So recently the crew and some friends got together to share some honey ham and laughs for the holiday. And if my memory isn't as shit as it is sometimes, I remember our conversation turned to Sally Field hot or not? I for one, say hot, especially in the 1970's classic, "Smokey and the Bandit". I mean c'mon any man that's seen the movie remembers the ass scene (picture on right).
Carrie, or better known as "Frog", was smoking hot in the Bandit. She had the innocent face, but you just knew. Although Field is nice to look at, this movie isn't a classic because of her. A matter of fact, well at least my facts, Jackie Gleason stole the show as Buford T. Justice, the bumbling hick sheriff who chases Bandit Darville all over God's green earth for bootlegging beer. It's probably one of my Top 10 most favorite movies of all time and I hope you enjoy this scene.
The old saying, "so close, but yet so far", fits perfectly. Buford T. is within whiskers length of the Bandit and doesn't even realize it. To that, I say "Sum Bitch!" Hope you had a great Friday!
Fathom Events screened To Kill a Mockingbird a few weeks back and, heeding some advice from @20SomeAwesome and @jess_fts, I made a special trip to check it out. I’d never seen it before and catching it on the big screen seemed like a great way to rectify that. I wasn’t disappointed.
It wasn’t quite what I expected - I thought it would be more straight-up courtroom drama and it had a lot more Scout and Jem than I was expecting (I haven’t read the book) - but the performances and the film as a whole were great.
Anyone love To Kill a Mockingbird? Did anyone else catch the 50th Anniversary Re-release?
Star Trek Into Darkness
Thanks to C.H.U.D., I learned the official synopsis of Star Trek Into Darkness, the highly anticipated (by me, at least) follow-up to 2009’s Star Trek.
In Summer 2013, pioneering director J.J. Abrams will deliver an explosive action thriller that takes “Star Trek Into Darkness.”
When the crew of the Enterprise is called back home, they find an unstoppable force of terror from within their own organization has detonated the fleet and everything it stands for, leaving our world in a state of crisis.
With a personal score to settle, Captain Kirk leads a manhunt to a war-zone world to capture a one man weapon of mass destruction.
As our heroes are propelled into an epic chess game of life and death, love will be challenged, friendships will be torn apart, and sacrifices must be made for the only family Kirk has left: his crew.
Do you like the sound of Star Trek Into Darkness? Do you hope Quinto sticks around for more films?
V/H/S 2
Wait, V/H/S is getting a sequel already?
Both Film School Rejects and Total Film have reported that filmmakers including Gareth Evans, Jason Eisener, and found footage Grand Poobah Eduardo Sanchez have signed on for S-VHS (The hell? Will each sequel’s title advance to a higher medium? We’ll be on Blu Ray in a few years at this rate). Thankfully, no mention of Ti West’s involvement.
Anyone excited for S-VHS?
Tweets
There was a ton of hullabaloo about this Twinkie business on Twitter, including a tweet from Lucy/@bmovielass. Nice seeing Zombieland references worked in.
I caught The Relic for the first time recently. I surveyed the Twittercosm about the film and got some good responses. My take? It was a decent monster movie.
@zerbert under-rated monster flick, some scenes shot a little dark but worth a peek 4 sure..
— Socrates Johnson.... (@nowshowinghigh) November 18, 2012
@zerbert If that's the one with Tom Sizemore, then yep. Not in years, though. It was fun at the time.
— George Bell (@CallMeSirPhobos) November 18, 2012
Seeing as how we Americans recently celebrated Thanksgiving, a lot of us just spent a good chunk of time at home with our families. And the best thing about Thanksgiving is, it means that Christmas - the grandpappy of all "Home for the Holidays" holidays - isn't far off. So in honor of our homecomings, I decided to share Mötley Crüe's "Home Sweet Home" for this week's MVM.
That, and I caught "Hot Tub Time Machine" on TV recently.
Sometimes certain bands are just too damn cool and today's band Phantogram exudes the ultimate coolness. Hailing from New York, the duo (Sarah Barthel and Josh Carter) play what I would classify as dream-beat or electro pop. They sound a bit like Beach House, but with a little more of a street sound. I'm not usually a big electro pop fan, however there's just something about Barthel's voice. She pulls me in and doesn't let go until I'm bobbing my head.
Today's selections, "When I'm Small" and "As Far As I Can See", both come from their debut album Eyelid Movies. I hope you enjoy and fellas if you're not into this kind of music, turn the volume down and just take in the beautiful Ms. Barthel. Have a great Monday, it's a short week, and remember to keep living your soundtrack out loud.
If memory serves correctly, we've never featured a scene from an animated movie before. Which is strange, because some of my favorite movies are cartoons. I grew up watching Disney movies and I've really enjoyed more recent films from Pixar and Dreamworks.
