Critical Drinking

One of the things I like most about doing Critical Drinking (besides the beer drinking part) is pretending to be critical about movies. I've always loved film, and the more I began to learn about it, the more I wanted to learn about it. This has been the perfect outlet to do that while also making light of the fact that I don't have any credibility to be doing so. The beer drinking and joking around allows me about 15-20 minutes of each 100-ish minute episode to talk seriously about movies while not pretending I should be. And that was enough for a while.

One of the reasons we have done episodes with movies like Salo, or the reason I've seen movies like Irreversible, Funny Games, and Antichrist while doing this, and actually LOVED them, is not because I'm some crazy, perverse lunatic (debatable), but rather because I recognize the larger context in which these movies are made and come to really respect them for what they are. Now that's not saying I'm some sophisticated cinephile who shits on major movies. Far from. I just came out of Pacific Rim (which I'll review in a bit), and really liked it. A lot of fun. But I like to think that seeing, respecting, and loving the afore mentioned movies elevates me above the folks who walk out of complete bullshit and say "that was good!" Movies like Grown Ups come to mind... But the films I mentioned before, the independent, disturbing, cerebral, beautiful flicks you would never catch in a major theater, are some of those where you really get to see a film crew at the top of their game. Strangely as it may be, you see top notch direction, cinematography, style, editing, writing, and all of those things. You see something that couldn't be done by your average Hollywood director. You get something that won't make $100M opening weekend. You see something artistic, something real, something that comes from passion and talent and vision. And sometimes it's fucked up.

Now, all of that braindump is illustrating my larger point here, which is that Critical Drinking has been enough for a while. Has. And my 140 character Twitter reviews have been enough for a while. But I realize I want another outlet to talk about movies a little bit more. Another avenue for getting my thoughts out on paper, even if just for me. So that's what this is going to be. I'm going to start writing movie reviews here, which I will title "... Movie Review" and tag with "Movie Review", and they will all be linked from the CD page as well.

Now, onto Pacific Rim.

I need a new outlet for my movie chatter

Hopefully by now, everyone is aware that for the past year or two, I've been doing a podcast called Critical Drinking. It all started when Ryan and I realized that one thing we did a lot of was drink beers and talk about movies. "Wouldn't it be fun to try a podcast?" we thought, and so it began. Well, we did about 52 episodes, each one more fun than the last.

Then I took a job that moved me down to Southern California, and away from my fellow host. Sad, yes. This looked like it was going to be the end of Critical Drinking as we knew it. But wait! One of my co-workers down here, it turned out, had quite a vast movie knowledge as well, and was interested in doing this podcast with me. So we've done a few episodes since we've been down here, but after about 5, I feel like I'm doing more forcing him to do it rather than him wanting to do it. And I totally get that, it's not for everyone.

Listening back to some episodes with Ryan, we had so much fun doing it and I hope it turned out to be half as funny to other people as it was to me. Ryan is actually going to be in town soon, and we're going to try to do an episode for old times sake, and in all honesty, I think it may be the final episode. Cut out on a high note.

However, just because the podcast will be ending, doesn't mean I'm any less fervent about movies (or beer for that matter). I think it's time to start my search for a new outlet for movies. The podcast route is fun, so it may be something like that, but we'll see.

Posting here again was fun, maybe do that again?

Why I have a movie podcast with beer

Ladies and gentlemen, let me start by thanking you in advance for listening to this week's episode of Critical Drinking. We're watching D2: The Mighty Ducks and talking Top 5 Movies From My Childhood. It's our 47th episode coming up, and every single one has been more fun than the last. I love doing it, and I hope you enjoy listening to it.

Now, the reason for this post is because I have recently been embarrassed by my younger brother. He doesn't know it, but he should be proud of it. A little history:

In college my freshman year, not having declared a major yet, I took a spin around a few departments seeing what clicked for me and what didn't. Ultimately business and marketing were the obvious choice, but before that I dabbled in English. Yes, English. You wouldn't know it by the content on this blog, right? Well it wasn't English English, it was film studies English. I took 2 film classes that were technically English classes, and I think the way they got away with that was by making us write 2 big papers each term. The first class I took I loved. I was fascinated by the content, but not so keen on the papers. I managed to walk away with a B, no harm done. The second class was the same content-wise, but clearly more grueling English-wise, because I walked out of there with a C, visibly worse for wear. I learned a lot about film, and also learned English would not be my major.

