Dave's Yes/No Movie Review Xmas 2006 Extravaganza!: Eragon, The Good Sheperd, Marie Anoinette, Babel

Eragon: No.
Good Sheperd: No.
Marie Anoinette: No. (if you like dresses and stuff) Yes.
Babel: Yes. (if you want to feel good about the holidays) No... but Yes anyway.

Sergio Leone's latest Movie Quiz

Rob brought my attention to the new movie quiz from Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule
Here's my answers.

1)What was the last movie you saw, either in a theater or on DVD, and why?

Munich. It was on DVD and I just wanted to see it again. Speilberg has this reputation for being so commercial but geez, he can make amazing shots, not just technical but artistic. Great stuff.

2) Name the cinematographer whose work you most look forward to seeing, and an example of one of his/her finest achievements.
I'm embarrassed to say I'm not aware of many cinematographers other than the obvious ones, and I don't think most of them are still alive...

3) Joe Don Baker or Bo Svenson?
Joe Don Baker.

4) Name a moment from a movie that made you gasp (in horror, surprise, revelation…)
The original When a Stranger Calls.

5) Your favorite movie about the movies.
Quentin Tarrintino's Kill Bill. I swear it's all about making movies.

6) Your Favorite Fritz Lang movie.

M.

7) Describe the first time you ever recognized yourself in a movie.
Johnny Whitaker in The Mystery of Dracula's Castle.

8) Carole Bouquet or Angela Molina?
No idea.

9) Name a movie that redeems the notion of nostalgia as something more than a bankable commodity.
I'm not sure exactly what the question means but I'll say Last Picture Show.

10) Favorite appearance by an athlete in an acting role.
Does Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator 2 count? If so, I'll go with that. If not, I'm drawing a blank. I will not say OJ Simpson.

11) Favorite Hal Ashby movie.
Being There or Harold and Maude... honestly I can't pick.

12) Name the first double feature you’d program for opening night of your own revival theater.
Stars Wars, followed by 2001.

13) What’s the name of your revival theater?
Magic Shadows (gross)... how about Cinema Cinema! (complete with Exclamation point!)

14) Humphrey Bogart or Elliot Gould?
Are you serious? Not even close: Humphrey Bogart.

15) Favorite Robert Stevenson movie.
The Love Bug

16) Describe your favorite moment in a movie that is memorable because of its use of sound.
I'm with Rob MacDonald: The animal sounds in Raging Bull when Jake LaMotta is boxing.

17) Pink Flamingoes-- yes or no?
No.

18) Your favorite movie soundtrack score.
I'm so obvious: Pulp Fiction

19) Fay Wray or Naomi Watts?
Naomi Watts.

20) Is there a movie that would make you question the judgment and/or taste of a film critic, blogger or friend if you found out they were an advocate of it?
Reality Bites.

21) Pick a new category for the Oscars and its first deserving winner.
Best Credit sequence. Saul Bass for lifetime achievement and this year... the guy/gal that did the Casino Royale's credits.

22) Favorite Paul Verhoeven movie.
I can't remember the Fourth Man, so I'll go with Starship Troopers as the greatest ironic film of all time.

23) What is it that you think movies do better than any other art form?
Make money.

24) Peter Ustinov or Albert Finney?
Geez, my heart says Ustinov but my head says Albert Finney.

25) Favorite movie studio logo, as it appears before a theatrical feature.
I like how Warner Brothers allows it's logo to be messed with to reflect the tone of the movie before anyone else... but I also love the Marvel logo.

26) Name the single most important book about the movies for you personally.
Easy Riders Raging Bulls? I dunno.

27) Name the movie that features the best twist ending. (Please note the use of any “spoilers” in your answer.)
Hmmmm. Lemme think about this. "Twist ending" is very specific for me. Some people say:Psycho. But that's not a twist ending for me. The Sixth Sense is the most obvious one.

28) Favorite Francois Truffaut movie.
Farenheit 451.

29) Olivia Hussey or Claire Danes?
Claire Danes.

30) Your most memorable celebrity encounter.
John Hurt (and Marlee Matlin) at the Victoria Playhouse on PEI.

31) When did you first realize that films were directed?
There as a guy in junior high that made movies and my sister helped out on it. It was about a multi-coloured tire travelling around.

