When [It] Strikes Me

In the world of “I Cannot Fracking Wait” debuts, AMC’s The Walking Dead, based on the graphic novel series by Robert Kirkman is pretty much atop my TV list… at least since the premiere of ABC’s V.  Well AMC just debuted a four and a half minute trailer for the series and announced it’s start date: 10 PM on Halloween night, this October.  Can… not… wait….

Does Extract stand a chance at getting a laugh out of you?

On a recommendation from my boss, I checked out Mike Judge’s Extract.  I actually was quite jazzed to watch it, as I am a big fan of Jason Bateman and his work on Arrested Development, as well as Judge’s prior workplace comedy.  Office Space was one of the funniest movies of the 1990s and perfectly encapsulated the tedium of cubicle life.  Its cast was very well chosen, featuring an oft-overlooked, likable guy (Ron Livingston) and a beautiful female lead trying to break out of TV (Jennifer Aniston).

Extract has a similar formula, with Bateman and Mila Kunis headlining the cast.  Judge managed to surround Bateman and Kunis with a stellar supporting cast including SNL standout Kristen Wiig, headliner Ben Affleck and top notch character actors JK Simmons and Clifton Collins Jr.  With a great supply of human capital to work with, Judge tried to tap back into the winning formula he struck with Office Space.

Bateman plays Joel, the owner and operator of a flavor extract manufacturing and packaging company.  Although he’s hardly the cog in the wheel that Livingston’s Peter Gibbons was at Inetech, Joel suffers from a sort of middle age malaise.  He’s ready to sell and get out of the extract business, hoping to retire and be able to spend time filling his life with something to enjoy.  Unfortunately, his home life is stale and his friendships consist solely of a relationship with local bartender Dean (Affleck).  When Kunis’ Cindy, a serious bid on the business and various other pratfalls enter his world, Joel’s life gets turned upside down.

Click on through to read my thoughts. Read more…

Rubicon premieres this Sunday night, August 1st.

From One Pawn To Another.

In television, a viewer might often feel a pawn, not being handed anything by a fellow pawn, but rather shifted from one board to the next. Never long to last in the fight, as the milieu of a series loses its shine and the successive attempts at new shows turn into just another run of short-lived games. Rarely does a pawn cross the board and become the queen, engrossed with and empowered by the board itself.

With a few shows I have felt myself as substantively more than a pawn in the game of television programming; in those handful of shows I have lastingly and fully been engrossed. I can really check them off with the fingers of one hand:

• “The West Wing” for its political acumen. A show that reminded us both of what we most wanted in our leaders and the forces which prevent that ideal from being manifested.
• “Battlestar Galactica” for its social commentary. In an era when America was redefining itself both at home and on the world stage, no television program so boldly captured our internalized national struggles.
• “LOST” for its Joycean depth. Bad Robot’s ambitious efforts to challenge viewers made expecting more of one’s viewers a reality and opened the door to the difficult-to-navigate world of what might aptly be termed televised literature.
• “The Wire” for its simple poetry. It is, after all, this epic, five-part poem about the decline of the American empire that gave us the inspired scene in which D’Angelo explains chess to Bodie and Wallace.

There have been other great shows. “Mad Men” gave us attention to detail and historical fiction as a commercial winner. “The Shield” offers a level of grittiness that is hard to turn from. But with most television, it’s as D’Angelo explained to Bodie, “The pawns, man, in the game, they get capped quick. They be out of the game early.” In most television, it’s easy to just sit back and play dumb. Only in the best shows are the pawns challenged to be “some smart ass pawns.” It’s those shows that challenge the viewer that interest me most. In “Rubicon”, I hope we have one such show.

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They played Official Trailer #2 for Tron Legacy at the Inception IMAX showing last weekend.  It got me even more jazzed than the first; also, any movie with Olivia Wilde is gonna be worth seeing in IMAX.

