To Catch a Killer: Part 1

Netflix Watch Instantly, how I love thee. You have exposed to a whole bunch of stuff that I a.) would never have had access to, or b.) would have never even known existed. Take Red Riding. Without everyone's favorite excuse to not get out of bed to watch movies, I am now wise to the joys of this BBC miniseries. Consisting of three films, based on the novels by David Pearce, Red Riding concerns the hunt for a serial killer, spanning multiple years and viewpoints. The first of the series, 1974, starts off cheery enough, but soon descends into a dark and twisted detective procedural that is sure to please any crime fan.

This wasn't in the job description!

FFTSBH Presents: The 1st Annual Snubbies Telecast

Well, isn't this just lovely. Look at all these faces staring in awe at me. I know, you can't believe your eyes. Hello, and welcome to the 1st Annual Snubbies. I am your host, and I will do my best to MC this whole event without teasing or insulting anyone. I mean, Mel Gibson hasn't said anything too offensive in the past month, so it should be easy.
...
Wait, shit!

Ok, enough pleasantries. Your votes have been tallied. Let's get cooking.

A disclaimer before the jump: The keeper of the minutes for the ceremony decided to smoke a fat doobie before starting work, and as such, all the acceptance speeches have been lost. I do apologize. I will get better staff for next year when I have better funding.

Sharp Dressed Man

Precocious Much?

Hollywood, though it has been good to us, is a cruel beast at heart. I mean, seriously! Yes, it's been a few years since Spider-Man 3 came out, though, if your like me, you've erased that excuse for a superhero movie from your head. But, a few years is like dog years in Hollywood. Hell, they waited 28, that's right, 28, before finally deciding to bless us with a Tron sequel. So, why do they think that a Spider-Man reboot - not sequel, reboot - is a good idea?
...

What? Nothing?
...

Oh well, I guess it's not really important. What's done is done, and we'll just have to live with it. I'm actually cautiously optimistic about the retcon of the web slinging teenager. First, they have Mark Webb, the director of my favorite movie from the past decade, behind the camera, which sounds perfect to me. On the other hand, that (500) Days of Summer, which didn't feature a single explosion or pitched action scene. Uh-oh.

If anything seals the deal for me, it's that Andrew Garfield is playing Peter Parker. Garfield wowed everyone with his sublime performances in The Social Network and Never Let Me Go last year, so I have no doubt he'll be able to do the Marvel icon justice.

And then there's this...

... and that looks pretty cool. Based on this picture, this version of Spider-Man looks to be a lot grimmer and darker than the campy, cheese filled Raimi movies. Hell! Garfield actually has a wound (of sorts) on his face, which is a lot more than Tobey Macguire ever received. Maybe they are going the Chris-Nolan-Batman route and making it hyper gritty. I don't particularly think that this will work for them, but, you never know. Either way, I'm interested. 

Thoughts?

2010: The Retrospect: MVPs of the Year (Actors)

Now for the important stuff!

Actors are the most instantly recognizable part of any movie. They are the ones that appear on the poster. They are the ones that are talked about the most when the movie comes out. They are the ones that people focus on most come awards season. A movie can live or die on their performances. The best actors can elevate a product to heavenly heights. The worst can sink a movie like it was the Titanic. 2010 had plenty of bad, even terrible performances, from lame action heroes, to lifeless muses, all capped off with one of the worst performances by a child actor ever. But, I'm not here to talk about that. That's no fun. We need some catharsis in this time of change. I know. It's difficult. Cheer up, damn it! So, with the intention of lifting your spirits, here are the MVP actors of the year. Seriously! Cheer up!

Before we go on, I want to address some people who don't make the short list, but are just as worthy of recognition. Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network). Armie Hammer (The Social Network). Vincent Cassel (Black Swan). Richard Jenkins (Let Me In). Jeff Bridges (True Grit). Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit). Mark Wahlberg (The Fighter). Allison Pill (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World). Helena Bonham Carter (The King's Speech). Mark Ruffalo (The Kids Are All Right, Shutter Island). Mia Wasikowska (The Kids Are All Right). Emma Watson (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1). Kristin Stewart (The Runaways).

Anyway, here's the main list, after the jump!

Fall Break Roundup

New York City. It never sleeps. The subways smell. It's always crowded. I love it! So much energy, so much culture, it's mind boggling! I had a very busy weekend, a lot of which was spent catching up with old friends, but, the film blogger/entertainment junkie in me needed to be fed, so, Monday (Columbus Day) was spent at the theatre, taking in some films that have since eluded me thanks to my almost rural living situation at Bard. Since I have three films to write about, I'm just going to do it all here, rather than separate reviews for each one. See? I'm consolidating! You know you love it!

But first, another furry. This is a hedgehog!

Fine! More like a prickly, but it's cute, so screw you!

Broken Social Scene

We live in a digital age. Like it or not, that's the way it is! Cell phones have replaced face to face conversation; e-mail has replaced paper mail; social networks have replaced actual socializing! I would say I don't like this, but who am I to talk? I'm a perpetrator! The Social Network would have you believe that it is simply the story of the creation of Facebook. It is far more then this. David Fincher's astounding new film holds up a mirror to modern day society, showing us all how friggin' dumb we have all become! Though I don't think this is the best movie going experience of the year (that's Inception), The Social Network is, officially, the movie to beat come Oscar time. Shockingly well made, impeccably scripted with career best performances from all involved, this is one piece of pop culture that you need to experience.

Oooo. Bunch of guys looking at a computer screen! Oh, the implications!