Movies you ought to see #4

Love Song For Bobby Long



Story about a dead woman Lorraine.
It's a hue of New Orleans.
Story about three people coming together.

Beautiful, serene, calm and touching.

Special effects inspired by Re-Animator

(Head when carried from front)

PRELUDE

I got lucky and made a discovery from our nearest market. Behold and lo, there was the original Re-Animator (1985) -a dvd which has been almost impossible to find. So, I spend the last of my dimes and shall eat macaroni for the rest of this month.

POINT

The movie didn't get kudos for its special effects and esp. makeup for nothing. I scribbled down some (easy and obvious) how-did-those-effects-got-made +one extra not in the movie, in case I need them later.

THE EFFECTS - THE ART OF FRAMING

Most of the work is done by thight framing. And I might say this works better than CGI in some movies. Here they are, Enjoy!

# Headless body:



# Head when carried:



# Head in a box + head being carried sideways:



# And the extra I learned recently,
how to show hanging:



Real pro things, eh ;)?

by William Shatner and one Michael Tobias

BELIEVE.

I don't normally do book reviews but this book is an obvious exception.
I found BELIEVE. on book sale at the most unimaginable places on Earth: at rest stop shop in Scandinavia. The book was about 2 € and it was in English. Evidently, I grasped the book for its headline that stated boldly 'William Shatner' (and Michael Tobias -AUTHOR OF VOICE OF PLANET). And indeed, I had to read it, no excuses allowed. Here's the review:

The plot:
Harry Houdini and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle battle againts each other to prove if there's life after death.

Any good?
What I liked about the book was it's ability to use the (real) history of both those figures and mix this with imagination and fantasy. To cut short, I think the book was ingeniously written on that part but the end solution .. well, I did hope for a bit different solution. The book was well-written and entertaining to read, so I'll give 3 stars. Naturally, I must add, if you have any sense of geekishness, you'll read it whatever the review! Or just out of curiosity!

The Best Part!
If you didn't know anything about Houdini or Doyle you will be surprised because most of the stuff checks! And those two characters did meet. Well, at least if wikipedia is to be believed.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

DID YOU KNOW about Houdini?
(1874 - 1926)

• Houdini's most famous act was the Chinese Water Torture Cell
• He also made movies, he had a production company called "Houdini Picture Corporation"
• He was a pioneer aviator
• He aimed his knowledge to expose self-proclaimed pyschics and mediums as frauds
• He was a member of a Scientific American committee that offered a cash prize to any medium who could successfully demonstrate supernatural abilities.

DID YOU KNOW about Doyle?
(1859 - 1930)

• He was a doctor
• He was a supporter of Spiritualism

To see more: Head for Harry Houdini or Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

It wasn't that bad: Dude, where's my car?

Now, I'm not saying it was that good either.
Just that it wasn't _that_ bad. Let's investigate.



The opening line

This is one of the comedies I like. Mainly the most basic reason being that it is so idiotic that it works. I can bet that the creators of this movie had a brilliant time just throwing around suggestions about a movie, never seriously thinking that this kind of movie would be made. And after a long evening somebody blurted: "Let's do it!" and then miraculously everybody was hailing for it. The studios would of course finance it because it would have all that a movie is required to have to get funding these days: hot chicks (don't mind the plot) and a big plus: recognisable actors.

Thematics
I like the fact that Dude, where's my car? resembles -in some far fetched way- a teen movie. This movie doesn't try to be anything, it just is. We have two nitwits and a bunch of very stereotypical characters, swedes, weed, hot chicks, weird costumes, scary ostriches, aliens, bubble wrap.. With those ingredients... And finally, the dialogue. Brilliantly bloody moronic -so simple & stupid it works. "Shibby", "Dude", "Sweet" -moronic but smooth!

The punch line
And instead of just snatching the original version of "What does your tattoo say?" I found an excellent Supernatural clip! Proves my point at some level. (Click the pic or the link below to see the clip on YouTube)

> You Got a Tattoo, the Supernatural mix clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Dlpr8oXH4M <

Thumbs Up for U.S.A.!

Why I watch certain shows

Keeping up appearances...
Here's a list of whys and hows regarding my choice of shows:

1) They are good
Quality shows such as Deadwood, Big Apple...

2) They have good looking men in it
Yes, I'm very, very, very, very easy. Beauty is in eye of the beholder but I must admit that 'puppyeyes' look works magic even though it might not be my number one choice. The big studios have learned their lessons well!

Side note: Some series are both good and have good looking men in them. Anyone care to guess which ones I'm talking about?

3) Nostalgia value
Atmoshpere.

4) You paid nothing for them
You have to watch them.

5) They are so bad they are fun to watch with your friends
Stargate Atlåntis

6) Nothing to do and totally bored
(Then the not-so-good ones might go.)

7) General cult knowledge
Yes. I am a slave of marketing/etc.

Found it from B3TA and ...

.. absolutely _had_ to share these!


courtesy of barryheadwound

No wonder those explosions always happen!
Here's also USB-HAL (courtesy of Squiggy) for interested.

Rotoscoping

"Rotoscoping is an animation technique in which animators trace over live-action film movement, frame by frame, for use in animated films. " freedictionary

Examples of Rotoscoping:
* Bakshi's Lord of the Rings
* Scanner Darkly trailer

I happened to come across a thorough review of Bakshi's Lord of the Rings and finally got the name for the technique that is used in that film. To say, I favor Bakshi's version over the high-over-the-hills-and-far-away Jackson's tidious 9 hour boredom. I saw the original Lotr as a kid and still think its better and more scarier.

