Rian Johnson has worked with Joseph Gordon-Levitt before; with the indie hit “Brick.” Now the duo are working together again in one of the most anticipated sci-fi movies in recent years “Looper.” The movie deals with time travel and any movie dealing with time travel can become complicated but in short: Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Joe and Bruce Willis plays Joe as well, except 30 year older. The movie takes place in 2047 and 30 years from that date time travel has been invented. Instantly outlawed, the mob now controls it and sends back people they want dead to 2047 so they can be killed off and the crime of murder technically doesn’t exist. A brilliant and equally horrific plan. Joe is one of these hired assassins called “Loopers” and he’s living the life with his job, but there is a catch. Eventually all loopers will end up killing the future versions of themselves it’s called “closing your loop.” So it’s a job with an extreme expiration date. “Looper” takes off when Bruce Willis (Joe older) is zapped back to the past but escapes and now it’s up to Joesph Gordon-Levitt to stop his older self from changing the future and getting the both of them killed.
“Looper” is an effective and well done film, and one that certainly deserves multiple viewings to take everything in. That being said this movie is good, not great. There has been a lot of hype and high praise for the film, so maybe my expectations were too high and I recognized that so I waited a few days to review the film. And while I find is satisfactory it’s missing something. I’m not sure what it is but it’s missing something that would take it to that level from “Entertaining” to “Classic.” Without spoiling anything the 1st and 2nd acts of this movie are outstanding, tense, inventive and the stuff of masterpieces. The third act though causes a lot of issues and the film almost collapses under it’s own weight. And I wouldn’t even say it packed on that many pounds.
If you like science fiction it’s surely a movie to see for the technology and fine acting performances. For me the single most impressive aspect of this film is the make up. Joseph Gordon-Levitt looks strikingly like a young Bruce Willis in many shots and even was able to nail some of Willis’ mannerisms like that cool cockeyed smile. The make up was done by Brent Baker, Jamie Kelman and Kazuhiro Tsuji among others. The prosthetic work on Joseph’s face alone in my opinion makes it worthy of an Academy award nomination. You may not notice how similar they look in the commercials but trust me once the subtlties sink in during the course of the film you’ll be convinced they are the same person. Joseph and Bruce do tremendous work acting as does Jeff Daniels in a very cold but never distant performance. Emily Blunt is solid in her role but I don’t think her character is written strongly enough. There is a serious lack of connection with her and her motivations. Alright so if you want to know more about my thoughts on this film you can click to read more, but there will be SPOILERSso I feel it’s fair to warn you as the only way I can articulate my major disappointment with this film is by revealing the ending. I recommend this movie to science fiction fans, but I feel those not familiar with the genre will be lost and won’t care for it very much. Though I could always be wrong.
Summer is almost here and there are a lot of films I’m looking forward to. “Thor”, “Green Lantern”, “Super 8”, “Hangover Part II”, “Captain America” and the Final Harry Potter film. Its going to be a big loud summer and I can’t wait. Of course I know with all the movies I want to see this bikini season there will be a few that disappoint. Thanks for the suggestion of some of my subscribers on youtube I was given the brilliant suggestion of ranking my personal top 15 most disappointing movies of all time. Some things to note really quick: 1. being a disappointing film doesn’t necessarily mean bad just that it didn’t live up to its expectations. 2. I will only rank movies I have seen so if a movie doesn’t make the list don’t feel neglected, its just because I haven’t gotten around to seeing it more than likely. Also keep in mind that certain pictures like: “Waterworld” won’t make the list because by the time I saw the film I already knew it’d be crap so I wasn’t disappointed. Of course feel free to voice your opinion on my list. Okay enough chit chat, let’s get things started!
Totally like the tv show, and when I say "totally" I mean "nothing".
15. Wild Wild West Based on the popular Western tv show of the same name this 1999 film gave the world and Will Smith a movie so bad you’d be hard pressed to even find it played on free television anymore. When Will Smith’s name was first attached to the vehicle people were excited! And why shouldn’t they be? Smith had just made “Men in Black” and “Independence Day” he was a hot commodity. Then this garbage hit the movie screens and people were not only disappointed but it tarnished both Smith and Kline’s careers. You know your movie sucks when a giant militant robot spider is both the best thing and worst thing about your film.
