LC F&G Interview

Check out this interview.

I struck me as a pretty unusual interview. First of all, the interview is with Linda Cardellini. Most people probably don’t know who she is. Second, the interview is about a show cancelled 7 years ago (it may have been more or less, I don’t know the exact figures).

Anyway, it is worth checking out if you are into Freaks and Geeks.

So, what are we, like, 30 minutes in to this movie?

Check out today’s featured article over on Wikipedia.

That movie was written, director, and produced by a fertilizer salesman. Having seen the quality of the movie, that just seems fitting.

“The haunting ‘Torgo Theme’”

I’m predicting…

I just wanted to give you all a heads up. I’m going to start working on my 2008 MLB predictions (I’m planning on posting them by next Friday, 2/8).

Are the Mets a lock in the NL East now that they have Pedro AND Johan?

Can anyone stop the Detroit offense with the addition of Miguel Cabrera?

Are the A’s the worst team in the AL?

You’ll find out what I think next week.

The Nines

Last night I watched the DVD version of The Nines. Since I’m a regular reading of John August’s blog (see the side bar/RSS feed) and I’ve always dug Ryan Reynolds acting, I figured I’d give it a shot.

The Nines is actually three short stories that overlap a bit. The first story is about a successful (at least professionally) actor (Reynolds) who goes over the edge. After accidentally burning his house down, and then going to a sleazy motel with some crack and a prostitute, the actor gets sentenced to house arrest. The second story deals with a TV show creator (also played by Reynolds) who shoots a pilot and then is asked to do some recasting/reshooting. All the while he is being taped for a Project Greenlight styled reality show. The third story is actually the pilot that is shot in part two (starring Reynolds).

Due to the multiple stories, The Nines ends up feeling a bit uneven. The first story is a great introduction. It tells the audience that this is going to be a fun and interesting story. There are several genuine laugh out loud moments in this part. But just as the first plotline really heats up, they move on to the second part. In the second part, they lose all the humor that had accentuated the first story so well. Also, as we continue with the second story, it becomes obvious (to anyone who reads John August’s blog) that this storyline is basically JA’s life (in a fictitious Hollywood way). Outside of that, this story does offer some solid drama, but you are too busy trying to figure out what the heck The Nines is/are to really care about the drama. The third story rolls around and things really start falling apart. The third part didn’t really make any sense to me (in that Horror movie/Cloverfield/Why would that character do that sort of way). Then, we finally get to the big payoff at the end of the movie, and it just fizzles. I get who/what The Nines are, but the ending it self goes to a weird place and I’m not sure what the heck it was supposed to mean.

Overall, The Nines comes off feeling like a small breaking wave. It starts breaking and you are excited and cool things are going on. But too soon, the wave gets smaller and less entertaining until it completely dissipates to nothing. The Nines starts off great and fades out until the end.

I gave The Nines, 3 stars out of 5 on Netflix. The movie had a lot of potential, but it never capatalized on that potential. If you are interested in checking out The Nines, it is probably worth the rental. If you have no interest, you shouldn’t go out of your way to see it.

More Y: The Last Man

Here’s a second link to go with my previous post.

You know how I said that it had been pretty quiet on the Y: The Last Man movie front? Forget about all that. This Q&A between Pop Candy’s Whitney Matheson and Y: The Last Man director D.J. Caruso provides tons of information on the project.

Y: The Last Comic

In case you don’t know, the last issue of Y: The Last Man hits shelves this week.

In case you don’t know, Y: The Last Man is one of the greatest comic books ever generated.

Anyway, you might want to check out this link. In the article, creator Brian K. Vaughan discusses comics and the idea of a finish to a comic book run (as opposed by the eternal runs of Spider-Man, et al).

The biggest revelation in the link, though, is about the Y: The Last Man movie. Here’s a few of the things that you need to know:

1) The producers are in “preliminary discussions” to cast Shia Lebouf as Yorick.

2) The fact that there are preliminary discussions shows that the movie is progressing (it’s been a while since I heard anything about the project).

3) The movie will cover the first 14 issues of the comic. This sets up a potential trilogy of Y: The Last Man movies.

Have fun geeking out on that last bit of info today!

Home Theaters

Check out this link.

There are all kinds of beautiful Home Theaters on display here. Strangely, my favorite theming is actually for a set of movies that I don’t care much for. The Batcave is the coolest home theater shown here.

The Indiana Jones one could have been cool, but it comes off a little barren compared to the others (where’s the snakes?).

I’ve already talked about how cool the batcave is.

The first Star Trek bridge is really cool. Too bad I’ve never been into Star Trek.

The second Star Trek theme is really boring and didn’t bring anything to the party.

The third Star Trek theater is cool, but I still don’t like Star Trek.

The Titanic theme is amazing. It is a bunch of elegant architecture filling up the amazing home theater. The only problem is that no one ever saw that Titanic movie and placing this theater as a “Titanic” theme would be impossible if it wasn’t labeled.

The Death Star theme goes right at the heart of things I love, but the execution is flawed. It looks like that theater could fall down at any second.

