PetardCast, Episode #10

by Leonard Pierce

The PetardCast makes its triumphant return as I finally sort of get the hang of sound levels.  I am joined by special guest Claire Zulkey, a multi-talented dame from my beloved Chicago, who engages in obscure sketch comedy with me and explains how Ryan Seacrest is gay even if he isn’t gay.  You’ll also enjoy a Patrick-Swayze-centered Naming of Parts, a bad Russian accent, the in-show debut of our brand new Hayden Childs-penned theme song, many overshots and undershots at humor, and an attempt to start beef with Paul F. Tompkins over the cultural atrocity that is American Idol in a very special episode of “J’accuse”.  Your life will be 200% sexier if you join me for this, the tenth episode of the PetardCast.

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Nick Schager Reviews The Mechanic

Proving that remakes are often most justified when working from crummy source material, The Mechanic updates a 1972 Charles Bronson snoozer with enough style and ultra-violence to mark it as an adequate addition to the B-movie canon of Jason Statham. Borrowing the basic template of Michael Winner’s original but, mercifully, not its slothful pacing, pitifully conceived set pieces, and wannabe-Jean-Pierre Melville atmosphere of brooding crime-pic existentialism, Simon West’s film concerns Arthur Bishop (Statham), a “mechanic” (a.k.a. hitman) whose precision workmanship is put to use by a shadowy corporate organization run by Dean (Tony Goldwyn), who employs Bishop for hush-hush jobs offing a variety of stock baddies, including a Colombian cartel bigwig, a gargantuan assassin, and a murderous, borderline-pedophilic religious cult leader. 

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The One Movie You Should See This Week (1/27/11)

by Andrew Osborne

The skies are grey, my car is buried under a mountain of snow, temperatures are near zero, I’m fighting a cold, and they’re predicting another blizzard tomorrow. So what can my local art house offer to ease my winter misery? Why, Best Actor nominee Javier Bardem as a dying man who runs a sweatshop, of course! Wheeee! 

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Being Human: “There Goes The Neighborhood – Part Two”

by Scott Von Doviak

Greetings, vamps, wolves, and ghosties. I’ll be your Being Human TV Club representative for the rest of the season, so I’m legally obligated to tell you right off the bat that I have almost no prior knowledge of the original British version of this show. I’ve seen one episode (the first), and I didn’t see that one until after I’d watched the premiere of the SyFy series last week. Furthermore, I’ve made an executive decision not to delve any deeper into the U.K. series, at least until this season is over. I figure it’s my job to judge the American edition on its own merits, especially since there must be dozens of places around the Intertubes offering up beat-by-beat comparisons between the two.  We all know how that usually goes: The British version rules; the U.S. version can go die in a fire.

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Razzie Nominations

And now, as we breathlessly await the Oscar nominations, it’s time for this year’s Razzies for the worst films of 2010 (with prizes to be awarded, as per tradition, on the night before the Academy Awards!

2011 Independent Spirit Award Nominations

The  Oscar nominations will be announced tomorrow at 5:30 AM Pacific Time…

…but until then, here are the 2011 Independent Spirit Award Nominations (which your pals here at the Screengrab In Exile somehow missed when they first came out)!

Wasted Words: Show 98

Dan McQuade joins Shek, Andrew, Leonard and RJ to talk about the declining quality of bar jukeboxes. BEFORE THIS- “Say, What’s Good?” AFTER THIS- Deke fields a question about bringing your kids to work for the “Ask the Bartender” segment.

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The One Movie You Should See This Week (1/20/11)

by Andrew Osborne

The Company Men

It’s déjà vu all over again this week, considering I first wrote about this downsizing drama back in December, and now I see it’s finally actually getting released. But I’m still interested in seeing John Wells‘ generally well-reviewed tale of middle-class woe (starring Ben Affleck as a laid-off yuppie trading corporate spreadsheets for contractor sheet rock), even if the actor-y Baah-staahnaccents in the trailer are a bit painful to my sensitive New England ears.

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Oxford American 2010 Music Issue

by Hayden Childs

Among the many items I have been remiss in posting is a plug for the 2010 Oxford American music issue.  I have an article in this issue on Vern Gosdin and the Gosdin Brothers that’s halfway to decent.  But my contributions are lifted by the stellar quality of the writing throughout.  Buy it!

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Screengrab In Exile Salutes: Always, Capra

While the Screengrab In Exile’s raison d‘être is promoting the latest writing from all your favorite refugees from Nerve.com’s late, great Screengrab blog, we occasionally like to hep you to other worthwhile vacation spots around the intertubes…

…like, f’rinstance, Always, Capra, the latest blog from our pals Jana Christy and Jennifer Hill Robenalt, featuring letters from a pink-haired teenage girl “who loves to write and illustrate letters to (mostly living) celebrities.”

For today’s letter to Rush (“the #1 cult band in the world”), click here!