Tom Smith

On this date in 1914. Or on November 2. Or February 12. Sources differ. (Thanks for noticing the discrepancy, skunktaur.)

Who are some of your favorite supporting actors? The people who lift a film to the next level -- people who certainly can star, and sometimes do, but more often have the roles that actually make the film interesting. (My purest example is the animated movie, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, which was chugging along pretty well until, halfway through, the Joker [voiced by Mark Hamill] showed up, and the movie just rocketed into the stratosphere.) I love Walston, Burgess Meredith, Patrick Warburton, Peter Jurasik, Maggie Smith, Minnie Driver, John Lithgow, Christopher Lloyd, Kathy Bates, Lily Tomlin....

ETA: Just when is Ray Walston's birthday, anyhow...?

As God is my witness....

New Moon, new FuMP.

With my li'l Enterprise DVD-1701 from Target (many thanks for that heads-up, ericcoleman). I am affirmed in my earlier opinion: This is, by far, one of the most MST/riffable movies to come along in years. In a good way, because the film is also so very entertaining. So many chances and so many opportunities.

But. It's also just good.

Vulcan just got et by Nero's black hole, and Uhura asks Spock, "What do you need?" and Spock, with so many emotions boiling just under the surface, says, "I need everyone... to continue performing admirably."

For all of its many flaws, especially with the damn time travel which has only been done right once ("City on the Edge of Forever"), there is so much to love about this movie. And the Uhura/Spock relationship is amazing. And, if I may say so, eminently logical.

Any other new vid we need to know about?

Definitely some potential.

Yesterday, in the Clash of the Titans thread, the new catchphrase (Moist: "Is that the new catchphrase?") from the trailer, "TITANS... WILL... CLASH", prompted devospice to respond: "AUDIENCES... WILL... SNORE...". Then redneckgaijin started riffing on it:

STARS... WILL.. WAR.

SHAWSHANKS... WILL... REDEEM.

HUDSUCKERS... WILL... PROXY.

APOLLO... WILL... 13.

GOOD... WILL... HUNTING.

This struck me as hilarious. So let's play.

• BOURNES... WILL... CONSPIRE.
• ROCKYS... WILL... BALBOA.
• CITIES... WILL... SIN.
• MEN... WILL... IRON.
• Nothing seemed to work right, but there's gotta be a double involving STARRING... WILL... SMITH. (Jayzus. IMDB says he's not only working on sequels to I, Robot and Hancock [okay, I liked Hancock] but a prequel to I Am Legend.)

Have at it. Keep it to maybe five.

ETA: Got this from Frank Hayes:

What the @#$%! is wrong with you young people? Not even a single instance of...

DANGER...WILL...ROBINSON ?!?

--cranky ol' Frank

Ray Harryhausen's last film, Clash of the Titans, was... kinda sad, really. Cast from hell, script from there too, and SFX which looked unbelievably dated next to Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and even the original Battlestar Galactica. Harry Hamlin's first big role, as a gay lawyer who turned out to be a Greco-Roman hero. Or something. Sir Laurence Olivier, gumming the scenery. An interesting and tragic character, Caliban, utterly undermined by the obvious swap-outs of the real actor and the stop-motion figure. A flying R2D2 named after a swollen lymph gland.

My gaming buddy Peter Christian referred to it at the time as Flop of the Meatloaf, and that's stuck with me ever since. It's not that I dislike it; it's just... there.

Thus the news that it was being remade was met, on my part, with a confused shrug. I have learned, however, never to underestimate the lack of brains, taste, or originality in greenlighting Hollywood filmage. The new version is all CGI and breathtaking landscapes with lens flare and dirty armor and yelling and slo-mo (instead of "bullet time", maybe we should call it "arrow time" or "slingstone time", except that leads to "swing time", "swing parade", and "swing choir" and we're back to Harry Hamlin as a gay lawyer). Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, a lot of guys who look as if they're about to tell me This... Is... Spartaaaaaaaa.

Anyway. This mythic adventure opens March 26, 2010, and it goes a little something like this.

Thoughts?

Okay, here's a cast you never thought you'd see: Ashley Judd, Billy Crystal, Julie Andrews... and Dwayne Johnson:

I don't know if studios have realized yet The Rock's biggest asset as an actor: He can make anything look like it's gonna be a good movie, or at the very least like he's gonna be good in it. Bravest performer I've seen in awhile -- he has no fear of making himself look ridiculous.

Say your prayers, Larry.

(If you leave it running, you'll catch the last couple that I missed, Top Gun and Halloween.)