A few years later, my younger brother is in school, and I hear he's taking the same classes. I knew how I did, but he seemed to think they were no big deal. And they weren't for him. Now he's in a 400-level film studies English class, and I hear last night he just got a 98/100 on his most recent paper, AND the professor nominated it for a student journal. Well shit, clearly you win.

So, little bro, you are better than me at film analysis, that much has been proven by you're 98% / A+ in a 400-level class. That is just a little bit better than my C in a 200-level class. However, could you write that paper... while drinking!? Could you orate it while drinking!? Maybe you could, who knows. I may not have the knowledge or English mastery that you seem to have, but I can do both of those things while drinking.

And that, my friends, is why I have a movie podcast with beer.

Bringin' Back Memories

Wishful Thinking or Foreshadowing?

Dark Knight Sequel Poster

First, don't get too excited. This is a fan-made poster. However, it still gets me a little excited for the next one! There's speculation that the Riddler will be the next villain (hence the question mark), but nobody knows for sure yet.

But after the Joker, a PHENOMENAL rethinking of Nicholson's version, who do you think would be a good villain for the next movie, and who would you cast? Let me know in the comments.

2 New Posters

These two posters are awesome! Not because they are anything special visually, but because of what they represent. Quantam of Solace (aka Bond 22) looks amazing, and just seeing Daniel Craig in a tux gets me excited (insert gay joke or "that's what she said" here)." I can't wait for this movie. I'll be there opening (mid)night! And the new Guy Ritchie movie RocknRolla looks awesome too. It's like his other movies, but on steroids. Well, his other movies are already on steroids, so this is like those, but with even more steroids. Two scoops of steroids in every bite!

Check them out below:





Also, you all should check me out on Twitter at twitter.com/kevinregan because Ryan, Jake, Bryan, Kroen, and I are all doing some impromptu list compiling. It's a lot of fun, actually. Right now, we have favorite albums and favorite movies. I stress the word FAVORITE. Not best, but rather our faves. So, go over, check it out, join Twitter, follow me, and join in the conversation!

The First Major Dark Knight Review

The movie is still 3 weeks away, but Rolling Stone's Peter Travers has just posted the first major review of the film, at least the first that Rotten Tomatoes and I have seen. Anyways, this post is just going to be a re-posting of his entire review. It's absurdly positive, which, from Peter Travers could mean a lot or nothing at all, but it just gets me that much more excited to see this thing!

I must warn you, if you're trying to stay away from revealing information (beyond what you would get from movie sites), this review does have some minor spoilers. I personally knew about all of the info he talks about, but that's because I read movie blogs and try and keep up on all the news. So, if you're like me, don't worry, he doesn't get too much into it. I mean, it is Peter Travers after all.

Anyways, without further ado, here's the review:

Heads up: a thunderbolt is about to rip into the blanket of bland we call summer movies. The Dark Knight, director Christopher Nolan's absolute stunner of a follow-up to 2005's Batman Begins, is a potent provocation decked out as a comic-book movie. Feverish action? Check. Dazzling spectacle? Check. Devilish fun? Check. But Nolan is just warming up. There's something raw and elemental at work in this artfully imagined universe. Striking out from his Batman origin story, Nolan cuts through to a deeper dimension. Huh? Wha? How can a conflicted guy in a bat suit and a villain with a cracked, painted-on clown smile speak to the essentials of the human condition? Just hang on for a shock to the system. The Dark Knight creates a place where good and evil — expected to do battle — decide instead to get it on and dance. "I don't want to kill you," Heath Ledger's psycho Joker tells Christian Bale's stalwart Batman. "You complete me." Don't buy the tease. He means it.

The trouble is that Batman, a.k.a. playboy Bruce Wayne, has had it up to here with being the white knight. He's pissed that the public sees him as a vigilante. He'll leave the hero stuff to district attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) and stop the DA from moving in on Rachel Dawes (feisty Maggie Gyllenhaal, in for sweetie Katie Holmes), the lady love who is Batman's only hope for a normal life.

