Pop Culture Round Up: May 16-29

I was going to post some of these last week, but I realized that I only have five links and promptly lost the other ones I was going to add. They were about Chace Crawford and Footloose and how I am totally going to see that now. I think you can imagine the missing words.

This prompted a lengthy discussion as to whether or not he looked more or less vampirific. Guess which side I came down on?

Read my Sherlock Holmes trailer-related thoughts.

Get distracted my reading my blog. It's good for you.

The great IMAX swindle continues apace.

I guess I won't watch it after all.

This week in excellent news for lazy people: Perfectionism Linked to Early Death.

Hmm. I have mixed feelings about him.

I watched the mini-season and quite liked it, though I thought more Homicide than Hill Street Blues.

The original rake?

How else will you know that you're better than everyone else? On the other hand, it is free.

Dude has either not read the book or is desperate to film a sex scene.

I am morbidly fascinated and hope Perry can fit in a cameo.

I would read this.

I got all excited that they are making a movie, then sad that it's not with Edgar Wright, then excited about the comedy powerhouse.

I believe he also later wore an eye patch.

"Loving music, to a critic, cannot simply mean bestowing praise." It also means burns!

And, apropos of nothing, vampire abs.

17 Again (2009)

Back when this movie was heavily advertised, my feelings were equally split between thinking it looked terrible and thinking it looked cute. My curiosity won out. Fortunately, so did cute.

Zac Efron's basically doing a Matthew Perry impression for much of the movie, but there are worse ways to go with the role. He's got to break out somehow, so why not as everyone's favourite Friend? Sure, despite the fact that he's 21, I'm completely uncomfortable with the sight of his shiny, bronzed, hairless chest* (he is a child! put your clothes on!). Even so, he generates some serious heat with Leslie Mann (who wouldn't?), and he has a genuinely likeable screen presence. It will be nice if that translates to success outside of musicals as well.**

Of course, writer Jason Filardi's got this little problem where he can't tell the difference between 17 and 20, so he doesn't realize that if you had a child 20 years ago, that child would not be 17 today. It's completely distracting if you are the kind of person who gets hung up on that sort of thing, and I am exactly that person. Fortunately Michelle Trachtenberg rules (esp. on Gossip Girl), so it all comes clean in the wash.

He's also got this problem with sexual politics and can't seem to make up his mind about what position he wants to take. He ends up backing two horses: abstinence and marrying your high school sweetheart should you knock her up. Why isn't safe sex an option? What about oral and toys and a host of other options out there? Alright, I might be pushing it a little for a movie rated PG-13. I should just be happy that they acknowledged condoms.

All in all, it's a cute little movie about a guy who learns to stop being such a dick, which is a pleasant change as far as rom-coms go. Plus, you know, cute. B

*Unlike Hunter Parrish's chest, which we don't see at all but really should have.

**Though I would be all for a musical revival if one were to suddenly develop, MGM-style.

The Short Take: 2009 Crappy Movie Round Up

So we already had to do this once already, but we're going to do it again. I'm looking at this pile of ticket stubs, and that's what I think we should do. Let's get to it:

Knowing (2009)

If you saw this movie, it's pretty much because you think watching Nicolas Cage go crazy is funny (for this I also recommend Moonstruck). It's too bad that he has to spend a good portion of the movie not being crazy, as it's quite the stretch, but he gets there eventually, and then Rose Byrne actually yells, "We've got to think of the children!" As ridiculous end of the world movies by directors who made a couple of good movies a while ago, this is one of the better ones. Marco Beltrami's winking, pseudo-Hermann/Hitchcockian score certainly helps. C-

The Haunting in Connecticut (2009)

It's a shame that this movie is dumb, boring, and not nearly as scary as is should be, as Kyle Gallner should really be more famous by now. He's an excellent actor and does not disappoint here, and his scenes with Virgina Madsen hint at the movie that could have been. Her scences with Martin Donovan, who I generally root for, do not. Apparently they were playing a married couple, as opposed to siblings, which is what I thought for much of the movie. Like so much of the movie, this is in no way evident or clear. Good work, team! D+

Duplicity (2009)

One of these days I'm going to write an article called, "The Problem with Tony Gilroy." Here's a preview: In his emphasis on impressive opening and closing sequences, on smart casting, and on sharp, playful dialogue, writer-director Tony Gilroy often misses a movie's most important element: plot. Things have to add up, Tony. Looking and sounding pretty doesn't cut it. C+

Fast & Furious (2009)

Cars go fast, Vin Diesel is furious (and kind of awesome), Paul Walker still can't act. What? I don't think anything else opened that weekend. What else explains the box office take? Fine, MILD SPOILER ALERT: the movie loses its best assest early on, and it's all downhill from there. But the beginning in the Dominician? That's a good movie right there. C

Pop Culture Round Up: May 9 - 15

Sad.

