tagged w/ Lists
-
The concept of the "cliffhanger" comes to us from the old movie serials which would, often quite literally, come to abrupt ends with their heroes dangling precariously, while emphatic voiceovers demanded that audiences wait until next week to find out their fates. The idea hasn't died with color film and CGI—nope, the cliffhanger ending is still very much alive and well in the wood they call Holly. Here are some of the most notorious cases of movie blue balls.
---Watch em ALL !
http://www.maxim.com/movies/the-movie-blog/92659/10-best-movie-cliffhangers.htmlThe concept of the "cliffhanger" comes to us from the old movie serials... more
-
-
Over 2,500 Glossary Links-( LOTS O' STUFF; This can amuse for QUITE some time )
The WWW is a wonderful place. Here are hundreds of the glossaries and dictionaries I have found during my web wanderings.
http://www.frankdietz.com/glossary.htmOver 2,500 Glossary Links-( LOTS O' STUFF; This can amuse for QUITE some time )... more
-
-
"The Fly"
Whoa boy. Talk about disturbing imagery. Although this classic starts off with an experiment in matter transportation, it takes a sharp turn toward genetic muckery really quickly. The memory of Jeff Goldbum as a half-man, half-fly creature still haunts me to this day. In fact, I'm pretty sure this movie is the reason actual teleportation hasn't been developed yet. Somebody watched "The Fly" and thought, "Yeah. What if that did happen?" Any number of David Cronenberg films could fit here (does anyone not shudder at the memory of "Dead Ringers"?), but "The Fly" wins, if only for the goo factor.
http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2010/04/28/the-human-centipede-movie-medical-experiments/"The Fly"
Whoa boy. Talk about disturbing imagery. Although this classic... more
-
-
-
It's a shame these styled adverts aren't more widely used because they're very creative and fun to see. Urlesque creates a list of 24 of these escalator/elevator advertisements where the designer plays with how the doors/steps moves. The Kill Bill one is fantastic and I almost lol'd at the divorce lawyers advert.It's a shame these styled adverts aren't more widely used because... more
-
-
I have compiled a list of the 25 best wallet designs. These designs include retro, pop art, classic, comic, artsy, weird, graphic, horror and funny. These are the wallets that you must have unless your going into an important meeting then you need to walk yourself down to MACYS and purchase a CALVIN KLEIN wallet.I have compiled a list of the 25 best wallet designs. These designs include... more
-
-
Animals are very fascinating creatures unlike the insects which generally creeps the bajeezers out of me. I love to go to the zoo and take a look at the new animals that are their while staying far away from the insect sections. But as of late their hasn't been anything new or cool at ZOOS around ILLINOIS.Animals are very fascinating creatures unlike the insects which generally creeps the... more
-
-
Cracked are the Kings of lists,and nothing will quite put you off everything than this list titled 'The 7 Most Horrifying Things Ever Discovered in a Human Body'. Glad it's not a top 10, but defiantly one to make you squirm with ewness.
No.7 "An x-ray was taken, and they found a "large, dark mass," which ranks up there with "colony of spiders" in the list of phrases you are least happy to hear after a medical examination.
When they operated to remove what they assumed was a tumor, they instead pulled out a..."-Cracked
Click the link for the full list.Cracked are the Kings of lists,and nothing will quite put you off everything than this... more
-
-
-
Every Thursday we are going to start a new trend here and hopefully everywhere. We love coffee and we know the rest of the WORLD loves COFFEE. I think it's time to give back and start to Celebrate COFFEE every THURSDAY!
To start off Coffee Thursday we wanted to give to you a list of the 10 BEST COFFEE MUGS!Every Thursday we are going to start a new trend here and hopefully everywhere. We... more
-
-
-
-
-
It’s happened to us all at one point. Even half way through a superb game a character pops up that is so annoying that it almost puts us off the game entirely. No matter how much tweaking developers go about there’s never anyone there to say, `Hey. Look, this character is about as easy to put up with as an ice pick in the forehead’. Here’s my top 10 list of annoying videogame characters old and new!
http://thegamingliberty.com/index.php/2010/04/01/the-top-10-most-annoying-videogame-characters/It’s happened to us all at one point. Even half way through a superb game a... more
-
-
The guys at Pajiba just had to follow up their Best of The Wire video with something even better. Something so dramatic, so hoakey, so utterly cheesy...that you can't help but watch. Because you need this.
[via The L, Daily What]
The guys at Pajiba just had to follow up their Best of The Wire video with... more
-
-
The day before New Year's means you've got time to kill. And baby, ain't nothing kill time faster than a list or three.
