask. In fact, based on the demotivator I found at right, it’s generally someone’s last words.
In this case, however, it may be the most appropriate cover art ever–there’s a lot that could go wrong with the theater’s 2010 lineup, and in the first six months.
We’ve got a LOT of strangeness going on here–for instance, there’s going to be a sequel to Wall Street called–get this–Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps. I can’t imagine that people, who still remember Bernie Madoff less than fondly, are going to be terribly interested in watching Gordon Gekko et al come back to theaters after a twenty plus year absence and tear it up.
Mixed expectations for the return of Mel Gibson, Tim Burton and more also throw a whole load of question marks up on the 2010 box office season. Seriously, the whole thing looks to have more question marks than Matthew Lesko’s wardrobe.
But isn’t that how it is every year? Ah well–keep it right here on Screenhead for all the latest news, one way or the other!
Popularity: 1% [?]
Apparently I’m not the only one who noticed that Repo Men is pretty much just a gigantic ripoff of Darren Bousman’s spectacular money sink, Repo The Genetic Opera, just with more action and less ridiculous musical numbers.
And he’s not at all happy. Bousman launched into a spectacular rant on his MySpace page, portions of which we have here.
Okay, lets get this out – I AM NOT HAPPY ABOUT REPO MEN! In fact, I am really let down. All it takes is one viewing of the trailer to see how similar our movies are… The mere name – REPO MEN?!? Yeah – all too familiar.
But that is the exact reason I want you to not bash this movie. Think about what that says for our little opera? We have a bunch of angry bitter fans, ready to spam message board, and preach hate… THAT is not what our REPO is about.
The world is big enough for both of us to exist… So let us EXIST TOGETHER – and instead of talking how pissed and angry we are – just continue to show people whyREPO! THE GENETIC OEPRA is important to you…
THE GENETIC OPERA has been around since the late 90’s – starting as a small stage show – playing at rock clubs. And we will continue to be around until 2056!
Never forget – “WE STARTED THIS OPERA SHIT!”
Now, go have a Happy Holiday!
dlb
Well, it’s clear that Bousman thinks highly of his work despite the fact that Repo was a bomb on an epic scale. Don’t believe me? Behold the numbers. And a link for veracity.
Budget
$8,500,000 (estimated)
Gross
$140,244 (USA) (7 December 2008)
I find myself incredibly eager to find out if Repo Men outpaces Repo The Genetic Opera in box office take. And if it does, I’ll be a bit sad. After all…I liked Repo.
Popularity: 1% [?]