One of my favorites is 1999's The Iron Giant. Directed by Brad Bird (Ratatouille, The Incredibles), the film takes place in the picturesque town of Rockwell, Maine (get it?) and follows
Hogarth Hughes (Eli Marienthal), a typical 1950s American youngster. He discovers and befriends an amnesiac metal giant (voiced by Vin Diesel - yes that Vin Diesel) in the woods one day. A visiting government agent named Kent Mansley (Christopher McDonald) investigates the strange disturbances in Rockwell and begins hunting the giant. It’s revealed that the giant is equipped with devastating weapons - a great scene in the movie is one where the giant, forgetting his new-found good nature and his friendship with
Hogarth, begins attacking a hostile U.S. army.
The whole movie is gorgeous (it’s one of the most beautifully animated films I’ve ever seen) and the film as a whole is fantastic. It's clear that director Bird grew up watching 1950s science-fiction flicks. There are also obvious strands from E.T.’s DNA in the film.
Today’s scene works on so many levels - if you’ve seen the movie, you’ll know that most of the giant’s dialogue is a call-back to earlier scenes in the film. And the scene - and the movie as a whole - has a pretty awesome message for kids (and anyone really - I know it still resonates with me): What we do is up to us, no matter what we’re programmed for. We just have to choose.
There are only a few films that really get to me (a strange amount are cartoons) and The Iron Giant is one of them. I always get a little choked up when I watch today’s scene - the giant almost happily accepting his fate as Hogarth’s message about choice echos in his ears. Sorry, got some tears in my eyesIMEAN, got something in my tearsOHNEVERMIND. Happy Friday.
Let me preface this post by saying that I absolutely, wholeheartedly
despise the network TV channel, NBC.Never in my 30 years of existence have I witnessed such dumbass-ery when
it comes to television broadcasting.Seriously, they must have a team of monkey’s riding high on bath salts
choosing their primetime line-up.If it
weren’t for Parks and Recreation, I would
call my cable company and have them remove the channel.
That being said, today’s Favorite Scene Friday is a little different
than any FSF we’ve done in the past, because this FSF is taken from a TV show
(perhaps the greatest comedy ever) instead of a movie.I hope that little fact doesn’t upset you,
but I’m going through withdrawals without new episodes of my beloved, favorite
comedy.Of course, I’m talking about the
stellar, pop-culture phenomenon, Community.Fellow Hatcher, Robert, and I love this show
and dread the inevitable day of its official cancellation.With an upcoming 13-episode 4th
season coming in February (well so far its February, but those goddamn salted
monkey’s will probably shelf it until summertime when they know for sure that no
one will watch it – idiots), after supposedly airing on October 19th,
we’ll finally get to witness our lovable gang back in action.I’m not thrilled that we’re only getting 13
episodes, but I am thrilled that we’re at least getting 13 more episodes.The season will be short and undoubtedly fun
as hell so maybe, just maybe, Netflix will pick up on its awesomeness and
continue their Arrested Development trend
trend
and just air the episodes via their VOD.Here’s to hoping for Six Seasons and a Movie!
Included here today are just a few of the excellent moments
from the show featuring Donald Glover and Danny Pudi, or Troy and Abed,
respectively.What you’ll mostly see are
very short clips that end a lot of the episodes – they are not relevant to the
episode’s plot in any way, shape, or form, but are comedic gold
nonetheless.These scenes will tell you everything
you need to know about the show and how funny it is – if you happen to be one
of the few who doesn’t find these clips funny, ignore this entire post and have
a shitty weekend because you’re dead to me.Just kidding, I could never hate my readers.I hope you enjoy the clips, I know there are
a lot, but none of them are very long and they’re all awesome.Have a good weekend and we’ll see you back
here on Monday for our weekly MVM.
I don’t know about anyone else, but the Post Halloween Blues hit me hard this year. So many horror movies I didn’t get to. So many posts I could have written. The worst is catching up on TV and seeing the Halloween episodes I misse - ModernFamilyhilariousHalloweenepisodeturnitoff!!!
In particular I wanted to watch Basket Case and Saturday the 14th (sorry Pat). I also wanted to watch The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 with the gang. I watched that on my own and it was nuts. Dennis Hopper - the good guy, mind you - just runs around screaming shit and chainsawing stuff for like, twenty minutes straight.
Are you having Halloween withdrawals? Any movies you didn’t get to this year?
Dr. Dog at Freebird Live
T, Pat, Nick, and myself are catching Dr. Dog at Freebird Live tonight. Between the four of us, this will make 13 times that we’ve seen the boys in concert (hell, this will mark the third time T has seen them this year). I saw them in Atlanta last and I’m looking forward to catching them out at Freebird again.
Anyone a fan of Dr. Dog? Anyone checking them out tonight?
Escapism
Lebowski Fest Chicago is this weekend! In the off chance that we have any readers attending the Fest, do share some photos!
For my favorite horror scene back in October, I talked about how Jeepers Creepers is made creepier by the fact that I grew up close to where they filmed it. I asked Twitter if they could relate to this and I got a few great answers:
@zerbert I grew up 5 miles from Burkittsville, MD, def made Blair Witch Project freakier.
