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I Don't Move But the Pictures Do
Nov. 12th, 2007 01:38 pm1. Ted has pointed out to me that many of you can't go see No Country for Old Men just yet, since it's in limited release. I will resist the urge to say "nyah-nyah," and instead elaborate on my previous dictum. To whit: the Coens are back on their game. Josh Brolin is, well, I don't remember ever being impressed with Josh Brolin before, but I was in this. Javier Bardem has moved into my nightmares. Between this and The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, I want Tommy Lee Jones to be in all films about Texas from now on. It's only fair to disclaim that this is a very intense and relatively violent film. But it's good, so so good.
2. What I watched last night: Straight to Hell, the film Alex Cox made after Sid and Nancy. I'd be hard pressed to call this a good film, but it sure as hell was fun to watch. About half the cast are rock stars: Joe Strummer, Elvis Costello, Zander Schloss, Courtney Love (pre-fame and pre-rhinoplasty), the Pogues. (I remember now that I have a crush on Cait O'Riordan.) The film was shot on an abandoned set in southern Spain, and it reads (at least in part) as a tribute to the spaghetti western genre. Four bank robbers wander into a ghost town inhabited primarily by the coffee-addicted, shikzo McMahon gang. The tagline was "A story of blood, money, guns, coffee, and sexual tension," and that's more or less accurate, except possibly for the "story" part. There isn't one, exactly, but there are a lot of really interesting set pieces, gunfights, occasional random singing, and Sy Richardson anchoring it all. The dialog ranges from just bad to inspired. One of my favorite scenes takes place between Strummer and Sue Kiel, as they trade heavy pronouncements that become steadily more non-sequiturish. It starts out like this:
It's a bizarre, crowded film, perhaps a bit indulgent, but it's beautifully shot and if you've any interest in that crowd you should give it a look.
3. I don't know how many of you already saw last week's episode of Mythbusters, but they had one of their greatest results ever--they confirmed that, if you disable or remove the safety features on your water heater, you could end up with a rocket launching out of your basement. It was a great episode all around, but the video of their final test is pretty fucking astounding. Check it out.
4. Since I'm on the subject of things I've been watching, I may as well go on record with the unsurprising declaration that I support the WGA writer's strike. Some of the folks online--none of you, I'm certain--are laboring under the delusion that Hollywood writers are just whiny rich kids. This video explains why they're striking. This one features writers from "The Office" being funny about the ways in which they are being screwed. Good places to follow the strike are Nikki Finke's Deadline Hollywood Daily and the United Hollywood blog, which also has a petition you could sign.
5. Finally, because I love them, some Picnicface (possibly NSFW due to language):
All About Halifax on FunnyOrDie.com
2. What I watched last night: Straight to Hell, the film Alex Cox made after Sid and Nancy. I'd be hard pressed to call this a good film, but it sure as hell was fun to watch. About half the cast are rock stars: Joe Strummer, Elvis Costello, Zander Schloss, Courtney Love (pre-fame and pre-rhinoplasty), the Pogues. (I remember now that I have a crush on Cait O'Riordan.) The film was shot on an abandoned set in southern Spain, and it reads (at least in part) as a tribute to the spaghetti western genre. Four bank robbers wander into a ghost town inhabited primarily by the coffee-addicted, shikzo McMahon gang. The tagline was "A story of blood, money, guns, coffee, and sexual tension," and that's more or less accurate, except possibly for the "story" part. There isn't one, exactly, but there are a lot of really interesting set pieces, gunfights, occasional random singing, and Sy Richardson anchoring it all. The dialog ranges from just bad to inspired. One of my favorite scenes takes place between Strummer and Sue Kiel, as they trade heavy pronouncements that become steadily more non-sequiturish. It starts out like this:
STRUMMER: A gun is just a tool. It ain't no better or no worse than the man who uses it.
KIEL: Just like shoes.
It's a bizarre, crowded film, perhaps a bit indulgent, but it's beautifully shot and if you've any interest in that crowd you should give it a look.
3. I don't know how many of you already saw last week's episode of Mythbusters, but they had one of their greatest results ever--they confirmed that, if you disable or remove the safety features on your water heater, you could end up with a rocket launching out of your basement. It was a great episode all around, but the video of their final test is pretty fucking astounding. Check it out.
4. Since I'm on the subject of things I've been watching, I may as well go on record with the unsurprising declaration that I support the WGA writer's strike. Some of the folks online--none of you, I'm certain--are laboring under the delusion that Hollywood writers are just whiny rich kids. This video explains why they're striking. This one features writers from "The Office" being funny about the ways in which they are being screwed. Good places to follow the strike are Nikki Finke's Deadline Hollywood Daily and the United Hollywood blog, which also has a petition you could sign.
5. Finally, because I love them, some Picnicface (possibly NSFW due to language):
All About Halifax on FunnyOrDie.com