If you don't get the Sundance Channel you should. I've been torn between the Independant Film Channel and Sundance Channel for a good while. And I have to say, today, I prefer the Sundance Channel. IFC gets some great movies, and some good original series -- Dinner for Five is hands down my favorite interview show on TV. Well, "celebrity" interview show. Charlie Rose still holds strong with his thang. But IFC also gets bogged down with having to rotate the same handful of movies every month which can get pretty boring. Now all this depends on which service you have, but it seems that now IFC is getting tossed in with a lot of packages and Sundance is costing extra. Consider it. I'm not completely sure about the packaging details but what I am sure of is Sundance has been kicking some programing ass recently.
I started noticing this in October when I became a big fan of The Al Franken Show in the morning repeats before work. Well, that show is no longer with us, but what we still have is Midnight Snack. This is a prime slice of, for a lack of a better word, "cult" movie greatness. Every Friday night at midnight, the great Bob Odenkirk hosts a showing of new, old, classic, soon-to-be-classic, midnighty type movies -- in his bath robe.
They also have cool Monday documentary specials, and Saturday night music related features (where they recently featured the mesmerizing behind the music style movie DIG! -- that They Might Be Giants doc is up next). I'm writing this now because I just realized Bob is hosting the final in Takeshi Miike's what the hell oh my god are you kidding me this is fucking kick ass trilogy -- Dead or Alive: Final this Friday. Look here for my slobbery kisses to Mr. Miike. And be sure to check the link on the Midnight Snack page for a cool Miike interview. This trilogy is huge fun and the Final(e) is Miike at his most famboyant what-the-fuck best. And to me the combination of Bob Odenkirk and Takeshi Miike, well, a channel can't program a block of tv any more Sean-specific than this. Watch it, you won't be bored.
Devoted to My Many Whims
11/17/2004
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5 comments:
Thanks for getting me on to Miike. I love it (even though I'll be scarred for life).
I have to disagree with you about "Dinner for Five" however. It's a complete circle jerk. "We're great actors. Let's talk about our craft."
And Favreau as the host? He was Gutter in PCU for Christ's sake!
Love your blog.
And have you seen the channel "Trio"?
Turn it on and watch freaks. "American Mullet", "Cinemaniacs", etc.
Wonderful.
I've bitched about Comcast's handling of Trio on here before (can't get the channel where I'm at) -- but thanks for reminding me to continue hounding them about it. I can understand your thing about Diner for Five, but I think they get into details and are able to tell stories that the Letterman or Leno crowd would be bored to tears about and I do think the guests are able to be themselves (for better or worse -- and get drunk, which is always fun to see -- and I think Made absolves all Favreau's need-a-paycheck bad movies). And no other show would have Denis Leary and David Cross together on the same pannel. Except maybe Tough Crowd -- but for the most part I can't stand that show.
See, that's weird. I like a lot of your recommendations but Made was one of the worst movies I have ever seen.
Agree 1000% about Tough Crowd. A bunch of comedians talking about current events. Basically they just try to outfunny each other. It's truly awful.
I am currently bothering Comcast down in Nashville to get it. I had it in Chicago but not down here.
See, I think Jon and Vince Vaughn could be the closest to a new Hope and Crosby we'll get. I know, I sometimes think that I really should be not enjoying Mr. Vaughn's whole asshole schtick and despising the greasy pretty-boy persona but what can I say, the guy's got a wit and delivery that rivals the best of them. And against Jon's straight man schlubby-ness, it just works for me. Nothing I'd rave about but I do look foward to thier further adventures after Mr. Favreau gets done with making the big bucks in the family film genre -- have you seen Elf? It's up at the top of my queue, and I have to admit to being pretty jazzed to check it out. But first things first with Miike's Gozu -- it comes out tomorrow, but Netflix has a great little perk of mailing Tuesday releases on Monday if you can time it right, yes, I'm goddamn giddy about Gozu.
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