Peace Out Michelangelo Antonioni....

Man, this is a bad week for great directors. The greatness Michelangelo Antonioni passed away today at the age of 94 in Rome. One of Italy's greatest directors of all time. My father is a huge fan of Antonioni's work, and turned me onto his work at a very early age. Specifically my dad was always way into the film Blow-Up, which centered around a photographer. I recently got a bunch of his work on dvd, that i have yet to tear through. With his passing and Bergman, I have a lot of films to revisit and explore for the first time. Michelangelo Antonioni had such a special relationship with the frame and his films seemed poetic and free from the constrains of structure. He seemed to really love life and it's moments no matter how small or big. Right now Antonioni and Bergman are having brunch and how much would you love to be a part of that conversation? A true loss for the world of film.

Peace Out Bergman

Ingmar Bergman, the great master filmmaker has gone to the great beyond to make some more films.

The Next Prodigy?

I discovered this kid at a party last night...He could be big. I only had my trusty cell phone to grab some video of his tremendous performance. Click HERE to see the kid in action.

The Iron Unkind

This is what would happen if I could dunk...


http://view.break.com/336209 - Watch more free videos

Something that didn't Happen to me on Vacation

Click HERE to see what it is.

Links are Working again...

All of the links on the right side of the blog are active again. I am hosting them on a different server now. MediaMax can blow me quite frankly. (no pun intended to the above picture of the links aka franks) There is one or two that are still not working, but most of them are all back and ready to be viewed.

Peace Out, Laszlo..

The brilliant Cinematographer Lazlo Kovacs checked out Saturday night in his sleep at the age of 74. He was the Director of Photography of such films as Five Easy Pieces, Ghostbusters, Say Anything, Mask, Targets, Easy Rider, New York, New York, and tons of others. Click HERE for the article. Thanks Laszlo for all the great images you have put before my eyes.

Steve is Back!

Steve Francis is back with the Rockets next year. This made my day on Thursday!

Bad Blogger

Go to Amy's site for vacationing updates. I have lost my blogging skills on vacation...
Click HERE to go to Amy's site.

No time for updates, please enjoy this...

Did mucho writing today on a new horror short. It was good to go back to those dark places again. More later... enjoy this genius from YouTube.

When Tall Meets Small

The tallest man recently met the smallest man. Click HERE to read the story. Thanks to Jor-El from Planet Chicago for the story.

Ruidoso Part I

The 720 Dunk Returns!

The Air Up There (aka Taurian Fontenette) did a sweet 720 dunk recently. Check it.

We Lost on Jeopardy...

We were handed our ass at the casino last night. End of story. This photo was obviously taken before the crash.

Happy Friday the 13th!

In honor of Friday the 13th today I have decided to give a quick set of thoughts to every Friday the 13th movie ever made.

Friday the 13th (1980)


A decent take at trying to replicate Halloween. In this movie Jason's mom kills Kevin Bacon in the throat with a fishing harpoon. Or was it Jason? You see Jason really is not in this film until the very end. His Mommy does all the hard labor.

Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981)



Not one of my favorites in the series, but at least it kind of continues the story from the first movie. Jason grows up into the killer we all love today. No hockey mask in this one yet, instead Jason opts for the Elephant man pull over hoodie. He also dons the awesome denim overalls. Best part is any scene involving Jason's moms head. In the fridge, around the candle light. This one is very romantic.

Friday the 13th Part 3-D (1982)



This one gets the ball rolling for the next few to come out. Finally Jason finds his hockey mask worn by one of his early victims. I remember seeing this in the parking lot of Toys R Us. You see you could see the drive in from there, and I think it may be the first time I saw breasts at the cinema. Also scenes of note are the punched out eyeball that comes at ya in 3-D. And for some reason I remember the TV antenna being adjusted as being a cool 3-D deal.

Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984)



I believed at the time that if you put The Final Chapter in a title, then they meant it. I've grown so much since then. In this one things get kinda crazy. Jason kills Crispin Glover from Back to the Future. Why he didn't just say "You get your damn hands off her" I'll never know. The effects in this one are the big story. Corey Feldman plays the title character of Tommy. And in the end he throws Jason's machete into his head and as Jason falls to the floor with the knife still in head he actually slides down on it further as he falls. Tom Savini's FX work in this is outstanding. And I really thought that Jason was dead. This one I liked a lot.

Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning (1985)



This is the worst one of the lot. The only thing this one had going for it was nudity. And I can't really remember if that was any good anyway. So in this one they get Corey Feldman back for a cameo in the beginning. I saw a funny interview with Corey about this one. He said at the time he was filming Goonies, and he was working 6 days a week. But the Friday peeps really wanted him to come back, so his mom said to come shoot him on his day off on Sunday. They actually came to his house and found some bushes out in the backyard and used a garden house for a rain machine and filmed his scene. Oh and the main reason this movie sucks is that Tommy is all grown up say 17 or 18 or something, which would put the movie in the year 2000, but for some reason its still 1985? And to add insult to injury Jason really is dead and the guy going around stalking the time shifting Tommy really isn't Jason put a copycat dude from a mental hospital. This one sucks it hard.

Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives! (1986)



Ah now rebounding nicely from a crap sequel we have this gem. My personal favorite of all the Fridays. It has a great cast and sense of humor. It turns out that Tommy (now played by a less boring actor than in 5) is still having Jason nightmares. So with the help of Horshack from Welcome Back, Kotter they dig up Jason's grave and find him dead as doornail with worms crawling out of his skull. So he goes to pour gas on Jason to get rid of any remains when all of a sudden a lightning bolt from the skies comes down and hits the iron pole that Tommy stabbed Jason with. Horshack gets it bad, as Jason rises up and into Zombie Jason. Tommy escapes and enlists the help of the hottest sheriff's daughter known to mankind. Together they fall in love while battling Jason. Best kill is easily Jason taking the sheriff and folding him in half like a lawn chair. See Jason is no longer just deformed human Jason. This bitch has supernatural style Kung-Fu. The film is very funny and never takes itself too seriously except to keep the legend and mythos of Jason moving right along. Latter films will try to replicate this and screw it up big time. Film also feature a Alice Cooper song, "I'm a Teenage Frankenstein" However there is no nudity in this one. Sorry. Jason is left tied to the bottom of the lake to rot.

Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood (1988)



This one is kinda fun to me. Now that we have zombie Jason, you can do whatever wild ass gag tickles your fancy. So they hired FX artist John Buechler to direct this one. There really is only one way to describe it: Carrie vs. Jason. Imagine if at the end of Carrie she went walking and found Crystal Lake accidentally untied Jason from the lake and here we go a war to end all wars. With her telekinesis at full steam she tr hows everything at Jason, couches, TVs, doors, nails, you name it. But Zombie Jason just keeps coming. For the first time we get to see Jason wreak havoc sans his hockey mask towards the end. This Jason design is the best ever done. the makeup job on Jason is one of my favorites. He looks like a pro wrestler turned Zombie. This is the first time stunt man Kane Hodder played Jason and he is by far and away the best to ever play him. His movements, his walking, and breathing really show a sense of danger and urgency to Jason. I enjoyed this one until the end when out of nowhere, the Carrie chick somehow is able to resurrect her dead father from the lake to pull Jason down and keep him there. Its an odd moment and kind of spoils the film.

Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989)
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Unfortunately the great title does not live up to the movie. This time becomes dislodged from the lake by a passing ship that somehow is able to get to the ocean. Jason hitches a ride to NYC for some R and R. But the damn ship has teenagers on it. What's a teenage hating zombie to do? the boat ride goes on for almost the whole damn movie and its horrible. There are some attempts at story here as in Jason is really just a scared kid encased in a zombie outfit. Once in NYC there are some great scenes, but not nearly enough. The film was made in Toronto so you only see Jason in Times Square for a second. Then at the end Jason is in the NYC sewer with some toxic waste flowing over him. After the spew we find a naked little deformed child Jason. To be honest with you I was so disappointed in this one I really don't remember what happened next...

Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (1993)



Here we go with that Final BS they tried on us years earlier. So already your going in crying bullshit. But it gets worse. Jason is now somehow a part of a FBI sting. They lure him in with a naked hot redhead then a swat team surrounds him with guns and bombs and blow him into tiny pieces. Good start I thought. Next at the hospital, we see a dude attracted to Jason's oozing black tar heart. For some reason he decides to take a bit of it and he becomes Jason. Then Jason starts body hoping from one person to the next. Rarely do we get to see the hockey mask Jason until the end. And at that point you don't care. Then it goes totally over the top by introducing black magic, some demons that control Jason from Hell. And eventually some character figures out that to send Jason back to hell he has to get these bad CG demons to come up through the earth and take him down. And as that happens Freddy's glove appears and pulls Jason's mask down to hell. (which later sets up Jason vs. Freddy) Bad entry.

Jason X (Friday the 13th Part X) (2001)



I really enjoyed this one like I did with Jason Lives. It never takes itself too seriously. I mean its Jason in Space for Christ sakes. Sometime int he future some people are looking at fossils on Old Earth and find Jason buried in ice or something. They thaw him out and Jason finds a whole new space playground of cool ways to kill people. the best by far is in a science lab where he takes a person's face and shoves in a freezing cold solution then pulls it back out and slams the head on the counter smashing it into little pieces. Classic Jason. Then by "accident" Jason gets locked in a chamber where he is given a cyber makeover and is turned into a jason robot with a new shiny metallic mask for space travel.

