James Brown – The Payback (1974). The Godfather of Soul’s afrobeat-inspired funk masterpiece.
Archive for May, 2011
Hayden Childs’ Record Collection: James Brown to Clem Snide
Published May 31, 2011 Uncategorized Leave a CommentIf The Hangover was a boorish blackout fantasy for our binge-drinking age, The Hangover Part II is something like the contents of a fraternity house’s toilet the morning after an insane kegger—namely, regurgitated elements of a more entertaining prior adventure. The Wolfpack is reunited in Todd Phillips’s follow-up to his 2009 hit, traveling to Thailand for the wedding of wimpy dentist Stu (Ed Helms) to Lauren (Jamie Chung), whose father so hates his forthcoming son-in-law that, during a pre-ceremony dinner, he insultingly compares him to watery rice pudding.
Why Mel Gibson Should Be In The Hangover Part II
Published May 26, 2011 Uncategorized Leave a CommentTags: Andrew Osborne; The Hangover Part II; Mel Gibson; Heather Graham; Mike Tyson
by Andrew Osborne
In case you’ve forgotten, 2009’s original Hangover was about three guys who roofie themselves in Vegas, lose a fourth guy and spend the rest of the movie attempting to reconstruct their night of wild debauchery. Along the way, one of them (Bradley Cooper) winds up in the hospital, another (Ed Helms) marries a stripper (Heather Graham), a third (Zach Galifianakis) gets a weird blow job and they all hang out with a baby, a tiger and heavyweight champ Mike Tyson.
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Unwatchable #24: “Police Academy 7: Mission to Moscow”
Published May 25, 2011 Uncategorized Leave a Commentby Scott Von Doviak
Your fearless – and quite possibly senseless – movie janitor is watching every movie on the IMDb Bottom 100 list. Join us now for another installment of Unwatchable.
It’s been six months since the last installment of Unwatchable, and while I could try to come up with some legitimate excuse for my prolonged absence – say, that I’ve been busy negotiating with HBO over the television rights to this blog – the truth is, I just sort of forgot.
Hayden Childs Recaps The Celebrity Apprentice Finale
Published May 24, 2011 Uncategorized Leave a CommentGreetings, my brothers and sisters under the benevolent pink squint of The Donald! It has all come down to this momentous occasion, when Mr. Trump must select His Emissary to the lesser, Trumpless areas of the country. Will he select the likable country singer who talks like he eats business schools for breakfast? Or will he choose the pretty, deaf actress with really wealthy friends? If you have to ask, then you are expecting more of a twist than the man they call Mr. Trump is capable of. Consider: I only mentioned talking like business school in the description of one of these candidates. But first, we must take our time to reflect on the good things that The Donald has provided for us this season.
Wasted Words Show 106 – Mink Oiling One’s Shoes
Published May 23, 2011 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
by Leonard Pierce
There is a brand-new Wasted Words podcast, featuring myself along with host RJ White, Shek Baker, Stephen Levinson, and Andrew Lin. RJ hated this one, probably because I was super drunk and punchy and forced everyone to talk about pornography, but I think it is a very fine episode of this very fine show. So listen in, why don’t you? There is no reason not to.
Love ignites the City of Lights’ magic in Midnight in Paris, the first Woody Allen film in forever to not wholly grate on the nerves. That status isn’t immediately apparent, however, as Allen’s latest opens with a beautiful if unimaginative day-to-night travelogue montage of Paris’ most famous sights (the Eiffel Tower! The Louvre! The Arc de Triomphe!) set to romantic horns, and then immediately segues into bald-faced audience-pandering via a conversation in which Hollywood screenwriter and aspiring novelist Gil (Owen Wilson) badmouths his future father-in-law’s (Kurt Fuller) Tea Party convictions as those of a “demented lunatic.”
Why Woody Allen Should Direct Pirates of the Caribbean 5
Published May 19, 2011 Uncategorized Leave a Commentby Scott Von Doviak
There are two major new movies opening this weekend. Both look pretty bad. Midnight in Paris is Woody Allen’s forty-first feature film as a writer/director, and although some of his movies rank among my all-time favorites, I haven’t rushed out to see a film by him in a decade. As for Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, well, I lost all interest in that franchise midway through the long, bewildering second installment.
There’s only one way to save them both.
Hayden Childs’ Record Collection: AC/DC to Laurie Anderson
Published May 18, 2011 Uncategorized Leave a CommentI mentioned last time that I have an unbelievable backlog of passed-over and recently added albums. In the months since I have caught up, I’ve raided a few friends’ collections and added ordinary purchases. Plus I had a bunch that I missed the first time around through misclassification or fatigue and have subsequently listened to. Anyway, I hit most of these albums a while back, but it’s taking me a little while longer to find time to work on this project these days. So these will be brief.
by Leonard Pierce
Terence Malick’s new film, Treee of Life, has debuted at Cannes, and as is drearily predictable, it’s already causing waves of controversy. Booing, walkouts, endless vitriol, critics and viewers exchanging invective — the only difference between this and his other films is that now people are having the arguments on Twitter. Every argument over Malick’s films has already been had, and it probably won’t do any good to rehash the arguments. I am saying nothing original here, merely venting a personal frustration I have at some of the critical reaction to his work. I haven’t seen Tree of Life, of course, and maybe it sucks. But he’s never made anything close to a bad movie, as far as I’m concerned, and is one of the very few authentic geniuses in the medium America has ever produced. His work is visually stunning to the point of being nearly unimpeachable; it has an emotional impact that belies its narrative simplicity; and it is willing to take chances that almost no one in the realm of commercial filmmaking would dare to take. So there’s my bias, laid out right here at the beginning
