Cool Shit 8/8

There's a new Spike Jonze movie out. In typical fashion, it's a bit bizarre.



And speaking of movies, here's a trailer for The Counselor, which boasts an all-star cast, and quite possibly America's best living novelist as it's screenwriter...



I think Tara Reid is suggesting she USED to think whales and sharks mated to spawn whalesharks, and not that she currently thinks that's how it happens. Or something. I do enjoy that she starts the whole thing off with "I don't want to sound stupid..."



I could spend hours in a Barnes and Noble, so I can only imagine how much time I would want to spend in bookstores like these.

Yeah, that's right. Escape from L.A. was set in 2013. Let's see just how different/similar it is/was.

An interview with Mike Doughty, formerly of Soul Coughing. His story is a strange, sad, and potentially redemptive one (when it comes to his back catalog at least) as he hated his time in Soul Coughing and refused to play that music. Until now.

Don't know Soul Coughing? Enjoy...

Cool Shit 4/5

Only in America. The strange, sordid, sorry tale of Don King and his rise to the top - and his tumble to where he is now.

Talking with Louis C.K. and what it's like to be him right now.

The complicated balance between shark and surfer, and how each affects that balance.

I don't know... paying to be fake kidnapped doesn't sound appealing to me, and I wish we got a little more background in this story, aside from the experience. I want to know if business is good. The price also sounds a little low for it. I just don't think I could ever get around the fact that the whole experience was fake. I might pay someone to try to kidnap me. Make it more of a challenge for both sides.

A look at good trailers to bad movies. Of course, none of those trailers can meet the sheer brilliance of this one!

Coke Floats Trailer - watch more funny videos      

Kickstarter to make this fucker?

And finally RIP to a man who changed the way I watched movies, Roger Ebert. Let's celebrate him by reading this insane interview he did with Lee Marvin.

Cool Shit 3/25

If you're a movie buff and haven't yet seen Hearts of Darkness, I suggest you do so right now.

A look into what makes Shane Carruth tick, the creator of Primer and the new movie Upstream Color.

First hand accounts of having famous authors as professors.

Man, first Q*bert, and now Missile Command. I gotta get to an arcade!

Ugh. I love zombies, and I'm sure I will see this, but seriously - what have they done to World War Z?

Pizza Man!

In our never ending quest to bring you stupidly awesome movie trailers, I give you Pizza Man!

I'm not sure I could come up with a better dream cast if I tried. I think my favorite part is when Corbin Bernsen momentarily forgets his line after saying, "You pull the plug on this project..."

But like a consummate professional, he recovers enough to make it only slightly awkward, and not awkward enough to demand another take.

(Completely unrelated: Not sure what it says about me that when tagging this article, "Michael Gross," "Corbin Bernsen," and "Rowdy Roddy Piper," weren't the first times used on this blog.)

[Via The Daily What]

The Better Movie Trailer

Sure, the Avengers movie is grabbing a lot of attention and hype, and the recent movie trailer that came out is only helping that cause...

But seriously, isn't this sweded version of it totally better?

I enjoy the fact that the sweded version took a lot of effort - probably more effort by the people involved than the actual trailer.

This exists...

Below is the trailer for Columbiana - a movie about...I guess a woman assassin going after the people (I'm guessing Columbians) who possibly killed her parents. In front of her. When she was nine.

I enjoy the fact the movie is selling itself as something "from the makers of Taken," which was absurdly ridiculous in its own right. But I think Taken "worked" (and I realize worked might be a strong word here, but it obviously had enough success to be completely remade with Liam Neeson barely a couple years later where everyone forgets who he is and he stumbles around asking people if they remember him before kicking ass) because we never expected an actor like Liam Neeson to go all rogue James Bond on us.

Columbiana (I so wish it were a sequel to Syriana) of course doesn't seem to have that acting pedigree to fall back on. Sure, it has the guy who played Pablo Escobar in Blow (methinks he might be getting slightly typecast as villainous Columbians) and the dude from Alias, playing the dude from Alias. And of course there's Zoe Saldana, who recently played a cartoon, looking good in a catsuit.

You know what? Hollywood is weird!

"Twixt" - by Francis Ford Coppola

Val Kilmer.

Tom Waits.

Francis Ford Coppola.

Bruce Dern.

Val Kilmer with a ponytail.

I'm there...

I won't lie; this trailer seems to take hokiness, craziness, stupidity and goofiness and roll them up into a ball and regurgitate it all at once. I have no idea whether it is possible for it to be good. In fact, without the names listed above, it's probable I would simply dismiss it.

But I can't. Because of the names above. Yes, it's possible I'll get burned. After all, Coppola made Jack. Tom Waits was in Domino. Val Kilmer is...Val Kilmer. Still, it looks crazy enough that it might be fantastic, and I have a certain level of respect for artists who get to share their unique vision with the world. And that's what it looks like Coppola is doing with this.

Battleship movie trailer (Yes it's based on the game)

Wow - they really captured the spirit of how I used to play Battleship!

(Although, I'm truly concerned for Liam Neeson's life in this one. I mean, I saw Armageddon. Hopefully he did too)

E.T. is Pissed

Now this is an E.T. movie I can get behind...

[via Badass Digest]

New Movie Trailer: Insidious

So the director of the first Saw got together with the creators of Paranormal Activity and decided to make a movie that...kinda looks like what would happen if you mashed up Saw and Paranormal Activity...