Several items of interest:

• The Wizard of Oz 70th Anniversary Edition:
  • Two-Disc Special Edition
  • Ultimate Collector's Edition with Digital Copy and Amazon Exclusive Set of 4 Collectible 8x10 Character Posters
  • Ultimate Collector's Edition with Digital Copy and Amazon Exclusive Set of 4 Collectible 8x10 Character Posters [Blu-ray]
  The restoration is the same as the 2005 edition; the Ultimate editions have the same content as the 2005 edition, but with a whole disk full of new stuff
• Monsters vs. Aliens:
  • Standard Edition
  • Ginormous Double Pack (double-packaged with an extra feature, like Kung Fu Panda was; this one's called B.O.B.'s Big Break in Monster 3D)
• Superman/Batman: Public Enemies (adapting the Loeb/McGuinness graphic novel):
  • Single-Disc Edition
  • Two-Disc Special Edition
• Celebration: The Video Collection (pretty much all of Madonna's music videos)
• How I Met Your Mother: Season Four (I've gotta start watching this just for the Neil Patrick Harris)
• Life on Mars: The Complete Series
• The Real Ghostbusters: Complete Collection

Anything else just released on video that we need to know about?

This looks interesting.

Holy crap. A few weeks of Not Much At All, and then today (among many other things, mostly TV season sets), we get:

• Fame: The Complete Seasons 1 & 2
• Doctor Who: The Next Doctor (2008 Christmas Special)
• X-Men Origins: Wolverine (Two-Disc Special Edition + Digital Copy)
• The Big Bang Theory: The Complete Second Season
• American Werewolf in London Special Edition
• X-Men, Volume Three and Four

Anything else just released we need to know about?

Sadness. Actor Patrick Swayze has passed away at the age of 57. He made a few really good and fun movies, such as Dirty Dancing, Ghost, and To Wong Foo: Thanks For Everything! Julie Newmar, and a few things like Road House (Crow T. Robot's favorite movie and one of the most painful viewing experiences I've ever had). He did his work with passion and honesty, and seems to have been a pretty nice guy. He will be missed.

And, I've noticed that, as the news spreads, one scene in particular is remembered more fondly than any other.

At the very end of last year, we had an amusing little scare regarding writer Larry Gelbart, who had supposedly died.

Unfortunately, this time it's the real thing.

Mr. Gelbart, one of the great comedy writers of our time, has passed away at the age of 81.

He wrote for everything from Danny Thomas's radio show and The Marty Feldman Comedy Machine to his many excellent episodes of M*A*S*H, and also wrote or co-wrote, such films and shows as Tootsie, A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum, City of Angels, Oh God!, and Movie Movie.

(Thanks to shsilver for the heads-up.)

What are some of your favorite episodes of M*A*S*H? I'm hard-pressed not to say just the whole frickin' series, but a number do stand out, such as the one where everyone was dreaming, the one with the timer in the corner of the screen saying how long a patient had to live, the one where Sidney tries to find out who's the camp practical joker, and of course the finale.

The Tolkien Estate has settled with New Line Cinema regarding unpaid royalties. Beyond insane is this quote from the statement of Alan Horn, Warner Bros. president and CEO:

We deeply value the contributions of the Tolkien novels to the success of our films....

Gee, good to know that you deeply value the contributions of the fucking novels you adapted, without which your movies wouldn't exist.

Which fantasy epics would you like to see properly adapted? I'm for The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander, The Sharing Knife by Lois McMaster Bujold, The Stepsister Scheme by jimhines, Temeraire by naominovik, and Eyes of the Dragon by Stephen King.

Anne points out that it's ridiculous to say you're into "anime"; it's like saying you're into books. Anime runs the gamut, from kiddie-cute to ultra-violent to steamy-sexual to philosophical to quasi-historical to satirical to you get the idea.

I have always been a casual fan of Japanese animation. But the right ones are getting me into it more. (Many of these links are to the Wikipedia pages for the original manga; they give information about the anime. Spoilers abound, so be careful.)

