Acrentropy

Chiwetel Ejiofor Quote of the Month: December 2011

2011-12-01T08:22:00.002-05:00

We close the year, appropriately, with the one Christmas movie in the bunch. Love Actually is one of Mrs. Mosley's favorite films. Ejiofor doesn't have much to say, but there is this memorable exchange:

Peter: "Who is it?"

Juliet: "It's carol singers."

Peter: "Well, give them a quid and tell them to bugger off!"

Folks, as you've seen the posts get smaller and smaller here at Acrentropy, you have probably guessed I am winding it down with blogging (and you would be right). As part of that, I'm shuttering the "Quote-of-the-Month" posts, which has been the only regular feature of this blog since I started it back in 2004. The big film project is also on hold until I find sometime in between family and (increasingly irritating) work.

I've made statements before on how I'll be slowing down only to do anything but, yet If the past six months are any indication, this time it's the real thing. For those few of you who turned in over the years, I thank you for your appreciation.

Take care, folks. Cheers.

Secret Santa LEGO

2011-11-22T22:18:00.005-05:00

Life has put my dream project on hold, but I have kept my hand into LEGO just to keep myself sane. In this case, I signed up for a Secret Santa exchange through the members at BrickLink. My designated guy expressed a liking of Pirates of the Caribbean sets, so taking that as inspiration, I created a spiffy treasure chest (with loot and monkey)!

The priciest piece that I had to order were the six tan arches (Part 6183), which were only available in a couple of Star Wars sets from 2003 and 2004. Overall, I'm very pleased with the result. I can only hope that the LEGO fan in Montana I was assigned likes it as well. Merry X-mas!

Chiwetel Ejiofor Quote of the Month: November 2011

2011-11-01T09:22:00.012-04:00

There are some movies that are required to pull off an interesting balancing act. Two characters are thrown together that appear to be polar opposites: One is uptight and the other is wild and crazy. This is the classic buddy cop mold, but it's used for much more than cop movies. The balancing part is having both characters appeal to the audience without going to an extreme with their behavior so that it turns them off.

We get a prime example of that with Talk to Me. In that film, we have a wild and crazy ex-con DJ named Petey Greene (Don Cheadle) and an uptight radio station executive named Dewey Hughes (Ejiofor). From the beginning of the movie, we like Greene and his over-the-top personality, but we also feel bad for Hughes and the trouble that Greene has given him. So when the two meet in a pool hall to settle their differences over a game of nine ball (while a crowd of bar patrons look on), It's nice to see Hughes totally turn the tables and surprise the hell out of Greene:

Greene: "I'm about to run this rack."

Hughes: "You're chalking up your cue a little heavy there, ain't you? I mean, that ain't your cellmate's dick you're holding."

(Man in the crowd laughes)

Greene: "Just for that, I'm gonna drop the nine ball off the break."

Hughes: "Nigga, you couldn't drop your drawers to fuck The Supremes if all three of them was lying butt-naked on this table."
(Astonishment from the crowd)

Hughes: "What's the matter, big time? You thinking about all that money lying in your lady's lap? Is that why you're sweating? Or maybe it's all that whiskey you've been sucking on. Or maybe you're sweating 'cause you know that even if you give it your best shot, you still might leave 'em standing. 'Cause this ain't Lorton anymore. This is the real world. And you ain't shit out here."

Green: "Are you through?"

Hughes: "Knock 'em down, champ."

(Petey breaks and fails to sink a ball)

Petey: "Damn!"

Hughes: "Too bad, big time. I had faith in you. One ball, corner. (sinks the one) Two ball, side pocket. (sinks the two) Three ball, corner. (sinks the three) See, negroes always think that if you speak correct English, or you wear clothes other than clown suits, that you're not real. Four ball, side pocket. (sinks the four) And to you, what's real is a nigga loud-mouthing, right? Telling everybody how bad he is while he's looking for a handout. Five. (sinks the five) But you give him a chance to take what's his, and he can't sink one single ball. Six. (sinks the six) Lucky seven! (sinks the seven, the crowd is impressed) Now, you were so busy running your mouth, you never really asked yourself why I chose a pool hall to meet. 'Cause this uppity nigga could never have grown up in these projects, or made his way through school hustling dumbass niggas who thought he wasn't down. (sinks the last two balls) They call me Mr. Hughes. Grew up in the Anacostia projects."

Chiwetel Ejiofor Quote of the Month: October 2011

2011-10-01T08:10:00.000-04:00

Sometimes it's bloody difficult to get these quotes. Although all of the actors are stellar and they do wonderfully with the roles they are given, some are not necessarily quip-worthy. I remember wanting to use Mountains on the Moon (which I had seen many years before) for one of the Delroy Lindo quotes back in 2007. When I sat down and watched it again, I discovered that Lindo stayed mute for most of the film. Scratch that one.

