Black Swan

I watched Black Swan last night. I had purposefully stayed ignorant as to what the movie was really about and how it went about. My film buddies also know when to hold their tongue about plot twists and what not.

This is going to be a short post, for one, I have to go to work soon. second, the movie is really good. This blog has kind of turned into me personally advising people to see a movie or to not see a movie.

So long story shorter, see this movie. Rent it, steal it, watch it through your neighbors window if you must. Just see it, its awesome.

I will most likely write a more appropriate review style post some time, maybe soon, maybe later.

Clerks (original cut)

I recently watched Dumb and Dumber on netflix instant. Man, there is way more stuff in that movie than I remember. Which is great because I like the TNT/FX type edits as is. But the cut thats on netflix is way better. Way funnier. This led me to an uncontrollable urge to watch the 10 year addiction of Clerks.

I remember seeing this movie for the first time. I cant say what year it was, but I remember my friend saying that the movie was some underground sensation that ruled beyond rule. The nostalgia isn’t a big part of the experience, it’s more of a current amount of stoke that gets stronger. MSU, you rule. That includes my classmates.

Clerks hold up. Clever banter goes a long way with me in my life. It was the way me and my friends talked and once I saw a movie that talked the same way, I was smitten.

The story line follows Dante Hicks, who gets called in to work on his day off. He works at a convenience store that is frequented by a number of characters and patrons that can only look oddly normal in a place that sells cigarettes. The convenience store is located next door to a VHS style movie store that employs his best friend Randal.

Anyone who has worked in the food service industry can appreciate this movie. The colorful variety of friends and customers allows more than enough material to keep you occupied while you realize the scenes are all super long takes.

That doesn’t work for every film. It works here though. At least for me it does. I recently heard Kevin Smith talk about how he wanted the recognition that Judd Apatow gets from the media and critiques. The fact of the mater is Judd Apatow wouldn’t be able to get that recognition if Kevin Smith hadn’t found success with Clerks.

Watch this movie. Realize that good dialogue can be stronger than bad acting. Than maybe get so excited that years later you decide to make movies yourself.

Epicly Later’d: John Cardiel

John Cardiel on Netflix Instant? Yeah, I can get stoked on that. Epicly Later’d is rad too.

The general public has no idea what this movie even means to every skateboarder growing up watching John Cardiel, hearing the stories from place to place from people saying he did this gap or that he skated so fast. The main idea comes through for a general Jim Joe, so it’s not exclusive in nature. But the fact remains, I know what John Cardiel means to me and the general population does know who he is…

So here is the skinny, John Cardiel is a skateboarder in the purest form. He pushed himself for every reason right in skateboarding. He stayed true to himself and never ran for the money, which I’m sure he could have and probably still could. While the world was watching the X-Games and waiting for the 900 to blow skateboarding right into the mainstream, Cardiel was doing exactly what he wanted to do. He hung out with his friends and felt the good vibes.

John suffered a car accident that left him in a wheel chair for life. Or so the doctors said. You can’t hold this man down. Watch it, watch it again and then be super happy that you can watch it again. If this story doesn’t make you feel like you can do more in your life and inspire you to actually do more, you suck.

On the other side of this disgusting thing called reality, we have the John Comer documentary called “Never Been Done“. The dude has a story, but the doc is really campy. Campy in a way that would give a film nerd a tummy ache.

I’ll make a list of all the bad things in this movie.
1. Staged archival footage
2. Bad “effects” used on non archival footage. Just because you ‘can’ use an effect in a program, doesn’t mean you ‘should’ use an effect. That’s todays lesson.
3. Bad music and many different kinds of bad music (jazz, techno, some other stuff)
4. Interviews of doctors using a fish eye lens. Well, actually that’s kind of sweet.
5. The money.
6. The fame.
7. Mike Vallely
8. No body fucking swears.

Boring, but watch it anyways because people complain too much and this is the type of movie that will make people shut up.

Oh god, there’s bonus footage…

It Must Be Said Out Loud

Charlie Sheen is awesome!

I don’t care what anyone says. I heard that man say something about taking Chuck Norris’s power away. If someone can “take” Chuck Norris’s fucking power, they should grab that shit and run with it!

New Hero, Charlie Sheen.

(Yes, I used his picture from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off on purpose. That sort of shitty John Hughes documentary should have been totally about Ferris Bueller’s Day Off because it’s amazing.)

Classy Things Are Good Things

You know who isn’t classy? Will Ferrell. Will Ferrell is not classy. Yet, Bill Murray is classy. I don’t really understand why, but I know it to be true. What I am getting at is that I enjoy classy things.

I don’t watch too many skate videos anymore, I used to watch them all day. I don’t much care for most things Tye Evans in skate videos either. The dude is doing his job and pretty well, but I’m not one for ramping speeds or slowly drifting the camera away after a neat stunt. (and kids, it does mater what you drift the camera off to, use your surroundings please.) So every once in a while I see videos that I really enjoy. I really like Krooked videos  (for their editing) and Emerica videos (for everything). Is it odd that they are both normal words that just have the first letter messed about? Huh. I never put that together before. MOVING ON!

One of my favorite videos is Dan Wolf’s Easter Exposure 3: Under Achievers. It’s one of the first videos that I ever saw where I noticed style in the video as much as the skating. Being born in Wisconsin, I was between coasts and that video made me realize I sided with the East on the mater of videos.

With youtube being the Funniest Home Video’s of the inter web, I see a lot of random stuff now. Most of it is crap. It’s crap either because of inexperience or stupidity, it doesn’t really mater. Every once in a while you see a really good video. Like this. I watch that video all the time. It’s just amazing to me.

