DCist: Popcorn & Candy: Black for Red

connie dobbs

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 10:25:49 -0500

Ian, what may have been lost from Monkey's synopsis was that GotF came out ahead of EotS with his three- and five-year-olds. I heard a lot of "whas they doin wif that dead lady?" this weekend. But these are children who like to watch Lon Chaney's Phantom of the Opera (Silent), Zulu (with Michael Caine), and the entire Lord of the Rings/Star Wars franchises. I loves me some dark geeks.

Ian Buckwalter

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 09:54:53 -0500

I could have told you that Grave of the Fireflies would come out ahead in that matchup. That movie is amazing.

monkeyrotica

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 08:26:45 -0500

Watched a double-feature of Empire of the Sun and Grave of the Fireflies with the kids this weekend. Although I loves me some JG Ballard, I can't say the movie holds up very well. It's got that irritating wide-eyed-Eliot-getting-fingered-by-ET vibe that I find insufferably maudlin. It's pretty bad when a cartoon about Tokyo firebombings ends up being less sentimental than a Spielberg movie, but there it is.

Augustus

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 01:02:28 -0500

Ian - that's a nice alternate history. In reality, Trumbo didn't defend "every American's right" to political freedom, only his own. As he himself noted, during World War II he turned in the names of people who ordered his book, "Johnny Got His Gun", to the FBI, because he thought they were all Nazis.

Ian Buckwalter

Sun, 24 Aug 2008 02:17:01 -0500

I don't care if Trumbo defended Stalin, Idi Amin, Franco, a KKK Grand Wizard, and Satan himself. What he defended was every American's right to belong to any group and associate with whomever he or she pleases without fear of persecution based simply on those ties. The substance of Trumbo's politics apart from that are immaterial. What he wouldn't stand for was a congressional committee that was dedicated to destroying the lives and careers of people based on their political affiliation. Which is a pretty un-American activity on it's own.

monkeyrotica

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 20:39:01 -0500

Keep in mind that right after Kazan went back to work, he did "On The Waterfront," a love letter to stool pidgeons.

monkeyrotica

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 20:37:46 -0500

HCE - So directors like Odets and Elia Kazan, who cooperated with the HUAC blacklist, are they the real patriots?

HCE

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 20:23:05 -0500

So an avowed defender of Stalin should be considered an American patriot? Maybe in whatever fantasy-land version of America you live in.

Ian Buckwalter

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 14:31:27 -0500

Thanks for the tip, boondoggle. Mighty Boosh has passed me by, I'll have to check it out. As for Death Race, that looks absolutley awful. Statham's great, and particuarly when he's got something decent to work with (Lock Stock, Transporter, Bank Job). But he seems to come from the Michael Caine school of accepting any role offered to him. Which is fine, I'm glad he's getting paid, but just like there's no way Caine could salvage Jaws 4, Jason Statham can't save crap like War. Death Race looks like another lost cause. I don't see how the a hyper-kinetic, faux-gritty remake is going to add to or improve much on the kitschy Corman/Bartel original. Speaking of which, what the hell is up with the Corman remakes? Now Howard Stern has announced a retread of Rock 'n' Roll High School, which is roughly analogous in terms of content and stupidity to trying to get a remake of A Hard Day's Night off the ground.

boondoggle

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 14:05:00 -0500

That series deserves mention along with Spaced, Black Books, and The Office as the best British comedies of the past decade.. How can you leave the Mighty Boosh off that list? For shame. Also, no love for Death Race this week? Jason Statham is the by far the best guilty pleasure action star of this era. Did you see the Bank Job? He spends the first 100 minutes of the movie not punching people, but makes up for it in scene. Top quality.

monkeyrotica

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 11:35:59 -0500

That Oscar Trumbo won for The Brave One has an interesting backstory to it. The producers of the film, the King Brothers, were sued for plagiarism. That's how it got out that Trumbo was the author of the screeplay. The story itself, about a boy and his pet bull, was originally written by Robert Flaherty for inclusion in Orson Welles' film It's All True, which was never completed. But since the Kings were with RKO (Welles' former studio) and bought the rights to the film, the credit goes to Trumbo.

Ian Buckwalter

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 11:33:16 -0500

Thanks, Kev. I should have mentioned Partridge specifically a the reason for Coogan being a huge star across the pond. That series deserves mention along with Spaced, Black Books, and The Office as the best British comedies of the past decade.

Kev29

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 11:25:51 -0500

For any who might like Steve Coogan and have not seen I'm Alan Partridge - leave work immediately (forcibly induce vomit if need be), find the DVD's and watch every episode.