If you are a fan of films, check out this interview with Academy Award winning director Peter Jackson. Jackson talks about his new movie, The Lovely Bones, as well as a number of other movie-related issues, including piracy. Part of the Digg Dialog series. Well worth the view…
– Dave
Daniel and I went to see District 9 last night. I have to say, this is one of the best movies I have ever seen in my life. Be warned, there is a lot of violence in this movie. And the film does not have the polish of, say, The Godfather, or The Lord of the Rings. But make no mistake, this is a work of genius.
The movie was produced by Peter Jackson and was directed by novice director Neill Blomkamp. Mr. Blomkamp is a talent to watch. I am looking forward to his next project. Might he be hard at work on District 10? Could be!
Blomkamp shares a screenwriting credit with Terri Tatchell. This is their first screenwriting collaboration.
The star of the movie, Sharlto Copley, puts out an incredible performance. And this is his very first acting gig. Really.
The movie was made for $30 million, which it recouped in its first few weekends. I suspect this movie will bring in worldwide $500 million before its day is done.
– Dave
Have you seen the movie “Spirited Away”? It is one of my all time favorite movies. It is an anime masterpiece created by Hayao Miyazaki back in 2001. It was originally written in Japanese, but Disney did a brilliant job bring the film to the US and dubbing it in English.
Do NOT let the fact that this is anime keep you from this experience. To me, this is a must see movie, a perfect choice for an evening with your favorite people, especially if any of them are kids. The movie can be a little scary for very little ones, so keep that in mind.
Normally, I’d embed the trailer in this post, but the YouTube trailers are badly done and the properly formatted trailer from TCM is not embeddable.
Here is the link to the TCM trailer.
Here is the link to the wiki page.
Happy viewing…
– Dave
This video stars Neil Patrick Harris (Barney Stinson from How I Met Your Mother and some other terrific roles) as Dr. Horrible and Nathan Fillion (Firefly and Serenity) as his arch-nemesis, Captain Hammer. An oddly compelling combination of comic book villainy, musical, and romance.
– Dave
This video was tracked down by Twitter friend Rob Zimmerman. An odd take on a postapocalyptic suburban LA. Created during the writers strike (Feb 2008) by some talented folks who were trying to create some options for themselves in case the strike did not get resolved before they ate through all their savings.
The Remnants was written and directed by John August. Starring Justine Bateman (one of my favorite actresses – check her in The TV Set, also a terrific movie), Michael Cassidy, Ben Falcone, Ze Frank, Ernie Hudson, and Amanda Walsh.
– Dave
The Remnants from John August on Vimeo.
Two movies worth seeing:
The Fountain is directed by Darren Aronofsky who also directed The Wrestler and Requiem for a Dream. Follow the link and read the IMDB user comments. This movie is in pretty regular rotation on cable/DirecTV. Thanks for the tip, Todd!
The second movie is called The Lathe of Heaven and is based on the book by Ursula LeGuin.
Here’s a plot summary:
George Orr has a problem: dreams. He doesn’t want to have any. He takes drugs to try and thwart his unconscious so that he can sleep but not dream. Because if he does dream a special kind of dream, an “effective” dream, it changes reality “all the way back to the Stone Age”.
Dr. William Haber is an oneirologist: a dream specialist. He doesn’t believe George’s story, of course. He thinks that George is sick, not cursed. He eventually comes around to the realization that George is right. A power struggle ensues to decide who will be in charge of deciding who gets to make the decisions of how to use this power.
The story touches on race relations, psychology, Taoism and more. And all on a miniscule budget of 250K.
I saw this movie when it was originally shown on PBS and it stuck with me all these years. Look for the original (1980), as opposed to the A&E remake.
– Dave
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