First trailer for Ratatouille, by Pixar and
First trailer for Ratatouille, by Pixar and Brad Bird (who did The Incredibles and The Iron Giant). ps. Cars opens today! Zoom!
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Media races to make the perfect Cars pun
Headline writers everywhere are rejoicing the impending release of Pixar’s new movie, Cars. As with Apple’s release of their Tiger operating system, Cars comes loaded with so many opportunities for puns and metaphors that the media just can’t help themselves. A sampling of puntacular fun so far:
With ‘Cars,’ Pixar Revs Up to Outpace Walt Disney Himself (NY Times)
NASCAR, Hollywood share the fast lane (USA Today)
‘Cars’ Voices Toot Their Horns (Zap2it.com)
A toon-up for Petty (Orlando Sentinel)
With ‘Cars’, Paul Newman stays in the race (Malaysia Star)
Newman’s need for speed (Toronto Sun)
Cars: Cruising along in Weirdsville, Cartoonland (NY Times)
Cars’ Riding on Flat Tires (OhMyNews International)
Shifting gear (The Age)
Pixar’s Cars stalls with reviewers (Guardian Unlimited)
“Cars” is one sweet ride (Hollywood Reporter)
Cars rolls along like an animated version of Doc Hollywood (Canada.com)
‘Cars’ an auto-matic hit (Tucson Citizen)
Great-looking ‘Cars’ stuck in cruise control (goTriad.com)
‘Cars’ revs up marketing campaign (Inside Bay Area)
Disney/Pixar revvs up its latest cash cow (Monterey Herald)
Finely drawn characters drive ‘Cars’ and its director (St. Paul Pioneer Press)
‘Cars’ wins the race hands down for summer’s best film (Press & Sun Bulletin)
Kickin’ the Tires (East Bay Express)
Star vehicle veers a bit (St. Petersburg Times)
Pixar’s ‘Cars’ falls a little short of winner’s circle (SouthCoastToday.com)
‘Cars’ just can’t get it out of first (Statesman Journal)
‘Cars’ will take you straight to the dump (Scripps Howard)
Running on Fumes (Village Voice)
Headlines courtesy of Google News. If the movie were getting mostly bad reviews, one could imagine headlines like “Cars a lemon”, “New Disney movie is the pits”, and “Reviewers to Pixar: Your new film is car-rappy”.
On reverse snobbery. “Soon the competition for
On reverse snobbery. “Soon the competition for Most Ignorance became fierce. No one had ever seen ER, Law and Order, Lost, Desperate Housewives, it went on and on. We felt like fucking Kings! We were miles and miles above the Common Man. We knew Nothing of Anything popular and mainstream!”
An extensive listing of all the promotional
An extensive listing of all the promotional merchandise from Pixar/Disney’s Cars. Over 70 licensees will be offering themed merchandise like toy cars, cross stitch kits, books, staplers, shower curtains, sippy cups, and a boatload of Kellogg’s cereals. Holy overload.
Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure
I know I’m going to get mail about my five-star rating for this movie, but it cannot be helped. One summer when I was a kid, a friend and I watched Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure — no joke — every single day for a span of 2 months. I still know every line by heart, the timing, inflection, everything. If there were a Broadway production of this movie, I could slide effortlessly into the role of either Bill S. Preston, Esq. or Ted Theodore Logan, no rehearsal needed.
In my high school physics class my senior year, we had to do a report on something we hadn’t learned about in class — which, I discovered when I got to college, was a lot — and I did mine on time travel. I went to our small school library and read articles in Discover and Scientific American magazines about Stephen Hawking, Kip Thorne, quantum mechanics, causality, and wormholes. To illustrate the bit about wormholes, I brought in my well-worn VHS tape of Bill and Ted’s (a dub of a long-ago video rental) and showed a short clip of the phone booth travelling through space and time via wormhole. I got a B+ on my presentation. The teacher told me it was excellent but marked me down because it was “over the heads” of everyone in the class…which I thought was completely unfair. How on earth is Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure over anyone’s head?
This guy has made a three dimensional
This guy has made a three dimensional timeline of the plot of Fight Club out of Legos. Kinda hard to explain…just go take a look. (thx, christopher)
Classic quote from Shaq comparing the three
Classic quote from Shaq comparing the three guards he’s played with to Vito Corleone’s sons in The Godfather. Penny = Fredo, Kobe = Sonny, and Dwyane Wade = Michael.
