Net-flixation

Great Moments in... Film Scary Stories

2013-05-20T06:02:00.000-04:00

It really is one of the greatest things I ever saw as a child, and it really is one of the best-told scary stories ever. You know what I'm talking about, my friends:

Question for the Week of May 13-19: Sharon Stone's Sexist Start

2013-05-16T06:51:00.000-04:00

Has anyone else ever pointed out to you a moment of film sexism that really stands out and that you didn't notice?

First, let me note that it's always great when old conversations - little throw-away moments between you and another person - become sort of practically useful in the future. At the time, of course, it's just two people connecting, sharing ideas and entertaining each other; later, it's something that you can reasonably share with others.

In college, I had a friend named Vik, and she and I saw a lot of movies together. She also had the gift of gab, and put some thought into her pastimes. One day, she went off on 1985's attempt to put Richard Chamberlain into competition with Harrison Ford's Indiana Jones: King Solomon's Mines.

Now, clearly, Stone had at least one movie with genuinely controversial nudity and sex in it. And KSM did not show her naked body, nor were there intense sex scenes in it. However, it was the soon-to-be-starlet's fourth film role, her second major part, and her first time being a co-star. Ms. Stone is pretty, and the film played it to the hilt.

How? What was the problem that Vik rightly pointed out? Sharon Stone's skirt length:
Read more »

Something I Forgot: My Favorite Posts of Year 3!

2013-05-15T06:54:00.000-04:00

Wow! When I was making my 4th anniversary post, I wondered whether I'd missed something: don't I usually add a list of the best posts from that year? I forgot to follow up on that until last week.

Turns out I did. Hence, to the post from April 23rd. It may seem tedious, but I do like that particular tradition - even if I was too busy and tired to remember. So let's get to it now:

When I decided to go weekly with my Question posts, instead of just bi-weekly, it was because I had a nice little collection of things to ask - both little things that movies didn't answer as well as things to speculate about or discuss. But one of the earliest weekly entries was inspired by my pique at seeing the new cinematic Peter Parker sporting a hairdo out of one of the Twilight films.

Honorable mention goes to the one about the third Indiana Jones film, and the entry envisioning Commando with Freddy Mercury as the villain. That one made me so happy!
Read more »

Literal Trailer Music: Iron Man 3

2013-05-13T10:48:00.000-04:00

Fortunately, the weekend give me time to rest and catch up with my hobbies and my other jobs. And, while taking a few minutes to relax, I came across a great new Fan-made Gem. Thank heaven for small diversions.

Youtube uploader Tobuscus has been making "literal" songs for the trailers of various movie and games. As a lover of language, I gotta say, one of my favorite things is to be very literal. Several years ago, I had the following exchange at work:

coworker, pointing to bag on a table between us: is that you?
me: no, that's a bag, I'm a human being.

The work this creative uploader puts into the clips is fine. And even though he's simply turning the on-screen visuals into the lyrics of a song, it's very hard not to laugh at the results. I haven't watched more than one of the video game trailers, but this person's dedication to being literal was enough to leave me doubling over a few times.

So today's entry features Tobuscus having fun with the bombastic trailer for the mega-blockbuster Iron Man 3. I love the result so much!Read more »

Question for the Week of May 6-12: Leslie's Grave

2013-05-12T20:11:00.002-04:00

Leslie Nielsen's grave. Thoughts?

Yeah, I remember hearing a lot about this when the man passed away. Leslie Nielsen chose a beautiful bench bearing the words, "Sit whenever you can" on it.

The plaque on his grave, however, is inscribed with the words "Let 'er rip!" I've looked around on various sites, but it's pretty clear that this is real and not photoshopped.

Read more »

Question for the Week of April 29 - May 5: Indie v Studio Standards

2013-05-10T06:36:00.000-04:00

How do you approach indie movies in contrast to studio films?

Well, in this instance, I'll admit to a bias - but one that I think is totally appropriate. Most of my Reviewing with Others posts are reviews of indie movies. I was at a bar two months ago - for a benefit/Sandy relief cookoff hosted by friends - and when I mentioned this to a playwright, he asked if I only reviewed movies that I liked.

I was shocked by the question, because I wouldn't dream of doing that, ever. And yet I didn't trash any of those indix pix in my RwO's, did I? The worst grade I gave was for Mansome, which received two stars (actually "hearts," as the site insists on a rating). However, several movies, like Sironia and Cure for Pain, received glowing reviews. And I practically gushed over Save the Date in January... So what gives?
Read more »

Bill Murray Patronage Amazingness

2013-05-08T11:15:00.000-04:00

Bless my friend, Doc Connor. He's a multi-talented genius, so I suppose he's already blessed, but he saw that I wrote about Bill Murray and Connor pointed me to a photographer's website.