It seems everyone under the age of 30 is talking about the music video to the song “Friday” by Rebecca Black that went viral earlier this week due to its absolutely atrocious lyrics, auto-tune sound and just plain strange video cues. So I’ve decided to break down the music video that I have watched over and over again for anybody out there who wants to know the truth about this video. Which has become an instant internet meme. But first if you haven’t watched it here is your chance…
Oh good, you survived watching that video. Actually I don’t find the song to be torture at all, it is easily one of the funniest things ever created, and apparently it is not a joke. Now when I write this article Rebecca has yet to appear on “Good Morning America” and explain to the country why this song exists, so I will say now even if she says it was a big joke we all know it wasn’t. There is a difference between something that is bad that is trying to be good and something that is bad but trying to have some fun with it.
Like most Americans this girl loves her some Friday.
“Friday” is trying hard, way too hard to be a good song, and it just isn’t. So let’s break it down:
Friday starts out innocently enough with Rebecca waking up in her Suburban home and being excited that its Friday! Honestly this is the only thing the music video got right, she wakes up hair is a mess but she has a smile on her face because well…its Friday! Then the song just goes downhill, first off its auto-tuned and while auto-tune has its place in the music industry even auto tune can’t hide bad singing and this wasn’t good singing. I’m not saying Ms. Black is a bad singer she just didn’t do well in this song, and maybe that was the transformer she was trying to hide in her vocal chords who knows? So then the music video shows its true colors, you know its going to be bad. She is standing singing and then out of nowhere she drops this set: Gotta have my bowl, gotta have cereal Seein’ everything, the time is goin’ Tickin’ on and on, everybody’s rushin’ Gotta get down to the bus….. stop.
And this is where the decoding begins and this innocent little song becomes more than that. “Gotta have my bowl, gotta have cereal.” There is a comma there, obviously a new thought has been created. Is there a subliminal message in here about toking it up before school? She never said she was putting the cereal in that bowl, she’s gotta have MY bowl. Even though I’m in college now and have my own set of dishes I never refer to them as my bowl. Food for thought people. Oh and that mentioning of the Bus stop? Well here is the next bit of lines: “Gotta catch my bus, I see my friends (My friends) Kickin’ in the front seat Sittin’ in the back seat Gotta make my mind up Which seat can I take?”
So I guess she won’t be taking the bus to school then? Her friends just pull up and offer her a ride, which is nice but then something really strange happens we just cut to night and she and her friends are driving around. I think the message Rebecca is trying to convey here is to skip school on Friday. I mean why even go when your stoned and are still munching on cereal. I’m not even sure if that car belongs to the driver none of these kids look old enough to be driving. Has the makings of a joy ride all over it. And why is Rebecca so concerned with what seat to take, she is the last one in the car and probably the smallest. I know what that means; you gotta ride the middle seat dear. But she really seems fixated on the seat to take. Is there a deeper philosophical meaning behind all of this? Perhaps her seat in the car represents where she is in life right now, or how she relates to her friends. It’s important to note all of her friends are white. It would have been interesting if they had thrown a black or Asian kid into the mix. Maybe she doesn’t want to sit in the back seat with the Latino kid? We’ll never know, socially conscious opportunity missed there. It could mean a lot of things, Rebecca is a deep woman we as people aren’t giving her enough credit. The more I analyze “Friday” the more deep I realize it truly is. Did I mention it gets deeper? “It’s Friday, Friday Gotta get down on Friday Everybody’s lookin’ forward to the weekend, weekend Friday, Friday Gettin’ down on Friday Everybody’s lookin’ forward to the weekend Partyin’, partyin’ (Yeah) Partyin’, partyin’ (Yeah) Fun, fun, fun, fun Lookin’ forward to the weekend!” You just read the chorus for this song. Do you feel confused? Maybe upset? Its okay just breathe deeply, because its going to only get worse from here.