That being said, I had none of these problems with Kinky Boots. It's probably a rule of Hollywood that if you're going to play a drag queen in a movie, you're going to get some of the best lines in it. And if you happen to be the star of the film, well, it's all you, baby. Ejiofor plays Lola with all the style and sass at his command, which is a lot. Picking a line from so many is a difficult task, but I'll happily dive in:

Lola: "I'm not merely a transvestite, sweetheart. I'm also a drag queen. It's a simple equation. A drag queen puts on a frock, looks like Kylie. A transvestite puts on a frock, looks like... Boris Yeltsin in lipstick. There, I said it."

Chiwetel Ejiofor Quote of the Month: September 2011

2011-09-01T09:06:00.003-04:00

With the exception of Redbelt (which I am not counting out of personal animosity), none of the films we have covered so far have exactly been chatty. Oh sure, Serenity has awesome dialogue, but I'm thinking chatty in terms of like a stage play. Ejiofor is such a poised, fiercely intelligent actor, such a film would be an ideal place to watch him do his thing.

Endgame is part of the "Masterpiece Contemporary" series from PBS. It's the story of how a series of secret discussions on a remote estate in the UK helped to bring peace to South Africa and end apartheid. Ejiofor plays Thabo Mbeki, head representative of the African National Congress during the talks. And that's what they are: Talks. Oh sure, we get some action and suspense here and there, but mostly we get Ejiofor sitting at a table and drawing us in with his words. It's all the more appropriate, then, that his introduction is as a speaker to some UK bigwigs as he pleads his case:

“My name is Thabo Mbeki, and I am a terrorist. No doubt, that is what you have been told. (opens jacket) No incendiary devices. No concealed weapons. I am just a man, as you are. Every day, the president of South Africa, under the mantle of his state of emergency, deploys thousands more of his troops in the townships, brutally crushing the rising resistance to his oppressive regime. Yet the United Kingdom is still one of South Africa’s leading trading partners. Every company, every financial institution which continues to invest there is a source of political and economic strength to P.W. Botha. If it is true that money talks, then let it speak clearly. Let your voice join ours when we say the bloodshed of our people must end. The time to shout ‘enough’ has come. The time for you to act is here."

Chiwetel Ejiofor Quote of the Month: August 2011

2011-08-01T09:21:00.003-04:00

When John Singleton took a whack at remaking Shaft in 2000, it didn't impress a lot of people (myself included). The new film was too slick and too Hollywood, which stood in stark contrast to the gritty piece of New York art that Gordon Parks shot on location in 1971. And though the reboot had an able assist from king ass-kicker Samuel L. Jackson, the movie just couldn't capture that same magic.

Flash forward five years later and Singleton releases Four Brothers, which seems to have some of what his Shaft remake lacked: Run down buildings, freezing weather, and a couple of main characters who do nothing to hide their true nature as out-and-out thugs. Ejiofor, as the main villain Victor Sweet, doesn't get to do nearly as many physical beat downs as Mark Wahlberg does, but that's only because he's one of those villains who doesn't have to. He specializes in verbal intimidation and humiliation, and his introductory speech to his crew gives the audience of good idea of this.

Victor Sweet: "Out-of-town shooters. That's what I said. I remember hearing myself saying, 'Out-of-town shooters.' You know what? You don't pay a ho to fuck you. You pay her to leave. What you pay out-of-town shooters to do? You pay them to get the hell back out of town. That's why I asked for out-of-town shooters. What'd I get? In-town shooters. Someone decided to hire in-town shooters. You know what else I got for my money? In-town police. In-town trouble. Who's got to get in the ring with me on this?"

Chiwetel Ejiofor Quote of the Month: July 2011

2011-07-01T10:52:00.000-04:00

Children of Men, by any measure, is one of the best Sci-Fi films to come out in the past ten years. It's also a lesson in how a book adaptation needn't be faithful in order to produce a great movie. I read the original book by P.D. James before the film came out and thought it was a moving story. The film took quite a bit of liberties while retaining the bare bones plot, but there's little arguing with the results.

Our protagonist Theo (Clive Owen) lives in a future where pregnancies have suddenly stopped and the human population is in the midst of it's slow shuffle to extinction. He is soon recruited by an old flame to help her radical group transport a refugee out of the country. Something goes wrong and they have to retreat to a safe house, where upon the refugee takes Theo aside and shows him that she's actually pregnant. Chiwetel plays one of the radicals, Luke, and arrives just after Theo finds out.

Luke: “When you’re ready, come inside. Everybody’s arrived.”

Theo: “She’s pregnant.”

Luke: “Now you know what’s at stake.”

Theo: “But, she’s pregnant.”

Luke: “Yeah, I know. (pause) It’s a miracle, isn’t it?”

