So Iron Man comes out today (or came out yesterday or whatever) and I’m debating going to see this movie and the truth is that while it looks cool, I just can’t really muster the energy to care that I usually do.

I’m not sure why that is (the carpet advertising done here maybe) but I just feel like, meh, I’d be happy to just sit around and chill out with friends.  I don’t need some huge bombastic movie for to distract me for 2 hours and $10 dollars.

In fact, I’m more interested in seeing There Will Be Blood on DVD or playing some GTA IV or other game online with friends.  What does it say about my ‘nerd-cred’ that I wasn’t lining up at the 8PM showing last night and instead went to the gym and came home and did some more work?

Is it simply that it doesn’t feel like summer yet (damn you Wisconsin weather!) or is it simply that I don’t get the joy out of watching brown people get blown up by a dude in a suit.  I’ll be honest and say I’m not that interested in Speed Racer, Indy 4, or even The Incredible Hulk.  The only movies I’m interested in this summer are the summer comedies like The Foot Fist Way, Step Brothers, Tropic Thunder or Pineapple Express.

Of course, I saw Rambo in theaters over the winter and loved it and would gladly go see it again, so maybe I’m just looking for something that’s more straight up action and lest crazy CG junk.  Have an old guy with a 50-cal machine gun destroying dudes and I’ll probably show up.

Either way, I find it weird that I’m not more excited for the summer movie season.  If anyone wants to try to convince me that something decent and big budget is coming out though, feel free.

[Update]

Just thought of one ‘bigger budget’ movie this summer that I’m interested in seeing, Hancock. And while it may be a superhero movie, it is more interesting ground than just the standard ‘defeat the bad guys stuff’ than Hellboy, Hulk, Iron Man, or The Dark Knight.  Plus as I understand it, it’s more darkly comedic than the previews would have you believe.

I was trying not to let Chuckles recent WRN posts shame me into posting but sadly they have finally done so. I’ve been meaning to post for a while but then never really doing it. Mostly out of boredom, my life hasn’t been too exciting lately and I can only spend so long boring the internet before finally giving up.

Just a quick run down of things that are pretty enjoyable right now:

• Fall Weather - I was sick of all that summer stuff
• Everyday is another shooter - this PS3 game is pretty cool little shooter that has a nice lo-fi feel
• On-Demand movies - Ricochet, Idle Hands, and Futureworld
• Capital Amber - Replaced Spotted Cow as my beer of choice

Things I’d like to do for a bit:

• Not have to work. Seriously, I just want to spend a month sitting around doing nothing.
• Orange Box - PS3 version doesn’t come out until Dec. 17 and I don’t want to buy it for 360
• GH3/Rock Band - How tough will it be to ‘play’ guitar and sing the part on Rock Band?
• See a decent movie - Fido and Planet Terror on DVD and Amercian Gangster at the theater

Anyway, we’ll start small and work our way back up to a real post.

P.S. I also have no idea what happened to those posts from July/Aug/Sep/Oct. Blogoblin got them I suppose.

A couple of weeks ago, Chuckles and I went to go check out an advance screening of Hot Fuzz at the Arlington Cinema n’ Drafthouse with a Q&A with the creators/stars afterwards. It was a pretty good time so when the opportunity to go to another advanced screening this week for the new Judd Apatow comedy Knocked Up came up we jumped at the opportunity.

Chuckles and I got there about an hour and a half early to make sure that we could get some decent seats. After standing around for 30 minutes we were able to start the trek into the theater. After a brief delay as some under-21’s got denied entry, we were seated at our table and waiting for the movie to start.

One of the advantages of seeing a movie at the Cinema N’ Drafthouse is that you don’t have to go up to the concession stand to get stuff. Instead, a waiter comes by and takes your order. Chuckles and I were got some nachos, fries, and pitcher of Harpoon IPA and were waiting for the film to start.

We were pleasantly surprised when about 15 minutes before the movie was to begin, a local standup comic, Justin Schlagel, and entertained us with his routine for about 20 minutes. After Chuckles experience with the DC Onion Kickoff party it was nice to have a nicely participating audience and a comedian who was not completely trashed telling some fairly comical jokes. I definitely enjoyed the jokes making fun of the DC ‘grid’ system.

