tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15717698542369469712024-03-12T18:18:16.845-07:00You Talking to Me?You Must Be Talking to Me, Since I'm The Only One Here.The Taxi Driverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04352371911592068643noreply@blogger.comBlogger277125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1571769854236946971.post-8508323746945161822013-07-10T20:04:00.000-07:002013-07-10T20:04:25.485-07:00The Lone Ranger, Star Wars and An Open Letter to DisneyLike the vast majority of North Americans, I didn't go to see <em>The Lone Ranger</em> last weekend. <br />
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That's the Johnny Depp/Gore Verbinski/Jerry Bruckheimer/Dinsey venture that grossed an embarrassing $25 million dollars at the domestic box office against a $250 million budget plus probably another $100-$150 million in advertising on the biggest box office weekend of the year. Ouch<br />
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Even more embarrassing is that it was beat out by yellow things in overalls that have around the same mental capacity as my betta fish Marcello who eats four pieces of food a day and goes into fight mode every time I walk by him. Double ouch.<br />
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Depp, Verbinski and Bruckheimer will, of course, bounce back. Star Armie Hammer however, is probably just about fucked.<br />
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Instead I watched <em>The Empire Strikes Back</em>, which, shame on me, I had never seen before in it's entirety. In case the geeks are wondering, it was the letterboxed original theatrical cut of the film that comes as a bonus feature with purchase of any modern version that has been skull fucked to death by this man:<br />
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Something cosmic is going on here says Kevin Bacon:<br />
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1) George Lucas makes <i><a href="http://mikesyoutalkingtome.blogspot.ca/2010/05/greatest-movies-that-made-going-to_28.html">Star Wars</a></i>, killing the auteur driven film movement of the 70s, ushering in (alongside <em><a href="http://mikesyoutalkingtome.blogspot.ca/2010/05/greatest-movie-that-made-going-to.html">Jaws</a></em>) the new era of the Hollywood blockbuster.<br />
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2) In the summer of 2012, Disney's big live action tentpole <em>John Carter</em> didn't even manage to gross $100 million domestic against a $250 million budget plus overhead.<br />
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3) In an act that should probably signal the need for some Anti-Trust Law reviews, Disney buys Lucasfilm Ltd in 2013 for four billion and change. They also purchase Marvel, ushering in their new business model of expensive franchise movies designed to rake in the cash. A powerful message to Hollywood is sent by the Mouse House:<br />
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4) Disney announces that they will be making a brand new <em>Star Wars</em> trilogy alongside two more stand alone features.<br />
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5) <em>The Lone Ranger</em> is destroyed Memorial Day weekend 2013 at the box office.<br />
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6) My contribution to it bombing: I stayed home to watch <em>The Empire Strikes Back</em> instead. <br />
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This calls for some action.<br />
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Dear Disney, <br />
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Love what you're doing with the place. Buying up both Marvel and Lucasfilm. You now own the market share of comic book flicks, toys, t-shirts, DVDs, posters, and whatever other useless shit that will populate basements, attics and summer yard sales in ten years? You also have ever geek on the continent by the short and curlies. Brilliant. Let Spielberg rewrite American history, you've going to pick the pocket of the nation at least, if I had to take a wild guess, seven separate times in probably as many years. And this doesn't even include what you'll make off Pixar!<br />
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You're current strategy of expensive franchise films with a guaranteed built in box office is genius. It worked for <em>Star Wars</em> after all. <br />
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But come on, footing a $250 million bill in hopes of launching a franchise based a a Western character that used to be on the radio?<br />
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Especially after the same fucking thing happened last year.<br />
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Let's throw some numbers around shall we? <em>Star Wars</em>, a film based on an original concept, cost $11 million is 1979. It grossed $461 million. <em>The Empire Strikes Back, </em>the sequel, cost somewhere between $25 and $35 million in 1980. It grossed around the same. <em>Star Wars</em> grossed $775 worldwide (a billion and a quarter with inflation). Assuming, just for laughs, that <i>Star Wars</i> doubled it's budget in advertising, pushing the break even point up to $25 million, the profit is still over a billion with inflation. <br />
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No wonder George Lucas now has so many chins<br />
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He's eating fucking well.<br />
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Fast forward to 2013. With a budget of $250 million, a movie in this day and age needs to gross over half a billion just to hit the break even point before profit starts. Out of the 50 highest grossing American films of all time, forty three of them have been from the past 15 years, with the 50th grossing almost $750 million. Of those forty three, <i>Inception, Finding Nemo</i> and <i>2012</i> were not adaptations or sequels. In other words, not many films achieve these numbers, let alone ones that don't have test driven content propelling them.<br />
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Maybe <em>The Lone Ranger</em> needed a talking fish?<br />
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Moral of the story: Tighten the fucking purse strings. <br />
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Your friend and pal,<br />
The Taxi DriverThe Taxi Driverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04352371911592068643noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1571769854236946971.post-39291807113233187052013-06-25T19:09:00.001-07:002013-06-27T09:47:18.708-07:00Finding Inspiration: Alexander PayneI'm writing a TV series with a friend and former colleague. It's going to be great. It's actually going to be Canada's next great series.<br />
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Only one problem: I have no idea what I'm doing.</div>
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I was tasked with writing the first draft of the first episode. Oh god. How do I structure? How many pages is each act? What are my plot points? How do you communicate anything in 23 pages? How do you write dialogue. Someone fucking help!<br />
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And with that desperate plea, someone did: Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor.<br />
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Not psychically. I don't personally know Payne or Taylor. But watching their entire body of work (save for <i>Citizen Ruth</i>) starting with <i>Election</i> and on down through <i>The Descendants</i> (which Payne wrote and directed and Taylor executive produced) was all the inspiration anyone could need.</div>
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While watching, laid up on the couch for the majority of last week with an ear infection, I paid close attention to the writing of the characters. I imagined the work, not as finished films, but as scripts that had been acted out and photographed. It was like having the curtain pulled back. These guys know how to write great fucking characters. </div>
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Payne is often tagged with being a great satirist, a reputation he got off his first two high concept comedies <i>Citizen Ruth</i> and <i>Election</i>. The description fits. At the end of <i>Election</i> when we come to the conclusion that asshole Jim McAllister (Matthew Broderick) and raging cunt Tracy Flick (Reese Witherspoon) very rightfully deserve one another, you can almost picture the shit eating grin Payne sports while taking a steaming dump on these horrible people.<br />
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But then Payne went on to reveal a great humanist lurking below the razor sharp satire and has started making thoughtful films about flawed American everymen just trying to get by with doing the right thing, whatever the fuck that is.</div>
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In <i>About Schmidt</i> which is, let's face it, a loose remake of Bergman's <i>Wild Strawberries</i>, the title character retires only to find he hasn't really done anything meaningful with his life; spent every day in an office only to be instantly replaced; hasn't seen anything; has a daughter that doesn't like him and a wife that he shares nothing but a marriage with.<br />
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Finding out that his wife was having an affair after she suddenly dies, Schmidt has the urge to break out of the confines of his monotonous existence and takes a road trip towards his daughter's wedding, which he hopes to break up. She's getting married to a man he personally thinks she could do a lot better than. He's probably right.<br />
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Along the way he writes his life story to a young boy who he is sponsoring. He comes into contact with the opportunity to seduce a woman, meets his son-in-law-to-be's eccentric family (including a priceless Kathy Bates as the mother), and, in one of the film's best scenes, has a conversation with his late wife under the stars. All of this leads towards that final fatal moment in which Schmidt is faced with an important life decision. He must determine whether or not his daughter's happiness is more important than his own. In the end he fears he's done the wrong thing and his journey has all been in vain. But Payne the humanist let's his light shine down on Schmidt, even if the final scene feels a little contrite.<br />
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In <i>Sideways</i> Payne sends a McAllister type and a Schmidt type on a road trip the weekend before one of them is to be married. It sees Payne maturing as a dramatist. Writer Miles (Paul Giamatti) is awkward, horribly insecure, on the verge of alcoholism and knows everything about wine but nothing about people. He's constantly standing outside the world, looking in on it. Actor Jack (Thomas Haden Church) is shallow and vain but a people person. He's the kind of guy that hasn't met a challenge he couldn't talk his way into or out of. He wants to get laid one last time before tying the knot. He has a hard time stopping at just one. He thinks it wouldn't hurt if Miles got a little bit of the same. </div>
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As per the basic rule of drama, if you put two opposite personalities in a room together for a conversation, they will end up learning something from one another. Jack realizes Miles is a pussy, Miles realizes Jack is a douchebag and neither have the insight or goodness inside themselves to tell the other the truth. </div>
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The heart of <i>Sideways</i> is Miles. We feel for him because, despite his incessant drinking, his failed attempts at getting a book published, the way he obsesses over his ex, and his uptight academic approach to wine, he's a lover at heart. If only he could channel that love away from wine and towards Maya, the angel that's been sent to save him.<br />
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This leads to the famous wine monologue which single-handedly won Virginia Madsen an Oscar nomination. He asks her why she likes wine and she looks him right in the eye and delivers a response that must be the single most poetic thing he's ever heard a woman say on the subject before adding, for good measure, "Plus, it tastes so fucking good." Amen. That he doesn't ask her to marry him right there is unfortunate. That he excuses himself instead of making the move she so clearly wants him to is his personal tragedy. But Payne is not cruel and steers Miles down the same path to redemption as Schmidt. Not before he hits rock bottom though.<br />
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<i>The Descendants</i> beautifully weaves a tale of not one or two, but several broken people, all trying to deal with their trials and tribulations under the Hawaiian sun. The first image is the only one we see of Elizabeth King conscious before a boating accident leaves her in a coma that she will never wake up from. It's the only one we need of her. Her smile beams as she cuts through the water. She is, in the only instance we'll ever get to know her, happy.<br />
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Her husband is Matt King (George Clooney, better than he's ever been) who ponders, in typical Payne voice-over, what it is that makes all the women in his life go a little crazy? The sad irony is that it's probably, in part at least, him. He's a lawyer, travels a lot for work, pinches all his pennies and, as the descendant of one of the first white land owners in Hawaii, is the sole trustee for a large piece of property that, if sold, will make him and his numerous cousins rich men. Talk about pressure.<br />
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Together they had two daughters. The oldest is Alex (Shailene Woodley). She is sprung from a boarding school by Matt after he receives the news that her mother will never wake up. She was sent there so that she wouldn't be able to get into drugs and alcohol or fight with her mother who she harbors resentment for. The younger one, Scottie, is acting out at school. With an absent father that doesn't know how to talk to her and a thrill seeking mother, can you blame her? They're not bad kids, just the product of what one can only imagine was a troubled upbringing.<br />
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Alex has a secret. The reason she didn't like Elizabeth was because she was having an affair. When Matt finds out it leads to one of those great Payne scenes that skirt a thin line between comedy and pathos. He runs. Not valiantly or with dignity, but desperately, down the street, around the bend and to the neighbor's house. He wants answers. They, quite rightly, don't know how many they should give him.<br />
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Also in the picture, before a subplot that finds the Kings taking a trip to track down the man Elizabeth was having an affair with adds another bitter and ironic twist to the tale, is Elizabeth's father. He only has two scenes but is played by Robert Forester with such subtly and depth that one gets to seeing how Payne could have easily fashioned the entire film around him. He's a stubborn man. He's his own kind of man. He thinks the world of his daughter; that she would never hurt anyone; didn't have a selfish bone in her body. If only Matt had maybe just been a little more attentive, given her maybe just a bit more money, and if Alex and Scottie had maybe just been better daughters, than maybe his little girl would still be alive. Payne leads Matt to the same kind of moral decision that he led Schmidt to. In a hospital room with Forester, Matt, finally starting to realize the man he needs to be, does what he thinks is, quite simply, the right thing, even when the wrong thing would have been much easier and more instantly satisfying. <br />