Freddy vs. Jason (2003)





Do I need to explain this? Do I really? I'm tired. This is a fun entry but they screwed up in replacing Kane Hodder as Jason with some basketball player size guy. But the movie itself is entertaining to see these two duke it out on screen. I had fun watching it.

To all Don Nelson lovers, I give you this...

Some people still have love for the Don Nelson. As a couch he is great. But in a previous post i described how I feel about who the true Nellie is. Now I have proof. Click HERE to join the San Fran area's newest cry baby. It's all about the $ for Don.

REVIEW: Transformers

OK, I will not totally go into full geek detail about why I liked or disliked this movie because i am in jury duty today.

The Positives:

1. Giant fighting robots that transform into cars and planes. Very friggin cool.

2. The explanations of where they came from is done decently. (I honestly figured they would skip over that, but they were pretty true to the cartoon from the 80's with a few modifications.)

3. Optimus Prime is still the man. (or the machine)

4. Shia is funny.

5. Megan Fox = slutty hot.

6. and again Giant fighting robots that transform into cars and planes. Still cool.

The Negatives:

1. Michael Bay.

2. The transforming boombox is annoying at all times.

3. Megan Fox = bad actress (but slutty hot...)

4. They changed the kid from the cartoons name to Sam instead of Spike. Why? (Geek alert!)

5. Robots were difficult to distinguish once transformed.

6. Michael Bay.

7. Too long a movie.

8. The Barton Fink subplot was not needed.(and Barton phoned it in BTW)

9. and finally did I mention Michael Bay.

Trying not to be a hater, but he needs to watch Hot Fuzz. He does make pretty images don't get me wrong, but that is really all he's got. He was born to remake Top Gun.

Bottom line: A little long, but giant robots fighting other giant robots is good any day of the week. Childhood geekfantasy somewhat fullfilled.

Montgomery Flea market

Whatever Happened to Eric Red?

One of my favorite horror films of all time was this little 80's movie called Near Dark. I must have seen it 15 times at the movies over at the old Western Hills dollar theater. The writer of that film was this guy Eric Red. He also wrote the original Hitcher film and Blue Steel with Jamie Lee Curtis. He even moved into directing a few films. He's got a new film coming out in October and I was wondering why I haven't heard his name in the past 10 years or so. Today I found out and it's a fascinating story that appeared in LA Weekly last year. You have to kind of read through the story to get all the details, but in a nutshell he ran over and killed 2 people in his car then exited the car and tried to kill himself with some broken glass on the floor of the bar he crashed into. It is a bit long of an article, but really interesting nonetheless. You can read it HERE.

Disturbing Item in the Video Snack Bar...

My thought of the day over in the Video Snack Bar was Transformers. The third video over on the bar is somewhat disturbing to me. I mean I'm a fan of the Transformers, but that is taking it to a new level. Not only in fan costuming, but in spare time spent on worthless endeavors. Hasbro is proud. Look over to your right on the video snack bar and click on video number 3 to see what I'm talking about. Remember the thoughts change daily, so if its not Monday July 2, you are SOL. Just kidding, here is the embedded video.

Two Films that should be on my top 15 list!

There are two films that I recently forgot to put on my top 15 list. Maybe I should of just done a top 20! Anyway I don't know where these guys rank, but i think it a crime not to include George Pal's film adaptation of H.G. Wells The Time Machine and David Lean's epic Lawrence of Arabia. I feel horrible that these two are not on my list. How in the world I forgot them is bad on my part. Especially The Time Machine!!! Lawrence is somewhere in the top 15 or 20, but Time Machine is no doubt in my top 10. My bad.



The Time Machine (1960)
Directed by George Pal.

My name is Weena. I first had the kids record story album of this tale. The B side had War of the Worlds. I was fascinated with the concept of time travel as a kid. Then one day I saw the greatness of the 1960 movie version. I love this movie. I feel like a kid again when I see it. It's my Wizard of Oz I guess. To top it off it's a smart film, and a warning about the dangers of technology and the misuse of it. It's not as faithful to the novel as I remember but it is its own entity. As I write this it is playing on HDNET Movies channel. And it looks better than ever. Sure the Morlock are a bit cheesy looking, but its the mood and the journey of the main character that lingers with me.




Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
Directed by David Lean

Only one word describes this movie: EPIC. I'm not a big fan of Epic movies at all. They are usually all spectacle and no heart, but I do admire this one. David Lean's visuals are insane. The photography is nothing short of breathtaking. The story is also epic in its nature and melds wonderfully with the visuals. Its a match in every respect. At time sit feels like a big budget art film, and maybe that's why it sorta draws me to it. The characters are indeed flawed in this huge desert landscape. I can imagine that to make this film today would cost 300 million and all the great shots would be CG ass. This is 100% celluloid love. I cannot wait till this shows on HDNET or comes out on Blu-Ray.