Simpson, eh? This Accordion Guy blogger has compiled a nice set of screengrabs comparing episodes of the Simpsons with the movies they were emulating/lampooning. A brilliant start to a project that could take years to finalize (given the number of cinematical type references on that animated treasure of a show).
Hotel Chevalier
A couple years back Wes Anderson filmed a 13-minute prologue to his upcoming The Darjeeling Limit (Oct 5) called Hotel Chevalier.
The short film is set in Paris a couple weeks before the events in Darjeeling. Stars Jason Schwartzman and Natalie Portman, who, apparently, gets rather Steamy. Even better, the whole deal is a free download over at the iTunes (take that, AmazonMP3!).
"I was financing it myself, so there was no money to raise," said Anderson. "We got a little crew together -- 15 people -- and shot quickly. We dressed it with stuff from my apartment. It was like making a student film."
Bruce Lee the Invincible
Key sequence from Bruce Lee the Invincible (Nan yang tang ren jie), wherein our hero is forced to contend with a highly agitated Malaysian Boxing Gorilla:
Gives me a whole new respect for Jane Goodall.
Obviously that's Bruce Li, not Bruce Lee, as the money-grabbing title suggests. Additional (and equally brilliant) man v. monkey sequence over here.
Favorite YouTube comment: "It's not bruce lee, but the gorillas are real, right?"
Director Darren Delayed Dialogue Download
Writer/Director Darren Aronofsky has recently posted a commentary track for The Fountain on his personal website. I reckon it's an MP3 that plays out as you watch the movie. I wouldn't actually know, as his site has "exceeded the allotted bandwith", so it's down for the count at the moment.
The Fountain was one of the Toshi Station Top Five movies of 2006. As noted on his blog, Aronofsky wasn't very happy with the bare-bones, commentary-less Warner Bros. DVD release:
"Everything at the studio was a struggle. For instance, they didn?t want to do a commentary track cause they felt it wouldn?t help sales. I didn?t have it in me to fight anymore. Whatever."
Friday: Deadwood Season Three This entire final season built to a last episode that, as we fired 'er up, literally had me on the edge of the couch in anticipation of the old timey bloodbath that was sure to transpire. Much to our dismay, the show observed a (frankly rather dull) historical fidelity over the comeuppance-laden, town-encompassing, absolutely epic gunfight that had been percolating for so very, very long. Wholly unsatisfying.
Still, nobody but nobody writes dialogue like David Milch.
Saturday: Seraphim Falls So, there's this one guy, and he's being chased by this other guy. The movie cruises along on this lean, beautiful simplicity until the last ten minutes, wherein the wagon completely loses its wheels. Certainly worth watching, right until Anjelica Huston shows up literally out of nowhere. From Anjelica forward, it's just plain awful. Puzzlingly bad.
Cinematography does plenty of justice to the stunning scenery though.
Sunday: 3:10 to Yuma The '57 Glenn Ford original had a narrative well worth revisiting. The remake here was evenly split between gunfightin' and close-ups of Crowe and Bale glaring menacingly at each other. Which was great.
Scope the movie posters. Love the first one. The middle there was a freebie at Comic-Con last July.
Freakin' Sweet! To promote the upcoming Family Guy hour-long season premiere, Fox "sent out" movie posters to various press outlets. Whumbo version behind the thumbnail. The Star Wars-themed epsiode airs in two weeks.
From Fox:
After the Griffin?s lose power, Peter entertains the family with the greatest story ever told?the story of Star Wars! After Princess Leia (Lois) comes under siege by Darth Vader (Stewie) and his evil Storm Troopers, C-3PO (Quagmire) and R2-D2 (Cleveland) escape to find the only person who can help the Rebel Alliance. On their quest thorough the desert planet of Tatooine, C-3PO and R-2D2 find extra help in Obi-Wan Kenobi (Herbert), Luke Skywalker (Chris), Han Solo (Peter) and Chewbacca (Brian) and head back to battle the Death Star in an epic intergalactic fight to the death in the "Blue Harvest" episode of FAMILY GUY on Sunday, Sept. 23 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT.)
