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Hi all…

Recently, I found an article by TC Candler talking about what he thought were the 100 Greatest Movie Posters. And I have to say that I probably agree with him in about 80% of the cases. His list is a living breathing thing as he continually changes and updates it based on new movies or old posters he finds.

There are some amazing pieces of art in this list for some classic and not-so-classic films.

Though I don’t believe I’ve ever heard of his #1 (The Sin of Nora Moran), I can get behind #2 (American Beauty), #3 (Pulp Fiction), and #4 (Charlie Chaplin’s The Gold Rush).

Be sure to check it out here!

–Fitz

p.s. If you’re looking for classic movie posters for your wall - check out these great online stores:

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Hey all…

I just started looking at the September movie schedule and am wondering where the beef is. There’s just not a lot there I’m all that excited about.

• September 5: Bangkok Dangerous looks like it could be fun
• September 12: Burn After Reading looks like a hoot.
• September 19: Appaloosa (get your spurs on) and Igor
• September 26: Eagle Eye and Miracle at St. Anna

And October doesn’t look a heck of a lot better:

• October 3: Blindness (a maybe)
• October 10: City of Ember (a maybe) and Quarantine (a renter for me)
• October 17: Max Payne (Constantine meets a Cop movie, I’m kind of excited about this one)

Maybe I’m getting too picky for my own good?

What’s anybody else interested in that’s coming out? Are there some that I’m just missing because I haven’t heard about them?

–Fitz

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Image via Wikipedia

Hi all…

I have to say that I am disappointed at the moment. I was all set to go see Babylon A.D. today, got to my local (and fairly new) Hollywood Theaters location up in northern Colorado Springs… and was told that there would be no shows today due to problems with the film. Either the film didn’t get delivered correctly (via satellite probably) or the actual theater where the movie was to be shown had damaged equipment. I’m betting it was the former.

Now… I had a small window of opportunity to see the movie today and evidently it wasn’t fated to be. (Regardless of the fact that it’s received horrible press so far, I still want to see the film.)

If I had gone to a traditional theater, one where actual reels of film had been delivered physically to the location, I wouldn’t have run into this issue. But because I chose a digital theater, I ran into trouble.

I have to say that this is the first time since I’ve gone to this theater that this has occurred (it opened the weekend that Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls opened, so it’s only been open since May). So perhaps the issues are not causing them too much trouble.

But I have to wonder when I go to the Hollywood Movies website today and it shows this:

The theater seems to be to blame for my not being able to see this movie. And I have to say that the ticket seller didn’t even suggest a different movie. He just kind of blew me off, which further exacerbated my situation.

Oh well. My wife and I may end up seeing this later in the weekend, but probably not at this theater. I’d hate to be “turned away” again.

–Fitz

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Hey all…

I don’t know if you’ve heard or not, but Colorado has had it’s own version of the Sundance Film Festival in Telluride for the last 35 years. I have to admit that I wasn’t aware of the festival until last year and this year it looks like an interesting set of films being shown.

The festival starts August 29 and runs through September 1st. Running shorts, documentaries, independent and foreign films, the festival attracts quite a number of submissions.

This Last year’s lineup includes films such as:

• I’m Not There - Six different characters exploring aspects of Bob Dylan’s work
• The Diving Bell and the Butterfly - Amazing story of Jean-Dominique Bauby who suffers a stroke and can only move his left eye. Using his eye to blink out his story, he tells of being trapped inside his body
• Persepolis - Animated coming of age story of a young Iranian girl during the Islamic Revolution
• Into the Wild - Christopher McCandless‘ inspiring story of personal exploration and tragedy
• The Band’s Visit
• When Did You Last See Your Father?? - Father and son story starring Jim Broadbent and Colin Firth
• And many, many, many more…

Every day is was jam-packed full of movie goodness. I’m sure this year will be the same.

Check it out if you get a chance. I hope to have more information as we get closer to the days of the festival (including an updated list of some of the movies I would attend if I had the chance!). Unfortunately I won’t be able to attend myself this year (family obligations), but I am planning on attending next year’s festivities!

If you plan on going, let me know… I would love to have some guest posts from festival attendees!

–Fitz

Image via Wikipedia

Hi all…

After watching Bug, I started thinking about the various elements that make up (IMHO) a good movie. It was an interesting exercise, that I thought I’d share here.

• Plot or Story - Something needs to happen to something else in a meaningful way. This can be character vs. character, character vs. setting, character vs. himself, but CHANGE or the POSSIBILITY of change has to be the result.
• Characters - The people in the story. Characters need to be more than one-dimensional and have some aspect of truth to them. The best characters, for good or ill, have aspects we can relate to personally.
• Dialog - How do the characters interact with each other for exposition? They talk together or to themselves. Is it written fluidly like we hear every day from regular folks? Or was it written for robots to speak aloud? Does the imagery evoked by the spoken words make us feel emotion? Or do they fall flat?
• Acting - If we have characters, you have to have people (real or CGI) to become them on screen. Actors and actresses do more than recite lines - they can show raw emotion in their body language, on their faces, and in their actions. If you have a bad actor performing a role, you’ll know it. But not even a good actor can save a bad script sometimes.
• Cimetography - How well was the movie filmed? Does it use wide panoramic shots or close, shaky, claustrophobic shots to expose the mood of a scene? Too much or too little of any technique can take away from the best intended movie.
• Special effects - CGI, physical effects, and costumes are all used to show action or the effects of action or to enhance the action in a movie. This can be as simple as makeup or explosions or as complex as making the transition from physical props to digital effects look seamless.
• Music and Sound Effects - And last, but definitely not least, is the sound for a movie. This is everything from the voices you hear, to the explosions or bullets flying, and the music used to set the scenes. For me, music can make or break a movie. Sometimes it can elevate a so-so movie to greatness.(For some great examples of this, check out Soundtrack Geek, which has some of the best soundtrack reviews on the web.)

