A new animated documentary on the life of my hero, Bill Hicks. It just premiered in London on October 23. The documentary contains interviews with the very people, whom knew Bill the best. Here’s a link to the website: http://www.billhicks.org/Images/American.jpg
Chris
When I journey to the local cinema to view a film I highly anticipate, the last thing I want to see is a shitty trailer for a shitty flick. Even if the movie turns out to be decent, I always look back at the trailer and remember absolutely dismissing it. Why? Well, I’ll tell you why! Firstly, like I said before I want to dive right into the film I paid hard earned cash to see, not be inundated by poor excuses for marketing, which includes commericals, a major no no in a cinema. We see commercials everyday at home on TV, but, that’s not enough for the corporate cocksuckers, they have to follow you all the way to the movie theater as well. Secondly, this is going to sound ludicrous, even stupid perhaps, but the main flaw with trailers is the fact that their purpose is to make you see the movie. I know it sounds dumb, but I don’t like being coercioned into buying a product. Trailers suck the art right out of the films so they can appeal to certain demographics. Just watch the trailer for Fight Club it’s aimed towards “tough,” “manly” men, when that is exactly the kind of attitude the film condemns. I really disdain when the directors of these trailers try sooo hard to incorporte the “funny” parts: meaningless one liners, the “dramatic/sad” parts: meaningless one liners again, this time sadder and more pathetic, and the “scary” parts: lots of screaming, menacing music, and the most cliched and my most despised technique, the creepy, little girl voice. I fucking can’t stand that! Trailors should make you want to see the flick, but not make it obvious!
In spite of all this ranting, I must admit several trailors are unique and/or at least effectively use the aforementioned “boring” techniqus to woo me into checking out their movie. So, what’s my favorite trailor? 3 way tie: Pulp Fiction, Clerks, and The Devil and Daniel Johnston. So, here they are:
Chris
Just one more obscure, drug related video for today.
Haha, Ohh Timothy!
Chris
This is a trailer for the new Kevin Booth documentary. This time he focues specifcally on Marijuana (as the title clearly indicates) as opposed to his last film, American Drug War, which evaluated all or most drugs related to the drug war. I hope he include the reality of Obama’s (at least so far) abandoment of his campaign promises concerning law enforcement’s handling of drugs. Anyway, I’ll be seeing this soon.
Chris
I’m going to throw out some titles and deem whether I feel the novel/book or the film was better. Of course I’m only including works I’ve both read and viewed.
1) Fight Club– Film (novel was very close though)
2) Willy Wonka/ Charlie and the Chocolate Factory– Film (1971)
3) One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest– Film
4) The Shining– Novel (I love the film too)
5) A Clockwork Orange-Film
6) Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas– Novel
7) Fast Times At Ridgemont High– Film
8) The Motorcycle Diaries– Novel
9) Manufacturing Consent Book
10) The Outsiders– Novel
11) The Autobiography of Malcolm X– Book
12) To Kill A Mockingbird-Novel
13) Of Mice and Men– Novella
14) Julius Caesar– Play
15) Macbeth– Play
16) A Christmas Carol– Novella
17) A Separate Peace Novel
18) Girl, Interrupted– Novel
19) American Hardcore– Book
20) The Great Gatsby– Novel
Chris
Found on his official website:
There’s a few of my songs in Drew Barrymore’s directorial debut “Whip it”. Drew was really nice, she flew me out to LA, we had a cup of coffee and she showed me some clips from the movie. Usually I say no to film synchs because you just get a short synopsis from someone’s agent’s agent, and I always feel awkward my song will end up in the wrong context. You know, I write my songs for specific people, I find it hard to find them applied to someone elses story. But Drew listened to my concerns and we discussed the scenes she had in mind.
At some point our conversation drifted away and I think we were talking about monkeys, and it just struck me right there and then how surreal my life has become. And how absurd it is when anyone expects any kind of real compensation in this business. Compensation for what ? I’ve been touring on and off like crazy, I’ve put so much work into recording and writing. And in the end what I make my money from is talking to Drew Barrymore about monkeys…
The soundtrack is compiled by Randall Poster, who put together the soundtracks for the Wes Andersson movies among others. His soundtracks are like amazing little jukeboxes of random goodies. I haven’t seen the movie but it seems to be falling smoothly into the category of American movies about teenage love and alternative sports. From Breaking Away to Bring It On.
LOS ANGELES — Patrick Swayze personified a particular kind of masculine grace both on and off screen, from his roles in films like “Dirty Dancing” and “Ghost” to the way he carried himself in his long fight with pancreatic cancer.
Swayze died from the illness on Monday in Los Angeles, his publicist said. He was 57.
I can’t say I’m too familiar with his career but he seemed like a good man and a good actor. Also, he was great in that Chippendale’s sketch. Rest in peace.
A trailer for the new Oliver Stone documentary on the Venezuelan leader, Hugo Chavez. I plan on seeing his earlier documentary, Looking For Fidel first though. This goes hand in hand with Michael Moore’s Capitalism: A Love Story for left-wing, biased movies that I generally agree with and enjoy but criticize the tactics.