So Rebecca and her friends are driving around and Rebecca is still obsessed with which seat to take. Is it really that important? Its not like she ever had a true opportunity to call shotgun. Rebecca and her friends are just driving around after skipping school jamming to music and standing up without their seat belts on. Rebecca doesn’t follow safety laws, ’cause she’s a thug! Just listen to her flow: “7:45, we’re drivin’ on the highway Cruisin’ so fast, I want time to fly Fun, fun, think about fun You know what it is I got this, you got this My friend is by my rightI got this, you got this Now you know it Kickin’ in the front seat Sittin’ in the back seat Gotta make my mind up Which seat can I take?” Wait a minute why does she keep saying that she’s got this? And that I’ve got it? Got what? Then it hit me, she is obviously hitting us with some subtle hints here about her Illuminati past. I’m sure the secret society had some weird correlation to the day of Friday and if they don’t some paranoid dude in his basement will make something up to connect them. I think she may be planning to pick off her friends one by one until she either is riding shotgun or is driving the car itself. She is just biding her time, waiting to strike.
Then the most disturbing and baffling thing in the entire song takes place. I wouldn’t believe it was true unless I heard it myself. “Yesterday was Thursday, Thursday Today i-is Friday, Friday (Partyin’) We-we-we so excited We so excited We gonna have a ball today Tomorrow is Saturday And Sunday comes after…wards I don’t want this weekend to end.” Did that just happen? Did she just break down half the week for me? Its like I’m watching a very bad episode of “Sesame Street”. Is it really necessary to let me know that the day before Friday is Thursday? Then she goes further and says the next day is Saturday and that Sunday comes after. Yeah no crap Sherlock! I’ve lived through a week before, I know how it works. Is this girl serious? We we we we so excited? Whose excited? I’m so confused! Its obvious this girl skips school, we we we so excited that’s such bad English it wouldn’t be featured in a rap video. Speaking of which… as Rebecca Black and her friends reach a party of other 13 year olds with zero adult supervision the music video takes a turn from the worse to the down right creepy. Suddenly this random 30 something black rapper comes onto the screen driving in his car and he starts rapping: “R-B, Rebecca Black So chillin’ in the front seat (In the front seat) In the back seat (In the back seat) I’m drivin’, cruisin’ (Yeah, yeah) Fast lanes, switchin’ lanes Wit’ a car up on my side (Woo!) (C’mon) Passin’ by is a school bus in front of me Makes tick tock, tick tock, wanna scream Check my time, it’s Friday, it’s a weekend We gonna have fun, c’mon, c’mon, y’all!”
Who is this dude? He just appears out of nowhere, I’ve never seen him before is he serious? Why is a 30 year old black man in this video? I guess Rebecca has a black friend after all! And he can drive! Obviously this man knows Rebecca well enough to have a cute nickname for her, and it appears he’s coming to her party. That is beyond creepy, he is way too old to be hanging out at this party unless he is there to chaperon them. He is just so out of place in this white bread music video and yet it doesn’t surprise me. “Friday” pulled out all the stops to make the song as much of a hit as possible, and what better way than doing a collab with two unknowns? Its awful, but I’ll remember this man’s face for the rest of my life. Anytime he tries to do serious rap I’ll just be sure to point out that he was the guy who appeared in the Rebecca Black music vid. Was it really worth the paycheck dude? I hope so.
I feel a little bad making fun of this young woman, hey she’s just trying to make a living. But that’s also why I don’t feel too bad for her. People are downloading this song, people are sharing it, people are watching it. Sure its mainly because they find it ridiculous but honestly she is on the lips of so many people now and she will be making a pretty penny from this. Don’t feel too bad for her, now obviously some people have taken making fun of her too far, but I think I kept this well in the realm of fair game. Can Rebecca have a future in the music industry? Who knows, I feel she should could make a mark if she kept churning out songs like this. In the end we we we so excited for Friday too Rebecca, your video reminds us of that. Friday is a good day, Saturday is too. I’m so proud that you feel obligated to educate Americans on days of the week. So I salute you Rebecca do your thing even if we all just stand by scratching our heads and continue to wonder why you will get more press that a million great indie bands.