Everything gleams like sin in Gotham City (cinematographer Wally Pfister shot on location in Chicago, bringing a gritty reality to a cartoon fantasy). And the bad guys seem jazzed by their evildoing. Take the Joker, who treats a stunningly staged bank robbery like his private video game with accomplices in Joker masks, blood spurting and only one winner. Nolan shot this sequence, and three others, for the IMAX screen and with a finesse for choreographing action that rivals Michael Mann's Heat. But it's what's going on inside the Bathead that pulls us in. Bale is electrifying as a fallibly human crusader at war with his own conscience.

I can only speak superlatives of Ledger, who is mad-crazy-blazing brilliant as the Joker. Miles from Jack Nicholson's broadly funny take on the role in Tim Burton's 1989 Batman, Ledger takes the role to the shadows, where even what's comic is hardly a relief. No plastic mask for Ledger; his face is caked with moldy makeup that highlights the red scar of a grin, the grungy hair and the yellowing teeth of a hound fresh out of hell. To the clown prince of crime, a knife is preferable to a gun, the better to "savor the moment."

The deft script, by Nolan and his brother Jonathan, taking note of Bob Kane's original Batman and Frank Miller's bleak rethink, refuses to explain the Joker with pop psychology. Forget Freudian hints about a dad who carved a smile into his son's face with a razor. As the Joker says, "What doesn't kill you makes you stranger."

The Joker represents the last completed role for Ledger, who died in January at 28 before finishing work on Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. It's typical of Ledger's total commitment to films as diverse as Brokeback Mountain and I'm Not There that he does nothing out of vanity or the need to be liked. If there's a movement to get him the first posthumous Oscar since Peter Finch won for 1976's Network, sign me up. Ledger's Joker has no gray areas — he's all rampaging id. Watch him crash a party and circle Rachel, a woman torn between Bale's Bruce (she knows he's Batman) and Eckhart's DA, another lover she has to share with his civic duty. "Hello, beautiful," says the Joker, sniffing Rachel like a feral beast. He's right when he compares himself to a dog chasing a car: The chase is all. The Joker's sadism is limitless, and the masochistic delight he takes in being punched and bloodied to a pulp would shame the Marquis de Sade. "I choose chaos," says the Joker, and those words sum up what's at stake in The Dark Knight.

The Joker wants Batman to choose chaos as well. He knows humanity is what you lose while you're busy making plans to gain power. Every actor brings his A game to show the lure of the dark side. Michael Caine purrs with sarcastic wit as Bruce's butler, Alfred, who harbors a secret that could crush his boss's spirit. Morgan Freeman radiates tough wisdom as Lucius Fox, the scientist who designs those wonderful toys — wait till you get a load of the Batpod — but who finds his own standards being compromised. Gary Oldman is so skilled that he makes virtue exciting as Jim Gordon, the ultimate good cop and as such a prime target for the Joker. As Harvey tells the Caped Crusader, "You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become a villain." Eckhart earns major props for scarily and movingly portraying the DA's transformation into the dreaded Harvey Two-Face, an event sparked by the brutal murder of a major character.

No fair giving away the mysteries of The Dark Knight. It's enough to marvel at the way Nolan — a world-class filmmaker, be it Memento, Insomnia or The Prestige — brings pop escapism whisper-close to enduring art. It's enough to watch Bale chillingly render Batman as a lost warrior, evoking Al Pacino in The Godfather II in his delusion and desolation. It's enough to see Ledger conjure up the anarchy of the Sex Pistols and A Clockwork Orange as he creates a Joker for the ages. Go ahead, bitch about the movie being too long, at two and a half hours, for short attention spans (it is), too somber for the Hulk crowd (it is), too smart for its own good (it isn't). The haunting and visionary Dark Knight soars on the wings of untamed imagination. It's full of surprises you don't see coming. And just try to get it out of your dreams.

Hopefully I can find a movie theater down in Houston with a midnight showing.

[via RS]

Quick Look at Two-Face

SPOILER ALERT! This video shows a quick look at Two-Face from The Dark Knight. If you want to go into the theater and be surprised, don't watch it. While it doesn't show much, it's still revealing.

Check it out:



I can't wait! July 18!

New Dark Knight Trailer: Joker Edition

Apparently there was some marketing event for The Dark Knight recently, and select fans got to go home with a 35mm reel of the trailer. Sounds great, if you have something to play it on. One fan did, and when he started it up, it had been "vandalized" by the Joker.

