BLUE MAG

This month Martin Scorsese’s “Raging Bull” is being re-released in England. This doesn’t mean much to us Yanks but fortunately it means a lot to some of the best critics writing for British publications.

David Thomson gives his take here in the Guardian.

And the Independent profiles Raging Bull co-screenwriter Paul Shrader.

Also: The above newspaper also has an interesting article about the apparent controversy surrounding Hayao Miyazaki (or what was supposed to be) new film

Thanks to somebody’s countless hours digitizing, every review Siskel, Ebert and Roeper have ever done is now available for viewing online. This includes Ebert and Scorsese’s “Best Films of the 90s” which in my mind is one of the best things about movies ever to air on television. Note: there are still some glitches (it launched today) but the wealth of information (at least for a film junkie like me who first heard of films like “Blue Velvet” through this show) is priceless.

My favorite tidbit in the announcement yesterday from NBC about new web initiatives it is undertaking is “NBC Fantasy Talent Scout”:

Participants can build their own talent roster from three online agencies featuring characters from all NBC shows. By actively playing a subset of their roster each week, users will earn points and enter for a weekly cash prize, as well as a quarterly top prize of $100,000. Each character has an assigned phrase or action, and if the characters do or say this action or phrase - players earn points. For example, if a user has chosen Michael Scott (Steve Carell, “The Office”) in their active roster and in that week’s episode he says “That’s what she said!,” they earn points.

As sad as it might be to admit, I have always wanted a “fantasy TV” game and although this is strictly NBC, hey, it’s something.

Reader Uncle Meatball tipped me off to this slick video preview of all the Fall TV shows. Here are some random observations from my viewing:

One to look out for might be “The Big Bang Theory.” I think the dude from “Roseanne” might actually work as a geek straight man. If it is even just OK, it’ll be between “How I Met Your Mother” and “New Adventures of Old Christine” which are the 2 best stock sitcoms on TV and 2 of the funniest shows period. The clip is just OK though….

If Ray Wise as the Devil is half as creepy as Ray Wise as Bob that could help “Reaper.” I don’t really understand what is going on from the clip, it’s way too choppy….

The “Chuck” clip has some real laughs. That could be a lot of fun. “Life” looks boring but I like the guy from “Band of Brothers.”

The Amy Sherman-Palladino show with Parker Posey is a sitcom? I don’t know if that will work. How is the laugh track supposed to do its thing when the characters don’t stop talking?

Thoughts from anybody else? That are not about Chris Brown?

This is pretty fun if you’re missing “Lost” this morning (and since it’s like 8 months until Season 4 premiere, you’re pretty much screwed if you’re that desperate already)… It’s a video made up of snippets from the three seasons of “Lost” of the plane crash, spliced together into somewhat real time. I especially like the end. Video after the jump…

Continue reading The “Lost” plane crash

My brother just sent me a link to a bunch of clips of Mr. Show, which should make for some great Friday time-wasting. Included is the “audition” sketch in which David is performing a monologue about an audition. I think that might be one of my favorite Mr. Show sketches.

Two stories today about classic tv getting new life online… First up it’s Sony’s “Minisode Network” which will be producing brief versions of classic TV episodes from shows like “Sheena” and “Dilbert.” Yes those were both shows. Remember “Sheena”?

Next is VH1Classic.com featuring thousands of full-length 70s-80s-90s videos. You know what would make your afternoon rad? Watching the video for “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” You’re welcome.

Who doesn’t love wacky chopped up movies? A buddy just alerted me to YouTuber “guywiththeglasses” whose channel consists of just that. I’ll start you off with his short version of Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey.” Video after the jump…
Continue reading “5 Second Movies” on YouTube

TechCrunch is reporting that a massive joint venture between “at least a dozen” TV networks–including Fox and NBC–as well as film studios is planning to launch “the largest Internet video distribution network ever assembled with the most sought-after content from television and film.”

With full episodes of current shows and community site features like playlists and mashups, this could obviously be huge.