Over at GeekTyrant, they’ve posted a player for six tracks by Daft Punk for the upcoming Tron Legacy soundtrack. I’ve embedded the tune from the first trailer. It’s got a great vibe to it. Along with the Sunshine soundtrack, I do believe I’ll be buying that one.

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Primer is a complex and, at times, very confusing film that earns a hearty recommendation from me.

The best way to watch a movie is almost always when you have no idea what to expect.  Going in with little more than a two line plot mini-summary leaves you open to surprise and, occasionally, that surprise is pleasant.

It was so with Primer, a 2004 independent film that was a darling of the Indie Film Circuit.  It won the Grand Jury Prize and Alfred P. Sloan Prize at Sundance, the Best Writer/Director at Nantucket and the Best Feature at the London/Sci Fi.  It was also nominated in all the major categories for which it was eligible at the 2005 Independent Spirit Awards.  For a film made on a budget of about $7,000… well, let’s just say that newcomer writer, director, producer and lead actor Shane Carruth has got some game.

I do feel that going into the movie with very little background was important in my enjoyment, so I’m certainly not going to play too much of a spoiler herein.  I’ll keep this review pretty high level and light on detail.  And with a film that was as dense on the scientific jargon, keeping it high level is sometimes a necessity and not simply a luxury.

Primer is a mix between a sci fi feature and a thinking-man’s thriller.  As a bit of a science nerd, I think the thing I appreciated the most was Carruth’s dedication to maintaining at least a modicum of scientific integrity in his draftsmanship.  The film definitely has a gritty and perhaps even realistic feel.

Read more, after the jump. Read more…

Just stumbled upon these guys this Monday.  Been listening to it quite a bit and I like.  First up is “Beaches and Friends”, a collaboration with Database (there are a ton of remixes of this out there, I picked the Hey Champ one to link).  After the jump are the Sniper Twins produced videos for “Up All Night” and “Broken Heart”.

Beaches and Friends (Hey Champ Remix)

Click through for the rest Read more…

The new David Simon (The Corner, The Wire) series on HBO is getting ready to kick off on Sunday night, April 11th.  They’ve just released the extended trailer and I could not (pardon the expression) be more jazzed about it.

Check-i-check-it out:

Last week I linked to two anticipated 3D releases, and today I’m gonna follow up with two of the action movies I’m pretty jazzed for in 2010.

Matt Damon and the team from the Bourne trilogy are joining up again for Green Zone, a thriller set in immediately post-invasion Iraq.  It promises great action and intrigue.

Meanwhile, in the world of comic-book blockbusters, Robert Downey Jr. will be reprising Tony Stark for Iron Man 2.  This one ain’t gonna be high art, but it should be balls-to-the-wall good in a Michael Bay style of filmmaking.

Trailers… after the bounce: Read more…

I bought some IMAX stock last month because I do think Avatar (which I reviewed here) has brought us forever into the era of the 3D blockbuster.  I don’t think this will be something that fizzes out over time, though I’m hardly going to go rushing to buy a 3D-TV for my apartment.  I think that IMAX likely will stake out its claim to super-high def 3D entertainment and that Hollywood will continue its current trend of producing blockbusters in both 2D and 3D.

Two of the more intriguing products coming out are the reboot of 1981 Harry Hamlin vehicle Clash of the Titans and the sequel vehicle starring newly minted Academy Award Best Actor Jeff Bridges, Tron Legacy.  I admit a personal bias toward the Greek mythology bastardized by Hollywood, but I’m really pretty jazzed about seeing CGI neon in 3D.  Both [should / could] be awesome.

I’ve linked their HD trailers, after the jump: Read more…

YouTube user Campetin who runs SL-LOST has ammassed an impressive array of LOST related videos and authored some amazing IPF (In Preparation For) videos for Seasons 6 and 5.

Courtesy of him, we start with the latest ABC promo for tonight’s launch.  I’ve posted the IPFs thereafter.

CLICK THROUGH THE JUMP FOR THE IPF VIDEOS Read more…