You can also watch a hilarious spoof video I was in of Rebecca Black’s “Friday” by clicking here.
When it comes to quality filmmaking nobody does it quite better than Pixar, and when it comes to great movie tag teams you can’t deny Disney/Pixar’s power and influence. While some may not have loved or even really liked maybe one or two Pixar films over the years, most will admit that Pixar has yet to make a bad movie. Throughout the years with the changing world one thing has stayed consistent: Pixar movies, are good movies. Now for me personally the original “Cars” was the closest the 3D animation juggernaut has gotten to making a bad film. For me “Cars” was just okay, nothing bad about it, but certainly not anywhere near the level of “Toy Story”, “The Incredibles” or the later “Up” and “Wall-E”. Still not a terrible movie. Much better than Shrek 3 and 4 for sure. (I ended up seeing Shrek 4 on a plane and I can safely say I would have rather flipped through those weird shopping catalogs a few times than watch it again.)
So recently I finally got around to watching the trailer for “Cars 2”, and let me start off by saying how come we are having a sequel to arguably the most lackluster film in the Dinsey/Pixar archives when “The Incredibles 2” is just ripe for the picking? I mean come on Pixar remember what happened the year “Cars” was your movie, it wasn’t THAT good of a year by Pixar standards as they lost the Oscar to “Happy Feet” and also failed to receive a nomination for best original screenplay. Something most Pixar films have actually been able to do. So why “Cars” I mean it was a nice enough story, but why a sequel. Especially one that departs from the original so much. I mean the cars have heat seeking missiles now! Not that I’m against heat seeking missiles in films, it just seems very odd its in this movie.
That’s because “Cars 2” is not about racing, at least the trailer doesn’t show that. The only real race, is a race against time to get this….save the world. Wow! That hasn’t been done enough, I know that doesn’t help my case that there should be an “Incredibles 2” but at least with superheroes you expect there to be world saving, these are cars I expect them to do whatever the heck cars do when they aren’t in races. How are cars born in this universe? Are they built or do they come out of a female’s car trunk/womb? Questions for another time I suppose. Why cars have heat seeking missiles, central intelligence agencies, or airport security is strange. Are there terrorists in the world of cars?
Sure there are some cute lines in the trailer, that may tempt you to go see it. But right now based off this trailer I say no. I mean the first one was the weakest Pixar film, I’m just wondering how this got made. I can’t imagine what the board room was on when one of the producers got up and then made this speech “Hey I’ve got this great idea for a sequel to Cars.” Stop right there! I would have been the guy in the board room who would have said “A sequel to Cars? But why?” But let’s say he got past my inquisition and then said this: “Yeah its gonna be a sequel. All the characters are back. We’re gonna focus more on McQueen and Mater though. And they’ll be in Japan racing, give it a new flair. Hit the Asian demographic that hasn’t been tapped since ‘Mulan’ and ‘Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior’. Except here is the twist, in this film they’re going to be secret agents!” That’s when one of two things I think happened: The room get very silent and then burst into laughter or the producers too busy texting on their phones green lit the project thinking they had just signed on for “The Incredibles 2” or maybe it was “A Bug’s Life 2” they weren’t sure, but they were busy people and still wanted to make it down to Dreamworks Animation Studios in time to make fun of them for wanting to make 6 “Kung-Fu Panda” movies. (I’m not joking about that, they want to make up to 8 “How to Train your Dragons” as well.)
