V and The D

So The Watchmen feature film seems to be in what the folks like to call Development Hell [I'll take down that link to the site that even had a message board which is non-existant now I guess?]. And of course that's a shame indeed. These next two years -- with all these bottom tier comic characters getting their movies -- would be a perfect time to cut to the real point of what the whole superhero mythos is all about and shed the metaphors and put some real substantial issues out there. But in the meantime we do have a different Alan Moore book coming out to the move screens in V For Vendetta.

You may have heard about this movie recently with the London terrorist bombings as this is indeed a book that takes place in London and has "terrorist" bombings as the crux of the plot. I must say I'm proud that the WB hasn't pussied out on this movie and is going forward with the release date of November 4th. This story does take place in a completely alternate reality -- in the book it takes place in the 1990's in a what-if-the-fascists-had-gained-power-England. I don't remember the book actually referencing the Nazis but that's the impression you get. It's a very much Orwell Big Brother society where subversives (homosexuals, most music/movies, literature, theater, etc.) are banished/exterminated and the powerfull are a type a hierarchy and rule unchecked.

It's a pretty great read, but the recently released trailer for the movie does not do much for me. The book was affecting in its artwork as presenting this quasi future of England as being a bit grimy and ugly. But it seems this movie has quite the glossy coating. The screenplay was written by the Wachowski Bros of Matrix and Bound fame and they were reportedly the second unit directors and it seems they and their former second unit director -- who's the actual director of this movie -- are unable to film a frame of realistic settings. I mean, remember how Zion, or whatever their "real" world was, looked in those Matrix movies? It was like the cleanest raggety clothing and most pristine underworld put on film...

Yes, in most of your mainstream, well known comics you're given a brightly colored, sharp lined, and clean universe in those tiles. V For Vendetta is not one of those books. DC Comics are known for getting darker and getting mort dirt under the nails of their characters -- especially those on their sister imprints like Vertigo. Which is why I always liked DC more than Marvel when I was a kid. This is the reason why I'll again say Batman Begins is a truly great adaptation. Even though the Batman character has gone full spectrum in that regard -- from cheesy to dark and brooding -- in both movies and comics unfortunatley enough....

Anyway, I also wanted to mention the release of a, well I guess you could call it a teaser, for the Tenacious D movie -- The Pick of Destiny. The interview at least in rather entertaining. I think of it I guess as a guilty pleasure with these guys. I fell in love with them when I unwittingly witnessed their HBO episodes back in '99, and was rediculously hppy when they released those episodes on DVD last year. But I was initially let down with their CD release in 2001. But since then it has indeed grown on me and I'm looking forward to the new album/movie soundtrack. Good goddamn am I looking forward to it... You can read an interview with the funny fuckers here.

P.S. - Back to the previous points, I should say that I thought Constantine was a pretty decent movie. This also being an adaptation of a Vertigo comic that Alan Moore had a hand in at it's incubation. Reeves does a good job with the role without being a blond haired Brit -- and I really don't think that whole issue makes a difference. It's a bit wattered down, but he does get Constantine's essence to make the movie work. I'd love to see a sequel to this one -- just as I'd like to see a sequel to another unfairly maligned adaptation, Hulk. Hulk, to me, was the closest film has ever gotten to capturing the experience of reading a comic book. Now, this isn't necessarily a great thing for casual goers -- or even faithful Hulk fans -- but Ang Lee's use of paneling and framing is about as good as it gets in that regard.

Holy Shit Did The Island Suck!

No joke, the thing has steam coming off it -- look out. I wasn't even expecting much from the movie. I'd seen the usual ad on my way to work to send an email off for a free pass -- ok. Can't be that bad, and I doubt I'd pay money to see it in the theater anyway, so why not. It'll be in a nice air conditioned room on a hot Wednesday... Wrong and wrong. First off the theater's cooling system seemed to be keeping the room at a thick 80 degrees or -- maybe a little less than that... And after all was said and done the movie itself offered about 10 minutes of decent entertainment. People were walking out of the place right before the 15 minute "climax".

Now I'd bitched about War of the Worlds being a bit of a letdown but by comparison -- well let's just say WOW is a dutch oven and The Island is a Cleveland steamer. So far this summer's been a crap fest for movies. I've heard Land of the Dead was a fun time, and I can vouch for Batman Begins an Me and You and Everyone We Know, but besides that... nada.

Not much to report from the Netflix front either. Pretty much been enjoying the Freaks and Geeks and Wonderfalls sets. Though most of you have probably already caught those... maybe not Wonderfalls, it's a pretty good show that I'd describe as a cross between Joan of Arcadia and Northern Exposure... but better than that sounds...

