South Park Controversy

As you may know, I am sort of a new fan of "South Park". What I have been reading today has been rather shocking and interesting. The first part of this story can be found here, but apparently Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the show's creators, received more-or-less "death threats" from a radical muslim website based on the episode "200". In the episode, they are once again satirizing the fact they are unable to safely depict the prophet Muhammad, even having the prophet show up in a mascot bear costume at one point. The website had this to say:

"We have to warn Matt and Trey that what they are doing is stupid and they will probably wind up like Theo Van Gogh for airing this show. This is not a threat, but a warning of the reality of what will likely happen to them."

Theo Van Gogh was a Dutch filmmaker who was murdered for making a film that was a statement against the way women are treated in Islamic society.

The other aspect of this story can be found here, but basically when airing the latest episode, "201", Comedy Central bleeped out much of the audio, more so than the creators intended. This has caused Parker and Stone  to be upset in the way the episode was presented, even to the point that, as of all day, the episode is not accessible on the website southparkstudios.com. On said website, Parker and Stone left this statement:

In the 14 years we've been doing South Park we have never done a show that we couldn't stand behind. We delivered our version of the show to Comedy Central and they made a determination to alter the episode. It wasn't some meta-joke on our part. Comedy Central added the bleeps. In fact, Kyle's customary final speech was about intimidation and fear. It didn't mention Muhammad at all but it got bleeped too. We'll be back next week with a whole new show about something completely different and we'll see what happens to it."

So what do you guys make of all this controversy?

Do we have a new Spider-Man?

Yesterday it seemed like we did, but today it seems as if we don't. According to hitfix, it seemed as if Lerman, who is starring in the upcoming Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Theif, and has also appeared in Gamer, 3:10 to Yuma, and The Number 23, had all but locked up the role, beating out hopefuls such as Anton Yelchin, Jesse Eisenberg, Patrick Fugit, and Johnny Simmons. However, today (here) Sony has denied these reports, even going so far as to saying he's not even being considered for the role at all.

What do you think? Is Sony just trying to milk some press out of this, or are they really not going to cast Lerman? And, who do you think should play the role?

Logorama!

Hey guys, I have a surprise today! I found this on another film blog, so I thought I'd share it with you guys. This is the winner of the Academy Award for best animated short, and it is called Logorama.


Logorama from Marc Altshuler - Human Music on Vimeo.

I found this to be very detail-oriented and interesting, and one that seems to have many subtle, hidden messages that would require multiple viewings. What do you think?

Top 25 Movies of 2009!

I originally posted this on facebook, but I thought it belonged here as well. This is my list of the Top 25 movies of last year:

Top 25 Movies of 2009

Since I’ve been closely following movies, which has been for around five years now, I feel like this has been the best year in film so far, so needless to say it was hard to narrow this list down to 25 movies this year. That being said, I’ll start off with five “honorable mention” movies that quite didn’t make it onto the list:

Crazy Heart
In The Loop
The Informant!
The Messenger
The Road

And, without further ado, here are my top 25 films of 2009.

25. Paranormal Activity
While it suffered from over-hype during its theatrical run, I felt this movie was a very effective horror film which held up on a second viewing much better than I anticipated.

24. I Love You, Man
This is just a very clever and funny movie that’s charming and one that I wouldn’t mind watching more than once.

23. The Cove
The likely winner of best documentary feature, this is a must see for all the bleeding-heart animal lovers out there. Even for those of us that aren’t, this is still an effective and well-made documentary.

22. (500) Days of Summer
One of the best scripts of not only the year, but in a while, I felt this film ultimately suffered from trying to make its characters too “hip and cool”. Still a great movie, nonetheless.

21. Black Dynamite
A surprisingly clever and funny send-up of blaxploitation films of the 1970’s, it features many memorable scenes, including a final num-chuck battle against a surprise opponent (I definitely don’t want to give it away.).

20. Funny People
While it is a bit long and even depressing at times, this underappreciated movie features not only Adam Sandler’s best performance ever by far, but also a highly underrated turn by Seth Rogen.

19. Bronson
Featuring great art direction and an amazing lead performance by Tom Hardy, this film is about Charlie Bronson, Britain’s most notorious criminal. It has a Clockwork Orange sense of style to it, and pulls it off quite nicely, actually.

18. Big Fan
From the writer of The Wrestler, comes another very effective character study of a man, played perfectly by comedian Patton Oswalt, whose obsession with the New York Giants effects his ability to lead a normal life. While dark and dreary at times, this film is a must see by sports fanatics and others alike.

17. Where the Wild Things Are
A film that feels very strange during the first viewing, mainly because it’s because it’s told from the perspective of a child. Also, this movie features some of the best art direction and style this year.

16. Drag Me to Hell
A very fun horror-comedy that succeeded both its missions: make me jump and laugh a lot.

15. District 9
A well-made and effective film, especially in the context of its metaphor with the apartheid in South Africa. I felt like its rather surprising best picture nomination was definitely warranted.

14. Observe and Report
A deeper and smarter movie than most people think, this film is largely a comedic version of Taxi Driver. It also happens to feature many funny, memorable scenes.

13. Antichrist
While this film is very shocking and definitely not for everyone, its combination of extreme beauty and extreme horror, combined also with its near-perfect direction, makes this one of the most interesting films I’ve seen in a while.