• Last year, of course, Anne made sure I watched Death Note, which was way, way cool, although definitely not to everyone's tastes. You can watch it online here.
• I also ended up watching Black Butler (Kuroshitsuji), which had fantastic characters except for the inexplicably doofus ones and went wildly out of control as far as plot sometime after Ep 6. You can watch it online here.
• There's the utterly adorable Chi's Sweet Home, the episodes of which are pretty much less than three minutes each, so it's easy to get into. Here's one of several playlists at YouTube.
• Anne and I are 1/7 of the way through Samurai 7, an authorized steampunk retelling of Kurosawa's The Seven Samurai. You can watch it online here. Somewhere, Toshiro Mifune is looking down and thinking, "My character is a GIANT ROBOT!? COOL!"
• I have to check out Romeo x Juliet, the preview of which will kick your ass. (At least it did mine.) You can watch it online here.
• But the one I've been following lately is the fabulous Hikaru No Go, about a 12-year-old boy who picks up the wrong, or right, Go board and finds himself in the company of Fujiwara-no-Sai, a ghost who was a famous Go player hundreds of years ago. It quickly becomes an intricate tale of dedication, obsession, friendship, and finding yourself, with superb characters and even Go lessons at the end of each episode. You can watch it online here.

Obviously, there are many, many others. If you're an anime fan, which ones would you recommend to newbies? And, if you're not familiar with much anime, what kind of stories are you looking for, so we can help you find them?

For only two weeks. Here's a teaser (scroll down to the bottom).

Only a few miles away from me, on Huron Street in Ypsi, is a reasonably new Kroger. I wanted to see if it was as nice as the one on Maple Road, where I have been shopping for a number of years. (The one on Carpenter, technically closest to my new address, and the one up on North Campus are big and clean and have maybe 60% of the stuff at the Maple Road one. The ones at Georgetown and on South Industrial... the less said, the better.)

Not bad. The produce section is huge, and very well organized. The butcher shop and deli seem decent. No Chippery or Boston Market. Very good pharmacy and magazine sections, much larger than any other Kroger in town. One cheapie DVD rack.

And on that rack was a movie I've been meaning to get for years: The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T.

Live-action musical adventure, starring Tommy ("Timmy and Lassie") Rettig as Bart, a kid who dreams of a tyrannical piano teacher, Dr. Terwilliker (Hans Conried in fine form), determined to prove his "Happy Fingers" method is the ultimate way to learn piano. Bizarre, goofy flick -- one of those that you have to show people to prove it exists.

Did I mention that the story, screenplay, and lyrics are by Dr. Seuss?

What are some of your favorite non-standard kids' films? Things like The Phantom Tollbooth would count here -- most of us in fandom know about it, but it's not a "recognized classic" like Mary Poppins or Chitty Chitty Bang Bang or The Wizard of Oz. Oh, and, just to make it more interesting, try to keep away from fully-animated films. As an example, Mary Poppins is only partially animated.

ETA: Oh, let fly on the animateds. Heck, my freakin' example, The Phantom Tollbooth, is about 90% animated.

ETA2: As long as I'm thinking of it, the animated Snow Queen -- the one shown in the U.S. with the live-action intro by Art Linkletter.

Oh my frickin FSM, there's a lot today:

• Battlestar Galactica: Season 4.5
• Torchwood: Children of Earth
• Dollhouse: Season One
• Green Lantern: First Flight (Two-Disc Special Edition)
• The Middleman: The Complete Series
• Dragonball: Evolution (the live-action one)
• Spectacular Spider-Man: Complete First Season (literally, the only thing I don't love about this series is the theme song)
• Repulsion- Criterion Collection
• Knight Rider - Season One (the new version, not the Hasselhoff)

Anything else new on video we need to know about?

Roland Emmerich to direct Foundation.

Has anybody told him that not very much shit blows up?

Also fresh from SDCC, by way of drzarron:

Besides ConFluence and Pennsic War, the other Big Big Big thing this weekend is the San Diego Comic Con. (Hi, partiallyclips and kobold and philfoglio!) Among the many goodies there is the trailer for the upcoming Marvel direct-to-video feature, Planet Hulk.

Any particular graphic novel or story arc you'd like to see made into an animated movie, or a regular movie? I think that if they try Daredevil again, they should do the Born Again storyline. I also really wish someone would license Matt Wagner's Mage.

Several goodies, including:

• Watchmen (Director's Cut [Two-Disc Special Edition + Digital Copy]) -- if you scroll down to the reviews, you'll see a list of additions. And it basically looks like most everything they cut for time in the release cut (which, by the way, is the digital copy, so you're getting both versions of the movie). I'm not gonna frickin' wait for an Ultimate Edition with Tales of the Black Freighter and the Digital Motion Comic. They had their chance to sell me all that stuff now, on release day, and they blew it.
• Coraline (I'm getting the Two-Disc Collector's Edition w/ 3D; there's also single-disk w/ 3D and Blu-ray)
• Pushing Daisies: The Complete Second Season
• Stargate SG-1: Children of the Gods
• Robot Chicken: Star Wars - Episode II
• The Lucy Show: The Official First Season
• Anita O'Day - The Life Of A Jazz Singer

Any other new video releases we need to know about?