Anyway, I did catch up on some Kurosawa with a nice Yojimbo and Sanjuro double feature. And revisited some classics like Flirting and The Station Agent (yes I already consider that one a classic). But there's also been a few duds like The Yes Men and Harold & Kumar... And the rest of them fall in the middle and aren't even worth mentioning really. Time for sleep.

Geek Reflex

Every year I see these photos from the San Diego Comic-Con and every year I laugh at the foolish geeks that get their picture taken next to sweaty storm troopers and whatnot -- and then wish to god, satan, Ellis, Clowes, Moore, etc. that one day I too will be able to be counted among the elite of geekness. [For the best/most hilarious coverage of this perennial event I turn you to this.]

I’ve always been firm in my belief that there’s a broad line between The Nerd and The Geek. Most often these two are considered interchangeable in uses. I really don’t feel like getting into it now but I’ll try to simply graze the issue…

Let’s take an icon like the Comic Book Store Guy from The Simpsons… Yes, clearly a Geek. The nerds were the ones that helped Homer in that Animal House episode… Okay, maybe further clarification is necessary. Let’s break it down to its simplest level: Nerds – good grades. Geeks – good swag. Would a Nerd be a high school dropout with a collection of every issue of Big Ass Comics? Or a copy of every Bruce Campbell movie on VHS…

Do you see the difference? Good.

One of these days I will be there, as satan as my witness. But it's second on my list after the SXSW fest. I mean, they do show some movies at the Comic-Con and have panels for upcoming the much-anticipated sci-fi summer flicks but compared to SXSW it’s all strictly bonus material.

Stop Me If...

I posted about this probably more than a year ago on a different blog. But now that the movie is finally gaining some steam I feel compelled to make another note of it.

I like David Fincher. Even his sorta crappy movies (Alien 3, Panic Room) have an appeal to me -- not sure why. I think I have a weakness for directors, or autuers if you will, who even though they've created something uneven, flawed, and frustrating -- they're still trying out new techniques, pushing some boundaries, and well, being interesting.

Mr. Fincher's been keeping it low-key for more than a few years now, mostly collecting producer credits. But he's got a couple of director efforts in the works now and the one I'm a bit intersted in is an adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's short story The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Click that link to read it yourself. It's a cool little story you can take care of during a lunch break. It's a bit sci-fi -- the story of a man born 80 or so years old and grows backwards. A bit like that Seinfeld joke of the similarities between being elderly and an infant -- but more profound... It's already collected Brad Pitt as Benjamin and Cate Blanchet as his wife. The three of these people together, I'm pretty confident it'll be a nice piece of work.

Also, I'm kind of sad this web site hasn't been in my life since now, but Boing Boing is one of those blogs that makes you feel rather useless if you're trying to create your own "directory of wonderful things". I could spend a few days curled up with it's archive... Anyway, a fun site.

Bogus Journey

Just spent an hour working on a post to have Firfox crash. Wicked pissah. So we sum up:

The Aristocrats. Documentary about a filthy joke. Looks like a funny movie (check out the cast). Here's a segment they got from South Park. Here's the trailer.

War Of the Worlds. Kinda sucked.

Me and You and Everyone We Know. Great. Shitty comments out there comparing it to Napoleon Dynamite are retarded. If anything it's the antithesis of that crap factory. Real characters resulting in honestly funny situations. Rather than caricatures acting funny in manufactured situations. Granted, you can say both movies are unique and original and made on small budgets but that doesn't make them at all comparable.

Well, there was a bunch more commentary on those three things but alas...

Like Pulling Teeth

Kind of what it's like to get me to update this thing. But it's also what happened to me yesterday. At 28 I figured my wisdom teeth would have bitched at me by now if they were ever going to but it seems that fun has just begun. Got the lower left one pulled while I was floating in the ethers of whatever it was they were pumping into my arm. An odd experience as I woke up as they were just finishing up with the stitches... And it seems that it's just a matter of time before the other ones start causing a ruckus. Can't wait.

Well, now I get to sit at home for the next couple days, eat soft foods and have fun with these Percocets. Though on this first day with them, I must say I prefered the Vicodins I got before the tooth was pulled, but I think that has to do with the dosage amount. But I'm not that into experimenting that I'm going to start mixing.

So I've been whiling away the day downloading music and watching cartoons. I found a pretty satisfying, albeit most likely temporary cure for having no cable. One of the things I miss the most is Adult Swim. But I found that all my favortie shows from it are to be found available to download from my file-sharing friends--bless them all. So I've managed to download the entire first season what I've easily convinced myself is the funniest damn show in production now, The Venture Bros. That along with the two regulars: Aqua Teen Hunger Force and Sealab--being 15 minuntes a piece those are much friendlier on eating up the memory.