-The Top 10 Conservative Films of the Decade from Brits! [Daily Telegraph]
-Does Knowing really belong on a Top Ten of 2009 list? Maybe...[Little Gold Men]
-Bilge Eberi's Top 10 has a Number One you won't believe. [AMC News]
-Andrew O'Hehir's best of 2009 is worth checking out, as is Film Salon. [Salon]
-Speaking of FS, Matt Zoller Seitz is counting down the best directors of the decade. [Film Salon]
-74 Critics are lumped into a gigantic Best Of 2009 diagram. One of them is an ex-teacher of mine. One is a friend of mine. The other is a fucking hack named Kirk Honeycutt who JUST THIS MONTH corrected his Harmony and Me typo from June. [MCN]
The day before New Year's means you've got time to kill. And baby,... more
-
-
In case you're blind or lucky enough to not be a film nerd, you may not be aware we're in the midst of list season. This is the magical time of year when every film nerd, cinephile, blogger, critic, writer, journalist, "journalist," and new media savior whip out their Macbooks and start combing through ripped up press notes to assemble their personal choice for films that reflect the year.
There's an important word there: "personal."
Because of that, we have Scott Feinberg to thank for this installment of Great Moments in Dickitude.
It's true, Feinberg may be no Christopher McDonald, so why award him for being a massive dick? Why are you unfamiliar with his name? Does it even matter that a random guy on the Internet is a dick?
Let's discuss, shall we?
First and foremost, Scott Feinberg wants to let you know that "YOUR AD HERE!" is the valid name for his site. You could also call it "And The Winner Is...," but it doesn't have quite the same ring to it. He's an "Oscar Oracle" and knows how the industry likes to vote--at least in 2004 and 2006. The other years don't get mentioned in his on-site bio. Those must've been the years that the "fucking snobs" were picking snob films like Good Night, and Good Luck or No Country for Old Men for Best Picture instead of longshots like Finding Neverland and Letters from Iwo Jima
Feinberg tweeted earlier today: "This is why people hate film critics...what a fucking snob" then linking to Richard Brody's Best of the Decade list.
Brody begins:
It’s been an unusual decade; I spent much of it hunched over spiral notebooks and laptop computers in libraries and cafés and at kitchen tables here and in France while writing a book (remind me to mention the bathroom, in a house in Normandy, that I rigged out as a nocturnal study), and didn’t maintain my usual diet of cinephilic delights.
GOD. WHAT A FUCKING SNOB. HE USES SPIRAL NOTEBOOKS AND WRITES WORDS IN FRANCE.
Which is why, though few who issue their best-of-decade lists can claim to have seen all releases, many have likely seen more than I have this time around, so I’ll put an asterisk to the adjective above and note: the twenty-six best movies I’ve seen (and will resist the temptation to issue a separate list of the best films I haven’t seen).
If you're still missing the important point, allow me to spread it out like a mid-summer picnic: there is no hint of "fucking snob" in Brody's list. Personal opinion and even a list of honorable mentions follows in an orderly fashion from a critic who then invites discussion about the films he did miss; the two key exceptions being The Darjeeling Limited and Knocked Up, which did receive a mid-to-wide release.
The implication that Feinberg makes is clear: if a film isn't widely released or avaliable, it is a sign of elitism and "fucking snobbery." Being the bastion of new media that I am, I openly asked Feinberg to explain himself. We'll update if he responds.
Whatever the reason, Feinberg doesn't explain what a "fucking snob" means. It couldn't possibly be generating listicles, since that is his weekly bread and butter. Maybe it is the overabundance of foreign films? Feinberg's own Best of the Decade (part 1 and 2) keep Dogville as its' sole "foreign" member, while touting Juno, Wall-E and Traffic amongst his non-"fucking snob" ranks.
Whatever the case, it is with baited breath we wait to hear what makes a "fucking snob." Until this, a very special thanks to Scott Feinberg for giving us another Great Moment in Dickitude.
In case you're blind or lucky enough to not be a film nerd, you may not be... more
-
-
Making pointless lists is a staple of a majority of film blogs. In fact, after reading Defamer's list of Pool Movies that Ruined A Generation's Greatest Directors one is begged to ask the question: "Just what in the hell is the point of this pointless list?"
For some reason, the entire directorial talent pool of the 1990s can be summed up from the works of Quentin Tarantino (who is the article's basis with his GQ Interview), David Fincher, Ang Lee, Curtis Hanson, Jonathan Demme and Steven Soderbergh. But as our new-as-of-yesterday writer tells us, it is their "Pool Movie" that defines them. While waxing poetic on his retirement-at-60 wish, Tarantino said:
"Like what Sam Fuller did the last twenty years of his life. That looked pretty groovy to me. And when I'm sitting there in my retrospective, I don't want to have to watch the movie I made to pay for my pool."