ETA: And INSIDE the frickin' Watchmen case is a coupon for $10 off the Ultimate Collector's Edition coming in December. The only possible reason to get it is that the Tales of the Black Freighter stuff is edited into the film. But that means THREE cuts of the same movie, dribbled out in a way to make as much money as possible. Mother fuck.

( So I saw HPatHBP yesterday.... )

I don't know when I'm going to see it, although it will certainly be by Monday. Could be later today. Talk amongst yourselves.

Expecto Patronum!

Who's looking forward to the new movie? I admit I'm not. The whole Harry/Ginny, Ron/Hermione thing, not to mention the UTTER CRAP of the last two books, has just sucked the fun out of it for me. I'm gonna see it so I can keep up, but meh.

This one's for lukeski:

What do you think would be cool when said by a giant robot?

Not safe for work. Or anyone, really. And this is the inaugural post for a new tag: "Oh, Japan".

Thanks, I think, to huskiebear.

Sadness. Actor Karl Malden has passed away at the age of 97. While he was probably best known as Lt. Mike Stone on the TV series The Streets of San Francisco (with a young Michael Douglas as his partner for four seasons), and for a whole lot of commercials for American Express Travelers Checks ("Don't leave home without them"), he also appeared in minor, unimportant, little films such as On The Waterfront, Patton, and A Streetcar Named Desire (for which he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor). Farewell, sir.

Hardcore Nerdity informs us that there will be limited theatrical showings of the director's cut of Watchmen, in anticipation of its July 21st video release. The Blu-ray edition will also include basically a simulcast on July 25 from San Diego Comic Con, including a Q&A with director Zack Snyder.

I'm debating whether to finally jump on the bandwagon and get the Blu-ray edition first. It's got a few more features (although neither the Tales of the Black Freighter nor the Digital Motion Comic, so you know they'll be in another Watchmen Complete gift set at some point), and everything is definitely moving in the Blu-ray direction. In any case, no matter which format, if you watch movies at all with your computer, you should likely get the Director's Cut, because it's also got a digital copy of the theatrical version -- that is, you'll get both. (Getting the Blu-ray version with Nite Owl's ship is entirely up to you. You might want to save a little dosh, though, because Coraline is also released on 7/21, in DVD and Blu-ray.)

Who's planning to get any of 'em? And what else looks good on home video this summer?

Sadness. Actress Farrah Fawcett has passed away at the age of 62. Her bathing-suit pin-up poster adorned millions of walls in the 1970s (including mine), and she sold a ridiculous quantity of hair-care products, and for a long time she was basically thought of as a bimbo. But she turned out to be a pretty darn good actress, and one-half of one of the more enduring love stories in Hollywood (with Ryan O'Neal, starting in 1982). Our condolences to her family and friends.

Thanks, I think, to hughcasey.

FSM save us all, on Thursday RiffTrax releases their riff on The Room. If you have not experienced this fantastic, brain-rotting horror show -- one of the few films that makes Battlefield Earth seem coherent by comparison, a movie that makes you long for the depth and introspection of Manos: The Hands of Fate -- Mike Nelson's blog covers it in some depth, with lots of links to both specific "classic" scenes and other people's video reimaginings.

If you could make your own really bad movie, what would it be? Don't be all self-pitying and say, "My own life" -- we wuv you, and we can find goodness and drama in full measure in your life and make a pretty good flick out of it. No no no, let's hear about your magnum o'pus, a cinematic idea whose time will never come at all. I think mine is Cherry Cordial: How A Hershey's Limited Edition Kiss Became Unlimited To An Extent.

So, Anne and I finally saw Pixar's Up last night.

She thought it was very well done, lots of fun, but you could see it all coming and it wasn't emotionally engaging, or at least she wasn't emotionally engaged. I agree with the first three points, but the dang film got me where I lived and I cried a lot, especially during the first ten minutes, and think it's in my top 3 Pixar films (I'll have to rewatch Finding Nemo [shucky-darn] to see if it still affects me as strongly).

Thoughts?

A few real goodies today:

• Gran Torino (Widescreen Edition)
• Shaun the Sheep: Sheep on the Loose
• The Best of Whose Line is it Anyway?
• Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace & Music Director's Cut (40th Anniversary Two-Disc Special Edition)
• The thing that's finally gonna get me to give money to WWE again: WWE: Macho Madness - The Randy Savage Ultimate Collection

Anything on your video release list this week?

