A Decade of Movies #9

Dance of the Dead
Directed by Gregg Bishop
Released October 13, 2008

Good: High school teen comedy + zombies = 'nuff said.

Bad: It could have been way more epic with a big budget.

Thoughts: This is the best Straight-to-DVD horror movie of the decade, which isn't saying much, but it could have been a major theatrical release. It really captures the tone of all the fun 1980's horror movies!

Drinking Game Ideas: Drink to every zombie kill!

Fun Fact: The film had a limited theatrical release at Mann's Chinese 6 Theatres on 13 October 2008, one day before being released on DVD.

A Decade of Movies #8

Brick
Directed by Rian Johnson
Released April 7, 2006

Good: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Emilie de Ravin (LOST), genre mash-up (see below).

Bad: Sometimes the old school hardboiled detective dialogue seems a bit over the top.

Thoughts: Brick is a very interesting mash-up of hardboiled detective/noir films and high school teen movies. It's not the greatest thing ever, and seems a bit awkward at times, but it is good and I appreciate it's originality.

Drinking Game Ideas: Sip scotch on the rocks throughout.

Fun Fact: In the United States Brick opened in 2 theaters. That's right, 2.

A Decade of Movies #7

Charlie's Angels
Directed by McG
Released October 22, 2000

Good: Bill Murray? Crispin Glove? Not really. Umm, there's some PG-13 T&A.

Bad: Having a movie directed by someone who should be a McDonald's value menu item.

Thoughts: This movie sucks. If you can't laugh at stupid movies don't even try this one.

Drinking Game Ideas: Just get drunk. Whatever you do just get drunk. As soon as possible to maximize enjoyment of the movie.

Fun Fact: Drew Barrymore doesn't know how to moonwalk and used to be married to Tom Green, who is also in this movie.

It's a Wonderful Day for Pie

Last night's season 8 premiere of Family Guy was pretty good. "Road to the Multiverse" sees Brian and Stewie traveling through parallel dimensions just like the old TV show Sliders!


My favorite segment is when they reach a universe "where everything is drawn by Disney." Here are some screencaps:

A Nightmare on Elm Street (remake) Teaser

A Nightmare on Elm Street in HD

A Decade of Movies #6

The Simpsons Movie
Directed by David Silverman
Released July 27, 2007

Good: Spider-pig, Bart's dick, Bart's dick leading to Ralph Wiggum discovering his sexuality.

Bad: Green Day.

Thoughts: This was as good as a Simpsons movie could be. Lots of mediocre humor, but also a good amount of LOL's that are not so frequent in most modern Simpsons TV episodes.

Drinking Game Ideas: Get a case of cheap beer and make your own DUFF labels.

Fun Fact: One of the greatest movie promotions ever, select 7-11 stores were turned into Kwik-E-Marts. I'm still bummed I didn't make the 5 hour drive to Seattle to get a Squishee. At least I got some Buzz Cola and Krusty-O's at my local store.

A Decade of Movies #5

Drag Me to Hell
Directed by Sam Raimi
Released May 29, 2009

Good: Fighting a scrappy old woman, old fashioned gross out scenes, great score by Christopher Young, the goat, throwing up a whole dead kitten.

Bad: Poor kitty, evil handkerchief.

Thoughts: Raimi's first horror film since Army of Darkness, and it rocks! An instant classic for fans of the genre, and girlfriends like it too.

Drinking Game Ideas: Finish your drink whenever Christine gets bodily fluids on herself or is vomited on.

Fun Facts: The original story for Drag Me to Hell was written ten years before the film went into production by Sam Raimi and his brother Ivan Raimi. After finishing the script, Raimi desired to make the picture after the first draft of the script was completed, but other projects such as the Spider-Man film series became a nearly decade-long endeavor, pushing opportunities to continue work on Drag Me to Hell to late 2007.

Drag Me to Hell received generally positive reviews from critics upon release. Rotten Tomatoes rated the film as "Certified Fresh", with 92% of critics giving the film a positive review, based upon a sample of 192 reviews. This is unheard of for a horror film!

*Drag Me to Hell will be released on DVD and Blu-ray October 20th.

A Decade of Movies #4

Everything is Illuminated
Directed by Liev Schreiber
Released September 16, 2005

Good: Sammy Davis Jr. Jr.

Bad: The Holocaust

Thoughts: A good movie. Has a whimsical feel similar to Amelie, but not nearly as delightful. It's darker themes towards the end of the film are an interesting juxtaposition to this.

Drinking Game Ideas: Just sip vodka or Manischewitz.

