Cashcrops from Music Scenes

First of all i would like to know why i have to press publish post like 8 times for it to properly post... anyway onto my point of this blog posting.
Since Juno came out there have been a few movies (Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist is a perfect example) that have been pointed directly at people in the Indie rock music scene and this bugs me. Why does this bug me? First of all Juno was good but not Nick & Norah which this blog bashes on. Personally i like the Indie scene and these movies are travesties to them, recently the movie Nick & Norah came to theatres and to be honest i never watched it but one of my close friends who is a die hard Indie chick said that the movie was awful and clearly was just a cashcrop however had great music. I expected an awful movie from the first time i saw the poaster which was Juno's font but a different background.
The point is that studios do this with every big music trend and make it mainstream effectively killing it. (metal is the exception). Modern movie studios have been making movies about music trends forever but recently they've been gradually going downhill, the downhill slide began with Wayne's World 2 which was okay but significantly less funny as the original. Then we where graced by Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey which made me feel dumber for having watched it. This trend wasn't just a 80's metal/ Hard Rock thing it has also occured in hip hop starting with House Party and going downhill to ATL. The problem is when music and culture gets more commercial then you move from great bands like Public Enemy and movies like Boyz N Da Hood to less talented (to censor myself) singers like Ja Rule and films such as stomp the yard.
The secret is to not let big companies like Universal Pictures and Capitol Records get involved and stay with indie companies. Hopefully Indie rock wont become a literal contradiction of its self and will follow this advice. For lack of a better term musicians dont "Keep it real" and end up usurping their culture for money (ex: Kanye West, 50 Cent, and Slipknot). Most likely this will always happen but there has to be a balance for that we can thank Marilyn Mansion, Dimmu Borgir, Spike Lee (eventhough hes preachy as hell), De La Soul and The Rapture.

Video Games to movies (Hitman the movie)

Why... is it deemed necessary that every time a game is a hit there must be a movie made of it? All these lead to are me going to a movie of a game expecting a great movie because the game knocked my socks off and i get let down by some Hollywood writer who tries to stick a trilogy of games into a single 120 minute movie (ex: Hitman). This sort of thing continuously happens because nobody has had the idea to just copy the script of the game to a movie script without tampering with it and have never even played the game. The other reason video game to movie conversions fail is that the producers get a guy who is popular and attractive as opposed to being a perfect actor for the role to do the lead, again this is a bash on Timothy Olyphant's performance in Hitman versus their original idea to use, the greatest man on earth next to Chuck Norris, the one and only Vin Diesel. Vin would have had the look of Agent 47 and the voice too. Why they didn't use him is beyond me. I'm not saying that Timothy Olyphant isn't a great action star but the Romanian killing machine Agent 47 of the Hitman series does not have a normal american accent and is a lot bigger in stature. The choice of using Timothy Olyphant is the equivelent of using Mr. Bullinger from the science department as a lead character because hes a big guy with a shaved head. Maybe one day film studios will learn to ask gamers about video game to movie conversions and it will be actually good, but until then like an Alzheimer's disease patient i will go into video game movies with my hopes up and have the exact same experience.


Below: Agent 47 from hitman the game.