It's pretty damn cool, especially as a souvenir. Check out the video he posted of the trailer. The sound sucks, but that's not really what's important.



Another fine job by the Dark Knight marketing team. Thanks to Franklin for the heads up.

New Dark Knight Poster

Sorry I'm a little late with this, but this is a great poster, so I had to post it.



As you all know, I am very excited about this movie. I think a lot of people are going to see it because Batman Begins was really good, and people just love Batman in general. So, it took me a little by surprise when I came across EW's projections for summer box office numbers. Their list has The Dark Knight coming in 6th in total box office revenues with $255 million. That's a great number, but 6th? Honestly? I think it will come in 3rd overall. One problem I really had with their list, too, was that Will Smith's new movie Hancock, which looks like a bag of shit, is in their #4 spot. What?! I must either be really misinformed, or EW sucks.

I vote the latter.

The Dark Knight April Fools Day Prank

As you all know from a few posts ago, a new Dark Knight viral site (went up March 3) called Clown Travel Agency had just a suitcase and an envelope on it which had "Departure Date 4-01" written on it. It was a static page, nothing dynamic, but the "4-01" was, presumably, the hint that something would be happening on April Fools Day. Well, sure enough, it did.

Up until March 31, the envelope looked like this:



As you can see, sealed.

However, if you were to check back on April 1, you would see something a little different:



Now it's opened, and the loose pages inside are a link. When you click it, up pops this message:



This is a message, presumably from the Joker, which asks if you're ready to take part in his little game. This is also a link, and when you click on it, it takes you to this page:



At midnight on April 1, this showed up as blank locations. It was basically a treasure hunt. Throughout the day, the items were found around the country and world in the listed cities, and as of this posting, all items have been found, which is why all the stamps and full addresses are shown. The items turned out to be bowling balls in bags, with a smart phone, phone charger, and joker playing card in the bag as well. I assume the phones were to call a certain number to tell them you found it, but I'm not sure. (/film has some pictures) And who knows what the bowling balls mean? Anyways, this message quickly burns up to reveal another message:



This message refers you to a specific page of a new viral site called Acme Security Systems. When you go to this specific "Delos" site, a security clearance message comes up asking you to enter your name, phone number, and e-mail address. Please, do yourself a favor and enter this info, especially the phone number, because this is where it gets fun. After you do this, you get a phone call asking you to verify your security password, which the letter informs you is "Needle." After you say this, Commissioner Gordon comes on and tells you it was a set-up, you've been caught, and that you're either with him or against him; either going to join his team, or go to jail. (/film has the audio & more pictures) After he hangs up, the site flashes this message:



It says that your name, e-mail, and IP address has been captured. And that's the end of it.

I'm really hoping I get some viral e-mails soon, and maybe some viral text messages. I am totally into this. I think it's a lot of fun, not to mention some great, GREAT marketing. And it only heightens my anticipation for the movie. Man this is cool! What's next?

Stay tuned for more updates, I'll put 'em up as they come.

UPDATE: So, you know the one that was found in Portland? Well, P.K. and Ivan, two of the Jammin' 95.5 Playhouse morning show guys, actually found it, and have put pictures of it on their website here. Apparently they're getting a call on that phone that was in the bag on April 4 giving them further instructions. They've put the stuff up on eBay with a starting bid of $30,000. Who are these guys kidding? Here's the eBay link if you're interested. (Thanks to Romey-Rome for the heads up)

Complete List of 'The Dark Knight' Viral Sites

You should all know by now that the marketing for The Dark Knight has been heavily viral. They've done commercials and stuff too, and you kind of have to with a movie this big, but the way they've been going about the rest of it has really been interesting, not to mention elaborate. One of those ways is creating these websites, of which there are 19 27 now. I had no idea there were that many, but this list has been floating around the internet today, so I would like to present them here.

They are really interesting, especially from a marketing perspective, and they've almost taken on a life of their own. One in particular to pay attention to in Clown Travel Agency. It has a departure date listed as 4-01, which is tomorrow, so the Joker must be planning a little April Fools Day joke for us all. Nobody is sure what is going to happen, but that's really the fun of these sites.

Anyways, here are all 19 27, with links to each. Enjoy.