Normally, I'd go off and say how unoriginal/copied this feels, but not this time. Let's just go with it. It appears to be competently made, as much as one can tell from 2 minutes of a teaser trailer, and will probably scare its fair share of audiences.

Plus, it definitely reminded me of this That's Incredible segment...

Specifically the doll and moving rocking chair. In fact, it pretty much ripped off the moving rocking chair. Obviously, this That's Incredible segment is not even a little scary some 25 year after it aired, but believe me, watching it as a 7-8 year old, it scared the bejeezus out of me.

Atlas Shrugged Movie Trailer

What's the absolute of completely awesome?

I have no idea where any of you stand when it comes to Ayn Rand. I know she has a huge following and her objectivism "philosophy" probably has an altar that Wall Streeters sacrifice illegal aliens on to make sure they get an extra 8 cents. Whatever. Who am I to judge your system of beliefs? (Though I love this little tidbit.)

If you have no idea about Ayn Rand and her beliefs, she thankfully gave us a novel that explained it in detail. Great detail. Excruciatingly ridiculous detail. Seriously, brevity was the enemy when it comes to Atlas Shrugged.

And now we have the movie...

Let's ignore the fact that while obviously the train industry is at the heart of the matter in the novel (that was written in 1957, you know, when trains were a little more in vogue as a means of transportation), might need to be updated to mirror the current times the movie seems to be set in, the casting seems a little off (Taylor Schilling just doesn't look like she can pull of the dominatrix style that Dagney Taggert was written for. And I'm not even going to get into the sex stuff). And this is from a guy who HATED reading this novel.

I also love the fact that this is supposedly the first part of a trilogy. I assume the third film will be Gault's speech. Condensed, no doubt.

The Black Keys somehow become more awesome...

...with this video for their song Howlin for You. Well, video might be slightly misleading. Just trust me, regardless of your like/dislike of The Black Keys, I think you'll enjoy this. Why am I so sure? Because it involves Corbin Bernsen and Sir Todd Bridges.

Movie Trailer: Tornado Alley

Documentary about tornados? Sign me up...

Yes, I believe that's Bill Paxton narrating. Perfect. I was half expecting Cary Elwes to drive past.

And this movie really seems to be a real-life version of the movie Twister. I wonder if now we're supposed to acknowledge Twister as a masterpiece?

The Live Action Yogi Bear Movie

Just imagine, as you're standing in line for the new Yogi Bear movie, how awesome it would be as a live-action movie...

Movie Trailer: The Mechanic 2010

Apparently, the Charles Bronson movie, The Mechanic, is being remade with Jason Statham...

I have nothing against Jason Statham. In fact, I enjoyed him both Guy Ritchie films he was in. Never saw any of the Transporter films, but they serve a purpose and I'm sure they're decent action films.

But I'm just not sure Statham can pull off Charles Bronson...

First of all, while the 2010 Mechanic has Donald Sutherland, and you really can't go wrong with Sutherland, Bronson's mechanic has a brash young Jan Michael Vincent.

Point Bronson.

Also, I find it extremely disheartening that while the remake trailer has over 577,000 views on Youtube, the original's trailer has 1,402. While I guess it's possible the remake will shed some light on the original, I'm not holding my breath.

"He's living an extraordinary life, but he's just like you and me."

I can't wait until we all have the ability to produce and release documentaries of our personal lives for everyone to enjoy. Until then, we'll have to be satisfied with Justin Bieber's. Thankfully, it's in 3-D.

We can learn a lot from this kid. Like how he struggled, put in the hard work and became a star...even when there were so many naysayers. Just think, if we had believed in him, he would have been a star at 12 instead of 14! Oh what we missed in those 2 years!

Trailer: Paranormal Activity 2

The movie Paranormal Activity, made on a shoestring budget, took the country by storm last year with a brilliant trailer (showing the audience react to watching the movie), and a clever, if slightly cliched home movie, Travel Channel ghost special approach. I watched it and enjoyed it, even though I thought it had a few problems. But if you can get over the fact that no two people would let what happened in the movie go on without getting outside help, I think you'll be able to enjoy it.

Of course, with it's success, the inevitable sequel had to be made. Wisely (at least in my opinion), they chose not to go the Blair Witch approach and make a crappy, horribly cliched, non-sensical, traditional horror movie, and instead stuck with what got them there and kept the handheld, "mockumentary" approach. And then they upped the ante and introduced kids!

Movie Trailers: Black Swan

What's that? I couldn't hear you. I was watching Mila Kunis and Natalie Portman make out.

Movie Trailer: Monsters

Apparently made for $15,000 (I'm having a really hard time believing that) the movie Monsters looks like this year's District 9 - even down to some of the plot points. But don't take that as a bad thing, as this one seems to ignore some of the societal and sociological questions District 9 brought up (at least in the first 15 minutes before it became another 80s action movie) and goes right for the freaks and screams.

From the Mind of M Night Shyamalan

Though not directed by M Night Shyamalan, the movie Devil is certainly being promoted heavily as though it has been. Not sure if that's a good thing or not these days.

Anyway, take a look at the trailer here. Personally, I hated it. I don't understand the upside down cityscapes at the beginning (most of the action seems to take place in an elevator, which has never made me feel discombobulated. Claustrophobic, sure). And I thought it gave away too much of the movie. I understand that's a common complaint for trailers these days, but this one really went too far. This plot begs for a "less is more" approach. It's one thing to give away a lot of big action pieces in a trailer to get people pumped up; it's another to go all out on what you're trying to market as a psychological thriller. Or what could have been a psychological thriller.