Digesting And Spewing Pop Culture Into Your Face

So I’m about to watch the remake of The Crazies. I don’t know why I do this to myself as I’m a pussy in general when it comes to horror movies but when it comes to zombies I’m actually quite terrified. I have an irrational fear of them that extends into the real world were I worry about the impending zombie apocalypse.  I should probably put a video of myself while I watch it and let you people laugh me. The funny thing is for the most part I’ve forced myself to watch almost every major zombie movie out there. It’s some sort of sickness I have as I also read The Walking Dead (and am salivating waiting for Frank Darabont’s AMC show in the fall). I actually was able to trace back into my childhood where this stupid fear ( Kinemortophobia ) came from. It was that stupid (but awesome) Thriller video. Yes, Michael Jackson’s opus of a video was the root cause. I watched it every time it was on but that shit at the end with the zombies breaking into the house and ripping stuff apart, Christ, I’m getting scared just writing about it. Little did I know that the scariest part about that video was the main freak dancing in it. I also think the original Night of the Living Dead had a hand in it as well. So, I’m obsessed with the undead in all of their incarnations and yet here I go about to scar myself some more. Wish me luck!!!

UPDATE 1:
Oh great!! Intro the movie with a Johnny Cash song. You fuck heads…

UPDATE 2:

Alright the movie is over and I’m still alive which I think is good. It wasn’t as scary as I thought it would be and it was really good too. In fact I’m a little disappointed it wasn’t scarier. Oh well.

The recent video of the AT-AT pet was pretty dang cool. The director, Patrick Boivin, has made a short companion video showing his behind the scenes work. It’s accompanied by some nice music and is a nifty little look into how some visual effects are achieved. My good friend Rob has a short he is hopefully finishing soon that I plan to have up on here. It’s FX heavy and should be a great showcase for his talent. Stay tuned…

This is from the same guy, Patrick Boivin, who brought us Iron Baby (She also has a cameo in this one). Spoiler: Jabba the Poop is the best part. Hopefully whatever he makes next is the most awesomest yet. (Via)

Today is the second day of the First Annual Hero Complex Film Festival at Mann’s Chinese Theatre right in the heart of Hollywood. Yesterday the movie was Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (Yes, that’s the whale one) and the guest speaker was Leonard Nimoy who directed it. I didn’t attend but there was a great write-up over on Ain’t It Cool News. Tomorrow will be day 3 with a double feature showing Alien and Blade Runnner with the director Ridley Scott taking quetions after. I opted for todays double feature with The Dark Knight and Insomniac (I’m actually hoping Insomniac is just placeholder and Inception is the other movie) with a Q&A with director Christopher Nolan.  It should be a pretty good time as I’m always down to see the sublimely perfect The Dark Knight and Insomniac is a decent enough film. It would have been cooler to see The Prestige as that movie is an amazing supernatural thriller with some great twists. I’ll probably do a quick write-up when I get back as some Batman 3 tid-bits might make there way out. If you are in the LA area tickets are still available for today so you might want to hit it up. Goodbye for now.

Gizmodo has a great post up about some old employee training videos from the IBM made in the 60′s. As anyone who has a worked at a major retailer knows, training videos can be really bad. For example here is a two parter from Funcoland (now Gamestop):

HOLY SHIT!!!!!! That was fucking terrible. Well now that we have that out of the way we can check out these pretty cool videos. As it turns out, a then unknown puppeteer was hired by IBM to make their videos and have them actually be entertaining. In my opinion they got a really good deal:

I love that the coffee machine is Kermit’s voice and The Cookie Monster hasn’t been perfected yet.

Rowlf is still the best…

It’s great to see this early work of Jim Henson. If there is anyone besides Dr. Seuss who had a big influence on me as a child it would have to be Jim Henson and the Muppets. From Sesame Street to Fraggle Rock and the Muppet movies to everything in between he had a way of capturing the imagination. Now if all of the clearance issues could be resolved and we can finally get some Muppet Babies on DVD everything would be right with the world.

Try to get that song out of your head… I dare you.

As an added bonus here are some pictures of an old metal Muppet Babies lunchbox that I turned into a pretty nifty charging station:

So this is a pretty cool video. I love that the baby talking is a bunch of cooing (especially when she first flies through the air). Check it out and enjoy it and have a great Memorial Day Weekend!!!!

There is a great article up on Ars Technica that dissects the past and future of the original Star Wars Trilogy and there many different and varied incarnations. As you may or may not know George Lucas in his infinite wisdom has gone back to his original masterpieces and made some drastic changes to their original representations:

Now that that’s out of the way, the article is an interesting read and you should definitely check it out as the idea of maybe getting an original cut the way many of the hardcore fans want it may be a possibility on Blu Ray.

Last year Thinkgeek.com made many a fanboy happy when their Tauntaun sleeping bag originally meant as one of their annual April’s Fools Day jokes was actually made into a real item to purchase from their website.

That was a hit and now they’ve come up with a worthy companion piece. This Wampa styled bear rug is truly amazing. First of all anyone who remembers the scene from The Empire Strikes Back is sure to remember how scary this creature was as it knocked out Luke and then hung him like a slab of beef in a walk in freezer. Lest you forgot here’s the scene so the fear can ooze all over you again:

Now that we’ve been appropriately reminded we can take comfort in the knowledge that Thinkgeek has got our backs and done all of us a favor by killing that fucking thing and turning it into a comfortable plush rug with it’s head as a nice pillow. It’s currently out of stock but you can sign up to be notified when it’s available and seriously… for $99 bucks you can’t really go wrong.

So I just got back from a very early screening of Todd Phillip’s follow up to the “Hangover”. The movie is called “Due Date” and stars Robert Downey Jr. and Zach Galifianakis (yes I had to look up the spelling of his last name, but I got the “Zach” part right). It’s supposed to come out in November so it was definitely rough around the edges but per the usual for a test screening. A little color correction and some tighter editing and it should be pretty great. The movie is a buddy road comedy which is intriguing for Todd Phillip’s to delve into as he’s already made a classic one before in the movie “Roadtrip”. The gist of the plot is that Robert Downey Jr.’s character has to get home to his wife in time for the birth of their first child. Michelle Monaghan plays his wife but it’s not really a meaty role as most of the movie she interacts with Downey through cellphone conversations and really is just part of the reason for he movie to exist. It’s too bad because she played so well off of Downey in “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang”. The movie had some other great cameo type small parts by Juliette Lewis (a regular in Phillip’s movies now), Jamie Foxx, and Danny McBride who really gets a lot out of small roles (Tropic Thunder anyone?). The use of Downey as a straight man to Galifianakis’ obviously over the top funny is great especially as Downey has proven himself to be quite the comedian on film. He is able to really deliver some of the funnier parts in the movie and they come across as appropriately absurd but believable as his character has quite the established temper. One such scene involves some pot, rolled up car windows and “Hey You” by Pink Floyd and is actually just the right amount of uncomfortable in regards to Downey’s past drug use which results in a scene from any stoners’ repertoire of actual life events. The only real problem I had with the movie was the pacing as the emotional parts were a little stiff and somewhat out of place. I understand what Phillip’s was going for as any road trip comedy has to be held up to the perfectly sublime “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” which had some of the best comedy but also a very emotional kicker at the end. I’m almost sure these scenes will be somewhat tightened up by November and there is one great line from Galifianakis in regards to his deceased father that fits the tone of the movie perfectly. It’s gotta be a little rough for Todd Phillip’s to come off of “The Hangover” and have to deliver something that will be as successful or close to successful but I think he’s done a fine job and this movie fits right in with his previous work. Thanks for reading!!!!