1. I Believe in Harvey Dent
2. Concerned Citizens for a Better Gotham
3. Clown Travel Agency
4. The HaHaHa Times
5. The Gotham Times
6. Maiden Avenue Report
7. Gotham Cable News
8. Dana Worthington
9. Citizens for Batman
10. Saints Withuns Church
11. GVA Foundation
12. Gotham Police Department Internal Affairs Division
13. Gotham Cab
14. I Believe in Harvey Dent Too
15. Joseph Candoloro
16. Gotham City Clerk
17. Gotham Election Board
18. Why So Serious
        -Why So Serious Personality Profile
        -Why So Serious Mausoleum
19. Rory's Death Kiss

UPDATE:
20: Trust Garcetti
21: Remembering Gina
22: Gotham Police
23: Gotham Unified School District
24: Gotham City Rail
25: Gotham National Bank
26: We Are The Answer
27: ACME Security Systems
        -ACME DELOS Security Site

I had never seen a lot of these, I [really] can't believe how many there are. Some are pretty awesome, and some are just okay, but together they are pretty impressive. Any I missed?

[via] [via] [via]

Top 5 Actors That Are More Fun to Watch in Dumb Roles

I was listening to Filmspotting, my favorite movie podcast, on my way up to Portland today, and they made a passing remark about some actor being more fun to watch when they are in dumb roles. By that I mean playing unintelligent characters. Most of the time this shows up in comedic roles, but not always.

So I was thinking about that on my ride, and came up with 5 big actors that have been in a lot of movies and a lot of different roles, but that I have more fun watching in dumb roles. So without further ado, here are my top 5 actors that are more fun to watch in dumb roles.

#5: Billy Bob Thornton
(Slingblade vs. Armageddon)
Remember the dealer from the saloon in Tombstone that Kurt Russel slaps? That's my favorite Billy Bob Thornton role. He plays this local simpleton that gets an attitude check from Wyatt Earp himself, and it's awesome. But if you look at Slingblade, a great movie that he is amazing in, versus the character he plays in Armageddon. He's the head of NASA, and he's boring. He plays the role in the most cookie-cutter way, and it's boring. Or the guy in The Astronaut Farmer. It's a decent movie, but he's nothing special. When Billy Bob is at his best is when he's playing a dumb characters.

#4: John Travolta
(Pulp Fiction vs. Phenomenon)
I chose to use Phenomenon instead of Battlefield Earth, because that just wouldn't be fair. What a shitbox of a movie that was. Anyways, take movies like Phenomenon or Swordfish, and look at Travolta's acting. It's boring. Take Face/Off and Basic. He plays the same character. And while I personally like those last 2 movies, he's not the reason why. But then look at Pulp Fiction. He is awesome as this idiot hitman, borderline iconic. This was a great role, and he was a lot of fun to watch. He got his start as Vinnie Barbarino, the class dullard, so it's no surprise that he's better in those kinds of roles.

#3: Tim Robbins
(Mystic River vs. The Shawshank Redemption)
Tim Robbins has lately made his career out of cameos in which he plays hilarious dumb guys. The ones I can think of are the public news anchor from Anchorman and the crazy, one-legged guy in Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny. He's hilarious in those movies, and I like watching him even in those than I do in roles like Andy Dufresne in Shawshank. Now don't get me wrong, I like that movie a lot, and think the character of Andy Dufresne is a good one, but I don't really buy him in that role. He just didn't pull off the silent mastermind for me. His role of Dave Boyle in Mystic River is much better in my opinion. It's a similar role, just dumbed down, and with no insults intended, he pulled it off.

#2: Dustin Hoffman
(Rain Man vs. All The President's Men)
First off, I'm not saying All The President's Men is bad, because it's not. In fact, I think it won an Oscar for Best Picture, or at least was nominated. However, if you look at Dustin Hoffman in it, relative to his other roles, he's not as good or fun to watch. He was amazing in Rain Man, and it might be unfair to call this (and Slingblade for that matter) a "dumb" role, but I think it applies. I imagine it was a much bigger stretch to play Raymond Babbitt than it was to play Carl Bernstein. Also, look at him in I Heart Huckabees and Stranger Than Fiction, playing that wacko character with frizzy hair and less-than-conventional philosophies. I love those roles, and they're a lot of fun to watch.