— Alex Withrow (@shiftingPersona) October 19, 2012
@zerbert I live near a place in a horror book not film.The book is The Rats by James Herbert.
— steve gonzo reeve (@dicanio72) October 19, 2012
Pax at Cavalcade of Awesome said what we were all thinking about this Disney Star Wars business:
Oh, man, I just realized.No more 20th Century Fox fanfare before a Star Wars film. #GeekSadness
— Paxton Holley (@paxtonholley) November 1, 2012
This was just a delightful tweet by The Cinefamily and it’s making me miss Halloween even more:
S.O.S.! Be a part of something spooktacular: Come by the theater NOW & help set up our Haunted Patio! We've got donuts!! Just come on down!
— The Cinefamily (@cinefamily) October 13, 2012
Those are the opening lyrics to one of the best concept
albums ever made.Back in the early 70s,
four guys took to work on their second rock opera. Straying a bit from the first rock opera about
an iconic deaf, dumb, and blind boy, this album is about four distinct
personalities living inside one British teenager.It is called Quadrophenia and the four guys, or the four personalities, are none
other than the loudest rock-n-roll band ever:The Who.
I’ve been a huge Who fan for a little less than a decade now,
and I haven’t looked back since.Prior
to the past eight years, all I’d heard or bothered to listen to was what was
being shelled out on the Jacksonville, FL Classic Rock station and man, did
those songs get old fast.Of course I’m
talking about “Who Are You” (which can be heard on every other CBS crime drama
these days), “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” “Behind Blue Eyes,” and “Pinball Wizard”.All are really great songs, but after
repeated listens I just felt tired of the band as a whole.I didn’t know at the time how naïve I was
being.Once I had completed my Doors
collection, my Led Zep collection, and my Pink Floyd collection, I needed
somebody new (to the extent of classic rock, mind you) to indulge myself in and
when my old man told me to listen to Tommy,
I felt intrigued.He’d never led me wrong
in classic rock before, why would he start then? So after that fateful listen, I was
hooked.The drums, both guitars, and the
lyrics floored me.Blew me away.What an incredible story to come out of 1969!For the record, Tommy is my second favorite album of all time, following The Wall.Once I was hooked, I started to read about
the band; the members, the music, the influences, the everything.That’s when I came across another rock opera,
Quadrophenia.Not as favorfully received as Tommy, but still an incredible work of
music.
Today’s MVM is the first lyric’d track from the double album
and it does very little to convince you that these guys can’t rock.I’d put them up against any band touring
today and guarantee they’re better.A
bold statement you might think, but I actually just saw them live on Saturday
night.And yes, they were loud.And yes, they did kick so much ass that I’m
still singing the songs in my head (Is It
In My Head?).They performed the
opera in its entirety plus a five song set that included three of the tracks
mentioned above (I didn’t stick around for those ones), all without a
break.Not bad for 70 year olds.It’s one thing for these old dudes to keep
rocking (i.e. Dylan, the Stones, etc.), but another thing entirely to kick ass
while doing so.To be honest, I wouldn’t
even have been upset if they didn’t sound anywhere near the way they did back
in ’73. A common Dylan argument is that he
no longer sounds good live.I love
Dylan, but I’ve never thought he sounded all that great live, so when I hear
that particular argument, I laugh.I
mean, what can we expect from a guy who’s been touring practically non-stop for
over 50 years? But I digress, because
the bottom line is; The Who did sound young again and that’s fucking awesome!
Enjoy the track and the video, which is actually the first
scene of the movie based on the album.Can you guess what it’s called?Check it out if you haven’t seen it and let me know what you think.Have a good week, Mods and Rockers, and remember
to always let love reign.
It seems as though zombies are the in thing right now, maybe only
second to the mustache. If it's not the insistent talk about the
Apocalypse, then it's a 5K Zombie Fun Run or of course The Walking Dead, which I'll admit, I've only watched twice. I understand the fascination with the undead, hell one of my favorite movies isThe Serpent and the Rainbow, but
I'm just a little unsettled by the obsession with the whole zombie
craze. Here's why: I think the zombies are lulling us into a false sense
of security. The big and small screens, run by zombies, have
desensitized us, making us think that just anyone can kill a zombie.
Meanwhile, the legions of zombies are just biding their time. So in an
attempt to get your mind back in the right place and save your life, I'm
gonna offer you this friendly public service and share some survival
tips. If you love your family and friends like you say you do, then
you'll send them to the hatch on this wonderful Friday.
Today's FSF comes from one of the best zombie movies ever, Zombieland.
It has a great cast and just the right mix of gore and laughs. In this
compilation Columbus, played by Jesse Eisenberg, shares some of his best
tips on how to survive a Zombie Attack. I suggest you pay close
attention and if you have to, watch the clip multiple times because if
December 21 doesn't get you, then the flesh eating zombies will.Have
a super Friday and be careful of what's lurking around the corner, it
could be a hungry zombie. Will you be his dinner or get the award for
the "Zombie Kill of the Week"?