I hope he goes!

Dudes, sometimes technology is too awesome. It makes me want to get a SoundBot and find out what it would produce for, say, the 1812 Overture vs Prokofiev's Classical Symphony or Moonlight Sonata.

I did not so much care for this, but I think I'll end up watching it. A lot of my other favourites have been canceled/ended recently.

Heh. I love this kind of story. "We've got no clue!"

Aziz Ansari vs IMAX. That's my kind of beef.

Perhaps that's where the script belongs?

My opinion of Hulu will be "Fuck Hulu" until it is fully available in Canada.

I'm sure I'll watch the crap out of this show, but could they have found a more ridiculous picture of Jamie?

It's too bad that I decided to give up on Weeds after last season. I think Andy realizing his love for Nancy might have been the last straw for me.

"We're smack dab in the middle of the Age of Immediacy." J.J. Abrams thinks that sucks.

Do you think she was inspired by The Last of the Mohicans?

This has to be one of the most hilarious takedowns I have read in a long time. Personally, I tried reading Dougland Coupland once (Polaroids from the Dead) and found it painful.

Great, but who will star in it?

Yay! That's almost enough to get me to watch.

"The science of voodoo: When mind attacks body" DUN!

What for? I like that book, but, seriously, what for? It's a complete story!

I'm starting to think that the best adaptations are actually the ones that capture the spirit of the book and its themes will creating a wholly new work of art on its own terms.

If it weren't Children's Choice, I would seriously wonder.

Hmm. Whatever happened to Cameron Crowe? Is he in exile?

"I tore these out of your symbol, and they turned into paper."

Just like I tore a bunch of symbols out of The Boondock Saints, and they probably didn't turn into anything. Still a movie, I believe. It's all there in my latest Culture article.

Will I ever blog again? Oh, how I hope so. Many movies, good and bad, that I would love to tell you about, gentle reader. Some day.

Pop Culture Round Up: May 2-8

"A vampire heartthrob will face off against an ambitious chai wallah." Did anyone else laugh?

Actually, every time I see a commercial for the news with him now, and I yell, "Not for long!" My neighbours must hate me.

Potential badass alert!

I dig.

Why must we wait so long? I cannot wait to see what goes down. Merger! Suicide! Wedding!

Slate gets into a beef with Foreign Policy about international relations movies. Now there's a subgenre you don't read about every day.

Oh, they are delicious in their insanity.

"There is no great genius without a tincture of madness."

Oh, no, it's a fake head!

Heh.

Lily but not Cece? You don't know the half of it.

Start planning now.

Pop Culture Round Up: April 25 - May 1

Probably. I'm probably not going to pick up an e-reader any time soon, but I think you may be overreacting, NY Times.

"I’m a Post-Paper Evolution Consultant." How do I get a title like that?

I still like it.

You know, I don't think I've ever done that. I'm more likely to make a scoffing noise.

Sad.

Yay! Will he grow a mustache? Wait, what about Damages next season?

I wouldn't have known the answers to all these questions either.

Not only can you read it (drunk?), you can watch it!

This seems a little outdated. Aren't we all convinced of the horror of Wall Street at this point?

I'm weirdly excited about this. Look at young Ken Olin!

"Stoner is the new stud / Because losers become winners in this world of Judd."

That's a strange Photoshopped image, no? And yay, Canada!

Read this. And then this. I mean, seriously, "Talese is sitting under the naked lady with the rainbow vagina." How can you not want to know more?

First semi-colons and now exclamation marks. They're hot for punctuation at the Guardian.

Why? Isn't the novel originally in English anyway?

Can you beat my score? It was mind blowing.

I agree with the general point, but the definition sounds closer to "twee" to me than "kitsch." Maybe shifting definitions have something to do with it?