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Showing posts with the label seth rogen

At Movie Mezzanine: Movies and Mass Shooting

Taxi Driver is considered one of the classics of Martin Scorsese’s filmography, but when that title is mentioned most don’t think of the film, they recall John Hinckley Jr. and his attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan. That association has undoubtedly been permanently seared into the reputation of Taxi Driver, but it will never tarnish that picture. Such claims that cinema could be at fault for the actions of a person with mental illness are odd, but they pop up just as often as the shootings themselves.

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Unscripted Movie Magic

Some of the best lines in cinema history are completely made up on the spot. Here are twenty-five of the best unscripted movie quotes of history.

Review: 50/50

Adam (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) has it all... well almost. He has a girlfriend (Bryce Dallas Howard) who dabbles in the art world. He has a respected position at Seattle Public Radio. He also has a very tightly-wound mother (Anjelica Huston) and a father with Alzheimer's Disease.
Adam, to his dismay, also has cancer.
His mind races, "How could I have cancer? I don't drink... I recycle." You never see Adam so much as keep a library book overdue, so the concept of having a rare cancer at the age of 27 is completely mind-blowing.
Fortunately, he has laid-back pal, Kyle (Seth Rogen) who reminds him that 50/50 odds is better than any casino game. However, Kyle is no angel, he also uses Adam's situation to occasionally get a number from a hot girl.
50/50 is a straight-shooting comedy. It may not benefit from its marketing, but everything in the film rings true. Nothing is manipulative, nor out of place. When someone is diagnosed with cancer the first thing to do isn't …

Review: Paul

Nostalgia tripping is risking becoming it's own subgenre of film. It's a golden age for nerds: comedic geniuses like Simon Pegg riff on 80s pop-culture for hours and make watching it enjoyable. This is old hat for Pegg, who starred with Paul co-writer and co-star Nick Frost in Spaced so many years ago. Spaced pulled from the same bag of "Wars and Trek" references, and like in Paul, it didn't let the in-jokes ruin the comedic chemistry, plot and character development. Contrast this with Fanboys, another exercise in sci-fi reverence that was steeped too deep in arcana and lacked comedic wit. Fanboys featured a cameo by Seth Rogen, who gives the charming the voice to the titular alien.

Paul is the story of two aging nerds taking a road trip through some of the more alien lore rich states after a visit to comic-con. While stopped to see The Black Mailbox, a car crashes nearby that contains a lovable extra terrestrial who needs help to escape. He is being chased by pur…

Kung Fu Panda 2 Teaser

The material for a sequel might seem a tad familiar - Po (Jack Black) and the Furious Five protecting China from the emergence of a formidable villain, who plans to use an unstoppable weapon to conquer China and destroy kung fu- but the first was entertaining and I can't see this being any less fun.

Kevin Smith's Done With Slackers

While talking to the Huffington Post director Kevin Smith revealed that he had an epiphany following Zack and Miri's box-office failure,

"It's sad when you realize you can't be the angry young man anymore. The angry young man is barely ever interesting, and tolerable in his 20s. But his late 20s? Early 30s? God forbid late 30s? You can't anymore. I'm in a business where I get to make pretend for a living, so what the fuck am I angry about? There's nothing anymore; I'm a very content, middle aged man," Smith said. "People are like 'Ah when are Jay and Silent Bob coming back?' And I'm like 'I don't think they are. I'm fuckin' 39! I can't just put my fuckin' hat on backwards."
His next film is A Couple of Dicks starring Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan as buddies who have been on the force for years. That's sad to hear that Smith is done with slacker films after he's made classics like Clerks, Mallra…

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Green Hornet Revealed

By Colin Biggs September 30, 2009

First look at Seth Rogen in character as Britt Reid's alter-ego The Green Hornet.
(Courtesy: Coming Soon)

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The Zoroastrian Dialectic in 'Observe and Report'

By Ben September 16, 2009

Many films are based on the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche. Several films focus on the idea of the Übermensch, notably (and most obviously) Alfred Hitchcock's Rope. Übermensch was a idea that Nietzsche proposed in his novel Thus Spoke Zarathustra, arguably one of the most influential philosophical works of all time, (and infamously an inspiration of both Wagner and Hitler).
Aside from Rope, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Being There are two other fantastic films meant to recount an aspect of the tale of Zoroaster. In each of these, a naive person or civilization is exposed to an event that opens their eyes and impels them to change themselves into something more than they already were, thereby they attain a new level of being and enlightenment.
A similar event occurs in Observe and Report, wherein the protagonist Ronnie Barnhardt, a mall security chief, is exposed (both literally and figuratively) to a series of eye-opening experiences. It's an interesting retelling of the sto…

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Review: Funny People

By Ben August 01, 2009

Funny People charts a strange course through the seas of comedy. Whereas a typical comedic film will spend as much time in the choppy waters of slapstick as possible (e.g. Step Brothers, The 40 Year-Old Virgin) Funny People portrays a more realistic journey on the ocean of life, often showing characters in the doldrums and in dire straits.
If there were fifty or a hundred fewer dick jokes, it might be mistaken for a drama.
The film takes a slight departure from the usual dramatic arc used in nearly all Hollywood films. Such departures are usually the calling card of an inexperienced director, or a film whose vision was compromised by the studio. The abnormal story arc in Funny People is only slightly strange. To begin with, the characters progress through a very typical narrative structure, but after the 1:30 to 1:40 mark, where most films end, the film takes on a new narrative which later ties into the resolution of the earlier plot in the film. It's nice to see some liberties ta…

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