Film Kritter

Totally Recalled It! :)

Forgive me, this was written on my phone. The remake of Total Recall is basically a makeover of the same story but lamer (without Mars it ain’t Recall). With a smelly Minority Report sweater and a Terminator Salvation personality, as in it put me to sleep more than once. I’ll explain, the action was well executed, it was cool, and everyone’s performances were great (although Bryan Cranston and Bill Nighy were not used well). It was purely a lackluster storyline. If you’re gonna recycle a movie plot from the 80’s about a space age spy with amnesia take it from Arnold himself, “…get your ass to Mars.” 

Upcoming Dark Knight Blogsession

I will be constructing an in-depth blog about the upcoming summer blockbuster, The Dark Knight Rises and will finally say my peace with all the Dark Knight haters out there. Hope to have this video blog posted by next week.

The Royal Tenenbaums Soundtrack

Anyone who is a fan of The Royal Tenenbaums will probably feel the same things when listening to the soundtrack.  Each song is an instant vivid memory of a very memorable scene, and each one ignites a certain emotion.  Some songs instil a hurried panic, other relief and nostalgia, but my favourite is The Mutato Muzika Orchestra’s rendition of Hey Jude with blaring trumpets and chorus leading to a fade out.  That song has filled me with endless possibility every time I hear it.  

If you’re a fan of the movie, get the soundtrack, buy it, download it, who cares, but put it on your main playlist for a day and see what feelings come to you and when.  I promise you it’ll blow your mind.  Also, get The Watchmen soundtrack while you’re at it haha, it may be a bit nerdier choice of movie (I know I loved it) but it combines a lot of great hits you’d never think would come together.  I wouldn’t lead you astray…people I’ve possibly never met.  :)  Enjoy the rest of your Monday.

Mad Men - Finally Joining the Craze

I’ve heard for years that I should be watching Mad Men.  Unfortunately those that had sworn by it over the years were not my favourite people at the time; I found them snobby and maladjusted and therefore assumed that you must first be a snob before enjoying Mad Men to it’s fullest potential.  One friend even talked about ordering $500 tumbler glasses like the ones from the show, which made me wanna throw-up and kick his ass at the same time.  

Now that I’m finally giving it a chance, completely detached from all the prior fans that would recommend it, I’ve noticed that it is a very ingenious show and a great founding success for AMC as a channel.  AMC has now been able to spurt out several shows simply by mentioning Mad Men (Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead, two shows I’ll likely bring up when they come back in their next seasons, which will thankfully be very soon, SO EXCITED for both).

Mad Men, much like Boardwalk Empire, has an atmospheric pull to it.  You want to watch the show because of the calming sense of impartiality it gives off.  Times have changed and therefore responsibility and guilt has been diluted.  Men no longer have to feel guilty about the misogynistic, alcoholic, and polygamous ways of these characters.  Now, instead we can look at it as a history lesson of what men once were and what women had to put up with.  The men could drink during their day jobs, sleep with whomever they pleased and come up with any old story they like.  At times the show does go into the consequences of such actions but in many ways it is still an escape.  

When I watch it, I feel at ease because there are so few day-to-day problems in that world that we couldn’t handle with complete competence and efficiency in our time. The acting is fantastic, as a friend of mine said recently “That’s all the Mad Men is, seasons of great character development.”  which is true.  Mad Men puts character development to the test, people change, and others stay the same and strangely staying the same says just as much about a character as a drastic derailment of habits would.

The pithy and humorous banter of the 1960s people in advertisement, each complaining about the hierarchy of the business is delightful and fun.  The cliff-hangers and curveballs are well paced and not too sudden and overly-common.  I love the show, I’m almost done the second season and it better continue to be great as it has been.  

(I’m only 2 episodes into Six Feet Under, so a few more and I’ll talk about it next)

Peace out webernets. 

Sincerely, 
Keith

Writing Fright

I’ve been planning out a TV drama series for the longest time.  I planned it all out four years ago and now that I’ve got four seasons worth of experience and character development to put down on pages I can’t find the right way to start writing.  The silly thing is the longer I leave it the more I build up the anxiety of starting.  

I’ve had many series ideas these past four years, and this is the only one I’ve actually spent time compiling episode ideas and story arks in preparation.  This is the series that persuaded me to buy all sorts of books on the subject of drama and comedy writing on plot development and proper television script format.  I don’t know what it is about starting, I’m aware it doesn’t have to be perfect right from the get-go.  I know I’ll have it edited several times before I’m satisfied.  But perhaps I’m just so terrified of failure that I find it better not to attempt, which is really a bad way to look at things.  

I’ve just gotta push through and get it started, once I do I’m positive it will flow with ease, but I’m so pissed at myself for leaving it for so long.  Damn the stresses and hardships of life postponing my creativity.  Damn my anxiety swamped self hindering my productivity.

Dammit I’m gonna start right now, on an episode down the line from the pilot ep, I wanna get some of the grittier story-lines out of my system then maybe I’ll know how they should be set up, in order to create enough hype and get the most out of the climaxes later in the arks… Alright enough chit chat.