Chris
Comedian: Zach Galifianakis
Location: UMASS Lowell, Campus Rec Center
Date: September 4, 2009
Grade: C+
Here’s Why: Well, unlike about 80-90% of the people in the audience (it was a rather large crowd of anticipating college students) I knew of Zach and his work before his breakthrough success in this summer’s comedy blockbuster,The Hangover. With that being said, my knowledge of his routine was quite minimal. I heard someone describe his act as “awkward comedy” and I couldn’t agree more. Unfortunately, the show was a bit plagued by poor audio. I’m not sure whether it was the university’s PA system or Zach’s ill-oratory skills. I tend to think the former, but either way people in the back (including me) put forth a valiant effort to comprehend what the comic was articulating. At various points in the show, kids shouted “FIX THE MIC! WE CAN’T HEAR YOU!” Zach merely shouted back and challenged the young men to come up front and confront him about it. This altercation between the funny man and the audience was a recurring episode throughout the evening. He simply employed the mishap as part of his show; a mitigated version of a Hicksian technique. Much of the show was Zach, as he usually performs, on the piano making bizarre, almost absurd, sometimes offensive one-liners. This was followed by brief, impromptu interviews with audience members (all college kids, mostly Lowell students) in which he poked fun at their majors or occupations. Here’s one jab that stood out to me: paraphrasing:
Zach: What year are you?
Girl (innocently): I’m in Sophomore
Zach: Yeah, I was in a Sophomore once too
The show ended with a projected video of Zach’s spoof of Whacko Jacko’s “Man In the Mirror,” which ended with our friend gaining a nice set of breasts!
Haha! Well, overall I thought it was decent; I thought it would have been better though. Some audience members, however, left right in the middle of the show, so I guess they detested it. Perhaps, he is better on recording. I’ll check it out sometime.
Chris
In order of when I saw them…oh, and spoiler alert.
“Star Trek” – 8
Great effects, acting, and, for the most part, writing. Good balance of honoring the franchise’s past and updating it. And take it from me, who’s pretty unfamiliar with the franchise: you don’t need to be a hardcore fan to enjoy this movie.
Two quibbles: Nero’s revenge story is a little too similar to Khan’s. I know this is *supposed* to be unoriginal but come on. Also…how is beaming Kirk and Sulu in mid-air ANY different from getting Spock’s mom?
“Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince” – 7
The kids are much better at acting this time around. The effects are great as always. The script does a decent job condensing the infamously long book to the bare essentials. But the movie also has three big, er, “conditions,” all having to do with the writing.
1) Unoriginality: Again, I know it’s a sequel, but come on. I liked the “Chosen One Destined to Destroy the Devil” story better when it was the story of Hercules, Jesus, The Lord of the Rings, Narnia, “Star Wars,” “The Matrix,” and every superhero ever. At least the chosen one, Harry is much more likable than he is in the books since they cut out just enough Live Journal teen angst to make him sympathetic instead of irritating.
2) Laziness: Magic is already the ultimate deus ex machina, but a room that turns into whatever you need it to be? Good luck potion that Harry idiotically finishes in one chug? Come on.
3) Totally contrived romantic tension: Alright, I can handle Ron and Hermoine. They didn’t even hug at the end of the second movie, remember? But when the *Hell* did Harry and Ginny start liking each other like that? Not “Chamber of Secrets,” that’s for sure. Well hey, Harry *is* the Messiah, so throw him a girl by story’s end. If Ron can score with Matt Hurton’s girl by chewing scenery and whining, it’s only fair the chosen one gets to spoon his best friend’s sister.
“(500) Days of Summer” – 10
It’s everything DeCarlo hypes it up to be and then some. And fortunately, the movie has much more going for it than the brief, barely-noticeable inclusion of a Black Lips song. All K.L.Y.A.M. readers got here by searching “Black Lips,” right?
But seriously now…out of the three movies I saw this summer this was the most emotionally powerful…and this is coming from someone who teared up when I first read of Dumbledore’s death. The hero, Tom, may be a little selfish and idealistic, but that doesn’t stop us from feeling sorry for him when the girl of his dreams doesn’t exactly return the favor. But we also laugh with him at the happier moments of the journey. As for the title character…she’s a better villain than Nero, Voldemort, and Draco Malfoy put together.
Another big perk is the storytelling method. The film takes a cue from Tarantino and puts the 500-day plot in shuffle mode. It’s striking, watching an awkward visit to Ikea only to flash back to a much more fun time, with the same people, at the same place. Tom’s surreal fantasies illustrate his emotions, from the pure bliss of the Hall and Oates number to the tragedy of the foreign art film. The montage of supporting characters’ definitions of love illustrates the movie’s heart-breaking thesis: that when a couple has two different definitions, it won’t work out.
Kids Like You & Me (KLYAM) 
