Mike Russell starts the show on Paper Street, waxing rhapsodical about soap and anarchy, before realizing that even though it was made in 1999 and still FEELS fresh, “Fight Club” is, in fact, horribly dated. Fincher’s classic leads to discussion on Fincher’s first film, and how being a nice guy isn’t a prerequisite to making a movie, especially when your movie keeps crumbling all around you every day you come to the set. Then the promise of Prometheus is discussed, before discussing whether Ridley Scott killed Guillermo Del Toro’s baby before it had a chance to be born, and then, finally, a discussion on Dark Shadows, and Tim Burton in general, and how yeah, he’s disappointing sometimes, but the internet pile-on is getting sorta ridiculous. All that, plus the Serenity, and how you can’t stop it.
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Show-notes for Friday, May 11:
My “live comics adaptation” of the Portland Opera’s “Candide”:
http://culturepulp.typepad.com/culturepulp/2012/05/candide-the-live-comics-adaptation.html
My “Can’t Stop the Serenity” t-shirt design (with colors by the great Bill Mudron):
http://culturepulp.typepad.com/culturepulp/2012/05/take-my-love-wear-this-shirt.html
Full info on Portland’s “Can’t Stop the Serenity” 2012, set for Sunday, June 24 at the Bagdad:
http://pdxbrowncoats.com/?p=356
Buy tickets here:
http://pdxbrowncoats.com/?page_id=62
The H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival — May 11-13, 2012 at the Hollywood Theatre:
http://hplfilmfestival.com/
Spielberg-Mania starts May 14-17 at the Hollywood Theatre with a 35mm print of “Jaws”:
http://hollywoodtheatre.org/jaws/
“Wings” — the first Academy Award Best Picture winner, from 1927 — shows at local Cinemark Theaters on Wednesday, May 16:
http://www.cinemark.com/movie-detail.aspx?node_id=62507
More on “Wings”:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wings_(film)
The Wikipedia entry on the 1966-71 “Dark Shadows” soap opera:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Shadows
well im a “Ben” in the audience… but damnit, i am also an honest person. Its not mine, I guess
I was gonna be all like, Doug doesn’t have the football head! Arnold does, get your facts straight about your classic nicktoons you jabroni! And then you expounded on the differing horizontal and vertical football shapes of said characters and I, and I must assume most of the free world, breathed an enormous sigh of relief. Good show!
Tim Burton’s whole schtick is that he’s an “artist.”
He’s a lot like Picasso in that not everybody likes his stuff, but you can’t deny the dude’s impact on his medium, so he continues to interpret films according to his particular brand.
Not that I would ever defend the masses that Mike keeps — correctly — expressing his exhaustion for, but I think some of what prompts the discussion about Burton’s career on the whole lately is that he has become the directorial equivalent of a character actor; almost a parody of himself.
Christopher Walken, Kevin Smith, Danny Devito, any of the cast of The Expendables … what they have in common with Burton — and AC/DC — is that they’ve been riding so long on the style choices and traits that made them who they are that they’ve become completely disconnected with the experiences and reasoning behind what drove them down that particular artistic path to begin with.
Burton will keep making movies, and I’ll keep occasionally poking my head into a theater playing one of his flicks that might interest me, but I have no expectation that Burton will ever again be what I remember as a kid. That said, I still remember how I felt watching some of his early work as a kid, which is one of the main points of art, isn’t it? The way we FEEL about it?
Love Burton or hate him, if you ever find yourself questioning his quality as an artist, look no further than the number representing the percentage of your Friday show you just spent talking about him and his career.
That said, Corpse Bride is still the only movie I’ve ever walked out on no matter how bad it was. By far the worst $20 I’ve ever spent on a date that wasn’t “her fault.”
Sorry Fatboy, but on this you’re just plain wrong.
I was hoping they were going to show Wings, the sitcom.
FYI, “vestiges” is pronounced with the accent on the first syllable, not the second.
Russell: Excellent point about the sequel (in this case of Avatar) being the one where people “vote” on the first. An example of that might be, say, The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas.
Speaking of the Wyland-Yutanic Corp., there is a cool website that sells T-shirts and other stuff that makes incredible subtle movie references. It’s called Last Exit to Nowwhere:
http://www.lastexittonowhere.com/
Warning! Posting just a random link, thought you might like it FB:
http://filmdrunk.uproxx.com/2009/12/iron-man-had-no-script
That’s where I left it! Glad I wasn’t going insane, and I did really buy a copy.
tiredhunter, drop me an e-mail and I’ll get this copy of the WITCH DOCTOR trade back to you.