Sadness. filkerdave tells us that the BBC is reporting the death of actor David Carradine. I know some people have their problems with him, but I've always liked the guy.

What are your favorite Carradine roles? Besides the obvious of Kung Fu, I have great love for Circle of Iron. Kill Bill was also pretty fucking cool, and he and Stallone seemed to be having a great time in Death Race 2000.

ETA: ladystarblade points out that there's something weird about this. Suicide? Auto-erotic asphyxiation? Dunno yet.

Mortenson, that is. Or Baker. But you know her a little better as Marilyn Monroe, born on this date in 1926.

It's been awhile since we did this, so... who are your nominees for sexiest actor or actress? Nothing's really rattled my top three -- Anne Hathaway, Salma Hayek, and Kate Winslet, with Keira Knightley and Catherine Zeta-Jones right behind. Christina Ricci and Jennifer Connelly if they've been fed properly. Claudia Christian (thanks, blackpaladin and saganth). And Emma Watson's gonna be on this list very soon, I suspect. Guys, Hugh Jackman, Jude Law, David Tennant, Edward Norton, Dan Radcliffe, and I'd probably say Christian Bale if I really was inclined in that direction.

Apparently showing with Up, but if you haven't seen that yet (I won't until Tuesday), here 'tis (h/t drzarron):

Surprisingly succinct. And, not safe for work (language).

(h/t tiferet)

Whew. Whatever else you may think about it, it ain't your grandfather's Holmes. It may not be anybody's grandfather's Holmes.

It may not be Holmes.

At the very least, though, it may be fascinating, possibly very good. Definitely have to keep an open mind, though, 'cause canon just rolled off the side of the ship.

Thoughts?

(h/t Anne)

And now, to (I hope) brighten up what's been a fairly dismal week, let's go the other way: What are some of the movies you want to make sure your friends have seen, just because they're s'damn cool? The little-known gems are a better bet here, but there are certainly films which are well-known:

• Rashomon and The Seven Samurai
• Run Lola Run
• Movie Movie
• Kentucky Fried Movie (I've been surprised at how many people haven't seen this, the precursor to Airplane!)
• Circle of Iron
• The Seven Per-Cent Solution
• The Return of Captain Invincible

Branching off yesterday's quotefest, what movie or movies made you want to smack the director in the mouth? You can go for the cheapies -- I certainly do.

• Top of my list would be not be a cheapie, though: Ron Howard for the live-action Grinch
• George Lucas, of course, for pretty much the entire Prequel Trilogy, but especially the scene where the Monster of Franke- er, Darth Vader is breaking his chains and rising from the table, and pretty much everything involving Padme in Ep 2
• I could make a case for Roger Christian, who gave us the migraine-inducing Battlefield Earth
• Hal P. Warren (Manos: The Hands of Fate) is obvious
• As is Ed Hunt for the insipid Starship Invasions, which actually featured a double line of saucers hitting a speed bump in outer space
• Uwe Boll for -- well, for everything

hughcasey alerts us to a movie, coming out on DVD next week, that is so...



... so...




... just watch.

On this date in 1915.

What works of his do you like best? Quote away. For all of his many cinematic and television triumphs (like that one flick many consider the best ever made [Spider Robinson's Clurichaun notwithstanding]), I enjoy his radio work best. And I do love his bit near the end of The Muppet Movie.

And then there are all those attempts to take over the world with his friend Pinky....

Great sadness. Comedian and character actor Dom Deluise has passed away at the age of 75.

Okay, everybody, very solemnly, now:

Thanks to eleri for linking up to the official page for what could be a fan-film phenomenon. The trailers look fantastic, and the official HD premiere online is next Sunday.

Any other good fan films we need to know about? New ones, or classics we haven't discussed in awhile (such as my two favorites, Grayson and World's Finest).

Ewww. (Not safe for work.)

Since Amazon Fail has been, for the most part, resolved, the linkage is back.

This week, different flavors of paradise:

• Creation and The Fall: Caprica
• Actors' Heaven: Frost/Nixon and The Wrestler
• TV Animation Nirvana: Freakazoid!: Season 2 and Tiny Toon Adventures: Season 1, Vol. 2
• WARNING! The Gates Of Hell: Wolverine and the X-Men: Heroes Return Trilogy (the animated episodes are fine, but this is one of those repackagings of a few eps to fool the unwary into giving them more money -- they're releasing all of Season 1 soon, for less than double the price of this 3-episode rip-off)

Any other video released today we should know about?

Aaron Williams, by way of bayushisan, tells us that the Dr. Horrible sequel may be a feature film. (SPOILERS if you click.)