Cowboy movies

First of all I'm not big on westerns but I'll get into that later. For some reason when people talk about westerns nobody ever mentions my favorite which is Tombstone. I love that movie because its Val Kilmer's only good performance to date, its a good ol' fashioned western disguised as a revisionist western and everybody has a mustache especially Sam Elliot which i believe his mustache actually is just a small dog taped to his upper lip. Again i got off topic thats a habit of mine, anyway, The reason i say that tombstone isnt a full on revisionist western is because the main character and the story line actually IS a classic western. I mean if this movie came out in 1956 it would star Bruce Wayne and would have two dimensional antagonists who are cliched Mexican banditos. Tombstone however was covered with a thin film of darkness of sociopath like vengeance in Wyatt Earp and a serious drinking problem with Doc Holiday. This movie was great because the bad guys actually had a background to themselves and weren't just a marauding horde of outlaws. Instead the bad guys where more like real outlaws, they were sick, deranged and homicidal. Now at the beginning of this blog i said i didn't like westerns well now I'm getting to it. This may sound dumb but you're reading this either voluntarily or because your being paid to so keep reading. The problem with westerns isn't writing or acting or directing rather its the fact that when ever i watch a western i always end up wondering "So whats happening in Europe or in New York at this time?" I say that because apparently unlike writers of westerns who are trying to re-shoot the same scene in monument park for the ten billionth time i am aware that between 1875 and 1903 there wasn't just one geographic location with something important happening. Lets look at just a few alternative locations for movies that take place in this time that are rarely used, In Japan at this time they where moving from a feudal system to an imperial system, other than kung fu movies the only movie i know of that touches on this subject is The Last Samuari(Edward Zwick, 2003 ) starring Tom Cruise. In Europe at the time they where suffering and rebuilding from Napoleon's Wars, Russia was at the end of their Czarship example Love & Death (Woody Allen, 1975) and across the English empire there where assorted rebellions example Ghandi(Richard Attenburough, 1982). My final say is that westerns should take a break find a globe and instead of shooting a movie taking place in Colorado or Montana, shoot one somewhere new, i just listed four wonderful locations and events so any film writer can take their pick.... just note me in the credits.

Language of Film

Some people don't enjoy the beauty of black and white movies but i believe that it enhances the beauty of some films. An example would be Casablanca, this movie is thought to be one of the best films ever made and in hindsight should should be on my top 5 movies list in my previous blog. However, i digress the black and white filming of Casablanca adds to the beauty of this film because Ingrid Bergman is much better looking in black and white than in color. The main reason however is that, when you watch a black and white film you pay more attention to the acting and directing than the pretty colors in the background of a movie that would never have been a success in the 1940s. The reason i say that is because the main actor in many modern movies puts on such a bad presentation if you where to watch it not for the special effects but for the acting and/or directing, you would feel ashamed that you just spent that last 2 hours or so of your life watching that and the two hours are never coming back. In example the film The Fast and The Furious (Rob Cohen, 2001) could very well be one of the worst movies ever made thanks to Paul Walker the main character's acting, which is a sham of a mockery of two mockeries of a sham of acting. Maybe i shouldn't say that because Vin Diesel was in it and Vin makes any bad movie great (maybe he should of been in The Happening). A better example is the comparison of Howard Hawks's Scarface vs the 1983 Scarface. The original Howard Hawks's Scarface is up there with High Sierra as one of the best mobster movies ever and the 1983 Scarface is a picture show that makes you want to bang your head against a wall if you pay too much attention to it. The 1983 Scarface is prime example of modern movies failing artistically but somehow became a hit. This was also a movie that marked the downfall of Al Pachino's acting ability since basically every movie he has done after that was like a sequel to Scarface. Maybe to broaden his horizons Al Pachino should start doing some independent black and white films that don't involve some Latino or Italian mobster.

Art o' Film

My favorite films in order:
5.) Pulp Fiction

4.) Truck Turner

3.) Blazing Saddles

2.) Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film For Theatres

1.) The Big Lebowski

Honorable Mention: Casablanca, Rear Window, Bananas, Annie Hall, Conan The Babarian, Star Wars IV, V, VI; Rambo, The Labyrinth, Scarface (Orson Welles and Al Pachino versions).

My Favorite Actors:
5.) David Bowie, (The Labyrinth)

4.) John Travolta, (Pulp Fiction, Saturday Night Fever)

3.) James Gandolfini, (The Sporanos)

2.) Marlon Brando, (The Godfather, On The Waterfront)

1.) Al Pachino, (The Godfather, Scarface, Carlito's Way)

Honorable Mention: Chuck Norris, Issac Hayes, Richard Roundtree (Shaft), Woody Allen, Mel Brooks, Gene Wilder.