Dave's Yes/No Movie Reviews: Casino Royal, The Queen

Yes and Yes.

Liberal Leadership Convention

After failing to get my live coverage of the convention from CBC and CTV online, where do I turn?

CPAC!

Exciting stuff.

BattleStar Galactica's Writers' Room

My pal daves sent me this link to an article about the Battlestar Galatica writers' room. This is stuff is deep fried gold, baby.

Now, I knew about the Ron Moore's blog, David Eick's video blog, and episode commentary podcasts for the series but I never came across the mother lode...

Four hours inside the season two writers' room in a couple parts... right here --you'll find it about two thirds the way down the page.

If you've ever wondered what the heck happens inside a writers' room every one is different but this'll give you a good idea.

Enjoy, you crazy emeffers.

Robson Arms Season II Trailer Online

For those of you who are interested, CTV has updated their Robson Arms page and posted a new trailer with highlights of our second season. At least, I think that's what's on it. They switched over to this Window Media Player thingy a while ago which for which there is no plug-in available for many Mac users like yours truly.

So if you do see the trailer... wouldya tell me how it is?

If only to post something other than movie reviews...

Angry Alien has a whack of new movie renactments. You know, these are the ones done in 30 seconds... by bunnies.

This by way of postponing my comments about the whole Borat debate... which the bunny are planning on renacting too, apparently.

Dave's Yes/No Movie Review: Stranger than Fiction

Yes.

Dave's Yes/No Movie Review: Borat

Yes very nice.

The Art of Coarse Writing

There's a writing buddy of mine who will never tell anybody what he's working on. If he does, he's afraid there won't be any motivation to write it. Once he tells somebody what the story is about... there's no reason to tell it anymore.

I think he's on to something.

Some writers are lucky. They'll never get the "On the nose" note.
For the rest of us, it's about constant vigilance.

For those of you who aren't familiar with the term. "On the nose" writing tends to be scenes or dialogue that is very obvious. It's very explicit about... what it's about. And for some of us, it's a lot of the television writing we grew up watching.

Any scene that wraps things up... watch out. Any dialogue that people talk about their feelings... danger. And when the scene wraps things up with characters talking about their feelings... "Alex, maybe if I could talk to my dad like this, I wouldn't have this drinking problem." "Listen Les, you told me what you felt, and I respect that, but there's a part of me that will never get over Johnny."

Yikes.

But is there a place for On the Nose in your process? I think so, but I might just be justifying this to myself because I see it my own stuff. I think in an outline or first draft, there's lots of room for obviousness. You're explaining motivations to yourself, to producers, to broadcasters. It allows for a real discussion of why characters are doing what they're doing and what ramifications it might have on other episodes.

But... after the first draft... the second draft has gotta be spent covering it over. Otherwise, it's a short-cut that lets writers off the hook-- the hook being: to find a way to actually dramatize all those feelings. And like my buddy, when the writer tells the audience what he's writing about, instead of writing it, what's the point.

And it's not just writing that can be "on the nose". Some of the best examples of "on the nose" work I've seen is acted or directed, particularly in amateur theatre.

And productions of classical work is the worst. The actors have been directed by people who don't trust the audience to understand what the play is about and instead of staging it in a way that will heighten the drama and make it relevant and exciting, they make the poor actors (many of whom don't know any better) accomplices in their crimes. Characters are broadly drawned; scenes aren't performed, they're pointed out; jokes aren't played, they're explained.

It kills any drama or comedy that's there.

Don't believe me? Watch any university production of Shakespeare and see what happens when they make a joke about a "cod's piece". Trouble is, it's never bad enough to be really entertaining, cf: The Art of Coarse Acting.

Dave's Yes/No Movie Review: Little Miss Sunshine

Yes.

Looking for Intelligence

After trying-- and failing-- to find Intelligence on CBC this past week, I decided to poke around Bit Torrentland to see if I could find it.

No Luck. Except...

I stumbled across it here. Only the first two episodes but it's a chance to catch up if you've missed it so far.

Sidebar: Is Guba a place that everyone has heard about but me?

Edit: According to the Intelligence website the show airs Tuesdays at 9pm and repeats at Midnight and 11pm Friday. Apparently I tuned in on the wrong night... heh. What a dope.