At the end of his act, it was time for Knocked Up to start. The movie was definitely funny. With some familiar faces from 40 Year Old Virgin I guess I was expecting something that was more similar in tone. While it was at times, I just didn’t get the same feeling walking out. Maybe it was the lack of an ending dance number but it just had a different feeling. Not bad, just more serious I think.

Really, the biggest issue I had with the film is that since its plot is about two people who don’t know each other very well having a baby together and them trying to develop a relationship because of that, many of the notes it hits are similar to those hit in the current season of Scrubs. I know this movie was filmed before these Scrubs episodes were but the fact that the Scrubs finale was broadcasting the same night as we saw this movie, it was particularly fresh in my mind.

I don’t know if Chuckles has a different take on this but I thought it was a solid movie that didn’t quite capture the brilliance of The 40 Year Old Virgin but was still a solid release.

Honestly, the best thing I saw yesterday was the new ‘Exclusive’ trailer for the Transformers movie. Anything that doesn’t have giant robots beating the bejebus out of each other is going to pale in comparison.

UPDATE: Chuckles take in the full post.

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So this weekend I was one of the approximately 1.2 billion people who went to see Spider-man 3. I saw it Friday with some people who live by me and some friends from work. I bought the tickets Friday before lunch and when I came back, the show was sold out.

The people I saw it with were slightly underwhelmed but I had a good time. Not the best Spider-man movie but pretty entertaining still. I’ll be interested to see what Sam Raimi does after this though. Maybe he’ll finally have that budget for Darkman 5.

More interestingly though, I also rented a couple classic movies this weekend and ones that I sadly have to admit that I had never seen. The first was Chinatown, the Roman Polanski film that stars Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway. I knew it was good but not much else (which seems to be the case for a lot of classic movies) and was not disappointed. I’d recommend it to most anyone.

The second movie I watched was Lawrence of Arabia. I really enjoyed that one as well. The characters in it were interesting and it’s so epic that it hurts. It’s crazy when you watch old movies and realize that none of that stuff was done with CGI and that all the people were actually there. It makes everything seem so much larger than life when you know it’s not just some dudes sitting in a room with a computer but actual people out there in the environment doing these things.

At the end of the day, I’m glad that I’m finally starting to understand why these works were so important and how they are still referenced in movies today. I’m honestly getting tempted to do more than just watch them. A huge step for a guy who sucks at critically analyzing art.

Up in my queue next are: Spartacus, The Dirty Dozen, and the original Gone In 60 Seconds. If anyone has suggestions for other great classics to add to the queue, please chime in.

My current queue is after the break

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While the folks over at the 3Bulls! (is the ! mandatory like Yahoo!?) discuss the horrible junkfood of the body via there 5000 Calorie Challenge they’ve got going on over there, I thought now might be a good chance to point out that the same excess can be seen in our summer movie crop this year.

I’m too lazy to research this fact, but I’m pretty sure that this summers crop of 6 (SIX!!) movies that are the third in the series is the most ever in a single summer. Some of these movies are called ‘trilogies’ while others are just sequels.

The interesting thing here is how sequels and movie franchises are achieving the kind of widespread (non-direct to video) success they are. I’m sure much of it is because of companies are wanting less risk by going with established brands but many of these movies are actually not half bad.

The full list of third movies is below:

1. Spider-Man 3
2. Pirates of the Caribbean 3
3. Shrek the Third
4. Ocean’s 13
5. Rush Hour 3
6. The Bourne Ultimatum

Considering there are only really two movies on that list that are guaranteed to suck (Shrek and Rush Hour), 3 that will most likely be good (Spider-Man, Pirates, and Bourne), and one who knows (Ocean’s 13), that’s not a bad crop of sequels.

We’ve also got two greater than three movies coming out this summer, Harry Potter and the Something Something and Live Free and Die Hard (Die Hard 4.0 for our international reader), there’s a lot less risk in the summer tent-pole Blockbuster crowd this summer.

Anyway, enjoy the movies. Try not to choke on any Twizzlers.

Do you ever hear something and say, “That sounds like a clever idea?” then never follow up. Then when you think about it 6-12 months later and do follow up you find out it’s too late and it didn’t work out.

That’s how I felt about RiffTrax, a site by Michael J. Nelson a writer and later a star on Mystery Science Theater 3000. I heard about it a while ago and said “that sounds interesting!” but then never bothered to follow up.