"Ten": The First Shot

2011-06-09T22:21:00.002-04:00

So, here we are: The first shot. And, true to form, I didn't pick an easy one.

The very first shot of the film after the opening credits will be a slow zoom up the skyscraper. That shot will dissolve into another slow zoom up to the window of the Office. That's the shot we're working on today.

Originally, I thought we might be able to pull this off with stop motion. I even created a dolly platform to measure out each shot as the camera moved forward. This didn't turn out so well, however, and I decided to go with straight video.

This would involve mounting the camera and rig on wheels and slowly moving in to the Governor. At the same time, the elevator doors would open behind him. The gears I had previously shown didn't work too smoothly, so I had to redo this setup so that it worked at the push of a button (or rather, a LEGO axle).

After a number of tries and a rearranging of lights, I finally got my shot. I haven't the video to show you, but enjoy these behind-the-scenes shots of the set.

Next time: The Meeting

"Ten": The Gamechanger

2011-06-04T10:44:00.001-04:00

The title of this week's update has two meanings. First off, I am going to depart my rigid weekly schedule of postings. Things get bust and sometimes I don't have the time to make a Saturday update every week, so I'll instead be posting whenever I have something to post (whatever that might be). Rest assured, the next post really will be the First Shot.

The second is a discovery I made just last night. I had just done some test shots and processed them in Power Director with some unsatisfactory results. Whenever I converted the video to Black and White by lowering the color saturation, the video turned splotchy and wholly unacceptable. Then I started playing around with the camera and found, lo and behold, an option to shoot in Black and White. I'm pretty sure I had already checked before for this option and didn't find it. For whatever reason, it was easier to find this time around.

So, things are looking up. Stay tuned for info on the First Shot any day now... except Saturday.

Next time: The First Shot

Chiwetel Ejiofor Quote of the Month: June 2011

2011-06-01T08:57:00.000-04:00

This month, we once again return to the realm of David Mamet. What I have stated previously about Mamet remains true: Mamet dialogue is not natural dialogue. It may be catchy and it may be memorable, but it is not what I would call natural.

The degree of how his style makes an imprint on a script varies from film to film. Back in 2007, I highlighted the film Heist for February's Delroy Lindo quote. Of that film, I only have good memories of an exciting and clever crime film. And as evidenced by the use of the film for Delroy, it had it's share of great dialogue too.

But then there are films like Redbelt, where the style goes to ridiculous levels and impedes any enjoyment of the film itself. Now normally, these monthly posts are to highlight a great line of dialogue by the actor chosen for the given year. In Ejiofor's case, who stars in the film, I'm sure he's given some great lines. I wouldn't know as I stopped watching 20 minutes in.

So instead of showcasing a great line, I'm going to show how Mamet's style can border on the ridiculous. First, let me present a skit from the MST3K episode "Prince of Space" that will put a smile on any science fiction fan's face.

Clever, huh? I can't imagine what a pain in the ass it was to write that scene. Now let's look at an early dialogue scene from Redbelt between Mike (Ejiofor) and Gini (played by Cathy Cahlin Ryan):

Gini: "Joe still inside?"

Mike: "No, he just left."

Gini: "Left?"

Mike: "Yeah, maybe he went to the club."

Gini: "What happened to the window?"

Mike: "Isn't he on at the club?"

Gini: "Um, that's funny."

Mike: "Weren't you going to the mountains?"

Gini: "Why would he go to the club?"

Mike: "Isn't he working tonight?"

Gini: "The club? No. No, no, no. He hasn't worked at the club in months. Listen, uh, I have to tell him something. Okay? Tell him."

Mike: "Why?"

Gini: "Why what?"

Mike: "Why hasn't he been working there?"

Gini: "Yeah, I know. Listen, I gotta get home."

Ack! Unfortunately for Mamet, he can't blame such conversations as this on Time/Space distortions. Too bad. It would have made for a more interesting film.

That is two bad Ejiofor films in a row. For July, I promise a good one. Until then.

"Ten": The Storyboard

2011-05-28T23:59:00.002-04:00

Storyboarding is a lot of fun. While creating them, I think back to watching "Making of" specials when I was kid showing Spielberg and Lucas doing the same for their films.

Instead of the random-sheets-of-loose-paper method I've used in the past, I got a mini notebook earlier this year for the sole purpose of the storyboard.

And here, dear reader, is a sneak peak at the first several pages:

Some explanations are needed here. The first page of the book (not shown) is a key that shows the layout of the first scene location (The Office) and creates a notation system in regards to the camera. There are letters for the four walls that indicate which wall will need to be removed for this particular shot (thus the minus sign in front of the letter). The first shot has the office enclosed, but the remaining either involve the Front wall removed or the Back wall removed. I also have notations as to if the camera is still (Full stop) or moving (In motion), and the further notations if the shot will be Stop motion or Video. Finally, I have the beginnings of lines from the script to indicate where the shot is in terms of the dialogue.