Well one of my friends posted a link at a super secret amazingly hard to find corner of the inter web where real people stop bullshitting and start tell people how things really are. You will never find it because you are not cool enough. This buddy linked a skate video that I really enjoyed. I hope you enjoy it too.

http://www.skatevideosonline.net/video/1119/feel-skateboarding/monotema/

The Truth About Average Guys

Lets get one thing straight, the dudes in this movie are not average guys. That would be in insult to average guys. Everything about this movie is below average. The script sounds like a 1st draft of a want to be Judd Apatow movie, the actors couldn’t act their ways out of an open field and it looks like someone’s mom was the DP (director of photography).

Think I’m being harsh? Watch the movie, as usual, it’s on netflix instant. You deserve an award if you make it through this movie.

The story follows this ‘average’ guy who works in an office and has the hots for this ‘hot’ co-worker. This guy has a bunch of dumb ass friends and he gets one of them to act like he is retarded to try and win this chick over. That’s about it. The rest is pretty much predictable and boring.

The good news about this movie is this, if this completely lame movie can not only get made but end up on netflix instant, then I have an amazingly good shot at having my movies available to be seen by millions of people on netflix instant!

* Look at the movie poster, the one thing they did right was chopping of that guys head. I’m also looking at the good reviews in yellow type, who are these people? I can only assume they are friends of the guys who made the movie. Or more blatantly the guys who actually made this piece of eagle turd.

Paul Giamatti

I want to know what Paul Giamatti is like to hang out with. I think he is an amazing actor but Im not the guy who just assumes he is an amazing person. Maybe he is? Maybe he isn’t? This I do not know.

I would however, like to know. Specifically, I would like to know for myself.

Being a film major, I know people. These people read this blog, I think. I whore it out enough that they should at least know about it. Well, if any of you ever get a chance, let him know will you? Tell Paul Giamatti that I want to hang out with him.

Thanks.

Jackie Brown or The Only Quentin Tarantino Movie On Netflix Instant

Yeah, Jackie Brown is the only Quentin Tarantino movie on netflix instant. Why don’t they just bight the bullet and put every movie on netflix. I don’t care if it’s an internet issue. Buy what you need to buy and just put every damn movie (ever made?) on instant watch.

Does this mean that Jackie Brown is the worst of his films? Nope. Not at all. But it does mean that Jackie Brown is his least acclaimed film. That doesn’t mean shit to me.

Jackie Brown is not Quentin’s best movie. But it’s a hell of a lot better than most of the crap that is being made out there. It’s a Tarantino film. The scene where Ordell (Samuel L. Jackson) puts Beaumont (Chris Tucker) in the trunk of his car, drives him into a field and shoots him is awesome.

It’s a good story. It tells itself well. I like the way the editing shows a scene as a representation of a story being told. I love when movies do that. It really takes advantage of the medium and aids the viewers suspense of disbelief.

So what is it about this movie that makes it the only Quentin Tarantino film on netflix instant? Is it because the main character is a black woman (Pam Grier)? That is an honest question. Does Jackie Brown play better in different countries? Maybe the movie just isn’t shot as well? Maybe the acting isn’t as good as in others? Maybe Quentin was doing so much coke that he thought he was Jesus Christ? Could be any of these reasons. But I have an idea.

I think this movie is viewed as his weakest because it goes against the norm. I’m not racist by any means, but a black woman in a lead roll that isn’t marketed towards black woman doesn’t do well in the box office. I’m willing to bet that someone at some time “suggested” a different character for the lead, if you catch my drift.

This is a good movie. See it if you haven’t. It’s better than at least half of the movies coming out in theaters.

I Am Working On My Top 25 List

It’s Friday morning, I don’t have class and it is seventeen degrees below zero outside. What does that mean? It means I am working on my top 25 list and watching random things on netflix instant.

So I watched Don’t You Forget About Me, a documentary about John Hughes films and the fact that he dropped off the face of the world. He hasn’t done any interviews, he doesn’t do DVD commentary, ect. So these 4 people go out and interview people from John Hughes movies and people from the industry that looked up to him. They interview people on the street too.

That is basically all that happens. We listen to people talk about how awesome John Hughes films are. Then, at the end, these 4 people end up in front of John Hughes’s house. They try and talk to him, they give his maid a letter and generally just stand out on the street and talk about how they should approach him. They talk about how to approach him for a while and that’s after the video was edited down. The edited version is pretty long and really annoying to watch. Down right painful is what it is. Over thinkers bug me some times, I’m more of a ‘jump in’ kind of guy. Live at the speed of life, it can be fun that way.

I say, don’t watch this movie. Instead, watch a John Hughes movie. Watch a bunch of John Hughes movies. Inevitably, these people bothered John Hughes and by watching their movie you are sort of bothering John Hughes.

John passed away in 1999. His movies continue to connect with teenagers to this day.

My Top 25 Movies of All Time

I realize that blogs should be written as though the viewer is seeing every new post as it is posted. A Blog should also draw the reader in on a regular basis. That means that if I am going to make a post of such great power as My Top 25 Films of All Time, I should post it backwards and in pieces!

As we all know, making a top 10 list is tough stuff. It’s real man business. You always end up leaving something out that you don’t realize till the next day. That moment of realization sucks. It could ruin a cup of coffee. A top 25 fixes everything! It’s so simple. Plus a top 100 is just bullshit. A top 50 is pretty lame as well. The two last sentences will be defended by the fact that I am not ambitious enough to take the time to make either.

I have also decided to post numbers 25 – 11 as a single post and in no particular order. I will post the top 10 one at a time and in an order because if someone is reading this, I owe them that much.

You know, looking at the title of this right now, the addition of “of All Time” is almost pretentious. Almost.