This is the plan of an elderly Tarantino, who will phase into the critical mind-set once he's done directing and writing, one assumes. But even then, he's already made a "pool movie" (hello Grindhouse.) But NatashaVC prefaces this with a frightening question:
If you remember all that then you certainly remember the sense of betrayal you felt when you heard something, like, say Robert Rodriguez was directing Spy Kids 2? What happened to these guys?!
Betrayal? Wait, Robert Rodriguez has always directed hackney genre crap. His first film was about a Marachi* who then got a gun! It was called El Marichi* and then got remade into the same film! But now it's too late and so let's take a look at how this list should have been done.
[youtube oxZkcSIveCw]
David Fincher: Director of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Zodiac, Fight Club, Se7en, The Game, Alien 3
Natasha's and Our Pool Movie: Panic Room
Total Domestic Gross: $96,397,334
Estimated Cost: $48 Million
Tomatometer: 77 Percent
Let's start with the most peculiar statement, which happens to be Natasha's lede: "Fincher was a decorative filmmaker with a pretty morbid vision." Wes Anderson, maybe, fits the bill for decorative, focusing on an abundance of detail and flash in his stills. Fincher is grim and more concerned with how people interact than whether his sets are accurate. This can not be the case with Zodiac, since the amount of CGI that went into recreating San Francisco is incredible. Now for Panic Room: what's the problem with this? He's mediocre as a filmmaker? Are you high on shitty corn flakes from the 1990s?
Button, as a friend corrects me, was in production long before Zodiac came out. But I'm not sure how else to defend or explain this since the brunt of Natasha's argument is because Jodie Foster does a lot of movies, Fincher is bad? And lowered himself to doing genre? Again, not entirely sure about the point here.
[youtube huSh-9JeRtM]
Jonathan Demme: Director of Cousin Bobby, Philadelphia, The Complex Sessions, Murder Incorporated, Beloved, The Truth About Charlie, Rachel Getting Married
Natasha's Pool Movie: The Truth About Charlie
Our Pool Movie: The Manchurian Candidate remake.
Total Domestic Gross: $65,955,630
Estimated Cost: $80 Million
Tomatometer: 82 percent
Sure, "Silence of the Lambs was a game changer for all psychological thrillers about wang-tucking serial killers" and "But then Demme dropped the Whalberg bomb with The Truth About Charlie. That is an awful movie! And Demme has not made anything not-awful since!" Yet the remake of Charlie could hardly be considered a pool movie. It barely made $5 million and was filled with Demme-friends and acquaintances, making it more of a holiday featuring cameras than something to re-finance his house. But his remake of Candidate? Fantastic!
Filled with fun so dumb, even Natasha could enjoy it! It even did horrible in the box office, so it makes a better choice than hers.
[youtube 0sN4YykUDyE]
Curtis Hanson: Director of The River Wild, The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, L.A. Confidential, Wonder Boys, Lucky You, In Her Shoes
Natasha's Pool Movie: Lucky You
Our Pool Movie: 8 Mile
Total Domestic Gross: $116,750,901
Estimated Budget: $41 million
Tomatometer: 74 percent
Sure, Natasha's choice was Lucky You and that was made to finance something. And then she quotes Rex Reed.
I'm not even sure why. In fact, if anything 8 Mile, financed entirely by Eminem in an attempt to give his career another shot in the arm, is more of a vanity project than anything else Hanson did. And this guy made Losin' It.
[youtube xnC8b6pvE_8]
Steven Soderbergh: sex, lies and videotape; Gray's Anatomy, Out of Sight, The Limey, Solaris, Traffic, The Good German Che Part One & Part Two
Natasha's Pool Movie: The Good German
Our Pool Movie: Oceans 11, 12, 13
Total Domestic Gross(es):$183,417,150, $125,544,280 , $117,154,724
Estimated Budget(s) : $85 million, $110 million, n/a
Tomatometer(s): 80 percent, 56 percent, 70 percent
No one saw The Good German. It was an attempt by Soderbergh to create a classic film and an experiment in making a period thriller using period techniques. In no way would it ever pay for anyone's pool. But the Ocean's Trilogy? Now there is a cash cow ripe for the making--so much that the filming of the second film was treated by all involved as a vacation rather than a movie shoot.
Also, Natasha, his name is Steven. Not Steve.
[youtube K8SyqH3fjfA]
Ang Lee: Director of Eat Drink Man Woman, Sense and Sensibility, The Ice Storm, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Chosen, Brokeback Mountain; Lust, Caution
Natasha's and Our Pool Movie: Hulk
Total Domestic Gross: $132,177,234
Estimated Budget: $137 million
Tomatometer: 61 percent
We can't really argue against this choice, but we can argue that Natasha's genius: "Just when we were starting to believe that you were as good as your as all those Oscars said you were, you go and make The Hulk." Now to be fair, it was just called Hulk. And also, as good as your as all those Oscars makes no sense.