I can't remember if he was responding to this post or this other entry, as I've had plenty of personal (and work) drama in the meantime. Regardless, this gifted person, Olivia Rae James, shoots in a town where Mr. Murray owns an athletic team, and he asked her to take shots of him.

Darth L. Jackson

2013-05-06T20:28:00.001-04:00

In late January, I found a fine Fan-made Gem posted by ColbyCornish, a youtube user. This clip uses audio quotes from Samuel L. Jackson's films as voiceover for everybody's favorite film villain, Star Wars IV-VI's Darth Vader.

It's brief, sure, but it's also fun. Not quite The Vader Sessions fun, but it's a small bit of light in the darkness. The site had a little snafu yesterday, but I received some bad news and had to devote time to dealing with it. However, I just found out I have the day off from work, so I can make sure all my posts are ready for the next two weeks.Read more »

Iron Man 3 Review: Freaking Weird

2013-05-01T18:20:00.000-04:00

What a fitting entry for this site's 500th post, right? On Monday, in the middle of some perilously-boring work, DJ sent me a text, inviting me to attend an advance screening of Iron Man 3 at the Ziegfeld; sounds like Marvel treats its employees well, right? Honestly, after Iron Man 2, I had no plans to catch the third installment, save on Netflix.

But I love hanging with DJ, wanted to catch up with the old friends who scored him the tix, and I work so close to the location that it was a no-brainer: I was given a choice, and yet I didn't really have one. So now I can tell you what I thought about one of the most anticipated films of 2013, and please don't think it isn't one of the biggest releases of the year. Check this weirdness out:

My response was a partial mix of "nice!" and "uhhhhhh... ok?!" Iron Man 3 is ambitious and impressive, a sprawling post-Avengers super-hero mayhem-fest, but I have some reservations. Several, actually, and I'm a fan of director/co-writer Shane Black. His prior work with RDjr is pure gold.

I'm torn on the issue of telling you all of my problems with it - that would involve spoilers for most of the plot. I normally do Double Dips for that, but I don't want to make this first review too weak, y'know? ~~As a small experiment, I'm going to put spoilers in black text and with a black background color, so you readers can highlight those sections and choose what spoilers you get.~~ No real spoilers, just a few plot points. I worked it out.
Read more »

Under Siege: The Silent Movie

2013-05-01T07:12:00.000-04:00

And lo there came a time when some horrific genius calling themselves supercutonline uploaded one of the greatest Fan-made Gems ever: Under Siege recut as a silent film. And people saw it, and were contented.

If you can't take 8 and a half minutes in your day to watch this clip, you maybe shouldn't call yourself a film fan. A far wiser poster, named Vincent Mancini, has noted how Under Siege was a breakaway hit, and how it actually has a special place in Steven Seagal's career.
Read more »

CollegeHumor's Daycare for Horror Babies

2013-04-30T06:54:00.000-04:00

Do you have a child? Raising them is tough, right? But what if you're the sort of parent who wants your little one to represent the armies of Satan as evil takes over the world? What if you want your Tyler to become a telekinetic murderer? What if Jordan already knows she just wants to grow up and meet, then kidnap, the man of her dreams?

College Humor isn't a site I'd check out without a good reason. It's no insult, I just have limited time, and the name sounds like it's all "bro humor," with jokes more crass tan funny. Well, more the fool I, as they haven't lived up to my stereotypical expectations! The video they made is pretty damn entertaining.

I would've killed to see the diorama competition between Charlene from Firestarter and that little creep from The Ring.

That is all for the moment, but the Iron Man 3 review will be up soon! I'll try to have it up tonight, as an advanced screening would be perfect for Net-flixation's 500th post!

Great Moments in... Villain Entrances

2013-04-29T06:44:00.000-04:00

[UPDATE: I'm going to see Iron Man 3 tonight! I'll tell you all about it after I'm done watching...]

I love everything about A Nightmare on Elm Street. It's a good story, and amazingly scary. Even the alternate take of Freddy's entrance scene is creepy and terrifying:
Read more »

Reviewing with Others, Pt. 38: Gut

2013-04-27T15:23:00.000-04:00

Yes, after a long break, I am finally back with more Reviewing with Others! I needed to focus on moving into a new place and starting a new job. I also devoted time to this site's 4th year anniversary - when I began posting as Half a Film Student, I was fresh off a difficult relationship and a taxing job. I was all bummed out, and some of my friends had really let me down, and I chose this as a new outlet apart from photography and my other writings.

Speaking of which, Net-flixation broke 100,000 hits today! The milestone's keep on comin', as post #500 is just a few days away!

