• I was approached this week by a company who wanted me to review certain movies so they could insert text ads related to the subject matter of those movies into my review. I told them an emphatic no.

• “In the arts, the critic is the only independent source of information. The rest is advertising.” --Pauline Kael

(More reasons to come...)

I’m looking for at least 5,000 readers to subscribe to FlickFilosopher.com for at least a buck per month by October 1.

GOAL: 5,000 4,742 (as of 09.05)

Subscription/donation links after the jump. Detailed explanation of what this is all about is here.

continue reading "reasons to subscribe at $1 per month: Part IV" »

No movie springs from a vacuum. There are always influences from past examples of the genre, from the previous work of the filmmakers and stars, even from similar films that don’t quite work. If you want to understand where a movie is coming from, take a look at where it’s coming from.

In Going the Distance, the adorable couple of Drew Barrymore and Justin Long attempt to maintain a relationship while one of them is in New York and the other in San Francisco. This flick sprang from (among other films):

• Sleepless in Seattle (1993), perhaps the classic tale of long-distain romance, even if lovers Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan don’t even actually meet until the final moment of the film.

• Fever Pitch (in the U.K., The Perfect Catch) (2005), for more of Drew Barrymore as a modern romantic heroine; here, her baseball agnostic falls in love with a rabid Red Sox fan (Jimmy Fallon). Be warned that the 1997 British original, also called Fever Pitch, is far superior.

• Accepted (2006), for a delightful Justin Long as an unconventional college student creating his own higher-education experience.

• American Teen (2008), the first film by director Nanette Burstein, an excellent documentary about the trials and tribulations of today’s kids through the eyes of one small-town high school.

continue reading "cinematic roots of: ‘Going the Distance’" »

No movie springs from a vacuum. There are always influences from past examples of the genre, from the previous work of the filmmakers and stars, even from similar films that don’t quite work. If you want to understand where a movie is coming from, take a look at where it’s coming from.

In Machete, a former Mexican federale (Danny Trejo) hiding out in Texas takes on The Man who wants to bring down his Hispanic brothers and The System that perpetuates social injustice. This flick sprang from (among other films):

• El mariachi (1992), filmmaker Robert Rodriguez’ stunning debut feature, in which he demonstrated the flair for style and gonzo storytelling that has become his trademark.

• Jackie Brown (1997), for a similar appropriation of 70s exploitation flicks by Rodriguez pal Quentin Tarantino.

• Billy Jack (1971), the exploitation classic about a half Native American avenger who defends civil rights for Indians and hippies.

• The Wild Angels (1966), by exploitation master Roger Corman; it’s about dangerous bikers, and offers iconic imagery that Machete borrows.

continue reading "cinematic roots of: ‘Machete’" »

No movie springs from a vacuum. There are always influences from past examples of the genre, from the previous work of the filmmakers and stars, even from similar films that don’t quite work. If you want to understand where a movie is coming from, take a look at where it’s coming from.

In The American, George Clooney’s murder-weary professional assassin mopes around rural mountain Italy while doing one last job before he’s out, out, he tells ya. This flick sprang from (among other films):

• Syriana (2005), for more of George Clooney as an exhausted spook; here he’s a burned CIA agent, a casualty of the ongoing oil wars.

• Control (2007), to see just how morose director Anton Corbijn can be; this is his biopic of Brit rock star Ian Curtis of Joy Division, who killed himself at the age of 23 -- cheery!

• The Matador (2005), for an equally disillusioned hitman in a funnier movie; killer Pierce Brosnan meets salesman Greg Kinnear in Mexico City and unexpected things happen.

• Road to Perdition (2002), for Tom Hanks’ fed-up mob killer; he and Clooney would have a lot to discuss about how those one-last-jobs never seem to go well.

continue reading "cinematic roots of: ‘The American’" »

Haven is the most boring show on television.

Take a look back at an old trailer...

continue reading "retro trailer: ‘Children of the Damned’" »

Every week my browser gets cluttered up with tabs for stuff that I stumble across and figure I might be able to use as a Question of the Day or a WTF Thought for the Day or grist for some other post. And inevitably, I end the week with most of that material unused. But there's no reason to let this stuff go to waste: I can still share it with you, for your amusement, and start the new week with a clean slate.