#1: Christopher Walken
(Pulp Fiction vs. Catch Me If You Can)
This is, hands down, an actor that is way more fun to watch in those dumb roles. He plays a lot of wacky roles, but the dumb ones specifically are great. To preface, anything Christopher Walken does is gold, and my favorite role he played was in True Romance. That exchange between him and Dennis Hopper is amazing. However, in general, I like watching his other roles more. The perfect example was that small role he had in Pulp Fiction when he tells that story about how he kept that soldier's pocketwatch in his ass. He delivers it with such seriousness, but I can only imagine how hard it would be to be in that room when they're filming this scene and not explode laughing. I also like him in the dissappointment that was Envy, when he plays this crazy guy that befriends Ben Stiller's character and eventually gets shot with an arrow. These roles kind of ruin his serious roles because, whenever he's on screen, I'm just waiting for something funny to come out of his mouth. So his roles in Catch Me If You Can, The Deer Hunter, and Suicide Kings pale in comparison because he is so funny in so many movies. And as good as they are, they just kind of sit there.

So, there you go, there's my list. I would also like to give honorable mention to Ben Affleck and would use Dazed & Confused vs. Hollywoodland as my example. But what do you guys think? Any that I missed? Anything I am totally off-base on? Let me know in the comments.

The Hammer Movie Trailer

The Hammer is a new movie starring Adam Corolla, and it's got a pretty funny trailer.



Now, this movie looks like a bad version of that show Adam Carolla had a few years ago on TLC called The Adam Carolla Project where he tried to rebuild houses. I liked it. This movie looks like that, but turned into a movie with a plot thrown in. There are a lot of real funny lines in the trailer though, so that's why I posted it. It might be worth seeing only because of him.

New Indiana Jones Poster!

May 22.

(It's a HUGE picture, click to enlarge)

New Dark Knight Pics from the New York Times

The New York Times published a piece about Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan today, which included a few new pictures. The story focuses mostly on Nolan, his career, and his feelings about the new film in the wake of Heath Ledger's untimely death. It's a great article for Batman and Christopher Nolan fans alike, but does contain some spoilers for the upcoming movie. If you don't want to know anything about it, you probably shouldn't read it. But the parts about Ledger are almost worth it. They really pay tribute to the actor he was.

For example, from the article:

Mr. Pfister, the cinematographer, said Mr. Ledger seemed "like he was busting blood vessels in his head," he was so intense. "It was like a séance, where the medium takes on another person and then is so completely drained."

The article went on to say:

"It’s stunning, it’s iconic," [Nolan] said. "It’s going to just blow people away."

Those sentiments both make me sad for what Ledger was becoming as an actor and could have been, but also excites me that his last role is going to be amazing.

Personally I am a big fan of Nolan's. I loved Momento before I knew who Christopher Nolan was, and have subsequently loved everything he's done (with the exception of Insomnia, because I haven't seen it). It's fun to read about certain styles directors have, especially when it's coming from actors like Aaron Eckhart. I also loved the fact that he has turned down really attractive money-making movies in favor of things he was passionate about. That lends to his credibility.

It's also very fascinating to read about how deep Nolan is going in his pursuit of a serious Batman character. The morals he struggles with, the cultural insinuations he tries to avoid but ultimately cannot. It's almost surreal to listen to this man speak like a visionary about a comic book character.

Anyways, a few new pictures were released as well, and while we still haven't seen Aaron Eckhart as Two-Face, these are still pretty awesome. Check them out.

Batman on the Batpod

Batman and the Joker

Christopher Nolan on the set with the Bat Signal


[via NYT]

The Beautiful Post-Oscars Lull

It seems to happen in every industry. There's a point, usually after the biggest event of the year, in which nothing really happens. The most notable example, in my opinion, is that span of time after the Super Bowl where, unless Tiger happens to be playing that week, absolutely nothing happens. SportsCenter just kind of mulls through crap until either hockey or golf comes to the rescue. Then baseball gets going, and the sports world is back up and running.

Well, this also happens after the Academy Awards every year. In the following months, nothing good comes out. The summer blockbusters are still a good three months away, there are no good film festivals for at least a month, and any movie that is even remotely thinking of being in contention for any awards knows it's way too early to release. So what comes out? Nothing.