In any case, from now on, these off-site reviews will be back in the regular weekly rotation, possibly twice a week as I have a big backlog. Seriously, there are 20-odd screeners by my TV.

I just saw Gut, a psychological horror movie about a bored office man whose friend introduces him to some realistic, unnerving snuff film. Tensions rise as these two men find they can't stop thinking about what they've seen. Gut has a lot in common with 9MM, Videodrome, and my favorite Korean film, Tell Me Something. You can read my coverage here at Man, I Love Films.

CinemaSins Takes on Prometheus

2013-04-24T07:23:00.000-04:00

Prometheus is, from everything I've heard, an awful yet well-made film that really, really deserves a lot of mockery.

Oh, god, ever since I read the story synopsis to Prometheus, I've been... stunned by Scott's "a little bit of Alien DNA" comments. Although it is supposed to look beautiful, I have been extremely skeptical of the entire premise from the moment I first heard of it. The various videos by fans and critics have uniformly described a picture in which things happen to characters because Read more »

How to Celebrate a 4th Year Anniversary

2013-04-23T23:24:00.001-04:00

How do you celebrate a day like today? How do you do it justice? Well, if you're me, you get ripped on champagne and watch a great film with your roommate!

I picked Hot Fuzz when she said she hadn't seen it before, and I can assure you that there was not a dry eye in the house - we were laughing too hard for there to be one. The review will be up within a week or so, I'm a little too lazy/busy to start rescheduling next week's posts just now. If you haven't seen it yet yourself, I hope you remedy that soon.

Seriously, I've met two people who didn't like it, and I still can't imagine why anyone wouldn't love HF. We'll get into specifics later, but in the meantime, I wish myself no hangover in the morning, and wish you all a good night...

It's Net-flixation's 4th Anniversary!

2013-04-23T06:22:00.000-04:00

Four freaking years. Let me thank all of you readers and commenters right now - with an extra-big thanks to DJ for the posts he's added; the guy's a prince, I tell ya.

494 posts, 56 Questions, 100 Fan-made Gems, 83 News entries, over 200 reviews between the regular entries and the MRQs - even excluding 41 off-site reviews. All of this has transpired since the April 23, 2009 inaugural post. It has been/remains a pleasure and an honor.

So what are we gonna do today? Well, f--k, let's celebrate this. If it's after biz hours EST, I'm already drinking champs, or something with vodka/whiskey. On the right here, we've got a nice Fan-made Gem that I found two weeks ago, through geektyrant: someone called DrFaustusAU makes pretty pictures on DeviantArt, and his great wit gave us Seuss-themed Evil Dead images.

I can already start to imagine all the fun that could be had with this idea. It's one of the reasons I chose to blog about film - there's just an endless supply of news and movies to comment on, as well as so many fine creations by talented and passionate film fans.
Read more »

Question for the Week of April 22-28: Laughably Bad Title

2013-04-22T06:01:00.000-04:00

Has a movie title - and the title alone - ever made you just start laughing?

I haven't written about Sequel-itis much lately, but today's quick entry is just to highlight what happened to me when I heard the words: The Haunting in Connecticut 2: Ghosts of Georgia.

Honestly, it's been ages since George Lucas and Steven Spielberg retroactively renamed the first Indiana Jones movie so that it would have the words "Indiana Jones and" at the start of the title. I was upset that such a stupid little change was made in the name of branding and trademarks - at the very least, such marketing choices inspired a post that I'm still quite proud of. Yes, stupidity like this dates back to (at least) 1999.

And it's even clearer today that the desperate push for cash has Hollywood mining anything they can in order to guarantee that audiences snap up the latest product released into theaters. Again, I've covered this before, and it is not a new problem.
Read more »

Funny or Die's Steve Jobs Feature-Length Biopic

2013-04-19T15:57:00.000-04:00

This week, Funny or Die amazed me while getting ahead of the pack, too. It's hardly the first or the last time that FoD has produced something that blew my socks off. However, I'd have to say Funny or Die's Steve Jobs Biopic is among the most impressive videos they've ever made (a list which is getting pretty long). It's rather aptly titled iSteve.

They got Justin Long (I've seen 4 films of his, now) to lead a cast of about 24 people in a 78-minute documentary about the Apple CEO/billionaire who succumbed to cancer in 2011. You should get ready to laugh pretty hard at this ambitious work. Unfortunately, FoD doesn't allow embedding of the full video, so follow the link above to check it out. However, they will let me show you the trailer:
Read more »

Question for the Week of Apr 15-21: Demented Scenes

2013-04-17T06:42:00.000-04:00

What's your favorite demented scene from a movie? Don't cheat and include anything from Rocky Horror!

