BLUE MAG

Perhaps I’m the only person who would get excited about director Martin Scorsese’s written tribute to Antonioni but these words are so good:

Where almost every other movie I’d seen wound things up, “L’Avventura” wound them down. The characters lacked either the will or the capacity for real self-awareness. They only had what passed for self-awareness, cloaking a flightiness and lethargy that was both childish and very real. And in the final scene, so desolate, so eloquent, one of the most haunting passages in all of cinema, Antonioni realized something extraordinary: the pain of simply being alive. And the mystery.

The rest of the NY Times article can be found here.

Good video here from “Superbad” viral marketing…

Continue reading What *does* it mean to be Superbad?

Screw August, next month is going to be the best month ever for movies. After a glut of summer movies we’ll finally be getting some substantial material from some of the best filmmakers.

First up is David Cronenberg’s new film “Eastern Promises” which has Viggo Mortensen and Naomi Watts in bed with the Russian mob in London. Viggo and Naomi … that’s good stuff.

“Shine a Light” is Scorsese’s new IMAX documentary on the history of the Rolling Stones leading into their new tour. It’s shot by the best cinematographers working today, this looks like the best thing ever.

Finally Wes Anderson’s new movie, “The Darjeeling Limited” rounds out the month.

Another classic blog post title, Don!! TV gossip impresario Michael Ausiello reports today that Kristen Bell, nee Veronica Mars, has been linked to a new role on “Lost” — Charlotte, described as “precocious, loquacious and funny… a very successful academic who also knows how to handle herself in the real world.” They are also talking about Peter Stormare, who is apparently no longer on “Prison Break.” When they broke out of prison I stopped watching.

My wife and I are working our way through “John From Cincinnati” — great show, insane writing, cannot stop watching. This is one of my top TV show crushes in years. I can talk more about it later, but I just had to post this now: in about 2 seconds my wife spotted that Cass, the girl in cahoots with Luke Perry’s character, tools around in a Porsche 356, which was the car driven by … Luke Perry, as Dylan McKay on “90210.” Hilarious. Check it…

For some reason, although it lets me down every single time, I cannot stop watching NBC’s realty comedy competition program entitled “Last Comic Standing.” I guess I have always been a fan of standup comedy since I was a kid, and so it has a nostalgic feel in that regard.

One of the things that lets me down most is that like all reality programs this suffers from the as-yet-untitled casting disorder whereby they cast Doppelgangers of previous contestants. I have written about this before regarding America’s Next Top Model. This show does it too — the big fat guy (Ralphie, Lavell from the current season), the abbrasive Italian woman (Tammy Pescatelli, Debra DiGiovanni), the surprisingly offensive 20-something girl next door (Bonnie McFarland, Amy Schumer), and the I’ve-totally-sort-of-heard-of-that-guy character (Bill Dwyer, Doug Benson). And this is where my post actually starts.

Continue reading I know they’re not funnier than: Doug Benson

Among the news to come out of ComiCon was some casting confirmations for “Watchmen,” one of the most closely watched castings in the history of BLUE MAG. Jeffrey Dean Morgan as the Comedian, which is great, and Billy Crudup as Osterman/Dr. Manhattan (actually I think this was confirmed before but I’m just getting around to complaining).

I’m stoked to see this movie but I don’t like Crudup in that role. Isn’t Dr. Manhattan supposed to be a big giant blue man? Billy Crudup is 4 foot 9 in heels. I wanted Billy Zane more for any casting since I wanted Sean Connery as the Drow in the film version of R.A. Salvatore’s “The Chrystal Shard” when I was 12…

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.

In looking at the “Cloverfield” posters depicting a headless Statue of Liberty gazing headlessly at NYC being destructified, like the “FURIOUS” one posted today on AICN (at right; click to embiggen), I am noticing what appears to be ripples in the water, that look like something giant has just emerged from it. See right above the release date? Does that say anything to anyone?

From AP:
“In the empty, silent spaces of the world, he has found metaphors that illuminate the silent places our hearts, and found in them, too, a strange and terrible beauty: austere, elegant, enigmatic, haunting,” Jack Nicholson said in presenting Antonioni with the career Oscar. Nicholson starred in the director’s 1975 film The Passenger.

I’m getting tired of reporting the deaths of film greats.