The Nautilus is probably my choice for second best theater. I’ve enjoyed 20,000 leagues under the sea and the execution is brilliant.

The Pirate Cove is kind of cool, but there is nothing sticking out that screams, “POTC.” So, while it is a nice theater, it doesn’t live up to the theme’s potential.

The Sci-Fi Cinema is only cool because of the collection of props surrounding it. It works better as a museum than as a theater.

These theaters got my juices flowing to desing a theater of my own. Sure, I have no place to put it (yet), but the theme and execution need to be thought out. Hmm… has anyone done a Back to the Future theme? Maybe we could improve on the Indiana Jones theme.

Disney’s Magical Connection

In case you missed it, Disney is currently in the process of testing out a new service/product at Walt Disney World. The product is named “Disney’s Magical Connection.” The basic gist of DMC is it is an interactive tour guide that runs on the Nintendo DS.

Because the product is in the testing phase, not too much is know about it. Doing a quick search on Google netted this link. The information listed here isn’t all that much, but if you click on the picture, there is an extensive post (with a bunch of pictures) about a family that got to test the product out.

You can check out the family’s run down of the product and the pictures here.

Looking over the pictures, it appears that the DMC actually plugs into the GameBoy Advanced slot of the DS (in the front). Which is kind of interesting.

Continuing on, it looks like it is a pretty sweet set-up (especially for those unfamiliar to the Magic Kingdom – from what I’ve seen, DMC is only available at the Magic Kingdom for now).  You get the park map right on your DS. Along with the map, it shows your position in the park (via GPS). You can easily find restaurants, attractions, characters, and various other information. In addition to finding the attractions, it shows the wait time and fast pass times being handed out right now (it also shows height restrictions for the little ones).

In addition to all this information, the DMC provides a few trivia games that you can unlock as you visit various attractions. From what I’ve heard, the trivia is harder or easier based on who’s in your party (i.e. you set up the system indicating if there is a bunch of adults, kids, or a mix).

One rumor that I have heard about the DMC is that you will be able to reserve your Fast Pass tickets directly from the screen. This rumor may be unfounded, but if you look at the first link you will have noticed that the DS has been used to order food and what-not at Safeco Field. So, the potential is there for Fast Pass reservations.

As a person who owns a DS and goes to Disney multiple times a year, I want a DMC unit (assuming that the cartridge part is sold on its own and that it isn’t too expensive).

12:01

Over the weekend, I rented 12:01 from Netflix.

If you are like me, this is probably the first time you’ve heard of 12:01. It was a made for TV Sci-Fi movie that was released in the early 90’s (I’m pretty sure it was 1993, but I’m being too lazy to double check right now).

The basic plot is similar to Groundhog’s Day in that it is about a man (Jonathan Silverman) who gets stuck repeating the same day over and over.

I found out about and rented 12:01 because of a recommendation from Netflix. So, I didn’t really know what to expect. Here’s the plot description listed on Netflix:

Office worker Barry Thomas (Jonathan Silverman) finds himself stuck in a time loop caused by an error in his company’s secret project. As he relives the same day over and over again, Barry tries to fix the glitch — and to save the life of a beautiful researcher (Helen Slater) who is murdered every day. Jeremy Piven co-stars.

The first 15 minutes of the movie creates a really goofy, low budget feel. We follow Jonathan Silverman as he goes to work, chats with his pal (Jeremy Piven), and loves-from-afar a coworker (the chick who played Supergirl – Helen Slater). At the same time there is a brutish scientist that works with Supergirl. Also, there is a head of all the research (Martin Landau). While we are following this, the movie plays out like a hokey Weekend at Bernies or Suburban Commando. Everything is done at a low quality and it isn’t taken too seriously.

Just when you are about to tune out from the movie, things pick up. While there is still some goofy dialog, the plot tightens up as Jonathan Silverman tries to figure out why the same day is repeating and how he can get it to stop.

Now, this movie is no where near the quality of Grounhog’s Day, but there is one area where I prefer 12:01. 12:01 actually goes out and gives a reasoning behind why the same day keeps happening and why Jonathan Silverman is the only one who remembers it. Honestly, why does the day keep repeating in Groundhog’s Day? Just because Bill Murray’s character is a jerk?

Anyway, if you get a chance, 12:01 is worth a rental. Once you get of the goofy/hokey/low production budget of it all, the movie has some really good moments in it.

Overall, I gave 12:01 3 stars out of 5 on Netflix.

Rambo

Over the weekend, I took the time to check out Rambo in the theater.

Normally, I would go into a summary of the plot followed by my thoughts on the movie. With Rambo, I’ve decided that my thoughts on the movie would contain way too many swear words to publish here. The movie is just that extreme/intense.

The basic breakdown of the movie is; if you liked First Blood or Rambo: First Blood part 2, you are going to like Rambo. If you’ve never seen a Rambo movie, you should avoid Rambo at all costs (you won’t like it).

I loved First Blood and liked FB part 2. I ended up giving Rambo 4 stars out of 5 on Netflix.