Official Ghostbusters Seiko Watch

This watch is sitting at £400 with one day to go on eBay.

Tell you what: if you’re ever stuck for a gift to get me, type “rare ghostbusters” into eBay and buy me all the things.

New Pixar film Brave is to be set in Scotland and have a female lead.

rubenfm:

I love that they are called Puti Clubs.

Zombieland, unofficial sequel

Somehow Zombieland evaded my upcoming movie radar (the one that caught (500) Days of Summer, Shaun of the Dead, et al. as internet-hyped movies to see) and by the time it was out I had no overwhelming desire to go see - possibly the poster of the burning globe that is at the start of the film: for me it had connotations of something I couldn’t quite figure out. Regardless, the hype started to creep into the mainstream, I was receiving texts regarding the cameo, the footage I saw was the polar opposite of my expectations and so on.

I’ve seen it twice now. I’m not going to review it but some scenes were not only excellent and funny, but there was a lot of ‘why haven’t I thought of that’ (why hasn’t this been done before)? Also, sometimes Zombie films last 10 - 15 minutes too long, this one didn’t.

But did anyone else get the weird feeling that this film could unofficially be a sequel? I don’t mean in the fact that it blended zombie movies and comedy well, ala Shaun of the Dead, I mean specifically actor-based.

Woody Harrelson

He is excellent in this. Like, really good. Like, this could be the best I’ve seen him. He’s on the right sight of broad humour and his physical stuff is really enjoyable. He is on a killing spree that we have never seen the likes of. Except in Natural Born Killers. In fact, it is conceivable that he could have lived the Natural Born Killers role and then the world went Zombie-fied. (unofficial sequel no. 1). I usually don’t love him in films, but he was great in this.

Jesse Eisenberg

He plays a similar sort of role here to the ones I have seen previously, but it works here and it works in a new way. He’s spot-on in the part and with the level of geeky-humour. The third act of ZL is set in an amusement park, not unlike the vocational setting of Eisenberg’s in Adventureland. It’s not exactly conceivable that this could be a sequel to that but it’s all a bit familiar (bonus points for the title similarity). (usn2). I usually don’t love him in films, but he was great in this.

Abigail Breslin

It’s amazing how you can judge how you have aged by the speed at which child-actors mature. Abigail seems a lot older all of a sudden and despite being the kid of the pack, plays an almost adult role. But a road trip across America with older people discussing her loss of childhood innocence? This says Little Miss Sunshine all over it (Little Miss Sunshine 2: Now With Zombies). (usn3). She’s a great wee actress for her age.

Emma Stone

Yeah, try as I might, I’m not going to even pretend this is a sequel for her. I will say that she has made everything I have seen her in better.

Bill Murray

There is the obvious, but it doesn’t really work, does it? I pretty much feel the same way about him that everyone does (including Harrelson’s character). All I can think about when WH is telling him how much he adores him is them in Kingpin together. That bit of knowledge makes this fanaticism work really well (maybe more so than Pesci or whoever may have).

Conclusion

I’m only joking really. I wanted to say go and see this film and I didn’t want to write a review and these are just a couple of things that popped into my head when watching. This is the kind of film where I hope for a rich selection of DVD features.

“Surrogates and a New Idea”

I have been absent from the internet for a couple of weeks due to a late holiday (Turkey, thanks for asking - weather great although it rained for the first couple of days) and my return to scholastics. I have been trying (in vain) to come up with a perfect degree film; perfect in that it suits me and what I’m trying to create - a vehicle for myself. I went to see Surrogates this morning (I’m not usually a matinee person but with work conflicts I have to get what I can) and, on my post-viewing internet background-check on the film, was surprised to see the lack of user-created information about the film (and absolute lack of the IMDB Trivia page, one of my personal favourites).

Surrogates seems to be a pretty big film; big in budget, lots of posters at the multiplex, decent trailer (the only reason we went to see it was the trailer that preceded Inglorious Basterds - really enjoyed that fyi, don’t really agree with the polarisation of people’s reviews) and all the standard fare. It doesn’t even have the five (5!) votes necessary to have a star-rating on IMDB.

Now it wasn’t a particularly good film, in fact it will probably blend into the following films in my head until the point that it disappears altogether: Blade Runner, I, Robot, A.I., Minority Report et al. However, it was completely watchable and had some funny, interesting, humanistic, well-acted moments. Fleeting as they were. What I’m concerned about is that I have a feeling I will never hear from this film again (except maybe in the Tesco Top 40 and then in the very cheap bargain section and then no more), though I doubt I’m as concerned as the filmmakers or John McClane.

This phenomenon (of which I may be wrong and this film could do massive box office and be talked about endlessly, of course, though I reserve my doubts) has only added to the weight on my shoulders w/r/t my own project, the degree film I need to make this year - and share the idea of on Monday. I am struggling to find an idea that encompasses all of the following qualities:

1. Simple (as in not convoluted thematically or narationally)
2. Funny (at least vaguely)
3. Logistically possible
4. The ability to exhibit my writing
5. The ability to exhibit my cinematography
6. The ability to exhibit my cinematic style (different from no. 5)

Then I have a selection of themes that I may or may not want to utilise and a couple of genres that I would love to fall into. I think I started this totally backwards. I should have had a simple story and then evolved it. But hey-ho. One of the main ambitions I have for this project is creating something that is at least original.

I’m not sure Surrogates had the same ambition. The film is obviously in a sub-genre which begs for it to be compared to its predecessors and, as I have illustrated above, the poster lacks much original effort. The few commentors in the quasi-forums on the IMDB page seem to be in agreement that “There is NOTHING new under the sun.” as in, nothing original being made at the moment. I beg to differ, but am not going to offer any backup information at this moment. Because this is long enough as it is.

NB. In the time it took to write this (9minutes), 850+ votes were recorded on the IMDB and it stands at an 8.0 rating. Also, I found this “review” website that has put the fear of god into me.

Big Trouble in Little China

So why did nobody tell me how much I would enjoy this film? I bought this and it lay in the back of my car for like a month. This is my kind of film. It fits nicely alongside the Ghostbusters, Back to the Futures, Goonies, Indiana Jones’, Terminators, etc. that made up my interests, in my formative years..

What is the ethereal quality of these films that make them what they are? Somebody on IMDB suggested it was the music.

WHAT OTHER FILMS COULD I BE MISSING OUT ON?