Today I’m reading TVSqad and I see that a new RiffTrax has been recorded with special guest contributor Niel Patrick Harris. I’d assumed that RiffTrax had put out maybe a track or two or three and then quit. But when I visit the site I see that there are tons of tracks and that they put out a track almost every week and a half to two weeks.

They also have expanded to include the guys from MST3K (although they’re not ‘in character’ it’s clearly Tom Servo). I think I’m going to have to give this a try this weekend though. There are certainly more than enough movies on the list that I own or could get from the ol’ double B.

I’ve included a sample below so as to whet your appetite. Enjoy blog monkeys!

While performing actual work today, I stumbled across some interesting information on a number of movies that Warner Brothers is either working on or shelving. (more…)

Chuckles and I hit up the Arlington Cinema N Drafthouse this past Friday for an advance screening of Hot Fuzz. Hot Fuzz is the latest film by Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg (the guys who brought us the cinema classic Shaun of the Dead).

The movie is, like Shaun of the Dead was to zombie movies, not a parody but more an entry into the cannon canon with some referential nods at some of the great and classics (some more overt than others).

Like SotD the movie takes a uniquely British approach to the material. What would a London supercop do in the little countryside village? How will this hard-boiled by the book cop handle a sleepy little town? How will Timothy Dalton’s mustache play into this?

There is a lot more to say about the movie and some of the great references in it but I’m afraid of giving too much away.

Our screening also had an additional benefit (it was free) and included a Q&A with the director and the two stars at the end. Neither Chuckles or I asked any questions but plenty of other nerds did. None of the questions were particularly good although the guys managed to still be funny.

A couple things they said:

• Don’t watch their show Spaced on BBC America. It’s been butchered and is not worth watching.
• They have something new in the works but don’t want to announce it yet. They made the mistake of announcing Hot Fuzz before they were even done with the first draft.
• Timothy Dalton is awesome.

I’m sure Chuckles could come up with a few more but anyway, definitely see this movie when it comes out (April 20th in limited release supposedly).

Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters is the name of the new movie and the marketing blitz is on its way now. They have taken yet another great website name (http://www.kingcolon.com) and the graphic on the main page (depending on your particular nerd variant) may remind you of some of the best (or worst) horror and fantasy experiences you have had. I need to figure out how to make a poll so we can vote on things here. All I can say is that now I am even more in love with this movie than ever before.

A partial tracklist for the soundtrack is also out (see here) and it looks to be an excellent mix of hip hop, indie rock, and metal; Mastodon, The Hold Steady, and Andrew WK are all on the album. Adult Swim is going to SXSW again this year as well so it is clear that they are planning to make themselves a force for all of your AV geek needs. I’m glad to see that someone is stepping up to the plate in an interesting new way, even if it doesn’t always line up exactly with my tastes.

Oh, and as a side note (via here), look at what Boston is exploding now: traffic counters . This seems like a great Letterman feature.

So, as I’ve repeatedly mentioned, I’m in the process of getting my whole HD system setup. One of the steps in that process is getting an HD movie player. While I’ve already decided to go with the PS3 I don’t really have anything against the HD DVD format (except that stupid Universal won’t release stuff on Blu-ray. Stop that.).

Anyway, as anyone who watches a fair number of movies will tell you, buying every single movie you’d like to see gets expensive fast. With these next-gen video discs clocking in at $20 or more (with list prices near $35-40 for some titles) this is even more true.

That’s why humanity invented the video rental store. As we’ve been through with Chuckles, he’s not really a fan of the chain stores. For my purposes (and in order to make this post applicable to more than the 3 people in the same metro area as me) I’ve decided to focus more on the national rental stores.

As independent local chains have their own unique advantages so do larger chains. Perhaps the most important of those advantages (for their local store) is the need to position themselves in the marketplace. In order to maintain their hardcore customer base, they need to be seen as a chain that supports an individuals rental habit.

Besides the traditional brick and mortar retailers I’ve mentioned so far though, the environment has obviously expanded in the past decade with a much larger group of online disc rental outlets. This includes Netflix and most recently Blockbuster’s new online arm.

So for the purpose of temporarily acquiring high definition video content for home enjoyment, what is the best method? (more…)