Public Enemies - What Did You Think?
With characters that included a titular, homeless-footed superhero with a fan for teeth and a pot-bellied, psycho-analyzing mass-rapist in a tiki mask, MTV’s The Maxx definitely has its fans. The cartoon—an adaptation of the feted and trippy Image comic book by Sam Kieth—originally aired in ‘95 and remains officially unavailable on DVD. This week, MTV posted six full episodes for free streaming, and they are a great refresher and/or requisite viewing if you dig slightly-adulterated, “offbeat” animation.
Watching The Maxx kabob an endless wave of his primary adversary, an otherworldly critter species called The Isz, never gets old. But it’s the episodes’ stream-of-consciousness editing and alternating narration, which borders on an open-mic bohemian poetry night, that sticks with you. We’ve included the first episode after the jump, but episode three (cow-udder shaving cream) and episode five (Beavis cameo, teenagey writer pains) are personal faves.
M Night Shyamalan Launches Official Website/Interactive Experience
Posted on Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
Director M Night Shyamalan has finally launched his official website. And as you might expect, its far from traditional. MNightShyamalan.com transports you into a dark mansion (possibly haunted) where you walk around and uncover clues which grant you access to rooms/locations from Shyamalan’s film history. I know this probably sounds like one of those annoying flash sites, where you’d rather just have easy access to a menu. And yes, it is that, but Night makes it worth your time by providing some extremely honest thoughts about his past films.
Today, a lame goblin knocked on the door of Hulu’s offices and left a slime-colored, flaming bag of shit on their doorstep. That’s right boils and ghouls, Troll 2, the worst movie ever made according to the world, is now available free of charge. This cult-classic movie is a total dealbreaker, so if your girlfriend or boyfriend won’t watch it with you, promptly dump them in the inexplicable name of Stonehenge Magic Stone.
And after the movie’s over (scariest ending ever?), be sure to check out /Film’s recent interviews for the awesome Troll 2 documentary Best Worst Movie with Michael Stephenson (the whiny kid) here and George Hardy (the dad, protector of hospitality) here. Cheers to young ’80s girls who can’t dance wearing Garfield horoscope nightgowns and saying, “Take it or leave it!”
Aqua Teen Hunger Force’s Live-Action Season Finale This Sunday…With T-Pain as Frylock
Posted on Saturday, May 30th, 2009 by Hunter Stephenson
Post-Finale Update: So that was delectably epic.
This Sunday at 11: 45 p.m. ET, the rolling, clueless glob better known as Meatwad enters our Meatspace. Sort of. He’ll appear as, erm, an exercise ball, as seen above. In celebration of the season finale, Aqua Teen Hunger Force is airing its first ever live-action episode during its six seasons on [adult swim]. Vocoder rapper, T-Pain, will portray Frylock, the show’s patient, levitating box of French fries. Red Alert: TP’s neck blingee features Mooninites. This fall, T-Pain will also play The Ghost of Spring Break, alongside Lil’ Wayne, Andy Samberg, and Rick Ross, on the [adult swim] special The Return of Freaknik, an animated ode to Atlanta’s infamous ass-bash. Check out the rude and ridic trailer.
Rounding out the cast for Sunday’s Force is cool comedian H. Jon Benjamin (Human Giant, Demitri Martin) as Master Shake and possibly our fave: open audition-winner, Dave Long Jr., as the wife-beater-lovin’ human disgrace known as Carl Brutananadilewski. Pictures and the esoteric episode synopsis after the jump…
Director Spike Jonze has launched a website titled “We Love You So” , where he is blogging about the upcoming big screen adaptation of Where The Wild Things Are, in addition to other random stuff.
“In October 2009 Spike Jonze’s feature film rendition of Maurice Sendak’s classic story Where The Wild Things Are will hit movie theaters worldwide. The film represents years of work from hundreds of different artists, writers, photographers, musicians, actors, and creators of all degrees. This place has been established to help shed some light on many of the small influences that have converged to make this massive project a reality. Simply put, this a place to learn about things we think are great and to share with you the things those things helped make. Wild Things indeed… And also probably a lot of other randoms things that catch our eye along the way. We hope you like it. We love you so.”
Apparently the website was launched a couple weeks ago, but we’re just finding out about it now, so there is all sorts of wonderful goodies to sort through in the achieves. One of the goodies being passed around in e-mails today is this video, shot by Lance Bangs, showing Spike Jonze testing out one of the early masks on an unwilling child. Funny stuff. Check out the video after the jump.
David Slade Responds to His Own Remarks About Twilight
Posted on Tuesday, May 5th, 2009 by David Chen
Two nights ago, /Film’s Brendon Connelly unearthed an old interview segment in which David Slade said he would rather get shot rather than view Twilight during that film’s theatrical release. This was an interesting stance, since Slade is now slated to direct the third film in the Twilight saga, Eclipse. Slade related a Twitter message he had made from his now-deleted account, in which he described his decision-making process for whether or not to see the film:
Twilight drunk? No, not even drunk. Twilight on acid? No, not even on acid? Twilight at gun point? Just shoot me.
Naturally, this created a firestorm of criticism in the Twilight community. Slade was recently compelled to respond, and Twilight Lexicon has published an e-mail from Slade in which he repudiates his previous remarks. It reads, in part:
Read More »
Quentin Tarantino Calls Inglourious Basterds a “Masterpiece.” Writing Epic Review of Superman Returns?