Also enjoyed the first episode of Stella which you can view here. Pretty decent -- they showed the dance for the apartment at their live show I caught some months back, nice to see that again... And I can also catch the best bits of The Daily Show I've been missing over there too. So for the time being I'm doing all right.

Well, I finally got around to updating the sidebar over there (books and music anyway) so for whatever that's worth... I highly recommed the book Thumbsucker. It's one of those soon to be released movies that caught my eye a while ago and decided to pick up before it comes out--and damn if it isn't easily one of the best books I've read in a while.

Oh, and I did catch the new Batman. Damn fine movie. If you've ever been a fan of the character you'll be blissed out over the thing.

Ok for now. I'll get back to you in a bit.

NPR Bloc Party

I love those commie pinko bastards at NPR. And tonight to show some love to me their going to be broadcasting their show live from DC. I caught them on Conan the other night and was quite impressed with their live chops. Should be good.

Too Hot for Blogger

[The things I do for Head...]

So here I sit in my short shorts and wifebeater, trying to drum up some things to post about while wondering how much heat this monitor is giving off -- it feels like too much; and maybe I should go back to the living room and watch a couple Mr. Shows or Stranger With Candys and call it a night. But I pour a frozen Cape Cod and go forth... What's happened?

Went to Virginia -- the first things I saw in Viginia once we made a pit stop off the highway? A military base and this:



Heady advice. And from that time since, I have indeed rocked steady. And all the while supporting the troops, natch.

Did I just type natch. Didn't think I ever would, but hey, let's move on. I needed some practice, so I rocked steady at Steve Malkmus.



No Pavement played. I'd heard he dipped into the back catalog in the past but I guess that was during his first tour when he didn't have that many Jicks songs to play. But it was still a good show. Couldn't say the same for the opening band Picque, or whatever they were called... too much heroin going on there.

And for the first time I struck out at Suffolk Downs. A shame really. I've always been able to win at least one race. Guess it's good I only go once a year. But M'lady went out on a winning note -- so all wasn't lost.

A bit of a Netflix roundup?

Trouble Every Day -- Been waiting a while for this one to get out on DVD - or maybe just for Netflix to get it. Anyway, it's basically a quietly disturbing vampire movie. I've been meaning to check out Claire Dennis' movies and wanted to start with this one. She'd been the AD on movies like Down By Law and Paris, Texas - a couple of personal favorites. And so this may not have been the best of introductions but I was entertained and not disapointed. I may be one of the dozen or so out there waiting for the DVD release of Brown Bunny and Vincent Gallo was in some fine grime method acting action in this. I swear, the man has some chops - ever seen Palookaville?

Machinist -- Wanted to take a look at this before Batman Begins comes out. I've always liked Christian Bale, ever since the underapreciated Empire of the Sun. I still think American Psycho is a great date movie, and even enjoyed the muck and mired Reign of Fire as a weekend afternoon movie to drink heavely spiked egg nog to. So much had been made of his dilapidated form in this one. I forget the actual number of pounds he dropped for this movie - I'm guessing 70 or 80. I thought one of his ribs might poke Jennifer Jason Leigh's eye out at one point (you know which point). Anyway, his dedication is not lost on this movie. Towards the end it gets a bit unhinged but it had my interest the entire time - way past my bedtime, and was thuroughly impressed with the performace... which may in fact overshadow the movie itself, but nonetheless this is a recommendation.

Ken Park -- I'm a wicked man now. I've downloaded a movie. Don't arrest me! The only reason I downloaded this movie was, well, it seems it ain't ever going to be gracing our screens here in America. It recieved one showing in Australia and was promptly banned... Looking at that poster I can't wonder why? I'm not too sure where this movie was shown otherwise [Europe] but I rather enjoyed it. I guess as I've perversely enjoyed all of Harmony Korine's movies. Or is it Larry Clark's movies? Ahh, what's become indistinguishable... There's a bit of difference I suppose in Mr. Clarke's two previous movies without Harmony - Bully and Another Day in Paradise. And Harmoy's two without Larry - Gummo and Julien Donkey-Boy. But this is another joint venture between the two auteurs and it feels just like home. That is, if your home is a disturbing suburban nightmare. On display here is your usual skateboarding teens just trying to get by by alternately killing themselves, killing their legal gaurdians, killing their brain cells... Or reversely their parents doing the same thing/causing them to do the same thing... You know! The thing about these movies is that you can write pages about them and still not get the point. What is the point that I got? It's Kids on the west coast -- with parents, and even more unsavory results.