Herewith this week's leftover links, in no particular order:

continue reading "the end of torture porn?; the end of the Internet?; what TV viewers want more of (and what they're going to get instead); more: leftover links" »

WorldCon is going on this weekend in Melboure, and the Hugo Awards were announced last night. Duncan Jones’ Moon won Best Dramatic Presentation (Long Form), and Doctor Who: “The Waters of Mars” won Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form).

A list of all the Hugo winners is available at io9.

I hope the voting system will work here as the other community policing here has: not necessarily to agree or disagree with the content of a comment but as a way to approve or disapprove of how a comment is offered.

I mean, yes, definitely vote down trolls and those who have nothing significant to say but chime in with a “me, too!” or somesuch. Definitely vote down wild screaming vulgarity and pointless name-calling and other abuse.

I hope, though, that readers will not vote down well-written, thoughtful comments with which they merely disagree. Use that disagreement for a comment of substance and wit of your own in rebuttal.

Wit and humor is always deserving of an up vote. But don’t feel the need to vote on every comment: If you disagree with a comment but can’t fault its presentation, then simply slide on by to the next comment without voting.

The comment voting is a new thing here, and I know some readers are little nervous about it. I trust that we’re all smart enough and interested enough in intelligent, provocative, fun conversation to make it work to our collective advantage. If it starts to seem like it’s more disruptive than helpful, it is but the work of moments for me to strip out that code and eliminate the voting. But let’s give everyone some time to get used to it and figure out how to use it the Flick Filosopher way.

If you’re not already reading Phil Plait’s blog Bad Astronomy, you’re missing its irreverent mix of weird and cool science (photo of Hurricane Earl from science, taken by an astronaut on the space station? check), stuff about awesome explosions, debunking of myth and antiscience nonsense, and general geekery (Phil is a huge Doctor Who fan, for one, and he doesn’t care who knows it). I’ve been a fan of Phil’s for years, and we were on a panel together at WorldCon in Los Angeles in 2006. I can’t even remember what the panel was about: blogging, probably.

And now Phil has done us the favor of gathering together, all in one book, all the ways that the Earth could die. It’s so comprehensive that one of them will one day come to pass. Phil discusses everything from asteroid and comet impacts to supernovas (of nearby suns not our own, that is), to alien attack (it wouldn’t be like what we see in the movies) and wandering black holes, to, you know, the eventual heat death of the universe in a trillion trillion trillion trillion years. This gloomiest of topics Phil explores with his usual offhand aplomb, combining the kind of lookit that! glee we expect from disaster movies to rigorous scientific background info. It’s a terrifying book, but hugely entertaining at the same time.

continue reading "my reads: ‘Death from the Skies!’ by Philip Plait, PhD" »

Or so it seems.

(Full image after the jump.)

continue reading "Saturday cute: Jack Sparrow playing Magic the Gathering with Greedo" »

Okay, so, herewith the sexism of the 1960s: Danny, the cure for the common copywriter, gets a job at SDCP thanks to nepotism, and no thanks to his utter lack of talent. But Peggy has to get naked with Stan, the new art director -- not to have sex, but just to challenge his bullshit -- in order to get him to at least acknowledge that she’s present in the room and a partner in the work they’re supposed to be doing. (Even when she wins, though, she loses, because know he thinks she’s a “smug bitch.”) Oh, and Peggy, who was nominated for a Clio for her work on the floor wax campaign, doesn’t get to attend the Clio Awards ceremony... but Joan does, so she can be bait for new clients.

*sigh*

Gotta love the rich irony of Don complaining that by the time a campaign is finished, it feels like everyone else has done your work... when he later forgets to acknowledge Peggy when they win the Clio for her work, and when he drunkenly appropriates Danny’s “cure for” line for the Life campaign.

continue reading "a few thoughts on ‘Mad Men’: “Waldorf Stories”" »