To collaborate.
It can be a thrill or a disappointment or uneventful. Or as Mitch Hedberg said: "I was in a band and people either loved us or hated us--or they thought we were just ok." Colleen Barrows just sent me the artwork for "Volume 3: From The Belly Of A Woman", and it is very much not just ok.
This week in stupid intellectual property.
A goofy, over-achieving insurance company trademarked the perplexing phrase "official sponsor of the aha moment". Apparently Oprah created, embodied, and propagated "the aha moment" herself, and nitwits were confusing her with the insurance company (so they claim). Don't worry, Harpo Galactic Industries sued that shit proper.
Despicable Me (DNS)
I do enjoy most of Carrell's work, but I get distracted by popular actors doing voice for animated films, especially when they have a particularly strong or unique voice and an active face. And, the movie is called "Despicable Me" and that is annoying and repelling.
The Eclipse (4/5)
Another wonderfully designed cross-genre film--part haunted house, part sad widower.
Paranormal Activity 2 (4/5)
I did nearly wet my front when all the cupboards flew open. Brilliant concept; brilliant execution; profit margin on these films is ridiculous.
Legend Of The Guardians: The Owls Of Ga’Hoole (3/5)
For a battle-owl-fantasy-allegory it sure was predictable. Stunning sets and animation, compelling adventure and action scenes, and a title so horrible that I had to cut & paste it from IMDB. I don't care who they were trying to stay true to, even M. Night had the owl pellets to drop the essential "Avatar" from his train wreck. And not that this film bombed, but if they had made this a gory and violent, adult-themed war film and pegged the ...
Never Let Me Go (5/5)
A most astonishing cross-genre film by one of the great music video directors (Romanek did Nine Inch Nails' "Closer" and Johnny Cash's "Hurt" among others). Based on a Japanese novel that landed dozens of critical accolades, it played like a low budget classy version of The Island as directed by Sofia Coppala. An elegantly paced sci-fi alternate universe that ultimately reveals the nature of empathy and dignity. Or as I chiefly enjoyed it, a ...
Crash (4/5)
I recall sweating twice during my first viewing of this film at the Guild 45th theater. It is a thoroughly contrived story, weaving a dozen stories and characters into impossibly perfect encounters, but who cares that is what we expect from our movies--show me the extraordinary, show me the remarkable, show me everyone being way more racist than I think I really am.
Remember The Titans (3/5)
Bruckheimer loves him the racist superplots. More movies would benefit from the R rating–this being one. Maybe teens didn’t swear in the ’70s, but it fights against credulity when you sense a character needs and wants to say "fuck" but isn't because they want to sell more tickets to children. Do parents really need the MPAA and their meandering, esoteric ratings system? Back to the film: So I know I’m childish and homophobic but it felt ...
Miracle (4/5)
They would have named this film by it's full historic title but Disney sullied the term "on ice" a good twenty years ago.