Each of these elements goes into the making of a movie. Most of them find their way into television. And quite a few of them also find their way into books. Storytelling elements are universal across mediums, which is what makes them great.

If none of these things is done well, a movie is typically a waste of time IMHO.

What do you think? Are these universal elements of storytelling? How do you apply them when you see a movie at home or on the big screen? Are there other elements that I missed?

Let me know!

–Fitz

Image via WikipediaHi all…

Ok, I’ve hit a first. I found a movie that had no redeeming features. None. Well, ok. Maybe that’s a bit harsh. There was acting. But I couldn’t tell you why.

Rating:

Bug stars Ashley Judd as a waitress in a bar in a small town. She has an ex who beats her (Harry Connick Jr.) and some friends. And a new male friend (Michael Shannon) who is obsessed with bugs.

Here’s the IMDB link.

This movie is one hour and 42 minutes long. We made it through 42 minutes before my wife and I decided to cut our losses. The point of no return was the love scene that ended with an image of a praying mantis. And then a search for bedbugs, which the crazy guy thought were aphids (or plant lice as he put it).

It’s funny that even with Ashley Judd, who I think is a good actress and enjoyable to watch on screen, this movie didn’t do anything for me.

This movie gets 0 out of 4. It was even worse than Superbad. I have to come up with a whole new category for 0/4 movies. I’m thinking “Fertilizer” or “Manure” or just plain “Dirt”.

However, the movie did force me to consider the various elements of a movie that I look at to determine if it’s worth watching or worth continuing to watch. That will be a new post I write up very soon.

Until next time… Watch some movies!
–Fitz

Image via WikipediaHi all…

Ok… Uwe, you’ve gotten a bum rap. I mean… How can people not see your genius?

You’re involved with hot, amazing actresses (Kristianna Loken and Tara Reid)… You’ve got the computer game industry loving you… And your adoring fans want to knock down your doors and smother you with kind words…

Ever since Alone in the Dark came out in 2005 and I saw Tara Reid acting as a smart scientist, I knew you had it in you to go on to great things.

And then 2007 brought us In the Name of the King, A Dungeon Siege Tale, which was totally underrated. I mean… The way you used water in some of the cinematography just made me want to cry.

And today while researching this glowing piece, I discovered that you’re doing a movie based on Far Cry possibly due out later this year and a sequel to Alone in the Dark! Brilliant!

The movie industry and film goers everywhere owe you more than the tokens of respect they’ve been giving you so far. I think they should literally mob you and kill you with kindness for all that you’ve bestowed upon the big screen.

[sniff] That’s all I can say right now. I’m too choked up to go on.

–Fitz

Hey guys…

I saw this today at Didn’t You Year and laughed by butt off. Literally. My wife says I have no butt. It’s an older post on the blog that was linked to by a comment on a post on The Roller Blog here.

And it was so awesome, I had to share it.

TRON is one of those iconic movies of the 1980s for me that solidified my turning into a total geek. The fact that I enjoyed this little video so much is just one more indicator that I’m still a geek.

–Fitz

Image via WikipediaHi all…

I was wondering this morning (yes, it’s odd that a) I’d be thinking and b) I’d be thinking in the morning) if there are any good blog networks for movie and television reviews? There are a ton of great movie blogs on Entrecard — SizzlingPopcorn, Worth the Popcorn, Movie Reviews by FAQs, Soundtrack Geek (related), and many others…

Are any of you actually members of a blog network? Or should we create one? It would be nice if we did more inter-linking than we already do (I try to remember to link to your reviews, but I know I’ve been slacking lately). We all have valuable opinions and it doesn’t hurt to spread the word about each of our various blogs and the many many reviews we all post on a regular basis. And I doubt that by linking to each others reviews where appropriate we’d be diluting our audiences — in fact, we may be extending them.

Anybody interested?

–Fitz

Image via Wikipedia

Hey all…

Ok, usually I’m pretty open about movies. I’ll try to give it a watch and 99 out of 100 times, I’ll make it to the end. I found my 100th candidate that I couldn’t get through last night while trying to watch Superbad.

How to describe Superbad? I’d say it was immature, raunchy, racy, unnecessary, and generally a waste of movie stock. Even the bloopers reel didn’t have much to make me laugh.

Rating:

Here’s the IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0829482/

Maybe I’m just getting old, but this movie did so little for me, I turned it off after a mere 20 minutes. Swearing is one thing, but the constant sex talk just did nothing for me. Evidently a lot of folks like the movie though, so to each their own.

I remember the Porky’s series from when I was younger and that was raunchy, but fun. So I don’t know why I had such a negative reaction to this one.

I’m giving this movie 1 star out of 4 to be nice. I don’t think I can give zero stars.

Am I being too harsh? Let me know…

–Fitz