Unsurprisingly, the WSJ doesn’t much care for
Unsurprisingly, the WSJ doesn’t much care for An Inconvenient Truth. Is there any way of uncoupling political alignment and one’s position on this issue?
Kevin Smith’s report from the Cannes Film
Kevin Smith’s report from the Cannes Film Festival, where Clerks II got an 8-minute standing ovation. Harvey Weinstein: “In my thirty years of coming here, I’ve never seen a standing ovation last that long at a midnight show in Cannes. Ever.”
Al Gore, movie star
An Inconvenient Truth, a movie about Al Gore’s global warming crusade, opens today in NYC and LA. John Heilemann has a lengthy piece on Gore for New York magazine, the NY Times has a piece about Gore and the movie, the climate science blog RealClimate has a positive review of the film, and here again is my review. Larry Lessig, who knows a thing or two about bringing tha PowerPoint noize, loves the movie, calling the slideshow “the most extraordinary lecture I have ever seen anyone give about anything”.
An Inconvenient Truth will open in the rest of the US in mid-June; check this theater listing for details. For more news, check out the movie’s blog.
Fine interview with Pixar/Disney’s John Lasseter,
Fine interview with Pixar/Disney’s John Lasseter, who is quickly becoming a favorite of mine. “I believe in the nobility of entertaining people, and I take great, great pride that people are willing to give me two or three hours out of their busy lives.”
Grist Magazine interview with Al Gore about An Inconvenient Truth.
Grist Magazine interview with Al Gore about An Inconvenient Truth.
Pixar: where are all the women? “To
Pixar: where are all the women? “To date, there’s not a single Pixar film that has a female main character: The Incredibles comes the closest, but even there, both Helen Parr/Elastigirl and Violet are supporting characters, and it’s Bob Parr/Mr. Incredible that’s the hero.” Helen Parr and Dory are my favorite Pixar characters.
Uncanny Valley, CA
S-s-s-omething from the inbox. Paul writes regarding the uncanny valley:
Given your recent link re: the uncanny valley, I thought this article about Sun-Maid’s redesigned icon would be worth your time. Photo.
Clearly, she’s selling grapes from a certain valley. Creeeepy.
I love the idea of Uncanny Valley being an actual geographical location (situated in California, I would assume) inhabited by creepy video game characters, digitized actors, and retooled advertising icons.
Imagine the views from neighboring hillsides! (Image courtesy of Google Earth.)
Trailer for Fast Food Nation, based on
Trailer for Fast Food Nation, based on the book by Eric Schlosser.
These nutballs are making a 1 second film
These nutballs are making a 1 second film financed by anyone who wants to cough up a buck or two for a producer credit. The film will be followed by an estimated 90 minutes of credits (in order to list all the producers). Awesome. (thx, blythe)
Re: Jim Emerson’s list of films you
Re: Jim Emerson’s list of films you should see to consider yourself movie literate, what are the essential gay/queer movies?
When asked whether or not the Da
When asked whether or not the Da Vinci Code movie should have a “this is fiction” disclaimer on it, Ian McKellen (who stars in the movie) replied, “I’ve often thought the Bible should have a disclaimer in the front saying this is fiction”. Zing! (via cyn-c)
Internet-only trailer for Clerks 2 by Kevin Smith.
Internet-only trailer for Clerks 2 by Kevin Smith. Going boldly where Harold and Kumar have gone before.
Why does it take Wes Anderson (and
Why does it take Wes Anderson (and Sofia Coppola and Spike Jonze and PT Anderson and…) so long to make a movie? “The Eccentrics seem to be guarding their personal ideas so jealously that it sometimes suggests a creative block. The eternity of anticipation has frustrated those film lovers who look to certain artists to provide the Great American Movie.” Slate also has a review of Wes Anderson’s great Amex commerical.
Re Croquet and the ridiculous breathlessness about
Re Croquet and the ridiculous breathlessness about it, “3-D isn’t an interface paradigm. 3-D isn’t a world model. 3-D isn’t the missing ingredient. 3-D isn’t an inherently better representation for every purpose. 3-D is an attribute, like the color blue. Any time you read or hear about how great 3-D is and how it’s going to change everything about computers and services, substitute the word blue for 3-D.” (via bbj, who says “YES YES YES!!! ALWAYS REMEMBER: 3D INTERFACES ARE WHY THOSE KIDS ALMOST GOT EATEN BY RAPTORS IN JURASSIC PARK”)
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