Posted on Sunday, May 3rd, 2009 by Hunter Stephenson
Dear readers, yes, we had to. While browsing the NYT today, we came across a new interview with Quentin Tarantino in T Mag. Awesome. But then the horrific photo above came crashing atop our Sunday hangover like a white squall. Bustin’ surfboards. Alas, the chat does contain a few bits of cool info. First off, Tarantino confesses that Inglorious Basterds is indeed the “hardest film” he’s ever made. From a director who says that he would die to make his movies perfect, this may or may not come as a big surprise. Perhaps the latter, given that IB is a WWII epic, clocks in at over 2 hours and 30 minutes, and was cast and shot in time for this month’s Cannes. When asked about the quick production schedule, he frankly responds…
“I wanted to have a masterpiece before the decade’s out.”
At first, I interpreted this sentence to mean that he considers Inglourious Basterds to be his only masterpiece this decade. But clearly, both volumes of Kill Bill reached those heights, while Death Proof remains a genre exercise that certainly did not.
Did The Dana Carvey Show Have One of the Greatest Comedy Writer Benches Ever?
Posted on Friday, April 24th, 2009 by Hunter Stephenson
The Dana Carvey Show is now on Hulu. What’s the big deal? Well, when the sketch comedy show premiered on ABC in the mid ’90s—following a family-safe block of programming—millions were in awe at the stuff it got away with. It was too good to be true, giving SNL an irreverent elbow. When Carvey spoofed President Bill Clinton by whipping out countless flabby breasts to proudly nurse babies and puppies, it was the beginning of the end. Ratings were steady but still used as a scapegoat, and it was axed after eight episodes. Parents and middle school teachers exhaled in unison.
Knowing that Robert Smigel’s “The Ambiguously Gay Duo” debuted right after Jonathan Taylor Thomas’s stupid girl troubles on Home Improvement remains incredibly surreal and relevant in the current climate.
After the jump is a screen-shot that captures the show’s insane roster of writers: Stephen Colbert, Steve Carell and Charlie Kaufman for starters…
Richard Dreyfuss Joins Alex Aja’s Piranha 3D
Posted on Thursday, April 23rd, 2009 by Hunter Stephenson
We’ve been anticipating writer/director Alex Aja’s revamp of Joe Dante’s delectable Piranha for what seems like light years now. But the wait for his schlock-tastic Piranha 3D would appear to be worth it, what with a snarky badass like Adam Scott (Step Brothers, Party Down) starring in the lead. Today, Page Six confirmed that The Weinstein Company has also brought on Richard Dreyfuss, the man who previously battled Jaws, a lame Opus, liverspots, and CHUD, for an unspecified role. Fits like a geek glove.
JJ Abrams on “The Mystery of Magic” in WiReD Magazine
Posted on Tuesday, April 21st, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
In addition to editing this month’s issue of WiReD Magazine, writer/director JJ Abrams wrote an editorial called “The Mystery of Magic” which deals with the importance of mystery in movies and storytelling, and how spoilers effect audience enjoyment.
“People often ask me how Lost is going to end. I usually tell them to ask Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, who run that series. But I always wonder, do they really want to know? And what if I did tell them? They might have an aha moment, but without context. Especially since the final episode is a year away. That is to say, the experience—the setup for a joke’s punch line, the buildup to a magic trick’s big flourish—is as much of a thrill as the result. There’s discovery to be made and wonder to be had on the journey that not only enrich the ending but in many ways define it.”
I highly reccomend reading the entire article on Wired.com. Warning: The paragraph at the begining of the article is a major spoiler that “ruins” the story at the end of the article — I kid you not. But don’t skip it….
HBO’s Eastbound and Down Renewed for Second Season!
Posted on Wednesday, April 8th, 2009 by Hunter Stephenson
I just returned from the set of H2 (Halloween 2) and am running off adrenaline, craft services coffee, and an iPod of Brian Jonestown Massacre and MF Doom. And also, a little bit of anger. Let me just say that Twitter has become a HUGE problem on movie sets, and that I do not grasp why it is necessary for some sites, however cool, to Tweet every effing detail of what they are seeing in real time. Word spreads quickly on these productions, and one bad, trivial, prematurely ejaculated Tweet can potentially and seemingly spoil access for everyone. End rant. The below news was in my email, cheered me up, and even though I need to crash, it was too good to delay posting…
HBO has officially confirmed that its original comedy series Eastbound and Down—a /Film fave—has been renewed for a second season. Better yet, given the fast ascent up the comedy ranks of the show’s masterminds, Danny McBride, Jody Hill, and Ben Best, one may have expected another six-episode season further down the pipeline. Instead, the next season begins filming later this year and will air in 2010. Woo. When we were on the set last year, co-director David Gordon Green revealed that a follow-up pitch was being entertained that centered on McBride’s profane bulletproof tiger Kenny Powers shipping off to South America to quasi-fulfill his baseball career. However, the idea seemed to be news to much of the cast, and given how well received the ensemble performances of Andy Daly, Katy Mixon, John Hawkes, and Steve “Ass Blood” Little, I wouldn’t bet on it.
My review of Jody Hill’s Observe and Report is on the way. It’s a 9.5/10 and one of the most uncompromising, face-checking comedies to come around in a long time.
Every year, movie studios make all their HUGE announcements on the first day in April. Earlier today we broke the news that Warner Bros will be producing a fourth Matrix movie, The Matrix: Resurrection. We’re in Las Vegas at ShoWest, and unable to cover all the huge news that hit the interwebs this morning, so we’ve decided to do a link roundup.
