Film

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A great wide warzone full of nuclear brothers?

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Watched Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead a 1995 classic, and was particulalry struck by this quote (which is more or less humourous in context) and its relevance to technology. By the year 2000...I don't know.\

Rather than a racially-polarized warzone, Urban america has had a more commerically driven fate, with a transformation that made it hip to live in Bushwick or in an industrial building converted to condos.  in the last few years, with the impact of wireless communications and the destruction/revival of cities like Detroit, or the reinvestment in Downtown LA that has gentrified parts the "innner city"- all these cities represent technology consumption enabled by population density, rather than a warzone devoid of it.

Baby Sinister: The fact of the matter is by the year 2000 every city will be black. Thanks to the fax, the modem, conference call, federal-f**king express, the beast will be able to conduct his business from his home in the white suburb leaving the city a great wide warzone full of nuclear brothers.
Rooster: That's what I'm saying man, the fax, modem, FTD...
Baby Sinister: What the f**k you talking about, FTD? Rooster: You got to have flowers in the warzone, Baby.

 

Movie Review: Gran Torino

Gran Torino was fantastic, instantly among my favorite Eastwood movies (like Blood Work, Heartbreak Ridge, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, and In The Line of Fire).  Remember In the Line of Fire?  "I know things about pigeons, Lily."  Fantastic.

Why is it so good?  Is it because Clint Eastwood can look at you, growl, and do more damage than most people can with a pistol?  That is certainly true.  It is amazing how real Eastwood's character feels, how even as a curmudgeon with a penchant for antiquated slurs, he seems like a good guy.

The role of religion was interesting as well.  I think it's possible that the martyrdom angle at the end was too much, but I enjoy new perspectives on the role of religion on modern life, and this made me feel like it's people, not fear or fervor, that keeps religious institutions strong.  The pastor in Gran Torino was a whole lot more interesting than Father Phil from The Sopranos.

It's such an interesting reminder about survivors, of every ethnic group, of every generation, and how the survivors among us are often the ones who bring out our own greatness.  For its fantastioc dialogue, its moments of cross-cultural reconciliation via food, the Pabst Blue Ribbon, and good old Glint Eastwood being a bad-ass, I highly recommend seeing it.

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A moving skyscraper makes me scared

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Accoding to a BBC story:

The world's first moving building, an 80-storey tower with revolving floors giving a shifting shape, will be built in Dubai, its architect says.  The Dynamic Tower design is made up of 80 pre-fabricated apartments which will spin independently of one another.   

I am immediately horrified by this idea, but perhaps that is because I saw this really weird movie called Cube.  7 strangers wake up in an “endless kafkaesque maze containing deadly traps” (excellent imdb plot summary.) They are in a cube made up of dozens of smaller cubes, and at random intervals the cubes shift around.  They have to find their way out, like solving Rubik’s cube from the inside as it tries to kill you. In case you were wondering Cube 2 was awful, not nearly as entertaining as the first.

DEN (>EN) is Back- see promos

I'm not going to lie- I really eally iked the >en.net  (den.net) show called "Frat Ratz."  It was just silly enough to be an enjoyable caricature of fraternity life.  DEN (Digital Entertainment Network)  was kind of ahead of its time in terms of offering  streaming original content over the internet for free.  Whatever advertising they may  have been able to get was probably dwarfed  by production costs [probably the production costs element hasn't c hnaged much- for  independent content producers, it's really really hard to make money  off of the "long tail" longtail.com] 

What has changed, then?

  1. Monetizing content someone already produced, especially if they went bankrupt doing it, is probably easier than ever./  Someone already realized they aren't going to get Seinfeld-order revenues from syndicating web video, but if they can get eyeballs, they have some options.
  2. Shows like Ask A Ninja or RocketBoom have proven that advertisers will get involved in content that has a wide audience, even ifg it's a little, um, juvenile or adventurous.  Advertisers are increasingly aware that they must venture into these waters
  3. Operating an ad-sales and delivery network for web video has gone from a custom built solution to a totally efficient option from likes of Revver. 

So check out the promo for DEN...and my old favorite, Frat Ratz is in there!

 

Enron Movie in Pre-production grosses $3 billion

from the item on Digital Media Wire: "CNBC reported that Warner Bros paid a little over $1 million for the movie rights, a fair price according to industry analysts.  No release date for the film has been set."

Apparently, the movie has already grossed $3 billion, but no one is sure how they did it.  Time Warner stock has soared on the news, which represent record revenue for a theatrical project in pre-production.  Sources inside Warner Bros. declined to discuss the particulars of the project, stating simply, "We're just really, really good at this business."

Film, Disrupted

Shelly Palmer has posted a variety of interesting tidbits in his blog since publication of his book, Television Disrupted and I couldn't help but think of his "Bootlegging the Bootleggers" post as I read David Carr's article "Deciding Eligibility for Oscar" in the New York Times.   The idea that there would be dispute about which of a film's producers would be eligible to receive a statue in the event a nominated work actually wins the best picture Oscar points to the producer glut of recent years. 

To fight “producer bloat,” where credits were being handed out as favors to actors, agents and financiers, the academy ruled that generally only three producers would be eligible for a film.

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Peter Dekom, an entertainment lawyer, said that some retuning needed to be done. “In the independent world, it takes a variety of people to get a film done,” he said.

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One of the dirty secrets of this time of year is that the money that is spent on the Oscars — hundreds of millions of dollars on television and trade ads, parties, and shipping DVDs to academy members — can never be recouped even by the most spectacular post-awards bounce.

For those involved in video/film production, the


David Mamet decries a similar trend in sty

It was the Dukes!

Trading_places_45m "Well if Mr. Beeks  does what we paid him to do, we should have a very Happy New Year." - Trading Places

I love movies.  I have rated 487 movies on Netflix.  I just secured my very happy new year with the purchase of:

Goodfellas
Ronin
Heat
Spartan
House of Games
The Usual Suspects

So, when I get bored of watching "A Christmas Story," I'll have plenty to watch.  If I haven't shot my eye out by then.