I haven't seen a movie of his since the LotR films, but I'm still a big fan of Peter Jackson - he won me over very early. Actually, he had my interest and respect quickly, as well, with demented stories that were executed in an impossibly inventive and clever way. Bad Taste is pretty much the perfect Troma film, as is Meet the Feebles.

This is part of why I wish I'd seen The Hobbit in the theater. The other reason is that it would've been in keeping with my tradition of this series of movies. I caught each and every one at the earliest midnight showing, or as soon as possible thereafter in the case of The Return of the King (my ex wouldn't even commit to a time because we both had a take-home test on its release day).
Read more »

Great Moments in... Film Pranks

2013-04-16T14:11:00.000-04:00

It's April, which is a perfect time to indulge these sorts of impulses. As it is, I missed, for the third year in a row, the chance to complete a post that would require me to make by hand, photograph or scan, and then upload. It's the sort of thing I can only release on April Fool's Day or Halloween and have it be appropriate...

I'm making up for it with a prank-based entry that's worth your time. This is from an old b-favorite, which I've already reviewed here - Penn & Teller Get Killed. Actually, another scene made it into a Question entry three weeks ago.
Read more »

Further Bill Murray Amazingness

2013-04-15T07:23:00.000-04:00

Bill Murray dresses as a New York Giant for Letterman. I won't spoil this with more words.
Read more »

Question for the Week of Apr 8-14: First Film Scare

2013-04-11T07:00:00.000-04:00

What was your first movie fright fest? What rattled you, deep down?

Well, I'll give you the second oldest film scare, one that's never stopped impressing me: the last two minutes of Halloween.
Read more »

What if Luke Skywalker used... the Internet?

2013-04-10T06:13:00.000-04:00

A random link led me to a very entertaining video the other day. It was posted on brobible.com, a site whose name alone would normally get me to ignore it. And, in this case, I'm glad I didn't. MrSimplyApps created a fine video showcasing what Luke Skywalker could (or would) do if his technologically-advanced galaxy had... the internet.

I've had weekly Questions for nearly a full year straight, and I never thought to ask this! Chewie and Han could simply order cheap ship parts off Ebay, right? Maybe follow Lando's Twitter account? Or perhaps Luke learns the Force by pirating an old Jedi training manual?:

Chapter 5 - Advanced Lightsaber Techniques, Section 2 - Saber-throw and Force return: We cannot stress enough that you want to be sure to practice this trick in an empty room...

If brevity is the soul of wit, MrSimplyApps has a whole lot of soul - they did their thing in 1m36s. You'd think you can predict what's coming, but it's quite clever and unexpected, and the creator deserves much attention. And I'm so grateful to be able to post something like this with Net-flixation's 4th birthday coming up; the timing is perfect!
Read more »

Knights of Badassdom, why aren't you out yet?

2013-04-09T12:08:00.000-04:00

I don't know how I never heard about this movie, but I want to promote it now: Knights of Badassdom apparently played at Comic Con back in 2011 but has yet to be released! Somehow, it completely slipped past my radar until I read an interesting post on AICN in the first week of March.

Now, the story is Nordling's and it should be his to tell, so follow that link. What I will relay is that a blog has released lots of inside information, and states that the production company has taken control of the movie and is making lots of changes without the director's permission. I wouldn't support that sort of behavior under most circumstances - and I certainly can't after watching this fantastic trailer.

Just watch it yourself and tell me that this picture doesn't look like great fun.
Read more »

Huey Lewis Talks American Psycho with Weird Al

2013-04-08T06:50:00.000-04:00

I don't think it's exaggerating too badly to claim that Funny or Die deserves a lifetime achievement Oscar for creating this excellent video. I loved the fan who tracked all the restaurants in American Psycho, and I really loved the American Psycho/Pokemon crossover video, but today's entry really takes the top prize.

I learned about this vid mid-day on April 3rd, but I didn't have time to post it right away; I was too busy preparing other posts and some meetings. I wanted to get this up before it would appear on a whole lot of other sites - I'd love to say I was the first to show you this - but I had my priorities. Either way, I can correct my failure now:

American Psycho with Huey Lewis and Weird Al from Huey Lewis

I love that the actual film's footage runs in the background while this conversation goes on, and Huey Lewis' delivery is just perfect. Al Yankovic does a great job of lounging about idly, and he actually somehow reminds me of Chloe Sevigny's role. Now more than ever, I am reminded of all those times that I thought Lewis was the evil front desk guy in Die Hard (scroll down to the 4th paragraph). Every time I see that bad guy die at the end of DH, I start humming "Heart of Rock N Roll" just before the bullet hits him.