But in doing so they may have just sealed their fate to finally making a bad movie, and not just a bad movie possibly a very bad movie. Dreamworks better have something good down the pipe for 2011 this could be there chance to win the Oscar race for the first time since “Shrek”. Now maybe I’m being too hard on Disney/Pixar maybe right now you are thinking: “Oh ye of little faith.” and I may be too negative about it, who knows it could end up being a great movie, even better than the original. But I think on a personal level that Pixar has dodged its last bullet and the cinematic deity will begin to bleed. Now I don’t mean by any means this movie will be the downfall of Pixar. They have still provided us with a slew of some of the best movies animated or not over the years, and if I could ever work for them in ANY capacity I’d be doing cartwheels. (Same goes for Dreamworks Animation as well) I just don’t think this one particular movie is a good idea. It seems so cookie cutter and easy. It has nothing to do with the original movie, and just seems like a rushed idea. You can’t be perfect forever, and I think “Cars 2” will be the end of the perfect quality streak for Pixar. It could be worse they could be the studio about to make a “Puss in Boots” spinoff. Come on Dreamworks you’d be just as good as Pixar if you didn’t make all these sequels! Anyway, make an opinion for yourself, here is the trailer for “Cars 2”.
Not to sound like a comic book nerd, because I’m not really. Liking comics and being a “comic book nerd” are two totally different things. Still I know whats good and bad, and this new wonder woman costume is BAD. In fact its revolting, repulsive, nausea inducing, just flat out ugly!
From sexy to sloppy
I like Wonder Woman, she’s a cool woman. And she isn’t a girl like Hawk girl or supergirl. She is a full fledged woman who is a symbol of power, feminism, heroism and sex appeal. This new look makes Wonder Woman look like she shops at Urban Outfitters and American Apparel. All fine stores in their own right, but awful on her. Why change the look? Some claim its because her original outfit was too sexual. Too sexual? We show Victoria Secret commercials on television. Wonder Woman has saved the universe before, Miranda Kerr just sits there and looks pretty.
The man who designed this monstrosity is J Michael Straczynski who had the nerve to tell in an interview with The Telegraph that she had always had a wardrobe “issue” and then said this:
What woman only wears one outfit for 60-plus years?
A woman who is too busy kicking butt to save the world. Straczynski you are an idiot if you think this is cool, if its not broke don’t fix it! I can say this for sure I wont be purchasing any Wonder Woman merchandise featuring this outfit, I can’t even call her Wonder Woman its like her hipster (credit to Justin B. for that one) cousin. REVOLTING! Can’t Bruce Timm slap some sense into this guy? Ya’ know someone who knows what he’s doing?
Red Flag Movie Productions© 
October 2, 2012
“Looper” Film Review: Joseph looks like Bruce
by iconmatthew1
Rian Johnson has worked with Joseph Gordon-Levitt before; with the indie hit “Brick.” Now the duo are working together again in one of the most anticipated sci-fi movies in recent years “Looper.” The movie deals with time travel and any movie dealing with time travel can become complicated but in short: Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Joe and Bruce Willis plays Joe as well, except 30 year older. The movie takes place in 2047 and 30 years from that date time travel has been invented. Instantly outlawed, the mob now controls it and sends back people they want dead to 2047 so they can be killed off and the crime of murder technically doesn’t exist. A brilliant and equally horrific plan. Joe is one of these hired assassins called “Loopers” and he’s living the life with his job, but there is a catch. Eventually all loopers will end up killing the future versions of themselves it’s called “closing your loop.” So it’s a job with an extreme expiration date. “Looper” takes off when Bruce Willis (Joe older) is zapped back to the past but escapes and now it’s up to Joesph Gordon-Levitt to stop his older self from changing the future and getting the both of them killed.
“Looper” is an effective and well done film, and one that certainly deserves multiple viewings to take everything in. That being said this movie is good, not great. There has been a lot of hype and high praise for the film, so maybe my expectations were too high and I recognized that so I waited a few days to review the film. And while I find is satisfactory it’s missing something. I’m not sure what it is but it’s missing something that would take it to that level from “Entertaining” to “Classic.” Without spoiling anything the 1st and 2nd acts of this movie are outstanding, tense, inventive and the stuff of masterpieces. The third act though causes a lot of issues and the film almost collapses under it’s own weight. And I wouldn’t even say it packed on that many pounds.
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