But at the time, this was Lee's biggest movie and his first real shove into the commercial mainstream. It's even playing at Lincoln Center's retro for him, which describes the film as "After the success of Crouching Tiger, Lee surprised many Hollywood insiders by taking over a CGI-heavy, action free-for-all. The result, however, was not Sam Raimi’s comic book movie. Scientist Bruce Banner (Eric Bana) is hit by an experimental ray gun that transforms him into an indestructible green monster, inspiring fear (and a few entrepreneurial ideas) in both his military and corporate underwriters and the creepy janitor who seems to know a lot about Banner’s work."
But to truly appreciate what a horrible job Natasha did, check out Karina Longworth's epic take-down at Spout.
-John Lichman
*edit: Jen Yamato points out to me I misspelt Mariachi. Twice. Awesome.
Making pointless lists is a staple of a majority of film blogs. In fact, after reading... more
-
-
We relaunched current.com/music yesterday, with a fancy new format that is, at least a little, designed to show off the eclectic and sometimes ridiculous musical taste of our whole team. I'm collecting Top 3s from everyone—for just about anything they'd like to make a list about.
I went first:
Shana's top 3 albums of 2009 (so far):
UPDATE: With a line of commentary each, sorry I was in such a rush this morning!
1. Music For Men (Columbia Records)
The Gossip
Has been in heavy rotation at work and—the true test—in the car since I first got a copy months ago. Lean, mean (but not in spirit, just in efficiency) rock and roll. Beth Ditto sounds like Dolly Parton here, but in a heavy, ’70s disco-rock way. This is a great example of how someone like Rick Rubin can help make a great band sound its very best—by getting out of the way and helping them clean things up.
2. Swoon (Dangerbird Records)
Silversun Pickups
The publicist played the first half of this for me and Davis back in March-ish, when we were first talking with them about Embedded. I liked "Carnavas" but wasn't a huge fan. Then I heard, in succession, "There's No Secrets This Year" and "The Royal We." Fucking. Epic. I agree with Alex that this album stood the test of working on a piece about it for all this time. The night we premiered our episode I listened to it on the way home, just as loud and dark and delicious as the first play through.
3. Trio B.C. (Blackheart Records)
Girl In A Coma
Here's another second album from a band that I liked but now absolutely love. Three kick-ass rock chicks from Texas with sultry songs that alternately seduce and stun you into screaming along. If we'd had a first dance at our wedding, I wanted it to be "El Monte."
Coming soon from other staffers: "top 3 songwriters I'd marry for their lyrical prowess," "top 3 songs more or less about the same thing," "top 3 songs to drive fast to" and more.
>> Get loud, get glam, get on stageWe relaunched current.com/music yesterday, with a fancy new format that is, at least a... more
-
-
shana
-
added this
-
3 years ago
- |
-
Last week we talked about Time magazine's Man of the Year and I made a list of the Top Ten News Stories of 2009 (it's on Hulu!) - but I felt like I would be remiss without making a round-up of all the good year-end and decade-end lists out there. I've just got a few here so post your favorites in the comments.
One of our favorite blogs of the year, Big Picture, posted its best photos of the year in three parts. (One / Two / Three) Then, just to rub our noses in how awesome they are, they posted a best of the decade.
Foreign Policy magazine has a list of the top 10 stories you missed in 2009 - my favorite kind of list. Included are a new hotline between China and India's leaders and the opening of the Northeast Passage.
The New York Times Magazine has their ninth annual year in ideas. One of my favorites is "Social Networks as Foreign Policy" - talking about Twitter's role in the Iran election protests.
Current's team has put together some of our best of the year: The Rotten Tomatoes show had their Year Endies, Brett Erlich recalled the best Viral Videos of 2009, Current Music picked their top virals of the year, as did Current Comedy, and plenty more.
If the scope of just this year is too small for you, don't worry, The Onion has the Top Ten Stories of the Last 4.5 Billion Years.
And finally, the blog Fimoculous has tirelessly catalogued a 2009 List of Lists. You'll need look no further for a more meta, more comprehensive 2009 list.
So what else is out there? What's your favorite year-end or decade-end list?
Recently on the Current News Blog:
- Iranian spirital leader Montazeri dies; Opposition protests at his funeral
- Malnutrition and education in Guatemala - Global Citizen Year
- Arturo Beltran Levya, Mexican drug lord killed - Graphic Photos
- WTF Iran? Twitter hacked and oil well seized
- Is there a coup coming in Pakistan?Last week we talked about Time magazine's Man of the Year and I made a list of... more
-