> Review of Bakshi's the Lord of The Rings <

What I find best at rotoscoping is that esp. horses' movement is correct. To be honest, I don't always find rotoscoping a good technique because in most cases the outcome is far too poorly done. In Bakshi's film, however, it has been well intergrated and works for me. Another film that uses this technique is a Scanner Darkly. Well.. to be honest it does irritate me but I liked the film. I must admit that I don't have a point here other than I wanted to let everybody know about this technique. Well, here you go!

* Rotoscoping, freedictionary
* Rotoscoping, animation wikia

I would like to see him act against his stereotype

Michael Madsen



Let's give it a try:
I wish I would see him acting a good guy or a troubled guy with problems, preferably in some drama, maybe as a husband/dad/crippled/etc. which would give him depth and room to show his skills.

He's most often the bad guy. Or the cop (those umpteen & umpteen B-movies -check out imdb). He hasn't done anything spectacular in a long time (not counting Sin City) but he is one of those guys you never get tired of.

What I really wish, and it would be very very refreshing plus a good career move (even probably a nice change for himself as well) to see him act against those roles.

Update:
One smaller wish came true: to get him acting in an A-list movie
Hell Ride 2008 thank you Larry Bishop!

Found it from B3TA and ...

.. absolutely _had_ to share this!



Courtesy of SqueakyG

No Caruso joke gets ever old!

Whoa! I never did know until now...

I'm not the kind of girl to search & search out stuff of my favorite actors. With the exception of some funny/need-to-know-that-you-keep-up-to-date-in-the-field-of-nerdism cases.If the person is interesting enough, then I probably read out the bio . . .

The shocking pic!

So, when I was browsing trough the net killing time & came across this image I was a bit petrified. First, I never knew that they had made tv movies out of MacGyver and second, the hairdo is something really scary!

As I searched pics of this hairdo I came across this website (see below) that lists RDA's movies. Yes, I like MacGyver, like RDA but not that much to have ever read his bio or anything. Therefore, quite stupidly really, I found out that he has been in (real) full-lenght-movies (Dah! of course: he is an actor, silly me stupid) and that there are a couple RDA movies I would be interested to see. One of them would be Behind Betrayal - out of curiosity, only to see him act evil (that is, a sociopathic cop).

Once more the hair! Looks better in this pic.

That said, here's the list of his movies I came across if anybody is interested:
> RDA Filmography

I would like to see him in a good movie

Marc Dacascos

It's a shame he doesn't have many good movies. He should have more movies like the Brotherhood of the Wolves (or better), not those cheaply made action films. However, what I like about the movies I've seen (where he is in), it has been quite nice to notice that those movies do not solely rely on martial arts (as the only source of action or plot).

My personal dream would be see him in a good martial arts film, preferably with some bigger names, like, for instance, Donnie Yen.

Here are few clips of him fighting. To my taste, in these clips, the fighting is shot quite nicely (maybe more on that someday in another blog entry), have fun!

* China Strike Force, clip 1
(the movie I only bought for these fighting scenes)

* China Strike Force, clip 2
(all martial artists in this movie would deserve to be shown more)

We can finally say: Inglorious Basterds

Inglorious Basters!

There were rumors and then again more rumors about Tarantino's long-in-the-making Inglorious Bastards (work title). I promised to myself then and there that I don't succumb to those rumors until its 110% QT is making it because every time you heard one such rumor it got rejected in the next minute.

So, FINALLY i can start hyping about QT's next one!!
It is affirmative since there are pics out of the movie! At least, that's what I'd like to believe ;).

* Imdb: Inglorious Basterds *

Publicity shot of Brad Pitt...

I can't stop thinking about Kubrick and Space Odyssey 2001, Hmmm ... weird.

Reality check (prt.2): Incompetent crime investigators

I'm really annoyed by dummies who take the last shred of credibility out of their roles. I only wonder who did the research? These examples would never be allowed to work in their posts in real life. In comparison, I have taken few pics from a Canadian show that does it as it should be done, has done its background work and receives kudos for other merits as well.

THE GUILTY EXAMPLES


CSI: Miami, dr. Alexx Woods
I always wonder how many hairs she has left in multiple crime scenes. If she wanted to murder somebody it would be easy because nobody would pay any attention to those hairs in pillows, floors... etc. The whole presence is otherwise incredible as well.


NCIS, Abby
Pic tells everything. Yes, she dresses up that way for work. I have no idea why I watch this crap ..


HOW IT SHOULD BE DONE




More convincing, eh?

Indeed

I actually once though about watching the whole Stargåte SG1 through for the sole purpose of counting all the Teal'c's indeeds. Needless to say, I was in a state of utter boredom. Then I luckily came to my senses and reassured myself that I am not that gone yet.

Today I noticed that somebody had indeed done that. And had had the time to cut those moments to Youtube (okey, it's not that surprising, nevertheless.. think about the things they could've done with that time)! It never ceases to amaze me the enthusiasm (/or lack of life -like me) the true fans have.

However, that said, the video is great!
All of Teal'c's Indeeds

p.s. doubtfully all of Teal'c's indeeds but a whole lot of them

Darn, he *had* indeed forgotten to lock the back door...

*Click*
The day did not start good for Mr. T-X but it sure
would get better.

Happy Chuck Norris Fact of the New Year!!

All roads lead to Chuck Norris.
And by the transitive property,
a roundhouse kick to the face.