DiG! -- The story of The Brian Jonestown Massacre and The Dandy Warhols. Two bands I couldn't really give two shits about when I saw this. More on point it's the story of their relationship together as growing bands and the steady rise of the Warhols and the steady insanity of the BJM, or rather it's leader Anton. And this window into Anton is really the beauty of the movie. What if the leader of your band was bringing you to the cusp of greatness and notoriety was bipolar and constantly drug addled? But he's also quite charismatic and a bit of a musical prodigy... The movie seems a bit heavy handed on the side of the Warhols while your watching it. The lead singer of that outfit is playing the part of the narrator, and you get to watch their eventual success via that annoying Stones rip-off 'bohemaian' song, while all the while watching Anton drag his band into eventually quitting one by one through on-stage fights and drug frenzies until he's playing solo with his sister (and that doesn't end pleasently either). But this is a fascinating movie. [There's even seperate commentary tracks - one by the Warhols on by The BJM.] And upon listening to random songs by these two bands after watching the movie, The Brian Jonestown Massacre wins the battle hands down. And they're playing TT's in couple weeks - oh to witness a band meltdown on-stage...

So Nicole Kidman's drunk On Letterman to ease the pain of losing one of her best friends and the Kieser Chiefs are on Leno doing a decent job...

Oh... I watched DiG! (i Don'T kNoW what's up with the title either) as a double feature with End of the Century: Story of the Ramones. I can't believe that I'd be debating which would be a better documentary but it's close -- though as a genuine documentary I'd have to give it to The Ramones. It's a more focused and genuine story and rather than making a forced pick and choose perspective on it's subject, it compiles great footage and unexpected interviews to make a great closing statement on a lasting legacy.

Used Resurrections

Mmmm... Tammy Littlenut. Sorry, but hey, Used Wigs has a nice way of getting those soon to be out of reach interviews. [Because in my mind The Strangers With Candy movie is going to be a huge goddamn blockbuster.] God bless them. While I'm at it I'll exploit their link to a half decent Sleater Kinney video. I can't quite get myself to link to the tree thing -- but if I were on weed...

Thanks to Stakes is High I now know of The Superficial. The bitch rag of the month. Enjoying it much more than Defamer. But, most likely, in a couple weeks, it will get old and annoying -- just like Defamer and Whatevs...

In case anyone had doubts, I'm glad to report Topher Grace can act. Thuroughly enjoyed his performances in P.S. and In Good Company this weekend. I'd had my suspicions from Traffic and his bits in the Ocean's films, but I'm putting this guy in that Johnny Depp catagory of definitely having a long and prosperous leading man career after his B show tv career if he keeps up these well chosen roles. P.S. is the better of the two as a film that sticks with you after the viewing -- In Good Company pretty much gives you a grin as it flows over you, leaving you happy and content. P.S. tries to pack a bit too much in it's 90 minutes but is chock full of great performances and even has a bit of a Miller's Crossing [definitley on my top 3 Coen Bros. movies] reunion (even though they have no scenes together) with the pretty much always spot on Gabriel Byrne and Marcia Gay Harden.

[Okay -- feeling a need to vent a bit about my Netflix relationship. Until very recently I've been peaches and cream with these guys, as I think this blog shows. But recently, my Friday send-backs haven't been getting to them until Tuesday and, well, I guess that's it... But! I have a feeling that this has something to do with me being unable to return my movies as quickly as I used to... I'm not sure... Hacking Netlflix has some case sudies very close to this with folks saying the same thing... Hey, I'm not saying they're still not the best thing out there, it is -- but -- some cracks are starting to show. And the only reason I can think of is my turnaround rate isn't what it used to be. Just a heads up, I guess. But don't worry NF, you're still my honey. I'd still toss a bomb in a Blockbuster for you any day. Kisses.]

Birth made for a pretty good counter-point for P.S.. Both deal with the what-if situation of a lost love returning from the dead in the from of someone else. 20 years go by and Topher Grace comes back as Laura Linney's lost love. And in Birth 9 years go by and wunderkind Cameron Bright says he's Nicole Kidman's dead finacee. Now, this kid's actually 12 years old know -- so he was actually very close to the nine years old he plays in the movie and his creep-tastic performace is almost worth watching for. Again, this kid (though he has the whole child actor teen drug/booze freakout to attempt to avoid) has a very good chance of being a hell of an actor -- very much like Christian Bale? I mean, look at the headshot he's already got going on IMDb for chrissake. And that Thank You For Smoking sounds pretty good too.

Okay, folks. The Rolling Blackout will be having a seriously lame contest going on in a couple days, so stayed tuned for that. Basically all you'll have to do is tell me you want one and I'll send it to you. Much like this giveaway that I'm doing over st SF -- click here to order yours today.