Fun Fact: This was the debut film of Liev Schreiber both as a director and as a screenwriter.

A Decade of Movies #3

The Passion of the Christ
Direct by Mel Gibson
Release February 25, 2004

Good: Creepy devil who looks like Death from 'Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey', Aramaic spoken language, lots of blood and gore.

Bad: White Jesus, crazy Mel.

Thoughts: I like to think of this movie as a modern day equivalent to all of the old Bible Epic films, but much more realistic, dirty, and bloody. I also find it delightful that Christian audiences who generally oppose violent, torture porn/snuff films made this movie such a success.

Drinking Game Ideas: Take a communion shot of red wine whenever Jesus is struck, or during any slow motion scenes.

Fun Fact: The Passion of the Christ is the highest grossing non-English language film and the most successful R-rated film in the United States.

9/22/04 - 5 Years Later

Today marks the 5 year anniversary of the crash of Oceanic Flight 815. The fictional date to the pilot of LOST, as well as the real world premiere date. Enjoy this fan video that puts together various footage from the first 3 seasons, showing the crash in real time and in the style of 24!



Only 120 days until the final season begins!

Nic Cage as Superman!? Production Pic from Cancelled SUPERMAN LIVES Movie.

11 years after Tim Burton's Superman movie was cancelled, a production pic of a costumed Nic Cage has hit the internets! I would love to slide into a dimension where this movie exists!


Learn all about the ill-fated Superman Lives project on Wikipedia.

A Decade of Movies #2

Slither
Directed by James Gunn
Released March 31, 2006

Good: American tentacle rape, Elizabeth Banks, splitting-in-half gore scene, Nathan Fillion, giant blob woman, slug/mouth rape.

Bad: Gary Busey should have played the mayor, barely any boobs.

Thoughts: Good ol' straight forward sci-fi/horror/comedy in the tradition of Night of the Creeps and Tremors. If you think you want to see it, you'll like it. If you don't, you won't.

Drinking Game Ideas: Take a shot whenever a slug enters a person or someone is killed.

Fun Fact: Jenna Fischer (Pam from The Office) makes a cameo... working in an office. She was married to director James Gunn at the time of filming.

A Decade of Movies #1

I love movies. There are close to 2,500 DVD's surrounding me as I write this. In fact, I own so many movies that I all too often don't get a chance to revisit many of them. Now that the decade is almost over I thought I would start a retrospective on the cinema of the last 10 years, giving me a chance to re-watch many of the movies I own. Showcased will be the good, bad, fugly, weird, hilarious, mediocre, exciting, boring, disgusting, and everything in between. I'll try to do one movie a day (I'm not promising anything!) and if all goes well it could turn into a Movie O' The Day column, ala Adam Pawlus' epic Star Wars Figure of the Day blog. Oh, and most of these posts will be brief. I don't want to write for an hour, and you probably don't want to read for that long.


Evolution
Diretcted by Ivan Reitman
Released June 8, 2001

Good: Donkey Lips! (Michael Bower), the practical effects (blue ape creature), entering a giant alien anus with a fire hose, dreamboat David Duchovny, Dan Aykroyd.

Bad: Early 00's CG, Seann William Scott, Seann William Scott getting hit in the junk, Donkey Lips.

Thoughts: If you are dumb you would call this movie "Ghostbusters with aliens." Indeed it is directed by Ivan Reitman, and shares a similar plot to Ghostbusters, but it nowhere near reaches the sci-fi/comedy perfection of that film. Evolution is easily forgettable, but provides enough mildly humorous content and creatures and animals to be a worthwhile endeavour for most fans of genre stuff.

Drinking Game Ideas: Take a drink every time S. Scott is not funny or whenever a new evolved form of creature appears.

Fun Fact: The three-eyed smiley face used as the logo of the film in marketing was borrowed from the comic book Transmetropolitan. Producers had to get permission from DC Comics to use it and were licensed by Smileyworld Ltd., owner of the smiley face trademark, to use it for advertising and commercial purposes.

- Rob

P.S. Please recommend movies to me!

Official STAR TOURS II Trailer!

New Trailer for the Family Guy Star Wars Sequel

They're still keeping Yoda a secret!

Something Something Something Darkside Trailer @ Yahoo!7 Video

PLAN 9 (from outer space) Remake Teaser

Plan 9 Teaser Trailer from Darkstone Entertainment on Vimeo.

Thanks to a Star Wars T-Shirt We Have LOST

At the 4:00 minute mark the talk of Damon Lindelof's Bantha Tracks T-shirt begins.



Not nerdy enough to know what Bantha Tracks is? Click here.