Cell Phone Travel Question

I've got a question maybe somebody can help me with.

When I was travelling recently I put my fully charged cell phone in my bag up in the overhead bin and when I landed (about 8 hours later) it was drained.

This happened again on the return flight.

Again, both times, fully charged. I've had no trouble with battery power otherwise. In day to day usage it's great.

Was it too cold up there in the bin, is there some kind of crazy battery draining thing doing on or what?

Feeding the Writer II

It's great to be back home after my whirlpool trip to Vancouver for the screening.
For all you bi-coastal travellers my advice: Commit to the change in time zone! Don't constantly calculate what time is "really" is. Your body will thank you.

Restaurantlly there were three highlights on this four day trip:

Tropicana: a Thai restaurant where I rediscovered the deliciousness of Sambal Bunchies. It's a dish of shrimp and green beans that is crazy good.

Shanghai Chinese Bistro: (on Alberni) A return for General Tsao's Chicken and sautéed snow pea shoots. Ka-yumbo.

Speaking of Yumbo, Ouisi's Bistro: (Granville and 16th) My first time here where they specialize in New Orleans cuisine. Although my pepper-encrusted chicken on beans and spanish rice was fantastic the House Sample Plate: Jerk Chicken, Gator Bites, and Louisiana Crab Cakes was the highlight.

Robson Arms Screening

I flew up to Vancouver this week to attend the cast and crew screening for Robson Arms Season II.

It was held at one of the theatres at the Paramount on Burrard and the place was packed. We screened the first three episodes: Ordinary Assholes by Karen MacLellan, Saultology by yours truly, and I Did Not Have Sex by Susin Nielsen.

The response was quiet and polite as we began but as the screening continued it was relief to hear what sounded, to my admittedly biased ears, like geniune laughter fill the screening room.

I'm not particularly objective about this, but I believe everybody was kind of surprised, even though they worked on the show, how different it was from the first season. And not to take anything away, but this season feels bolder, more confident, and frankly a lot funnier.

I think everybody raised their game. The directors, actors and writers took a lot more chances. We shot on HD and Kamal and the camera crew have made everything look great. The original songs by our "troubadours", these incredible musical summaries of the episodes, are tightly integrated into the show. By the end of the screening there was a real buzz through the theatre.

We still don't know when season two will hit the air, myself I've got my fingers crossed for a mid-season launch in January, but that's up to somebody working away in Toronto.

I'd been reading Denis McGrath's blog lately and can't help but wonder how many of his concerns about the state of canadian television are addressed in our production. More on that in another post.

In the meantime, I worry: How the show will be received by the audience? Will anyone even remember season one? Will they tune in? Will they love and appreciate the show... not because everybody worked so hard on it but because it's smart and funny and entertaining? That's been the goal.

Congratulations and thanks to everybody that worked on the show. I'm sorry to say that the job is only half done. Now we have to make sure, when it makes it to air, that everybody sees it.

Robson Arms gets its first Gemini

We didn't hold out a lot of hope for the Geminis after we wound up only getting one nomination... but guess what?

Congrats to Mark McKinney for: Best Individual Performance in a Comedy Program or Series- Robson Arms Season 1 - Material Breach.



And congrats to New Brunswick's own Tony Sekulich who wrote the episode! Tony, my man!

Dave's Yes/No Movie Review: I'm Your Man

Yeah, baby.

HOT FUZZ

Thanks to dave s. for sending me this link and this link to trailers for what I'm hoping will be the best thing to happen to cop movies since Shaun of the Dead happened to Zombie movies.

From the folks who brought you the fantastic SPACED.

More Studio 60...

You know you've got this new girlfriend. And she's really smart, really funny and really pretty... but your friends all hate her.

Why?

Because she won't stop looking in the mirror and tossing her fucking hair!

Your favourite Television Scene

Callaghan has a post asking folks to nominate their favourite scene from a television show.

It didn't take me long to pick mine.

Star Trek: TNG Episode #118.

"Cause and Effect".

The teaser.

The Enterprise is sailing along when out of nowhere comes this ship. They try to turn, to push it away, it's no use. The Enterprise collides with the ship and explodes into a billion pieces.

Holy Shit!