Saturday, May 18, 2013
Seth Meyers to Host Late Night
It was announced that Seth Meyers will take over hosting "Late Night" in the spring of 2014. Personally, I'm not excited but I wasn't excited about Jimmy Fallon either and that turned out OK
Friday, May 17, 2013
Preston and Steve - Home Alone and Smoking
Here, Preston and Steve discuss the current "news" story that Macaulay Culkin smokes 60 cigarettes per day...
Saturday, May 11, 2013
Late Night - Lip-Synch Off
John Krasinski and Jimmy Fallon compete to see who can lip-synch better...
Friday, May 10, 2013
IMDB 250 - Oscar Roundup
Since my last visit to the IMDB 250, Oscar season has come and gone. I watched all the nominees and many of them made their way onto the list... before being bumped off. There are two left, however. Unfortunately they're my two least favorite. Can you sense my excitement?
Django Unchained (2012)
Plot: A bounty hunter frees a slave and employs him in his business.
If you want to play the averages, you should definitely see this movie. People apparently love it. Obviously - it's still on the list. But I don't like it. Continuing with his "grindhouse" style, Tarantino has made a blacksploitation/revenge movie where the slavery is what sets up the need for revenge. It seems to me that this is taking the topic of slavery way to lightly - it's only a device, it's a "MacGuffin".
Is it ok to invent fictional aspects of slavery (mandingo fighting)? Tarantino would answer "Of course it is! It's just a grindhouse film, afterall." Is it ok that when real horrors of slavery are shown, they're just used as cheap ploys to "shock" the audience and get more people buying tickets? "Sure, it's just a movie."
To me, this is a technically well-made movie, but one that isn't entertaining. To me, it's almost offensive. Even though I know I'm in the minority.
5/10.
Total Top "250" Movies Seen: 368.
Life of Pi (2012)
The main plot of "Life of Pi" is a story within the story. Early on, the main story is set up thusly:
For what it's worth, if you're curious which Oscar-nominated films I DID like... I liked them all. My two favorites are "Silver Linings Playbook" and "Argo".
Django Unchained (2012)
Plot: A bounty hunter frees a slave and employs him in his business.
If you want to play the averages, you should definitely see this movie. People apparently love it. Obviously - it's still on the list. But I don't like it. Continuing with his "grindhouse" style, Tarantino has made a blacksploitation/revenge movie where the slavery is what sets up the need for revenge. It seems to me that this is taking the topic of slavery way to lightly - it's only a device, it's a "MacGuffin".
Is it ok to invent fictional aspects of slavery (mandingo fighting)? Tarantino would answer "Of course it is! It's just a grindhouse film, afterall." Is it ok that when real horrors of slavery are shown, they're just used as cheap ploys to "shock" the audience and get more people buying tickets? "Sure, it's just a movie."
To me, this is a technically well-made movie, but one that isn't entertaining. To me, it's almost offensive. Even though I know I'm in the minority.
5/10.
Total Top "250" Movies Seen: 368.
Life of Pi (2012)
The main plot of "Life of Pi" is a story within the story. Early on, the main story is set up thusly:
Adult Pi Patel: What has mamaji already told you?
Writer: He said you had a story that would make me believe in God.
That's a pretty good hook to start your movie. If this movie is as good as everyone says it is, this sets up a really intriguing experience. I'm hooked. What story could it be that would make a person believe in God? Interesting! Except the movie never delivers on that promise. I won't give away the ending but I can say that the story doesn't do anything close to that. It's a fact that most reviews seem to overlook or not understand. They'll talk about the special effects and the cinematography - and I agree the movie looks great - but not mention that the "beauty" is totally empty of content.
It's not enough for a movie to have a tiger for me to say "Yayyy tigers are pretty!", it should go somewhere, it should do something. Again, I seem to be in the minority on this one as well but, to me, this is a visually beautiful movie that goes nowhere and does nothing.
5/10.
Total Top "250" Movies Seen: 369.That's a pretty good hook to start your movie. If this movie is as good as everyone says it is, this sets up a really intriguing experience. I'm hooked. What story could it be that would make a person believe in God? Interesting! Except the movie never delivers on that promise. I won't give away the ending but I can say that the story doesn't do anything close to that. It's a fact that most reviews seem to overlook or not understand. They'll talk about the special effects and the cinematography - and I agree the movie looks great - but not mention that the "beauty" is totally empty of content.
It's not enough for a movie to have a tiger for me to say "Yayyy tigers are pretty!", it should go somewhere, it should do something. Again, I seem to be in the minority on this one as well but, to me, this is a visually beautiful movie that goes nowhere and does nothing.
5/10.
For what it's worth, if you're curious which Oscar-nominated films I DID like... I liked them all. My two favorites are "Silver Linings Playbook" and "Argo".
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Quadrennial Curse: Broken
In the past I've talked about the Quadrennial Curse - the curse where every four years a different Philadelphia team gets to the finals and loses - and this was the Flyers' year. Here's the rundown:
1993: The Phillies make it to the World Series and lose.
1997: The Flyers make it to the Stanley Cup Finals and lose.
2001: The 76ers make it to the NBA Finals and lose.
2005: The Eagles make it to the Super Bowl and lose.
2009: The Phillies make it to the World Series and lose.
2013:The Flyers make it to the Stanley Cup finals and lose. Miss the playoffs.
Given that the Flyers recently failed to make the playoffs, the curse is officially broken. Ain't that a B? Usually, sports curses are broken when something good happens. This one was broken by even greater mediocrity.
Well, it was an awful run while it lasted.
1993: The Phillies make it to the World Series and lose.
1997: The Flyers make it to the Stanley Cup Finals and lose.
2001: The 76ers make it to the NBA Finals and lose.
2005: The Eagles make it to the Super Bowl and lose.
2009: The Phillies make it to the World Series and lose.
2013:
Given that the Flyers recently failed to make the playoffs, the curse is officially broken. Ain't that a B? Usually, sports curses are broken when something good happens. This one was broken by even greater mediocrity.
Well, it was an awful run while it lasted.
Friday, April 26, 2013
Short Film: Cartridge
A video game podcast I subscribe to ("B, A, Start") recently uploaded a short film onto youtube and I thought it was really good. It's a short film about one man's love affair with Super Nintendo. Here it is:
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