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<i>The Descendants</i> is, for me, Payne's most inspiring film. It dismisses almost all hints of the still present satirist that was lurking below the surface of <i>About Schmidt</i> and <i>Sideways </i>and instead focuses solely on the heavy morale decisions that a man must face and how they effect all those surrounding him.<br />
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Payne graciously gives every character their due. All are flawed but sympathetic. Even when he has a chance to reduce someone to mere punching bag, he doesn't. Look at Sid, Alex's stoned, moron of a boyfriend. Yes, he looks dumb and has a tendency to say things in moments where he'd be better served to just keep his mouth shut. But then he's given a beautiful moment in which King asks him, if the tables were turned, what he would do and Payne gives the kid the kind of monologue that got Virginia Madsen her Oscar nod. At the end of the day, this kid isn't without pain and heavy decisions as well. The bond between them during this moment is never spoken but you can see, Matt is, whether he realizes it or not, a changed man because of it. In a way, aren't we all?<br />
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<iframe frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/cm?t=yotatome-20&o=15&p=8&l=as1&asins=B006NY5D2C&ref=tf_til&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe>The Taxi Driverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04352371911592068643noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1571769854236946971.post-88555344364707375072013-06-21T09:07:00.001-07:002013-06-21T09:07:38.027-07:00Pre-Predicting Gold: Naomi Watts in Diana<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jNad4MYr3eg/UcRo01G4UXI/AAAAAAAABPo/qCZtvbcZeOE/s1600/Diana.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="223" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jNad4MYr3eg/UcRo01G4UXI/AAAAAAAABPo/qCZtvbcZeOE/s400/Diana.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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Naomi Watts has been trying to get an Oscar since forever. And you have to admit, she's come a long way. <br />
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And as an actress, she's gone through a lot on her quest to the top:<br />
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But based on the trailer for <i>Diana</i>, unless the film throws a huge left turn to reveal that Diana was actually suffering from a debilitating heroin addiction and days away from death anyway when she was run off the road by paparazzi on the fateful eve of her passing, there's nothing to believe that it will be anything more than another generic biopic with a hyped performance to prop it up.<br />
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Then again, that didn't get in Meryl's way.<br />
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But considering that the film has no other discernible stars or director, no mention of the Prince Charles or The Queen side of Diana (if the cast list on IMDB is correct), and not a single fucking bar of <i>Candle in the Wind</i> in the trailer; Watts is going to either need to be flawless or it's going to need to be a pretty bad year for female performances to walk away with a win for this one.<br />
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But who knows, anything's possible right?<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Df8jnxGpkTc/UcRzDcXvxNI/AAAAAAAABRQ/Tf0de2HiMqY/s1600/Oscar.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="223" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Df8jnxGpkTc/UcRzDcXvxNI/AAAAAAAABRQ/Tf0de2HiMqY/s400/Oscar.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<iframe frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/cm?t=yotatome-20&o=15&p=8&l=as1&asins=B0076BOLDS&ref=tf_til&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe>The Taxi Driverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04352371911592068643noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1571769854236946971.post-72158475436483170252013-06-18T16:38:00.000-07:002013-06-18T16:38:20.440-07:00Coming to a Theatre Near You: The Wolf of Wall StreetNovember 15th is marked on my calendar.<br />
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That's the day Martin Scorsese's newest Leonard DiCaprio colab <i>The Wolf of Wall Street</i> hits theatres.<br />
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The film is based on the nonfiction book of the same name by bad boy turned writer and executive producer of not one, but two Hulk Hogan masterpieces, Jordan Belfort.<br />
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IMDB just posted the trailer:<br />
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And it looks...kind of... okay...no?<br />
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My initial excitement, besides that of knowing a new Scorsese movie is coming, is because I read the script for coverage earlier in the year. I thought it jumped off the page with the same sort of insider-knowledge-of-dirty-people-getting-away-with-their-dirty-deeds-excitement as <i>Goodfellas.</i><br />
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I imagined cameras flying down tracks. I imagined shots crashing into one another. I expected Roman Catholic guilt. I expected redemption. I expected <em>The Stones</em>. I expected the brilliant work of a brilliant man.<br />
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So I praised the script, said it lept off the page with electricity and whatever other adjective of praise that came to mind. I said it kept my eyes glued on it right until the last page.<br />
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And between you and me, my script coverage usually doesn't miss the mark by too much. Want samples?<br />
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But is it just me, or does this trailer seem all a little to...meh? And why play up a lot of comedy aspects instead of the core drama? What's with Matthew McCanaughey making weird noises?<br />
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But whatever, even in the absence of great material, Scrosese always manages to deliver something worth seeing. Can anyone think of a better movie with a terrible ending than <i>Shutter Island</i> or a more thoroughly entertaining cops and robbers saga than<i> The Departed?</i><br />
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So what do you think: is The <i>Wolf on Wall Street</i> going to be Scorsese entertaining us or are the trailers misleading us into thinking we're going to see a different movie than the less funny and more brilliant one I hope I'll be paying for? I'm still holding out hope for the latter.<br />
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<iframe frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm-ca.amazon.ca/e/cm?t=yotatome-20&o=15&p=8&l=as1&asins=B008D1Q1VA&ref=tf_til&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe>The Taxi Driverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04352371911592068643noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1571769854236946971.post-52915520173602790082013-06-14T19:18:00.000-07:002013-06-14T19:18:46.201-07:00Big Friday News: Arnold Schwarzenegger to Return for Terminator 5Whether you like it or not, <i>Terminator 5 </i>is coming.<br />
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And whether you want it or not, <a href="http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=37819">Empire Online</a> is reporting that Arnold Schwarzenegger will reprise his iconic role as the title character of the franchise that made him into a superstar. <br />
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Excellent News! I was worried after all, since <i>Terminator Salvation</i> essentially just reinforced that robots blowing shit up isn't nearly as entertaining in the absence of an Austrian accent.<br />
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And really, doesn't a little piece in us all pine for the glory days of 2003 when <i>Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines </i>elevated the franchise to the pantheons of American Art?<br />
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<i><strong><u></u></strong></i> </div>
<i><strong><u>Of course</u></strong></i> Schwarzenegger will be back as The Terminator. <em>The Last Stand</em>, his first starring role since returning to acting several years ago, didn't even manage to gross back half of it's thirty million dollar budget.<br />
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And besides, Schwarzenegger has: <br />
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Love children to support,<br />
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Oopps; wrong picture....<br />
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Private jets to maintain,<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xc-nGsHEO5k/UbtU5gUNuaI/AAAAAAAABLc/N7_H-IE-GE8/s1600/schwarzenegger-flying-jet-plane.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="217" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xc-nGsHEO5k/UbtU5gUNuaI/AAAAAAAABLc/N7_H-IE-GE8/s400/schwarzenegger-flying-jet-plane.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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And, Hummers with tanks that need to be filled.<br />
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In other <strong><u><em>Didn't See it Coming From A Mile Away News</em></u></strong>, Schwarenegger will also be returning as Conan in 2014's <em>The Legend of Conan.</em><br />
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AAAAAAAANNNNDDDD...<br />
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The sequel to his 80s smash hit <i>Twins</i>, titled, brilliantly: <i>Triplets</i>. <br />
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Based on how the cast is shaping up so far, Schwarzenegger's involvement will only be the second most desperate attempt at a career revival:<br />
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Also, today <a href="http://www.slashfilm.com/">/Film</a> reported that James Cameron, due to changes in copywrite law, will regain the rights to the <a href="http://www.slashfilm.com/">Terminator franchise in 2019</a>.<br />
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Just saying...The Taxi Driverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04352371911592068643noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1571769854236946971.post-76551369448187687182013-06-13T10:10:00.000-07:002013-06-14T04:56:38.118-07:00Matt Damon's Five Best Films...Period...No Arguments...Geeks around the world, are you excited about August 9th?<br />
<br />
That's the date when Matt Damon gets all "teched up" in order to wage war, and generally go all-out ape shit, upon rich corporate assholes who have formed a new, awesome life for themselves on a man-made space station, while the poor suffer back on Earth, which, by the year 2154, is a raging shithole, in director Neil Blomkamp's follow-up to <i>Elysium</i>.<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TNIsnrS6iN4/UbpPZv4K1NI/AAAAAAAABJw/SVrn8Xh0m60/s1600/Elysium_Poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TNIsnrS6iN4/UbpPZv4K1NI/AAAAAAAABJw/SVrn8Xh0m60/s400/Elysium_Poster.jpg" width="268" /></a></div>
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<br />
Wait a minute, I've seen this one before.<br />
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Truth be told, the trailer looks to be about on the same level of entertainment and quality as the nominated-for-an-Oscar-so-more-geeks-would-watch <i>District 9</i>, no?<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/oIBtePb-dGY" width="400"></iframe><br />
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And so, in early anticipation of the film, I am counting down Matt Damon's five best films.<br />
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5. <i>Good Will Hunting</i><br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-aCM6L4yxuv4/Ubnzc1YNaAI/AAAAAAAABIk/Zu3juOF2iWs/s1600/Good-Will-Hunting-movie-poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-aCM6L4yxuv4/Ubnzc1YNaAI/AAAAAAAABIk/Zu3juOF2iWs/s400/Good-Will-Hunting-movie-poster.jpg" width="272" /></a></div>
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The movie that put both Matt Damon and best bud Ben Affleck on the map and won both their first Oscar for Best Original Screenplay as well as snagging Robin Williams a win for Best Supporting Actor. <i>Good Will Hunting</i> is a compelling human drama about a man who is faced with his own genius and needs to make a decision on what he is to do with it. High on compelling drama and low on visual excess, this is a writer's movie and working with his own words, Damon proved himself an instant movie star.<br />
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4. <i>The Talented Mr. Ripley</i><br />
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A compelling character drama based on the Patricia Highsmith book, Damon continues to solidify himself as a leading man (although he was ignored by the Academy for this one). A taught and thrilling period piece revolving around sex, lies, murder and stolen identity. The film itself moves away from some of the dark humour that is evident in other Tom Ripley adaptations (namely 2002's direct-to-video <i>Ripley's Game)</i> but that makes the suspense no less compelling.<br />
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3. <i>The Bourne Ultimatum</i><br />
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You can't really go wrong with any of the Bourne films but <i>Ultimatum</i> was the one that took the frantic hand-held visual aesthetic that was employed in <i>The Bourne Supremacy</i> and made it even better. This is a film that hits the ground running and never lets up. It is, quite simply, white knuckle thrilling from beginning to end. But it's not just the action that keeps the suspense pumping (although the scene in which the camera jumps across a divide and through a window is still a staple in action filmmaking) it's also the procedure. No one, after all, makes people doing their jobs more exciting than director Paul Greengrass.<br />
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2. <i>Rounders</i><br />
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You could easily write <i>Rounders</i> off as just a over-stylized look into the world of poker playing, but the film has continued to live on through the admiration of poker players and fans everywhere citing it's influence. Don't believe me? Just have a look at what <a href="http://www.pokerjunkie.com/module-reviews-showcontent-id-15.html">the people over at Poker Junkie are saying</a>.<br />
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1. <i>Team America World Police </i><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Gms6gBZtjDo/Ubn4fTOIfgI/AAAAAAAABJY/LmJZqdeGFIs/s1600/puppets-teamamerica-590x350.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="236" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Gms6gBZtjDo/Ubn4fTOIfgI/AAAAAAAABJY/LmJZqdeGFIs/s400/puppets-teamamerica-590x350.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Wait, what? It has to be movies Matt Damon has physically starred in? You're fucking kidding me?...Okay, fine.<br />
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1. <i>The Informant</i><br />
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<em>The Informant is </em>Matt Damon's best performance. And it's not just because it's an I-got-fat-to-get-an-Oscar-role. <br />
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It's because Damon is able to perfectly capture both the strange humor of it's title character Mark Whitacre, but also the inherent tragedy that the film ultimately becomes about halfway through. Leave it to Damon to give a performance that is as equally subdued as it is intentionally hammy.<br />
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<iframe frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm-ca.amazon.ca/e/cm?t=yotatome-20&o=15&p=8&l=as1&asins=B004GDB7OK&ref=tf_til&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe>
<iframe frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm-ca.amazon.ca/e/cm?t=yotatome-20&o=15&p=8&l=as1&asins=B0057GUENU&ref=tf_til&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe>
<iframe frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm-ca.amazon.ca/e/cm?t=yotatome-20&o=15&p=8&l=as1&asins=B00AEBB8SS&ref=tf_til&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe>
<iframe frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm-ca.amazon.ca/e/cm?t=yotatome-20&o=15&p=8&l=as1&asins=B003H6KRIE&ref=tf_til&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe>
<iframe frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm-ca.amazon.ca/e/cm?t=yotatome-20&o=15&p=8&l=as1&asins=B0068FZ196&ref=tf_til&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe>
<iframe frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm-ca.amazon.ca/e/cm?t=yotatome-20&o=15&p=8&l=as1&asins=B0057GUFG6&ref=tf_til&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe>
<iframe frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm-ca.amazon.ca/e/cm?t=yotatome-20&o=15&p=8&l=as1&asins=B00ANB4YS0&ref=tf_til&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe>
<iframe frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm-ca.amazon.ca/e/cm?t=yotatome-20&o=15&p=8&l=as1&asins=B00330WP7K&ref=tf_til&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe>The Taxi Driverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04352371911592068643noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1571769854236946971.post-58507160759116295812013-06-12T11:23:00.000-07:002013-06-12T11:23:58.513-07:00A Few Words on writer/director/artist/genius Alejandro JodorowskyHave you ever seen an Alejandro Jodorowsky film?<br />
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How about <i>Fando y Lis</i>?<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-USt-OfQhi9o/UbiebAJWjBI/AAAAAAAABFo/Diq5dYXQCec/s1600/images.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="250" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-USt-OfQhi9o/UbiebAJWjBI/AAAAAAAABFo/Diq5dYXQCec/s400/images.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div>
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What about <i>El Topo</i>?<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RkyiwnfDEjg/Ubieh9W49OI/AAAAAAAABFw/vqycJCfSKAI/s1600/el-topo-master-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="296" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RkyiwnfDEjg/Ubieh9W49OI/AAAAAAAABFw/vqycJCfSKAI/s400/el-topo-master-1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>Holy Mountain </i>anyone?<br />
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If you have, consider yourself lucky. If not, stop what you are doing, go out, and find one. Jodorowsky, after all is in the same business as Andrei Trakovsky, Ingmar Bergman, Stanley Kubrick, Terrance Malick, David Lynch, etc. which is to say the art business. The masterpiece business.</div>
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Jodorowsky is maybe the most influential filmmaker whose influence has gone mostly unsung. His 1970 film <i>El Topo</i> essentially invented the American Midnight Movie phenomenon and then quickly disappeared until 2007 when a box set of his best work was released.</div>
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The three second version of why this was: John Lennon saw and loved <i>El Topo</i>, convinced his man Allen Klein to distribute that flick and foot the bill for it's follow-up <i>Holy Mountain.</i> However, a falling out resulted in the films being yanked from distribution and basically locked away.</div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-k5S2OFAuRMs/Ubi3vXhO4uI/AAAAAAAABIE/OTnrYMqHrNM/s1600/locked_vault_door_in_the_bank_wallpaper-normal.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-k5S2OFAuRMs/Ubi3vXhO4uI/AAAAAAAABIE/OTnrYMqHrNM/s400/locked_vault_door_in_the_bank_wallpaper-normal.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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But you've seen Jodorowsky's influence everywhere. Nary has a Marilyn Manson video not provided at least some kind of wink and nod to Jordorwosky (his Shia LaBeouf-directed video for <i>Born Villain</i> even directly quotes <i>Holy Mountain)</i>. </div>
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I should probably throw out that this video is very NSFW.</div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/FGEvALnlaWs" width="400"></iframe>
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And what do you know, the new Ryan Gosling/Nicholas Winding Refn pretentious art-film piece of shit collaboration <i>Only God Forgives</i> is dedicated to Jodorowsky.<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1sqTm9ooXf4/Ubiic6fc2gI/AAAAAAAABGI/Mnft0vWYoWs/s1600/funny-Ryan-Gosling.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1sqTm9ooXf4/Ubiic6fc2gI/AAAAAAAABGI/Mnft0vWYoWs/s320/funny-Ryan-Gosling.jpg" width="247" /></a></div>
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But now, I'm poking fun and getting off track.<br />
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Okay sure, Jodorwosky's films are violent:<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nDawYjSIRuE/UbikOrpKFKI/AAAAAAAABGY/OUlp6iFdhzI/s1600/eltopo1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="297" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nDawYjSIRuE/UbikOrpKFKI/AAAAAAAABGY/OUlp6iFdhzI/s400/eltopo1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Surreal:</div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3x4ORGYZFVo/UbikVsH8oKI/AAAAAAAABGg/r9OowxTsCGQ/s1600/el_topo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="303" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3x4ORGYZFVo/UbikVsH8oKI/AAAAAAAABGg/r9OowxTsCGQ/s400/el_topo.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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And blasphemous:</div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-W6ynLjrojvI/Ubikfwp2ENI/AAAAAAAABGo/aw_AlbqyTIk/s1600/holy_mountain_034.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="195" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-W6ynLjrojvI/Ubikfwp2ENI/AAAAAAAABGo/aw_AlbqyTIk/s400/holy_mountain_034.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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And boy, you thought the iguana's in Werner Herzog's <i>Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans </i>were weird?</div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CsN17qzvrW8/UbiksxXvvXI/AAAAAAAABGw/tpwEEOGBV-A/s1600/bl_iguana_28.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CsN17qzvrW8/UbiksxXvvXI/AAAAAAAABGw/tpwEEOGBV-A/s400/bl_iguana_28.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Well how about the Conquest of Mexico reenacted with frogs and lizards?</div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kmRYn2z0Cq4/Ubik5cdW6lI/AAAAAAAABG4/tXhF1cdXtjI/s1600/Frogs6.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="241" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kmRYn2z0Cq4/Ubik5cdW6lI/AAAAAAAABG4/tXhF1cdXtjI/s400/Frogs6.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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But now I'm reducing Jordowosky to no more than a weirdo whose films should be shared with a group and a bong.</div>
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Well, ya, but anyone who has read this space on a regular basis knows that I also believe in art, especially trash art, and art Jodorowsky most defiantly is.</div>
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What's my definition of art? I think film becomes art when it meets two sets of criteria:</div>
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1) It fully utilizes the power of film as a visual medium:</div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-pjyxhayRnyQ/UbimVXddisI/AAAAAAAABHM/9-GBlw0RZkg/s1600/HolyMountain07.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-pjyxhayRnyQ/UbimVXddisI/AAAAAAAABHM/9-GBlw0RZkg/s400/HolyMountain07.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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And 2) it transcends the filmic medium. What the fuck does that mean? When you take the film away, you're still left with ideas, ways of thinking, emotions, whatever, that exist outside of the running time of the film. The ideas are what's important, the film is simply the medium which brings them to life.</div>
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But alas, what Ryan Gosling going on a violent killing spree or Marilyn Manson finding eyeballs in vaginas, etc lacks is that the films of Alejandro Jodorowsky, if you can brave them, are also beautiful, spiritual and leave you feeling fully empowered. </div>
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Jodorowsky, who, besides being a madman, is also an academic, writes books and conducts sessions in which he acts as a spiritual healer of sorts, is always pushing his viewers to find enlightenment. In <i>El Topo</i> his gunfighter is on a quest to kill four other master gunfighters, who each first deliver a powerful lesson to him, and in <i>Holy Mountain</i>, a group of people descend a mountain in hopes of finding enlightenment.</div>
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Being a visual artist, this is all hard to take in upon first view, especially for those not accustomed to stories being told almost solely through images. But it all really dates back to a performance that Jodorowsky wrote for famous French mime Marcel Maceau when he apprentices under him.</div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QenOpGAUukA/Ubio0tnr0fI/AAAAAAAABHc/H51qS50D-qs/s1600/Marcel-Marceau.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="314" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QenOpGAUukA/Ubio0tnr0fI/AAAAAAAABHc/H51qS50D-qs/s320/Marcel-Marceau.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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To paraphrase, the mime encounters three people along his journey, each of which he kills and tries to eat their heart. The third is a child. Once the child's heart is eaten, the mime is so overcome with guilt from what he has done that he kills himself and offers his heart back to the child so it can live again. A positive through negative; beauty through violence; enlightenment through knowledge; redemption through self sacrifice. We could go on all day.</div>
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So what's Jodorowsky's purpose? To find balance in life. That's where enlightenment is. To come to grips with oneself by destroying one's past self and being reborn from the ashes. Jodorowsky's teaching asks it's subjects to look back through their family tree, pinpoint the moment in life where some sort of negative force arose, and to give away all the baggage that has been building up over the years as a result of that action/situation/relationship/whatever it is that is holding you back. With nothing in one's past and with complete knowledge of oneself one can move forward facing outwards, looking ahead to new experience instead of back at old ones. Or something like that. </div>
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If that's not a good definition of enlightenment, what is?</div>
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And, look, I didn't even need to drop any acid!</div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-EQ-W1xr6_cE/Ubi0IurXCHI/AAAAAAAABHs/jvYre5NG3MU/s1600/lsd.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-EQ-W1xr6_cE/Ubi0IurXCHI/AAAAAAAABHs/jvYre5NG3MU/s400/lsd.jpg" width="300" /></a></div>
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<i>Side Note - The Dance of Reality, an autobiographical look at Jodorowsky's life in Chile and first film since 1990, is currently making the festival rounds and looks like it will be one to keep an eye out for.</i></div>
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The Taxi Driverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04352371911592068643noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1571769854236946971.post-48981867715117665822013-05-15T13:42:00.000-07:002013-05-15T13:42:14.553-07:00Indie Gem: The FutureThe assignment was simple. Get in a group of 3 or 4, pick a song and craft a performance around it.<br />
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I remember her perfectly. The overweight, unattractive, mostly disliked girl from grade school. She volunteered herself to go and went to the front of the class to stand; alone. The music began. <em>My Heart Will Go On By</em> Celine Dion.<br />
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Forgiving the since inherited cultural cheese factor of the song, what I believe I bared witness to was a girl with nothing to lose taking her one moment of "all eyes on me" to show that she had something beautiful in her soul. It was strange, provocative, and awkward all at once. It was, plain and simple, art. And like most attempts at art, beauty, whatever it is in people's minds and souls that they need to get out, it was greeted mostly by a collective: <em>Huh?</em> <br />
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And even though I probably got a better mark, my friends and I bashing the living shit out of cardboard instruments to a song that was written by people who looked like this:<br />
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That girl walked away with the moment and, to a certain extent, had my envy. Brilliant or a disaster, she had put it all on the line. That no one cared was irrelevant. The moment belonged to her. All my friends and I had done was perform. She expressed something. I don't know what it was, but there had to have been truth in the room that day. <br />
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That's what I thought of today as I watched writer/actor/director/performance artist Miranda July's <em>The Future</em> (2011). Just like that dance, it is the kind of quirky and quietly profound film in which average people look inside themselves in hopes of finding answers to life's hard questions, only to come out on the other end to realized that oh, maybe there aren't any after all. Could life really be that simple?<br />
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And yet for all of July's wild and fancy arty farty tendencies to grind her movie to a halt at any applicable moment in order to bear her (and her characters') tortured/confused/aloof souls for all viewers to see in as abstract a means as possible, by the end, thankfully, just like that girl from grade school, what July sees through those big blue eyes of hers is, more often than not, I think, truth and beauty. <em>The Future</em> is, plain and simple, art.<br />
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The movie is about two people, Sophie and Jason (July herself and Hamish Linklater). They live together on what looks like meager means. He does bottom level tech support from home and she teaches dance. "Oh, you're a dancer?" Someone asks her. "No. I just teach." <br />
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They find a stray cat, Paw-Paw (voiced by July) who they take in to the vet. It will need to stay for a month but, at the end of that, it can go home with them. Feeling like their time to be free and figure life out is coming to an end, they decide to take that month off and discover themselves and what makes them happy. All the while, the cat eagerly awaits the love that it will find from it's new owners.<br />
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Both characters quit their jobs. He passes the time by getting a door-to-door volunteer position trying to sell people trees that he is ill suited for and dislikes as much as his regular job, but for no money. She stays at home, trying unsuccessfully to make a dance video which is beautiful and expressive and that looks nothing like the ass shaking of her colleagues that are drawing big numbers on YouTube. <br />
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Feeling as though Jason's road to self discovery is finding Sophie left alone, at home, awkward and confused, she begins an affair with a middle aged man. He owns his own business, has a good kid, a nice house, no problems within sight and makes her feel sexually alive.<br />
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However, apart, both begin to feel as though their lives are spiralling off, away from one another, into unexpected and undesired directions. Sophie doesn't know whether she is satisfied just being the woman for a man who doesn't require anything from her other than for her to be his. And Jason, who we learn in an opening scene believes himself to have the power to stop time, is so scared and confused by the possibility that maybe he isn't fit to do anything of worth in life, cowers away; leading to a fantastic scene in which he uses his abilities to stop time while the moon looks down, trying to convince him that he can't hide forever. <br />
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Like July's debut film <em>Me & You & Everyone We Know</em>, another
indie quirk fest that found beauty lurking in the mundane rhythms of every day
life, she once again shows the incredible way she manages to tell a character
driven story almost entirely through feelings and states of mind. Just like
that dancing girl, July aims to bear the art within her soul and leaves drama
behind. It's the kind of film that sets out to express the humor, fear,
confusion and despair of being a 30-something looking into the future and
having no idea where you're suppose to go and how you're suppose to get there. <o:p></o:p><br />
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Through all of the film's uninhibited artistic ambition, I'm back
thinking about that girl. I'll never forget that moment because, regardless of
presentation or intent, in my mind, it was perfect. It didn't raise her social
status or gain her any new friends, or even entertain the class like my group
had done, but it was exactly what its creator had intended it to be: pure and
honest; her interpretation of the world in which, for a moment, nothing else
mattered. <br />
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Like all art, the performance ends and the moment passes and we're left to
wonder whether the world is a better off place for having allowed us to bear
witness to such a rare spectacle or whether it all just goes on, the same as
before, not mattering much now that it is gone. <o:p></o:p><br />
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And so, as another day grinds to a halt, but one unanswerable question of life remains. When all is said and done, looking into the future and all it's possibilities, is
there really very much difference between this:<o:p></o:p><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-CADUBqOjjYo/UZPgEaZ5ptI/AAAAAAAABE8/b_Wmuvu3Xbg/s1600/imagesCA7OCA3R.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="277" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-CADUBqOjjYo/UZPgEaZ5ptI/AAAAAAAABE8/b_Wmuvu3Xbg/s320/imagesCA7OCA3R.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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And this:<br />
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When in the end it all comes down to this:</div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-S_6EfNajedY/UZPtNYgDZLI/AAAAAAAABFU/Sc8ThQhAlMc/s1600/Newark%2520pol%2520grave%2520s%25203.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-S_6EfNajedY/UZPtNYgDZLI/AAAAAAAABFU/Sc8ThQhAlMc/s320/Newark%2520pol%2520grave%2520s%25203.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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The Taxi Driverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04352371911592068643noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1571769854236946971.post-77171824379574076192013-04-16T10:19:00.000-07:002013-05-28T09:57:41.491-07:00Indie Gem: Dark Horse (2011)<em>Excerpt from an actual text message conversation:</em><br />
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<strong>Me: Just watched <em>Dark Hose,</em> have you seen it? Todd Solondz still has it.</strong><br />
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<strong>Friend: No, what's it about?</strong><br />
<strong></strong><br />
<strong>Me: The same thing as every Todd Solondz flick: being a loser.</strong><br />
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Indeed, Todd Solondz is the reigning voice of the cinematic loser. Although a statement like that indicates he is on their side which he certainly is not. He's not on anyone's side. What makes his films so hard to consume, especially if viewing them under the impression that you're about to see a comedy, is that Solondz's voice is always cold, objective, intellectual and completely detached. He seems to exist in his own world which he shares with only himself. This is, after all, the man who once complained that a waitress in a diner calling him "dear" was too personal and made him uncomfortable. <br />
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This is what Solondz looks like:<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-k6HSS__iEqQ/UW15152jvYI/AAAAAAAABCc/qM2MbMuxlOk/s1600/Todd_Solondz_Approved.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-k6HSS__iEqQ/UW15152jvYI/AAAAAAAABCc/qM2MbMuxlOk/s1600/Todd_Solondz_Approved.jpg" /></a></div>
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His characters have included a gawky adolescent girl:<br />
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A chronic masturbater who picks random names out of the phone book to make lewd phone calls to:<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-AtZCGPWLc04/UW16SmJc2sI/AAAAAAAABC0/jynJ0a5PYhs/s1600/Happiness.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="186" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-AtZCGPWLc04/UW16SmJc2sI/AAAAAAAABC0/jynJ0a5PYhs/s320/Happiness.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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And a suburban pedophile who drugs and rapes his son's friends during sleepovers:<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-q73vMxf_mNk/UW16bgDQKII/AAAAAAAABC8/8xPG5r7gSWU/s1600/happiness-08-g.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="214" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-q73vMxf_mNk/UW16bgDQKII/AAAAAAAABC8/8xPG5r7gSWU/s320/happiness-08-g.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Solondz once recounted presenting <em>Happiness</em>, the masterpiece that features the pedophile, and afterwards was approached by a pedophile who thanked him for "actually getting it right." He was allegedly disgusted by this. <br />
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And, with that, we have the cinema of Todd Solondz. <br />
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It's a cinema of indifference. I'd, like everyone else, call Solondz a master of black comedy but, whaddya know, he hates the term. Of course he does. To call his films comedies would mean he's moved someone emotionally into feeling something generic and therefore unreal and we surely wouldn't want that, would we?<br />
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So, his is also a cinema of observation. There's no comment on these characters; no point of view regarding their place within society. These films are simply observational character studies. They admit that these people exist in the world and that's about it. Solondz leaves it up to us to decide how we feel about sharing the same world as them, leading audiences by the hand into uncomfortable situations and abandoning them there to find their own way out. <br />
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Needless to say, he's not for all tastes.<br />
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And now comes his latest <em>Dark Horse</em>, which, like all of his films, is an unsung gem. <br />
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It revolves around this man:<br />
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Abe, middle-aged, single, misunderstood, drives a Hummer, living at home with his parents who don't really do much but sit, glued to the TV.<br />
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Abe works for his cold father who prefers his brother who went off and became a doctor. He doesn't do much at work but surf Ebay, wondering if he should pay $400 for a sealed Thundercats action figure when he already has two of them in his bedroom and throws angry tantrums every time he's accused on not doing the minimum his job requires of him.<br />
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He meets this girl at a wedding. He fails to recognize her indifference towards him.<br />
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She's also middle-aged, living at home and depressed, a failed writer on the rebound after a break-up.<br />
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Needless to say, like all of Solondz's characters, this man is the recipient of both my sympathy and my disgust. He's a loud, oafish man; a lazy child who needs to grow up and get his shit together. At the same time, there must be some relevance to his internal sadness caused by his aloof parents who really pay him no mind as he coasts through life without guidance or direction. Who's fault is arrested development really anyway?<br />
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That's what Solondz does, provides both sides in a potential argument and leaves the rest up to us, always leaving the audience with the unpleasant reality of needing to make up their own minds. Is Abe a good man or a despicable one? Is all of this funny or tragic? Is there any hope for these people or are they all doomed by their social dysfunction? You can go on like this all day. This is, after all, the only film in which the scene where someone finally calls Abe out on his bullshit is cut , mid dialogue, before it finishes. <br />
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So does that mean there's no hope after all? The film doesn't quite seem to be sure and, before it comes to it's final conclusion, after a string of dream sequences that flip flop your emotional perceptions back and forth several times, neither will you.<br />
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As a filmmaker Solondz is in a league of his own. He's that weird guy over in the corner of the room, not saying much, not socializing with anyone; just watching and taking it all in. His films are a reflection of how he sees us. After having seen them, the question is always the same: How does that make you feel?The Taxi Driverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04352371911592068643noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1571769854236946971.post-88752745025507241792013-04-10T10:30:00.000-07:002013-05-28T09:52:24.139-07:00Limitless (2011)A man runs into a former acquaintance who introduces him to something which will change his life and alter his perceptions. No, not David Fincher's <em>The Game</em>.<br />
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There are three immediate reasons that I can see as to why <em>Limitless</em> got made. They are, in about this order of importance:<br />
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And if you can recognize the first two without any subtitles under those pictures, you're about what the studio was hoping for. And with an $80 million North American gross against a $27 million budget, about what they got. <br />
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It must have been that because, quite frankly, the script is mostly shit. The concept surrounding a man who is given a not-yet-on-the-market drug that unlocks 100% of the brain's function is an interesting one, but, come on guys, I know I don't have an MBA or anything, but if a drug unlocks 100% of brain function, once everyone is on it, wouldn't that leave them, more or less, all on the same playing field again? <br />
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Nevermind.<br />
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Okay, so this is a movie about drug addiction? Oh no, I see, it's about the physically and mentally draining demands that corporate cultures place on people to succeed? Hold up a sec, Bradley Cooper wants to do a cliff dive.<br />
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Now I think I get it. It's about mentally conditioning your brain to not hold you back from achieving your...FIST FIGHT!<br />
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And so on...Jesus, someone put a lease on this puppy!<br />
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Seriously, where's Philip K. Dick when you need him?<br />
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Oh right...<br />
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So Bradley Cooper's Eddie Morra, speaking to us often in painfully bad voice-over, takes the drug and instantly it's as if his eyes are opened to the world. He goes from lowly struggling writer who has a deadline and not a single word to being able to detect algorithms on the stock markets so fast that he could probably make a million over night. It's never quite explained how the drug gives it's hero the super human strength to dive off cliffs or beat the shit out of a half dozen or so goons who want to jump him but, ya know, whatever...<br />
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Isn't Bradley Cooper dreamy?<br />
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Then his supplier is killed, he gets mixed in with a European gangster, and finds that once you come off the drug you crash, puke a lot and die. This leads to am unintentionally hilarious scene in which Eddie breaks into girlfriend Lindy (Abbie Cornish)'s office, collapses to the floor in what looks to be a near death panic begging for help and then, exactly one shot later, kicks back and chats her up a bit, looking not too bad all things considered. There's a stash of the drug that he hid at her place. She goes to get it for him. He waits, I shit you not, on the floor in her office.<br />
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Eddie's new found brain power attracts businessman Robert De Niro, who puts him to work gathering intel on his competitors in order to consult on a huge corporate merger. Is it a spoiler if I pose the hypothetical question of who you think the bad guy in all this could be? <br />
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The film was directed with some great style by Neil Berger who manages to visualize the drug trips in interesting ways and opens the film with the coolest walk through Google Maps Street View you've ever seen under the opening credits. See, look:<br />
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But that's the problem: this film is all exhibitionism. It's got comedy, drama, romance, action, and not a single fucking clue what it's suppose to be about or how any of this fits together. <br />
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I'm left reminded of the basic Shakespearian principal that, no matter how stylishly conceived, how technically proficient, and/or how well acted, a shitty script by any other name...ya know?The Taxi Driverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04352371911592068643noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1571769854236946971.post-61214147379312276482013-04-09T09:45:00.001-07:002013-04-09T09:45:26.028-07:00Weekend Reading (A Day Late)So my weekend looked a bit like this:<br />
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And this:<br />
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And this:<br />
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So here's the best of what was missed over the weekend:<br />
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Andrew over at Encore's World of Film & TV is counting down his <a href="http://encorentertainmnt.blogspot.ca/2013/04/encore-awards-2012-in-review-director.html">favourite directors of last year</a>. Do you agree with him?<br />
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Chris at 1001: A Film Odyssey continues his focus on the 90s with his brief look at the great <a href="http://1001afilmodyssey.blogspot.ca/2013/04/sling-blade-1996.html">Sling Blade</a>.<br />
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Norma Desmond at The Flick Chick adds <a href="http://flickchickcanada.blogspot.ca/2013/04/21st-century-essentials-city-of-god-2002.html">City of God</a> to her list of 21st Century Essentials.<br />
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Black Sheep Reviews thinks Jurassic Park is just as good with another dimension. <a href="http://blacksheepreviews.blogspot.ca/2013/04/jurassic-park-3d.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+Black_Sheep_Reviews+(Black+Sheep+Reviews:+A+film+review+site.)">Read the 5 star review here</a>.<br />
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Tom Clift at Movies Reviews by Tom Clift smells the Rock cooking shit in<a href="http://reviewsbytom.blogspot.ca/2013/04/review-gi-joe-retaliation.html"> G.I. Joe: Retaliation</a>.The Taxi Driverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04352371911592068643noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1571769854236946971.post-4225166556875717572013-04-09T09:21:00.000-07:002013-04-09T09:21:55.560-07:00Film Soup Recipe #1Film Soup is a collection of ingredients. Throw them all in a pot, leave to simmer, and you'll end up with a finished film.<br />
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Throw in a dash of:<br />
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A little of:<br />
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A pinch of:<br />
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And a hearty portion of:<br />
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And voila:<br />
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The Taxi Driverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04352371911592068643noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1571769854236946971.post-21742393261549681022013-04-08T12:54:00.000-07:002013-04-08T12:54:25.455-07:00Trash Or Art? Trying to Assess Harmony Korine's Spring BreakersCinema has the uncanny power to conversely reduce art down into the gutters of trash and elevate trash into the realms of art.<br />
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<em>Spring Breakers</em> is trash through and through. But I think it's probably art as well.<br />
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I'll say this of it: <em>Spring Breakers</em> is a Harmony Korine film. Auteurism, like it or not, continues to live in American film through Korine's very specific art-punk film collages.<br />
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The question when it comes to Korine, or any other filmmaker that doesn't trade in working towards some clear statement, is whether any of it actually means anything or not. I'm convinced, especially in the case of <em>Spring Breakers</em>, that it doesn't, which is exactly it's meaning. Kornine is, first and foremost a provocateur after all. He pushes people's emotional buttons without giving any real clues as to why. Maybe it's because he's just a snotty prick, but maybe there's something more here. His films always posing a challenge to the viewer simply to endure them.<br />
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Anyone who has seen Korine's debut film <em>Gummo</em>, will surely never forget this:<br />
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The stomach churns just thinking about it.<br />
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Sure, the formally educated and those who regularly fancy themselves above the philistines of the average cinema-going population can argue about the "poetics of transgression," or some other such neatly worded bullshit as The Boston Globe's Ty Burr did in his review, but when it comes down to it, the twist in my gut every time the <em>Gummo</em> kid takes another bite is what Korine as an artist is really about. <br />
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He even hints to this during this video interview, during which he, with a mix of charm and couldn't-give-a-fuck-less, mumbles a bunch of non-answers at the interviewer. This is a man that doesn't seem to know what he's trying to achieve other than that he wants to achieve something. That he conducts most of it with a half smirk in response to his interviewer's inane questioning is somewhat endearing...he knows what he's doing, even if he hasn't the slightest clue what he's doing, if you see what I'm saying?<br />
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The interview is almost 8 minutes long so for the sake of brevity, there is one particular quote from Korine that really cuts right to the chase of <em>Spring Breakers</em> and what's it's purpose is:<br />
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No shit, eh? </div>
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So there's the base concept for the film. In that case, mission accomplished. <em>Spring Breakers</em> is full of bong hits, lines snorted, pounding electronic music, and slow-mo flashes of day-glo freak outs (sometimes to the tedious point of repetition). It is, if that's what you want from cinema, a towering success. The artist has achieved his personal goal. Kudos to him.<br />
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One must, to continue this line of thinking, discuss Korine in terms of auteurism, in so much as that one must consider the artist as more important than the art, even if the base ambition doesn't ever rise above the point of trash. Really though, just as much art is discovered on the trash heap as it is in the ether.</div>
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Case in point:</div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jhWC3u0V0rI/UWL_eT65-II/AAAAAAAAA_M/At6sTioI0gM/s1600/Taxi_Driver-Robert_Deniro-movie_poster-05-5107608de4726.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jhWC3u0V0rI/UWL_eT65-II/AAAAAAAAA_M/At6sTioI0gM/s320/Taxi_Driver-Robert_Deniro-movie_poster-05-5107608de4726.jpg" width="216" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zrWgXIT0d7M/UWL_VyWcWII/AAAAAAAAA-8/k8kTCPkU0xU/s1600/13_vv_warhol_marilyn-Monroe.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zrWgXIT0d7M/UWL_VyWcWII/AAAAAAAAA-8/k8kTCPkU0xU/s320/13_vv_warhol_marilyn-Monroe.jpg" width="307" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-A_rjQjkUCA0/UWL_c-r4uaI/AAAAAAAAA_E/be-Czu4j9tU/s1600/salo_hq.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-A_rjQjkUCA0/UWL_c-r4uaI/AAAAAAAAA_E/be-Czu4j9tU/s320/salo_hq.jpg" width="229" /></a></div>
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The list goes on forever. </div>
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So where does that leave us with <em>Spring Breakers</em>? About in the same fucking place that all of Korine's films leave us: right back where started, at square one. Neither here nor there. </div>
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However, the questions such indifference poses in it's wake are paramount: Hate it or love it? Great artistic statement or indulgent drug experience? Cheap exploitation or examination of it? Narcissism or cluelessness? Indictment or exoneration of the behaviour it portrays? And all of a sudden you're engaged in a personal debate with yourself without even knowing it. </div>
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The film itself offers no clues and the filmmaker himself, who probably couldn't give a fuck either way, doesn't help much either. It's point seems no more than that it exists to move us in one emotional direction or the other. The Rubik cube with one square missing. It's not meant to be solved, rather just to challenge the body's endurance. </div>
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The film is then, at some base level, no more than a parlor trick filtered through the eyes of an artist with a unique, snide, disconnected, funny and challenging view of the world. It's easy to hate. However, that's the power of both art and trash; the fuel that flames their existence. I guess that's why they go together so well.</div>
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As for <em>Spring Breakers</em>? I repeat, it's a Harmony Korine film. Translation: a masterpiece and complete shit all rolled into one. Make of that what you will.</div>
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The Taxi Driverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04352371911592068643noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1571769854236946971.post-61987329861417033582013-04-04T10:52:00.000-07:002013-04-04T10:52:17.637-07:00Rock of Ages<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<em>Rock of Ages</em> is the story of a sweet young blond girl (Julilanne Hough) who arrives in the big city with dreams of one day becoming a star only to end up paying the rent through stripping. <br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YcNagRpK788/UV2sDrcPyEI/AAAAAAAAA8U/prFwtbK5StY/s1600/julianne-hough-rock-of-ages-image1-400x600.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YcNagRpK788/UV2sDrcPyEI/AAAAAAAAA8U/prFwtbK5StY/s320/julianne-hough-rock-of-ages-image1-400x600.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
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Wait, I think I've already seen this one...<br />
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She quickly gets a waitress job at a bar owned by Alec Baldwin, whose appearance right from the outset makes me wonder what he spent the cheque on.<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Ne00Mbk3hOU/UV2tK1MizJI/AAAAAAAAA8k/QKc_kQQfGCo/s1600/Baldwins-latest-is-role-for-the-Ages-3T1LH185-x-large.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="235" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Ne00Mbk3hOU/UV2tK1MizJI/AAAAAAAAA8k/QKc_kQQfGCo/s320/Baldwins-latest-is-role-for-the-Ages-3T1LH185-x-large.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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At least, being an an actor skilled enough to deliver the dialogue of David Mamet on stage, he has the good sense to phone this one in, unlike another recent non-singing actor taking a crack at the musical genre, not to name any names:<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-CaHNPuqvABM/UV2ts682QpI/AAAAAAAAA8w/_Hv8__aFEtM/s1600/movies_les_miserables_still_5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-CaHNPuqvABM/UV2ts682QpI/AAAAAAAAA8w/_Hv8__aFEtM/s320/movies_les_miserables_still_5.jpg" width="251" /></a></div>
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He's on the verge of losing his bar and needs a way to make money quick. Wait, I think I've seen this one too:<br />
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Thankfully he has his trusted sidekick, played by Russell Brand, who, I shit you not, declare they are queer for each other during a rendition of <em>I Can't Fight This Feeling</em>:<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="300" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/rm5MDenG5QY" width="400"></iframe><br />
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Baldwin's plan is to pack the house with the appearance of rock god Stacey Jaxx (Tom Cruise) who he gave his first gig to way back in the day.<br />
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Jaxx is managed by this:<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hkI6vjJrPc8/UV2vSAI4GII/AAAAAAAAA9E/zOBG84clNmE/s1600/1338930360_rockofages-paul-giamatti-640.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="280" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hkI6vjJrPc8/UV2vSAI4GII/AAAAAAAAA9E/zOBG84clNmE/s320/1338930360_rockofages-paul-giamatti-640.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Yes, that is indeed Paul Giamatti...<br />
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Jaxx however, underneath it all, is a boozey hack and is told so by Malin Akerman, who then rocks his world PG-13 style to <em>I Want to Know What Love Is</em>. I'm not sure you'd consider this figuring it out or not?<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Vr59cPkJSzM/UV2v4foJeJI/AAAAAAAAA9M/DnaXeR3R8KE/s1600/malin-akerman-sexy-rock-of-ages-16.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="132" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Vr59cPkJSzM/UV2v4foJeJI/AAAAAAAAA9M/DnaXeR3R8KE/s320/malin-akerman-sexy-rock-of-ages-16.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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This is at least the second time in history that a Tom Cruise character has had bullshit called on him by a female interviewer:<br />
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So the little blond falls for the handsome male bartender who also dreams of making it big and finally does when he's given a last minute shot. The taste of fame quickly lures him away, leaving miss Hough to crash up against walls while belting 80s hair-metals cheeseball songs from the very centre of her (heavily automtuned) soul:<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2lhmekQKrSM/UV2w5CVuoFI/AAAAAAAAA9c/yG9Crxf7Y8Q/s1600/ROA.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="204" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2lhmekQKrSM/UV2w5CVuoFI/AAAAAAAAA9c/yG9Crxf7Y8Q/s320/ROA.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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I wonder if that's the way Seacrest used to like her?<br />
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Anyway, Jaxx packs the house for a thoroughly gayed-up rendition of Def Leppard's <em>Pour Some Sugar on Me</em>, during which he jerks a huge jizzlob out of a water bottle and onto the audience:<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sadMI8-TI-o/UV2xaZtgIKI/AAAAAAAAA9s/XmfjwWzyDpE/s1600/Tom+Cruise.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="211" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sadMI8-TI-o/UV2xaZtgIKI/AAAAAAAAA9s/XmfjwWzyDpE/s400/Tom+Cruise.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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As these things go, the girl becomes a stripper, the manager robs the house leaving the club in trouble again, an ultra conservative advocate that someone should have had the good sense to cut from the script before Catherine Zeta Jones was cast, tries to end Jaxx's career, the hunk gets a gig in a boy band that makes him miserable and so on and so forth.</div>
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All the while the songs do nothing to advance the story in any real meaningful way. </div>
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Rock of Ages was constructed under the, what I would assume to be incredibly soft, hands of Adam Shankman,</div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HXXiGSrIsLU/UV2ysJPhs_I/AAAAAAAAA90/psIWjP0lCyA/s1600/600full-adam-shankman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HXXiGSrIsLU/UV2ysJPhs_I/AAAAAAAAA90/psIWjP0lCyA/s320/600full-adam-shankman.jpg" width="212" /></a></div>
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A choreographer who also made the much better <em>Hairspray</em> musical a couple of years back. I'll give him this, from an aesthetic standpoint, these two films are shot, edited and choreographed better than most of the big budget Hollywood musical trash heaps of late. </div>
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But the story sucks, the songs have never been my personal cup of tea and all of the actors (save for Mary J. Blige) are all autotuned so heavily that one wonders if they even needed to show up to the studio to record their parts. </div>
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Wait, I think I've seen that one before too...</div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lZ6WAQUKmjk/UV2019JoghI/AAAAAAAAA98/lH01o6ZmPU4/s1600/high_school_musical_three_ver2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lZ6WAQUKmjk/UV2019JoghI/AAAAAAAAA98/lH01o6ZmPU4/s320/high_school_musical_three_ver2.jpg" width="209" /></a></div>
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<iframe frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm-ca.amazon.ca/e/cm?t=yotatome-20&o=15&p=8&l=as1&asins=B008MIYKOE&ref=tf_til&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe>
<iframe frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm-ca.amazon.ca/e/cm?t=yotatome-20&o=15&p=8&l=as1&asins=B008MIYKAS&ref=tf_til&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe>The Taxi Driverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04352371911592068643noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1571769854236946971.post-27088835080295179642013-04-01T09:50:00.000-07:002013-04-01T09:50:46.156-07:00Weekend ReadingThis weekend my life looked kind of like this:<br />
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And this:<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-aToGfY-0EoU/UVmx5K8jOXI/AAAAAAAAA7M/-KWzaOUqcB4/s1600/eggs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-aToGfY-0EoU/UVmx5K8jOXI/AAAAAAAAA7M/-KWzaOUqcB4/s320/eggs.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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And this:<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-x5aHK4gfhvk/UVmyI1ViWbI/AAAAAAAAA7U/kKN4VDfKTPo/s1600/large_glucose-insulin-supplies.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-x5aHK4gfhvk/UVmyI1ViWbI/AAAAAAAAA7U/kKN4VDfKTPo/s320/large_glucose-insulin-supplies.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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So here's the best of what you missed over the weekend:<br />
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The Flickering Myth is reporting that Hollywood has finally started to <a href="http://www.flickeringmyth.com/2013/04/lucasfilm-and-marvel-to-reboot-howard.html">scrape the very bottom of the barrel.</a> My prediction, in their effort to remake a <a href="http://mikesyoutalkingtome.blogspot.ca/2013/01/the-atrocious-files-howard-duck.html">truly great bad movie</a> Disney will only end up making this reboot forgettably bad by attempting to make it good and no one will give a shit... again. If that makes any sense? I hope it will at least still have big ass laser guns.<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-a_f5bhb-oPo/UVm10qggHRI/AAAAAAAAA7c/Rmfai_EFd94/s1600/howard_the_duck_1986_685x385.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-a_f5bhb-oPo/UVm10qggHRI/AAAAAAAAA7c/Rmfai_EFd94/s320/howard_the_duck_1986_685x385.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is looking at adultery with a <a href="http://eternalsunshineofthelogicalmind.blogspot.ca/2013/04/blind-spot-moonstruck-fatal-attraction.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+EternalSunshineOfTheLogicalMind+(Eternal+Sunshine+Of+The+Logical+Mind)">comparison of Moonstruck and Fatal Attraction</a>. <br />
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Alex at Film Forager thinks the RZA's <a href="http://www.filmforager.com/2013/03/the-man-with-iron-fists-2012.html">Man With the Iron Fists ain't too bad</a> in spite of itself.<br />
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Christ at Movies and Songs 365 recaps what he was up to all last month. Spoiler: <a href="http://moviesandsongs365.blogspot.ca/2013/03/monthly-recap-what-have-i-been-watching_31.html">he was busy</a>.<br />
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Tyler Perry has a new piece of shit in theaters. Vancetastic at The Audient, <a href="http://theaudient.blogspot.ca/2013/03/jurnee-smolletts-pregnant-lip.html">gives it more thought</a> than it probably deserves (and he doesn't get past the poster).<br />
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Vance also, in the same article, raises a point about Tyler Perry putting his name in the title of his films. Remember when Fellini did that and people called him pretentious?<br />
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VS.</div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-aSxSoztCcy8/UVm6M2VatdI/AAAAAAAAA78/S0pivDK5Klo/s1600/8-1-2-marcello-mastroianni-1963.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-aSxSoztCcy8/UVm6M2VatdI/AAAAAAAAA78/S0pivDK5Klo/s320/8-1-2-marcello-mastroianni-1963.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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AND</div>
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Just sayin...The Taxi Driverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04352371911592068643noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1571769854236946971.post-24779624251199167912013-03-27T10:27:00.000-07:002013-03-27T10:27:20.876-07:00Anatomy of a Cult Classic: Repo Man (May Contain Spoilers)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/--z2W-1D18hg/UVHOqYMhwiI/AAAAAAAAA48/OMADF1mADx8/s1600/imagesCAHGM3C3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/--z2W-1D18hg/UVHOqYMhwiI/AAAAAAAAA48/OMADF1mADx8/s320/imagesCAHGM3C3.jpg" width="210" /></a></div>
<span style="color: black;"><span style="background-color: white;"><em>Repo Man</em> is the kind of film that persists through the annals of history because it's a great example of a film that captures a moment in time perfectly: by standing back and looking at just how fucking weird it really was. These days it's discovered by 20 somethings with a bag of weed and nothing better to do on a Friday night,</span></span><br />
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but in 1984, in the midst of Reaganomics, <em>Thriller</em>, the threat of nuclear war, <em>Footloose</em>, government conspiracies and the explosion of the California Punk Rock/Hardcore scene, <em>Repo Man</em> was more than just the stylized mind-fucker of a movie it's come to be known as today. If anything, it's a bold reminder of the social landscape of the time from the perspective of the bottom percentile.<br />
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The film takes place in an L.A. that is seen as a sort of post apocalyptic barren wasteland in which it's every man for themselves. It revolves around an angry young punk rocker named Otto (Emilo Esteves). The L.A. punk scene had begun to explode in the late 70s and by the mid 80s, with the emergence of the Hardcore movement, Punk was being seen as no more than an outlet for bored white kids to start gangs, cause violence and commit crimes. <br />
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Hey, it was the alternative to becoming this:<br />
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Otto, fed up with his shitty fucking job, where he takes flack from his shitty fucking manager for the way he stacks shitty fucking faceless products, made by shitty fucking money hungry corporations, for a shitty fucking wage, has had enough.<br />
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Restless and in need of something more, he goes to his stoned hippy parents for an advance on the graduation money they promised him in hopes of getting out of town. He's told: sorry son, we gave it all to a televised charity. Right on man.<br />
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With no aim, no purpose and no resources he is tricked by Bud (Harry Dean Stanton) into helping him repossess a car. <br />
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After some reluctance, Bud becomes a mentor to Otto in the repossession business. Bud is one of those career lifers who preaches the unsung and unwritten code of the Repo Man, as if it were some trade handed down by God himself. Really, Bud is just a another bum like the rest of them, out to make a quick buck in a dog-eat-dog world off of no discernible skills. This is the last pit stop before oblivion for guys like Bud.</div>
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Out somewhere in New Mexico is a car driven by a crazed man that has something sinister lurking in the trunk, which turns whoever comes into contact with it instantly into a skeleton, leaving no more than the boots they showed up in.</div>
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When said car comes across the repo men's radar with a $20,000 payout attached to it, Bud and every other rival repo man in L.A. is on the hunt for the big payout. It's the goldmine they dream of that will let them escape this shitty fucking existence. What ensues is a journey that brings Otto face-to-face with alien conspiracy theorists, Mexican repo men and punk rock criminals, all the while on the path to enlightenment, which he finally finds in a key scene involving a liquor store robbery. </div>
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So what does it all mean as Otto starts to see beyond Punk Rock and flies over L.A. in a glowing green alien car? At a certain point it ceases to matter; the value of finding enlightenment eclipsing that of knowing what to do with it. We have to crawl before we can walk.</div>
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Central to all of this is Miller (Tracey Walter); a byproduct of the 70s counter culture. </div>
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In a way Miller is Otto's spiritual guide. Bud may lead Otto to a paycheck and a profession but Miller, who Otto initially dismisses as just having dropped too much acid, preaches looking at the big picture and seeing the forest for the trees. That kind of stuff. </div>
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And that's where the film ultimately finds it's emotional resonance. It begs to be looked at as a whole and not as a collection of individual pieces. As Otto looks beyond punk, which is simply the current generation's means to express their anger, frustration and alienation, he finds the only way to escape this current social climate is to give up punk facade, stand outside of it and look back in at what it all means. We become more powerful than something the minute we begin to understand it. This was, after all, the key value that lives on from Miller's generation.<br />
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And the film does the same thing (with wit, vision, panache and technical proficiency to boot from writer-director Alex Cox). It looks at a weird collection of things and people and sees them as the reflection of the social circumstances that govern their existence. It's therefore not only a contemplation of a time in American history but also a simultaneous deconstruction of it. It's also a lot of weird fun. Now that's enlightenment.</div>
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<em>Repo Man will be available on April 16th through The Criterion Collection on DVD and Blu-Ray</em></div>
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<iframe frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm-ca.amazon.ca/e/cm?t=yotatome-20&o=15&p=8&l=as1&asins=B00B2BYY0S&ref=tf_til&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe>
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The Taxi Driverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04352371911592068643noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1571769854236946971.post-19106720200028021642013-03-25T09:56:00.000-07:002013-03-25T09:56:20.596-07:00Weekend Reading<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
This weekend my life looked kind of like this:</div>
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And This:<br />
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And This:<br />
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Needless to say, not much time for reading. So here's the best of what was missed:<br />
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The Kid in The Front Row wrote a post about <a href="http://www.kidinthefrontrow.com/2013/03/concentration-and-other-things-probably.html">wanting to do everything and nothing all at once</a>. As always, The Kid writes, and you should be reading.<br />
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Ben at Cinemania thinks you should probably check out The Dardennes Brothers latest <a href="http://djardine.blogspot.ca/2013/03/the-kid-with-bike-dardennes-brothers.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+blogspot/aWAUP+(Cinemania)">The Kid With A Bike</a>, which is available through The Criterion Collection.<br />
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<iframe frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm-ca.amazon.ca/e/cm?t=yotatome-20&o=15&p=8&l=as1&asins=B00A8QDHUQ&ref=tf_til&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe>
<iframe frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm-ca.amazon.ca/e/cm?t=yotatome-20&o=15&p=8&l=as1&asins=B00A8QDI1Y&ref=tf_til&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe>
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Black Sheep Reviews gives it's thumbs up to <a href="http://blacksheepreviews.blogspot.ca/2013/03/zero-dark-thirty.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+Black_Sheep_Reviews+(Black+Sheep+Reviews:+A+film+review+site.)">Zero Dark Thirty</a>, adding another positve review to the pile. If you haven't seen it yet, what are you waiting for?<br />
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<iframe frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm-ca.amazon.ca/e/cm?t=yotatome-20&o=15&p=8&l=as1&asins=B00A0QOVXQ&ref=tf_til&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe>
<iframe frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm-ca.amazon.ca/e/cm?t=yotatome-20&o=15&p=8&l=as1&asins=B00A0QP6ZS&ref=tf_til&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe>
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Kevin at The Most Beautiful Fraud in the World is making early speculation on where Park Chan Wook's (<em>Oldboy</em>) English language debut <a href="http://themostbeautifulfraudintheworld.blogspot.ca/2013/03/film-review-park-chan-wooks-stoker.html">Stoker</a> will rank on 2013's best of list. <br />
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The Flickering Myth has a look at the teaser trailer for <a href="http://www.flickeringmyth.com/2013/03/vin-diesel-releases-first-look-teaser.html">Riddick</a>. I've read it. It's a cross between Pitch Black and The Chronicles of Riddick and, oh ya...not very good.<br />
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Breaking News: This just in, a fourth Riddick film has just been greenlit and will go by the working title Son of Riddick<br />
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The Taxi Driverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04352371911592068643noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1571769854236946971.post-17526156265097043712013-03-20T10:10:00.002-07:002013-03-20T10:10:46.455-07:00A Few Words on Brick<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JLgnKtuHbCY/UUniv6SxbiI/AAAAAAAAA2s/s8mFa3Rw4J8/s1600/imagesCAH91YS2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JLgnKtuHbCY/UUniv6SxbiI/AAAAAAAAA2s/s8mFa3Rw4J8/s320/imagesCAH91YS2.jpg" width="224" /></a></div>
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So question: Is Rian Johnson writing a straight forward film noir (genre dialogue and all) set in a modern day high school brilliant or pretentious?<br />
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Of course, I'm opening up an endless debate to which there is no right or wrong answer.<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bJhdS5AVCLw/UUniklRJDkI/AAAAAAAAA2k/toXJl8irqgY/s1600/chickegg7gq.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="218" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bJhdS5AVCLw/UUniklRJDkI/AAAAAAAAA2k/toXJl8irqgY/s320/chickegg7gq.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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So I'll put my foot down: it's mostly fucking pretentious Mr. Johnson.<br />
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But what you will notice from the very first frames of <em>Brick</em> right until the very last is that Johnson and his crew know how to make a movie. Seriously. This film is cinema, plain and simple. It's empty gimmick cinema, but it's cinema no less.<br />
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During the moments when I simply sat and looked at it, it conjured in my mind thoughts of Malick:<br />
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And Kubrick:<br />
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And Lynch:<br />
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This is a filmmaker that knows a thing or two about production value. <br />
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But the whole thing is such an empty, meaningless experience. Who was this film made to appeal to? What is it supposed to be about? It's influences are too broad and don't make sense together.<br />
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So the film, below the aesthetics, is all pose and swagger...A handful of intriguing with a spoonful of who cares. There's no heart and it just doesn't add up in any meaningful way.<br />
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It's about a high school private eye played by Joseph-Gordon Levitt. His character, probably having watched <em>The Maltese Falcon</em> one or ten too many times, says things like this, "No, bulls would gum it. They'd flash their dusty standards at the wide-eyes and probably find some yegg to pin, probably even the right one. But they'd trample the real tracks and scare the real players back into their holes, and if we're doing this I want the whole story. No cops, not for a bit." He wisely at least delivers these gems straight.<br />
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He's on the case to discover who killed the apple of his eye, which leads him down back alleys, dark corridors and so on and so forth until the trail leads him to a femme fatal:<br />
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A heavy: <br />
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A local kingpin known as The Pin:</div>
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And a frame, composed in just such a way, that a chicken juice container distracts from an entire scene in which The Pin's mom offers orange juice:</div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SmANdtnFdV8/UUnnYD8cUOI/AAAAAAAAA3s/QmO3kgUdc6w/s1600/brick-20060330050419668.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="264" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SmANdtnFdV8/UUnnYD8cUOI/AAAAAAAAA3s/QmO3kgUdc6w/s320/brick-20060330050419668.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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You see, pretentious. </div>
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Johnson, over the course of three feature films has proven that, as a writer, not a lot unlike Malick, Kubrick or Lynch, he's more into concept/idea than story. That's fine. His problem, however, lies in his inability to elevate his concept above the base level of gimmick, leaving the details of the plot to hardly matter.</div>
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The charm of <em>Brick</em> then is in that someone thought to do it. Now that it's been done, let's get over it and all move on with ourselves. </div>
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<iframe frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm-ca.amazon.ca/e/cm?t=yotatome-20&o=15&p=8&l=as1&asins=B000FKP4BU&ref=tf_til&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe><br />The Taxi Driverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04352371911592068643noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1571769854236946971.post-42255203577284769932013-03-20T09:09:00.001-07:002013-03-20T09:09:16.902-07:00The Mayans Were Right: The World is Ending<strong><span style="font-size: x-large;"><u>This Just In!</u></span></strong><br />
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Chuck Norris is old and shaved his beard.<br />
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Say it ain't so Chuck!<br />
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In related news, Earth spins off axis for unknown reasons, sending it on a collision course with the sun.<br />
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The Taxi Driverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04352371911592068643noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1571769854236946971.post-80857867164951792592013-03-19T11:04:00.000-07:002013-03-19T11:04:26.778-07:00Celebrities Behaving Badly: Lindsay LohanSo Lindsay Lohan is apparently a smarter member of the bottom-of-the-barrel club than <a href="http://mikesyoutalkingtome.blogspot.ca/2013/03/celebrities-behaving-badly.html">Edward Furlong</a>.<br />
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E! is reporting that the former Disney star turned threat to public safety has made a plea deal with regards to her car crash charges that date back to last June...or was that those shopping lifting charges? No wait, it must have been the cocaine charges? No, no it has to be for starting a brawl in a club in New York, right? Lohan herself doesn't even know what she's up for anymore.<br />
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So, instead of a whopping 90 days in jail, she'll be going to a horrible, miserable, depressing and disgusting rehab facility instead.<br />
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And so, thanks to the honesty and integrity of the L.A. judicial system Lohan will once again be able to avoid getting shanked in the shower by a group of raging Mexican bull dykes.<br />
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The E! article also included this hilarious tidbit, "She was also ordered not to drive with any measure of alcohol in her system, drive only with valid insurance and license, not to use narcotics, stay away from any place or people where narcotics are used and make restitution to victim in this case. A restitution hearing may be set to determine amount." Wishful thinking.<br />
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Well Lindsey, look on the bright side, you're Marilyn Monroe photoshoot from a couple years ago could have looked more like this<br />
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The Taxi Driverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04352371911592068643noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1571769854236946971.post-41312980740379328632013-03-18T10:02:00.003-07:002013-03-18T10:14:59.086-07:00Weekend ReadingIf you're anything like me you're weekend probably looks a little something like this:<br />
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This:<br />
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And This:<br />
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Needless to say, there's not much time for reading and/or writing...<br />
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Therefore, every Monday, from this day forward will be a collection of links to the best posts that may have slipped through the cracks over the weekend but are still worthy or your time and admiration.<br />
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Black Sheep Reviews took a look at indie mad-man Harmony Korine's newest <a href="http://blacksheepreviews.blogspot.ca/2013/03/spring-breakers.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+Black_Sheep_Reviews+(Black+Sheep+Reviews:+A+film+review+site.)">Spring Breakers</a> and kind of went, meh? That however didn't stop it from lighting up the select market box-office over the weekend, grossing almost 300K. <br />
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PS- Ashley Benson, if you're reading this, call me: 416-627-7963<br />
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Bob over at Eternal Sunshine of the Logical Mind is doing his indie film civic duty with his love/support of <a href="http://eternalsunshineofthelogicalmind.blogspot.ca/2013/03/you-should-always-be-happy.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+EternalSunshineOfTheLogicalMind+(Eternal+Sunshine+Of+The+Logical+Mind)">Girl Walk // All Day.</a> Haven't heard of it either? Go check it out!<br />
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CS at Big Thoughts From a Small Mind is pimping the <a href="http://www.bigthoughtsfromasmallmind.com/2013/03/the-11th-annual-regent-park-film.html">Regent Park Film Festival</a>, which is now accepting submissions. It's nice over there now...Really.<br />
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Norma Desmond of The Flick Chick takes a stab at figuring out David Lynch's masterpiece <a href="http://flickchickcanada.blogspot.ca/2013/03/21st-century-essentials-mulholland.html">Mulholland Dr</a>. Not an easy task. Head over there and let her know how she did.<br />
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Alex at Film Forager checks out little known 80s flick <a href="http://www.filmforager.com/2013/03/rock-n-roll-nightmare-1987.html">Rock n' Roll Nightmare </a>and it looks pretty fucking awesome if you ask me:<br />
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Jeremy at Moon in the Gutter reminds us that yes, Canadians make movies too with his look back at David Croneberg's early horror film <a href="http://mooninthegutter.blogspot.ca/2013/03/operation-screenshot-films-of-seventies.html">Rabid</a> <br />
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Chris at 1001: A Movie Odyssey keeps fighting the great movie fight with a look at two great Michael Powell (and don't forget Pressburger) flicks: <a href="http://1001afilmodyssey.blogspot.ca/2013/03/peeping-tom-1960-great-britain-black.html">Peeping Tom and Black Narcissus</a><br />
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Vancetastic over at the Audient gets a laugh out of the tag line for the new Kirsten Dunst/Jim Sturgess vehicle <a href="http://theaudient.blogspot.ca/2013/03/logline-trainwreck.html">Upside Down</a>The Taxi Driverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04352371911592068643noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1571769854236946971.post-84721599756394961312013-03-14T10:51:00.003-07:002013-03-14T10:51:56.311-07:00Grilled Cheese Sandwhich: Flatliners<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<em>Looking back at popular culture and wondering just what the fuck we were thinking.</em><br />
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<em>Flatliners</em> came out in 1990, which was that strange transitionary period in American culture where this<br />
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Was starting to become this<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qkzdzVR0fo8/UUIDMYDxIxI/AAAAAAAAAyc/pc0Kx6N9JMA/s1600/Celebrity-Heroin-Addiction.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qkzdzVR0fo8/UUIDMYDxIxI/AAAAAAAAAyc/pc0Kx6N9JMA/s320/Celebrity-Heroin-Addiction.jpg" width="206" /></a></div>
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And sure enough, the film constantly looks like it's suffering from a severe case of the coke sweats.<br />
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<em>Flatliners</em> was directed by the master of Hollywood low rent camp Joel Scuhmacher <br />
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Which means it's highly stylized. <br />
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And a tad gay.<br />
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It revolves around an interesting premise. Dr. Kiefer Sutherland convinces a group of fellow med students to help him in an experiment in which he will kill himself, staying dead for upwards of a minute to see if there really is anything beyond death and then be brought back.<br />
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The experiment is a success and soon each member of the group wants to try, deciding on who will go next, auction style, by betting on how long they are willing to be dead before being jolted back.<br />
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But alas, drama being what it is, there's a problem. The cast find that, upon dying, they are encountered with sins from their past that manifest in physical form back in reality.<br />
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Julia Roberts is haunted by her drug addicted father who killed himself when she was young. Kevin Bacon is encountered by a little black girl on the subway that he made fun of in grade school,<br />
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who, as she approaches, I shit you not, declares: "You don't know jack-shit! Butt-wipe! Needle-dick! Cock-bite! Jack-off! Limp-wrist! Corn-hole! Banana-breath! Shit-bird! Bird-turd! Turd-face! Kiss-ass! Brown-nose! Macho wimp! Limp dick! Fart-face! Tire merchant! What's the matter? Gonna cry? Come on, Crybaby Davie! Cry! Cry! Cry! Shit-face! Rat-turd! Ass-licking son of a bitch!" <br />
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Eloquent, wouldn't you say?<br />
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Kiefer Sutherland, who gets the worst of it, is haunted by a creepy kid,<br />
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who tries to kill him in the back of a military truck with a pick axe, but not before earlier pinning him down and hocking one serious loogie into his mouth...<br />
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And don't forget William Baldwin. He is haunted by hot girls who want to fuck him.<br />
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Poor bastard!<br />
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Oliver Platt, who is the straight man that doesn't flatline, sheds light on the serious nature of the shit these people have gotten themselves into when he declares, "Good thing I didn't flatline. My 350-pound babysitter would be chasing me for the half-eaten pastrami sandwich I stole from her."<br />
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That about sums it up how far the film slips away from its original premise and into utter ridiculousness.<br />
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The film's premise is a good though and, for maybe a quarter of the way, is handled with intrigue and intelligence. Sutherland wants to find a meaning in life that both religion and philosophy have failed to provide answers for and the film almost addresses the matter of ethics in relation to how far we should let physical science experiments go. <br />
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Roberts also has a crisis, believing that maybe what's beyond death is not utopia, but rather a depressing place where the past is there to haunt you. <br />
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However, all questions of theology, philosophy, ethics, and science fly out window as the film can't quite make up it's mind on whether it wants to be a horror film or not and in the process forgets altogether to explain how in the hell these in-death reflections become physically manifest in the real world.<br />
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I guess there are just some mysteries in the universe that man will never be able to answer.
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The Taxi Driverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04352371911592068643noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1571769854236946971.post-13718329947140856922013-03-08T10:32:00.000-08:002013-03-08T13:44:23.660-08:00Coming To A Theatre Near You: Iron Man 3 & The Hangover 3The trailer/teaser for 2 of what can probably, with a large degree of accuracy, be described as two of the most anticipated blockbusters for the summer of 2013 season are out and hey look, they basically have the same poster:<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ejlr0XJeFu0/UTof-55h1qI/AAAAAAAAAxA/bvqHZ1CCZvI/s1600/the-hangover-3-poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ejlr0XJeFu0/UTof-55h1qI/AAAAAAAAAxA/bvqHZ1CCZvI/s320/the-hangover-3-poster.jpg" width="216" /></a></div>
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Let's start with <em>Iron Man 3</em></div>
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So I guess Ben Kingsley is going to show up looking like this:<br />
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Awesome. If anyone can play that costume it's Kingsley because he's British and they, ya know, invented acting or something. <br />
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He stars as villain The Mandarin, which will probably mean more to <em>Iron Man</em> fans than it does to me, having touched a girl before and all<br />
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Promising is that nowhere do any of the ads or the film's IMDB page indicate that Samuel L. Jackson will be appearing as Nick Fury, whose presence in the <em>Iron Man 2</em> resulted in an entire second act product placement for the then upcoming <em>Avengers</em> film<br />
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Not so promising is the teaser for <em>The Hangover Part 3</em>:<br />
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We're promised "The epic conclusion to the trilogy of mayhem and bad decisions." This statement, of course, ignores the fact that the first film was a complete, self contained entity and it's sequel no more than a lazy remake with twice as much irreverence as the first.<br />
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Number 3 looks to be in about the same boat as the boys retread the same jokes and story for a third time. From the lame cutaway shot that reveals Alan (Zach Galifianakis) singing that opens the teaser to the last in which a giraffe has an unfortunate encounter with a concrete bridge (okay, that might be funny), it all reeks of <em>been there done that...TWICE</em>.<br />
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On a closing note, if anyone has any clips or knows any instances of Ken Jeong being funny please send them to me immediately as I'd hate to go through the rest of my life believing that this man has never done a single funny thing in his career...Ever...Like really...<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-M3DVcwKQ9xY/UToqmEutyaI/AAAAAAAAAx0/VDqPUrFMQTg/s1600/Kam-on-Film-Ken-Jeong-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-M3DVcwKQ9xY/UToqmEutyaI/AAAAAAAAAx0/VDqPUrFMQTg/s320/Kam-on-Film-Ken-Jeong-3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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The Taxi Driverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04352371911592068643noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1571769854236946971.post-31715239652315957322013-03-07T11:34:00.000-08:002013-03-07T14:31:03.860-08:00Slipping Away Across the UniverseIt's taken 27 years, a lot of pot and a record player, but I'm finally willing to admit that I like The Beatles. <br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-XuqxIueoFhw/UTjPWdao27I/AAAAAAAAAu8/NBnNR257-wA/s1600/Lennon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-XuqxIueoFhw/UTjPWdao27I/AAAAAAAAAu8/NBnNR257-wA/s320/Lennon.jpg" width="239" /></a></div>
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And so, not wanting to spin <em>Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band</em> for the cajillionth time this week, I did the next logical thing and popped in a copy of Julie Taymor's 2007 Beatles musical <em>Across The Universe</em>.<br />
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Taymor is a veteran of the stage and that shines through in all her films. She's the woman responsible for directing the mega-hit stage production of <em>The Lion King</em> as well as the mega-disaster <em>Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark</em><br />
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So, for better or worse, the woman has vision. And, at 60 years young, she's kind of still a monster cougar, don't you think?<br />
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Back on track...<br />
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Unfortunately vision, despite what some will tell you, isn't always synonymous with great film. And thus, <em>Across the Universe</em> has scenes that look like this:<br />
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And this:<br />
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And even this:<br />
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And the whole time the movie makes no mystery of how it expects you to be watching it<br />
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I know what you're thinking; Killer, right?<br />
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But look at the pictures again. <br />
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You see, that's Jude and Lucy and Strawberries and Mr. Kite. And if you know anything about the Beatles you'll see that that's also about the depth of the ambition that <em>Across the Universe</em> puts into its story and characters. Pick names out of Beatles songs, squeeze in a wink and a nod, and fashion a flimsy story out of them. <br />
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Okay, I get it, Joe Cocker got famous off of singing Beatles covers but is there a single lyric in <em>Come Together</em> that helps advance this story? <br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-S-bcPAw_d7E/UTjiKPA5loI/AAAAAAAAAwk/Vud3P898jZc/s1600/2386649772_3e6b69c124_b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-S-bcPAw_d7E/UTjiKPA5loI/AAAAAAAAAwk/Vud3P898jZc/s320/2386649772_3e6b69c124_b.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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I think not!<br />
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Although, looking at Martin Luthor again, whose Jo-Jo character Cocker is introducing, he does show a hint of Walrus Gumboot, no?<br />
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So you see the problem here? And so, as stories written around songs not meant to tell stories go, <em>Across the Universe</em> is a case of a movie going in several directions of nowhere in particular. <br />
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It's an art film collage, an homage to the 60s/70s (beatniks, artists, merry pranksters and anti-war protesters all included), the visual accompaniment to a pretty sweet Beatles tribute album and a history lesson tailored for the kids who'd rather cut to smoke a bowl in the woods than sit and pay attention in history class. Who needs to know that shit anyway, man?<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NCvDKJgvmq0/UTjWX1EFlDI/AAAAAAAAAwE/mrtVQeLQACw/s1600/spicoli2-298x300.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NCvDKJgvmq0/UTjWX1EFlDI/AAAAAAAAAwE/mrtVQeLQACw/s1600/spicoli2-298x300.jpg" /></a></div>
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In other words, it's not really about anything at all. Unless you buy into it's ultimate parting coo of <em>Love Is All You Need</em>, crooned out from a rooftop in The Village<br />
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Although John Lennon would probably say you also need skilled body guards too...<br />
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Sure it's a nice sentiment, the songs are great and as far as production value goes, <em>Across The Universe</em> has it covered, but with no defined characters, story or modus operandi (it has no idea whether it wants to be a flamboyant song-n-dance musical ala <em>Hair</em> or a killer rock musical ala <em>Pink Floyd's The Wall)</em>, it's only one piece of a film that never becomes one clear or defined whole.<br />
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Bummer.<br />
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The Taxi Driverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04352371911592068643noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1571769854236946971.post-46099884525605391212013-03-06T09:55:00.000-08:002013-03-06T09:55:31.723-08:00Celebrities Behaving BadlyE! is reporting that Edward Furlong is in the shitter again. <br />
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Furlong, you may remember, starred in such classics as <em>Terminator 2: Judgement Day</em>, <em>American History X</em> and the <em>The Crow: Wicked Prayer</em>, a film of such prestige that it got David Boreanaz to agree to wear this<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-k9Pkf3nsfRA/UTd9ylgXZFI/AAAAAAAAAt0/dj2iqxGv5GE/s1600/TheCrowWickedPrayer-6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-k9Pkf3nsfRA/UTd9ylgXZFI/AAAAAAAAAt0/dj2iqxGv5GE/s320/TheCrowWickedPrayer-6.jpg" width="209" /></a></div>
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This may come as a shock to many who remember Furlong for his squeaky clean public image<br />
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The actor, having just done time last month for battery, is looking at another criminally long and unjust L.A. sentence of <em>SIX MONTHS</em> in the slammer for violating probation from a 2010 case.<br />
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The kicker for all this: according to his lawyer, all he had to do to avoid it all <a href="http://ca.eonline.com/news/394662/edward-furlong-sentenced-to-6-months-in-jail-for-violating-probation?utm_source=eonline&utm_medium=rssfeeds&utm_campaign=imdb_topstories">was go to rehab</a>.<br />
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Come on dude, you went from <em>T2</em> to a DVD cover with Tara Reid and Angel<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oXp_HyB770o/UTd_5LzCx0I/AAAAAAAAAuU/t-rat7t3OCU/s1600/MV5BMTQxODI4NDY1NV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNjE5ODkyMQ@@__V1_SY317_CR5,0,214,317_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oXp_HyB770o/UTd_5LzCx0I/AAAAAAAAAuU/t-rat7t3OCU/s1600/MV5BMTQxODI4NDY1NV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNjE5ODkyMQ@@__V1_SY317_CR5,0,214,317_.jpg" /></a></div>
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Could rehab, after all, really be all that bad?<br />
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Vs.</div>
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You're right, tough call dude.</div>
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The Taxi Driverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04352371911592068643noreply@blogger.com0