Deletia

[craemmir]

Holy crap! Wish I'd been fully awake to appreciate this.

[craemmir]

Repost of 2012 entry from my defunct blog, apporpos of James Gunn's Facebook post defending superhero movies from some Oscar Night slings and arrows.

I’m fascinated with the concept of realistic imaginings of what a superhero would be like. Not, mind you, mulling over what they do in the bathroom or whether they can play organized sports, but rather how our world—as it is—would give rise and react to a “superhero.”

The last year has given us two of the strongest ever entires in what was once a pretty thin selection of quality and insightful work. In fact, the two most recent (Chronicle (2012) and Super (2011)) may be the cream of the crop. If you haven’t seen them, you must.

This, then, would be the lineup in a hypothetical Real Superhero Film Festival lineup:

Watchmen [1]

Unbreakable [2]

Chronicle [3]

Super [4]

I could have included 2010’s Kick-Ass, but I consider it a distant fourth for minor reasons of quality and, to be frank, a less interesting angle on the “real superhero” question. Rather than try to pin it down myself, I’ll instead quote The Escapist’s "Movie Bob on what Super does right:

Writer/director James Gunn’s Super isn’t the first film built around this sort of “real-life” superhero (indeed, it was written several years before the phenomenon really took off), but it differentiates itself by looking for a bigger picture. While films like Kick-Ass are about costumed crimefighting as either wish-fulfillment or brutal reality checks for so-called “fanboys,” Super broadens its scope to encompass the effects of a superhero-saturated culture on those with otherwise no connection to the genre. Its hero, Frank D’Arbo, has never cracked a comic book until after he decides to become “The Crimson Bolt.”

I doubt you’ll leave my little film fest exhilarated, uplifted, or optimistic in any way. In fact—unless you sleep through the whole thing—I’d be surprised if you didn’t need several hours of kitten-petting therapy afterwards. But I do guarantee a thorough mental and emotional workout.

I know I’m in the minority here, but I don’t care.  ↩

Before M. Night Shyamalan ran out of great ideas.  ↩

Seriously! It’s written by John Landis’ kid and the cast is first-rate (it even has poor, doomed Wallace from The Wire, all growed-up).  ↩

Rainn Wilson is just fricking heartbreaking in this and Ellen Page is just raw and terrifying. Oh, and Kevin Bacon’s starting to look like “The Crypt Keeper”.  ↩

[craemmir]

Snow Ball!!

[craemmir]

The Ten Worst-Sounding Black List Scripts

I congratulate everybody who makes the list, but the people voting on it are largely the same people who give us bad movies every year.

[craemmir]

Suntory time: Japanese whisky named world's best in sour dram for Scotland

The good news is, the whisk(e)y works.

[craemmir]

I mean! Seriously. One of my favorite scenes in any comedy ever!

Cook and Moore work wonderfully as a duo, but it was always Peter Cook that made me laugh. Also: so very cool.

[craemmir]

10 Nearly Perfect Movies, And What They Teach Us About Storytelling

Maybe there's no such thing as a perfect movie. It's usually enough of a miracle that a movie gets made. But every once in a while, a movie manages to tell a great story without a brush stroke noticeably out of place. Here are 10 nearly perfect movies, and what they teach us about storytelling.

I don't usually go in for list articles but this one is worth it. It has several I've seen and well know their perfection, one I've been meaning to see for a while, one I have been suddenly hearing so much about that it's already on my radar, and one (Bedazzled) that is one of my favorite comedies ever that non one I know has actually seen.

[craemmir]

Drop What You’re Doing And Watch BLACK MIRROR On Netflix Instant Right Now

One of the best television shows of the past decade is now streaming. Get on it.

Whoa! On it.

[putyouinabettermood]

I am Groot via http://ift.tt/1wklx8V putyouinabettermood.com

[craemmir]

OK, skepticism umoved, but not solidified either.

[craemmir]

Excellent, innit?

[craemmir]

My favorite Alamo Drafthouse no talking video ever.

[craemmir]

Yup!

[craemmir]

I can't relate even a little bit to this. Nope. Not me.

[craemmir]

I ask you: What kind of MONSTER would give this out as Halloween candy?

[craemmir]

Civilization, Rise of Nations Designer Revives Big Huge Games, Announces New Title

Brian Reynolds resurrects Big Huge Games and announces DomiNations, a new free-to-play strategy game launching for mobile devices.

Big Huge Awesome Great News!

[craemmir]

Holy crap, the Avengers 2 trailer is amazing. So amazing that we decided to pick it apart and look for character and plot clues, and what we found was pretty exciting. Spoilers!