12. Up In The Air
A cleverly written and directed movie featuring two great performances of the year in George Clooney and Anna Kendrick, this film is very topical with the economy today and an interesting look on relationships amongst different types of people.

11. Adventureland
My top movie of the early part of the year that unfortunately suffered from poor marketing, it features great writing and characters and a fantastic performance by the up and coming Jesse Eisenberg.

10. Sugar
One of the best sports films I have ever seen, Sugar is an honest look at a Dominican baseball player’s attempt at having a major league career in the states. This film is a great study on the clashing of different social and cultural environments.

9. The Hurt Locker
The probable (and should be) best picture winner, this film is often regarded as the best Iraq war film made to date (for good reason). Not overtly political and message-filled, The Hurt Locker is ultimately effective by focusing on its characters and intense action sequences.

8. Adam
This romantic comedy about a man with Aspberger’s Syndrome trying to figure out his life after his father passed away is one of the best movies of the year no one’s heard of. This movie also features one of (the many) best lead acting performances that were looked over by the academy this year, this time by Hugh Dancy.

7. Up
After Wall-e, which I felt was one of the best animated films ever made, I couldn’t help but assume that Pixar was destined to take a dip in quality in its next film. That was absolutely not the case. If you can make it through the first 20 minutes of this movie without wanting to cry, you must have no soul.

6. Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
One of the two times I have ever liked Nicolas Cage in a movie (the other being Adaptation), this character study about a guy who is basically just an asshole is very strange, but intriguing and fun to watch nonetheless.

5. World’s Greatest Dad
A dark comedy that is absolutely not for everyone, but if you can handle the extremely dark humor, this is a wonderfully made movie about a father trying to do what’s best to honor his son (and failing miserably), features another great male acting performance overlooked by the academy, this time from Robin Williams.

4. Fantastic Mr. Fox
I don’t think there is a better way to describe this movie than by simply calling it charming, extremely charming. A claymation film done by a director who has never dealt with animation before, this has been one of the most respected films amongst Hollywood circles this year, and for good reason.

3. Inglourious Basterds
Definitely Tarantino’s best work since Pulp Fiction, this film not only stands as the best escapist film this year in my opinion, but also has plenty in it for film nerds such as myself. His integration of German media and film in the storyline makes it feel authentic as the type of movie that would be released around the time WWII was ending. It also features one of the best acting performances of the decade by Christoph Waltz.

2. Moon
A criminally unseen and amazing science fiction film, it also features the best performance of the year by Sam Rockwell, that was unfortunately not honored by the Academy.

1. A Serious Man
Probably the best comedy by the Coen brothers since Fargo, this movie was a bit confusing and hard to understand, which made it all the more endearing for me. The use of music and rhythm in this film, along with its use of Jewish customs they don’t waste time explaining, make this my favorite film of a fantastic year in film.

What do you think? Do you agree with my picks? What were some of your favorites from last year?

Issues with Babies

...and not babies in general, just the film, Babies. Before I rant on my opinion on the film, at least the trailer, I would like you to watch it for yourself.



Now for some reason (and it turns out I'm not alone on this when discussing this issue with friends) I find this trailer creepy. While most of you normal people would watch this and say it looks "adorable"or "interesting", I just can't agree. I think the main reason I have an issue with the trailer and presumably the film itself is that it seems almost voyeuristic the way we, as the audience, are asked to look at these children. It's a hard issue for me to explain, and one I get a lot of weird looks when I attempt to, but it seems like the way they are presented, we are asked to observe their lives in a way that is too close and too personal for comfort, in my opinion.

It also seems like, and I feel this way about the show Full House, we are supposed to associate these babies as objects of "cuteness" rather than actual people. It's hard for me to explain why that seems strange to me, it just does.

There are other factors to the creepiness, such as the shot of the baby right next to the rooster (how can that be safe?), the baby on the motorcycle (again, how?), and the baby sticking his hand in the mouth of a pretty good-sized dog, along with many other shots of the babies crawling around places that seem dangerous without supervision. It also doesn't help that the trailer ends by saying, "The babies are coming", which gives me this image that I'm running through a tunnel with a horde of 500 babies chasing after me.

What do you think? Am I just crazy?

Is it the end of cult movies?

The people at overthinkingit.com seem to think so. The article can be found here.

While they have some good points, especially about the rise of online rental places such as Netflix making just about every movie accessible, I think a sense of the cult movie still exists. For instance, there are some movies, like the movie version of The Who's rock opera, Quadrophenia, that are either hard to get on Netflix or not there at all, and can be purchased on Amazon for up to $50 or $60. Secondly, people, mainly those in larger cities, still flock to midnight showings of The Room and Rocky Horror Picture Show, so I still think there is a sense of the cult film, it just may have taken on a new form. Nevertheless, this article has some links to some promising videos, such as Peter Jackson's parody of The Muppets and the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special.

Let me know what you think!

Welcome!

Hey everybody! 

As you can see, I have decided to start a blog in order to talk about movies and other such related topics. I hope to have featured discussions on here, along with release dates, trailers, and headlines I find interesting. If you have any ideas on some topics, features, etc. that you would like to see on this blog, feel free to post comments about those.

Hope you guys enjoy!