This time of year is when all the studios put out all their crap movies because there's nothing to compete with. Well, except other crap. You see a lot of weekends like the one I wrote about a while back. This phenomenon, if you will, is very apparent this weekend as well.

As you can see above, courtesy of RT, there is a lot of shit out there this weekend. If you click that picture, you can see the results of the top 12 in the box office this weekend. If you look at it, you'll notice that only 3 of the top 12 movies in theaters this weekend are rated "fresh", meaning 60% or more of critics reviewing it actually liked it. That means 9 of the top 12 were rated "rotten".

This isn't surprising, because it happens every year, but just because I can, I am going to justify the reasons why these movies are out right now (a.k.a. why they are bad).

#1 at the box office: 10,000 B.C.
There shouldn't be any doubt of why this movie is #1 on this particular weekend. Warner marketed the hell out of it, and it's pretty appealing to a large audience, especially compared to the rest of the movies this weekend. It's PG-13, it's got big animals, and it looks kind of cool to kids and adults alike.

However, there are a number of reasons, besides its release date, that tell you it's going to be bad. You haven't heard of anyone that's involved with the movie unless you're a huge Independence Day fan, and let's face it, who isn't? It's also a very VFX-intensive movie, and what have we learned from King Kong? No matter how realistic you can make a dinosaur stampede look, it's still going to suck. Also, and this may be the biggest deterrent, what kind of "epic" has a 1 hr 49 mins run time? You've got to be kidding. Honestly, one of the "musts" of an epic is that it has to be long. Honestly, whether it's LOTR or Kingdom of Heaven, good or bad, it has to be long.

#2 at the box office: College Road Trip
If you looked at this title, you would have no idea it was going to be the movie RV redone with Martin Lawrence, but if you saw any of the ads, you would. I hope I don't have to go into it any further, but I will. This is like the cliche of movies that come out at this time. They try so hard to be something fun and enjoyable, but when it's all said and done, it just isn't. But the movie has been shot, so they have to put it out. Now's the time.

Martin Lawrence needed a paycheck, and so did the studio. This, unfortunately, happens.

#3 at the box office: Vantage Point
Well, I have to say that I kind of wanted to see this one. But, when you really look at it, it just kind of looks boring. I have no intention of going out to see it even though I kind of want to. But, the main reason behind this one being #3 is that it's been out for 3 weeks, so the people who really want to see it already have.

#4 at the box office: Semi-Pro
You know, there used to be a time when I would line up to see any Will Ferrell movie, no matter what. But then he made Kicking & Screaming and Bewitched, and I was pretty much off the automatic bandwagon. I love Anchorman and Old School and will forever, but that shtick is getting old fast. Plus, I just don't think it's as good a movie as some of Ferrell's other. It's thriving on him and his comedy when it should be the other way around. I think they might have realized it wasn't that good though, and so released it now.

#5 at the box office: The Bank Job
This is the one exception on the list. This has a "fresh" rating. I want to see this, but will probably wait for the $1 theater. It looks exciting and fun, with a lot of bullets and adrenaline, and that's what Jason Statham is good at. But, he does that in every movie, and while it doesn't get old like Ferrell's characters and one liners about punching people in the mouth, it doesn't make me want to rush out to see it either.

So, I saw Rotten Tomatoes today and just felt like writing about it. What do you all think?

Cancer has picked a fight it can't win

As many of you know, I am a big fan of The Movie Blog. I read that blog religiously. The two main writers do a podcast a couple times a week that is kind of like Diggnation in that they basically just talk about the stuff on their site that week. While I personally like Filmspotting for my movie podcasts, I listen to this one a lot because it's light hearted, funny, and entertaining.

This week it was announced that Patrick Swayze has pancreatic cancer, which sparked Doug (one of the writers) to go off on cancer about how it has just picked a fight it can't win. Check it out:

Righteous Kill Trailer

Righteous Kill, the long awaited film in which De Niro and Pacino ACTUALLY work together (unlike The Godfather II and Heat), is one of the movies I'm most looking forward to this year, and a trailer has just been released.

It's not bad, but not great. It's too bad 50 Cent is in it, because that man cannot act, but I do like the "Sympathy for the Devil" remix very much. Check it out: