John Gushue . . . Dot Dot Dot

Inspector Chalmers goes to the land of Pulp Fiction

I can't stop chuckling about this mashup of The Simpsons and Pulp Fiction. 

 

Rey and that Obi-Wan Kenobi thing

The first words, apparently, in the upcoming The Last Jedi are "Who are you?", spoken by Luke Skywalker to the enigmatic Rey. 

Good question! When we saw The Force Awakens, I wondered whether  young Rey might be one of the Kenobi clan, assuming that there are some holes in that family story. Then I came across this wrap-up of quite a lot of threads of Star Wars lore, making the case for exactly that. Have a look. 

To make Rogue One, the producers dipped wayyy back into the Lucas archive

This is a full-fledged nerd-out on details of Rogue One, the Star Wars standalone feature ... including plenty of reveals of how elements in the film were lifted (if not scavenged) from the vaults, including the earliest scripts, as well as ideas that had been bounced around the saga in the past. There are also notes on likely inspirations for the film and its characters, from Winston Churchill's jowls to the gritty shooting and editing of Saving Private Ryan. It's a longer one, so set aside some time! 

 

From Vertigo to The Shining and Star Wars, and every other Pixar movie nod in between

Nothing like an homage, especially in the genius world of Pixar movies. Brilliant bit of editing here. 

 

Pixar's Tribute to Cinema from Jorge Luengo Ruiz on Vimeo.

Uptown Funk by Mark Ronson, feat. Bruno Mars ... and Leslie Nielsen and dozens of others

My son passed this one along: a video from What's the Mashup that has clips from no less than 100 movies all cut, right to the beat, to Uptown Funk. 

Which movies, you might ask? You can read the list in the notes section here. 

 

Steve Jobs: A movie about parenting as much as technology

My son and I went to see the movie Steve Jobs today. It's an interesting film, about a man who's both unlikable and charismatic, who was profoundly wrong about many things in his own life and yet was dead-certain in what he wanted to achieve ... and who ultimately got there. (The movie seems to say the latter happened after he dealt with the former. I think.)

The screenplay is dense and rapidly spoken; it actually felt a lot like a play, as it's in three acts, all set in closed spaced at three specific points in time.

I first used Apple products in the 80s, am peculiar enough to have loved the G3 iMac I worked with after it was introduced in 98, and now live in a house with multiple Apple laptops, tablets, phones and things, so the details and specificity in Aaron Sorkin's script were impressive.

Yet, the humanity of the story - a stubborn man's reluctance to let himself love his own child - is what binds it together.

Big Birdman

My son and I watched Birdman today (partly because the Oscars are tonight, mainly because we've been wanting to for a while), and having had the experience makes this Sesame Street parody that much funnier. 

 

Whaddya got?

"I was surprised as anyone when T-shirts, jeans and leather jackets suddenly became symbols of rebellion." 
- Marlon Brando, speaking about the unexpected consequences of his wardrobe from The Wild One

Slightly cinematic

Mads Mikkelsen reinvented the Bond villain with his portrayal of Le Chiffre in 2006's Casino Royale, but this post is not about him, or his character. Rather, it's about how his hand is moving. 

It's from a collection of what are called cinemagraphs, which are kind of like animated gifs, except that most of the image is static, and only a small part of the frame are in full motion. Have a look. 

How to pick a Christmas movie: The flowchart

We have some favourite movies in our house that get hauled out before and especially after Christmas. Familiarity doesn't breed contempt; with a few of them, it's hard to even count how many times they've been seen.

I got a kick out of this flowchart. 

 

by Lemon.ly.
Explore more infographics like this one on the web's largest information design community - Visually.

One part Ferris Bueller, one part Saw

My son was roaring over this parody trailer of Home Alone; he was plenty eager to show it to me. 

 

A sequel I actually want to see

With Tina Fey saying, "Put the frog down," how can you go wrong? 

 

How to pronounce 'supernova,' and other Star Wars bloopers

This is (evidently) some unearthed outtakes from the production of Star Wars in 1976; not the funniest, but it is amusing nonetheless, if only because the scenes are all so familiar. There is no sound in the opening sequence. 

 

Batman shows Dr. Lecter his credentials

Imagine Batman and Bane in some well-known films ... and now imagine a twist for Halloween. 

Away we go. 

 

The history of aspect ratio

Here's one for the movie buffs ... and for anyone who's ever wondered why the shape of cinema screens has evolved. 

If Pixar remade The Shining

Kyle Lambert, a Manchester-based visual artist, creates some wildly inspired things, including Toy Shining, which takes Toy Story characters and inserts them into Stanley Kubrick's imaging of the The Shining. Click here to see more. 

There are minions on my plate

My wife and I got such a kick out of Despicable Me and its minions that we went to see the sequel on our own, our now-teenage son developing a serious case of eyeroll and "you've got to be kidding" disease. (His loss. We laughed.) 

I got a kick out of this collection of food photos that not only have creative uses for veggies, but are hilarious too. 

That's nice, Dory, but I'd rather have Edna Mode

The above image was the announcement Ellen DeGeneres made (obviousy with Disney's blessing) this week about the coming sequel to Finding Nemo. Finding Dory will pick up the story of the blue fish with the terrible memory, and evidently will be centered on the waters off California.

Finding Nemo is a movie I've seen countless times. We took our son to it when he was a preschooler, and the subsequent DVD played well over once or twice. The themes of parenting must have resonated too. Plus, those seagulls! 

I'm not at all surprised that Pixar is reaching into libraries for sequels (Monsters U. is up next), but the one I want to see the most remains nothing more than good wishes. 

The Incredibles, from 2004, is the Pixar movie that really knocked my socks off. I loved the story, I liked seeing how the movie dealt with the contentious themes of encouraging kids to excel rather than merely participate, I loved how it made a meal out of the imagery and ideas of the Silver Age of comics, and I thought so much of Michael Giacchino's score that I bought the soundtrack. 

The writer and director, Brad Bird, has mused about putting together a sequel, but nothing has happened yet. Bird has been preoccupied with other things, like the last Mission: Impossible movie and the forthcoming sci-fi movie Tomorrowland, which may or may not have a lot to do with the Disney theme park of the same name, but which will be shooting in Vancouver later this year with the likes of George Clooney and Hugh Laurie. 

So, no Dash, Violet or Jack-Jack (the baby who, a subsequent short later showed, has firemonster powers) for the time being. Fingers, though, remain crossed. 

Roger Ebert changed how I looked at movies

Yesterday, I read the sad news that cancer had returned to Roger Ebert, and I suspected that the headlines of today - that he has died, at just 70 - were not far off. 

He published his final entry in Roger Ebert's Journal for the Chicago Sun-Times just two days ago. 

"Thank you," it opened, as he thanked his readers for what they gave him over the years. 

I came to know Roger Ebert and his thumb-giving colleague Gene Siskel through the PBS show Sneak Previews, which was such an eye-opener to the teenage movie buff that I was in the late Seventies. I devoured magazine reviews of movies (anything I could find at home or at the library by Judith Crist or Richard Corliss and later Pauline Kael), but I loved watching Ebert and later reading his books and columns. He had popular tastes, but he had a wonderful way of shining a light on movies that needed the boost. No doubt many of the obituaries to be written in the next few hours will focus on the profound influence he had on independent and foreign titles, some being able to find distributors and audiences because of his words. That was one mighty thumb. 

If Avatar had been made in the Sixties

It was the age of 3D ... the first time around. 

This parody is just one of a hilarious set that movie buffs should check out when they have a second. Mick Jagger as James Bond, anyone? 

For our viewing pleasure

I somehow missed Hot Fuzz when it came out, and thereafter ... until now. Nick and I watched it this evening, and laughed ourselves silly. 

How hard could it be?

"More than in the other performing arts the lack of respect for acting seems to spring from the fact that every layman considers himself a valid critic." 
- Uta Hagen 

The Quentin Tarantino death count

My teenage son and I watched Pulp Fiction last weekend (Martha, who is not that much of a fan, was at a social gathering). I hadn't seen the movie in years, and Nick had been wanting to see it, if only to place various parodies, including those on the Simpsons and Community, into context. There were definitely as many swear words as I remembered, but oddly not as much violence. The movie, I guess, had become more brutal in filtered recollection as the years went by. Still just as funny, though. 

Here's a chart from Laughing Squid, showing the evidently very careful research that someone did on the body count of one of the most violence-approving directors of them all. 

If The Dark Knight Rises had really tipped its hand in a trailer

I actually liked how Christopher Nolan wrapped up his Batman trilogy, but I still got a laugh out of the Honest Trailers take on The Dark Knight Rises.

 

Oscar takes on the guise of each Best Picture winner

Olly Moss created this remarkable poster that says something, often subtly, about each of the Best Picture winners so far. The Artist, for instance, is in black and white. Some were probably obvious (Hannibal Lecter's straitjacket, Lawrence of Arabia's robes), although I was stumped for a second as to why the one for 2001 appeared to be missing ... until I remembered that A Beautiful Mind won for that year. 

How many can you spot quickly?  Click on the image to get a larger view. If you need a guide, or a prompt, here's a list of all the Best Picture winners.