Sorry, folks. That's all the movie magic I have time for tonight. It's time to turn in and get some sleep before we start toilet training little C.C. tomorrow morning (Ah, the joys of parenthood). G'night!

Next Week: The Gamechanger

"Ten": The... aw, who am I kiddin'?

2011-05-21T09:38:00.001-04:00

No post this week as I'm on the road (And yet, I'm publishing a post. SCIENCE!).

Besides, the world is going to end sometime today, so who has time for LEGO?

See you next Saturday.

"Ten": The Camera Equipment

2011-05-14T23:06:00.001-04:00

The camera I'm using for this project is the same one I used for the other three: A Canon Powershot A570. It has a video option, which will come in handy. Though, as I have already implied, I'm going to try and rely less on video this time out.

When I did the first short, I knew I was going to need a rig to keep the camera steady. It seemed natural to create one out of LEGO that could, if need be, actually attach to the LEGO floor for some shots. Though the rig went through several redesigns in the four years I created it, it's more or less the same basic design:

Nothing fancy here. The key part to the rig is the Technic Engine Cylinder, and the reason it is key is the hole in the middle where a Technic piston would normally go. In this case, it proved the perfect size for the screw I found that matched the threads in the tripod mount at the bottom of the camera. The Technic Engine Cylinder on the other side simply serves to balance the rig out. Matched with some pins and blocks, the rig worked perfectly.

It was a fine build, but it didn't solve problems I needed with higher angle shots. Fortunately, Mrs. Mosley purchased a new digital camera several years ago and it came with a mini tripod, which I will be borrowing for the project.

There is one more piece of equipment to show (and one of which I am quite proud of), but I am going to save that for the post on the first shot two weeks from now. Until then...

In Two Weeks: The Storyboard

"Ten": The Lesson Plan

2011-05-07T08:59:00.003-04:00

Though I came up with most of the film making techniques and tricks on my own the first three times out, I realized with this new one I would need help. Fortunately, as with every other endeavor, there is support to be found on the Internet.

I started by studying those YouTube stop motion films I had come across over the years that I admired. Fancy Pants Productions produces some quality work, including their most famous short, The Force Unleashed. Although I don't plan of having any light sabers in my film, the fight choreography is of great interest to me for my own big fight scene. They also have some lovely tutorials on lighting, camera movement, recording voices and other animation techniques.

Custard Productions is another one of the YouTube LEGO powerhouses. They reached fame very early on when they recreated the Dark Knight trailer in LEGO mere days after the trailer debuted (That's some fast work there, boys). That video went viral and they've been at it ever since showcasing their adherence to violence through a prodigious use of Brickarms.

Then there are the websites devoted to LEGO stop motion. Brickfilms is one I've consulted now and again since I started doing these years ago. Bricks in Motion is another that I discovered only recently and looks very promising. And a special note should be made for LegoMatrix, which is an entire site devoted to one short film that recreates a scene from The Matrix in LEGO. The creators have the entire process broken down by shot-by-shot, which makes for a fascinating study in the stop-motion art.

The lessons don't stop with LEGO, either, as I endeavored to learn the ins and outs of Power Director through their own YouTube channel. Then there are lessons to be learned in regards to Audacity and ZynAddSubFX, which are the excellent (and free) audio editing and production softwares (respectively). Unfortunately, they do not have their own YouTube channels, but plenty of users have posted their own tutorials so I won't have any problems there. (Correction: Someone in the comments corrected me and pointed out there is, indeed a YouTube channel for ZynAddSubFX. Thank you, Paul! I don't know how I missed that.)

The time is now approaching for me to study all this because I will be shooting actual footage very soon.

Next Week: The Camera Equipment

Chiwetel Ejiofor Quote of the Month: May 2011

2011-05-01T09:21:00.001-04:00

I'm going to be quick this month and choose a movie that I haven't seen and never want to see: 2012. And given that I haven't seen it, I'm just pulling one of Ejiofor's lines completely out of context from the IMDb entry and you can have at it:

Adrian Helmsley: "The Director of the Louvre was an enemy of humanity?"

"Ten": The Going Concern

2011-04-30T08:22:00.004-04:00

That post title may be wishful thinking, but we're trying to be optimistic here.

Three months ago, I posted about the LEGO store I had opened for the primary purpose of funding my project. It turned out to work very well, and I was able to buy all sorts of parts that I needed with some Paypal funds left over for several non-LEGO related items.

Three weeks ago, Mrs. Mosley became interested in this and proposed making it a family business. We would put forward some money for buying LEGO on the cheap and then selling it in the store. She became very enthused about it, and I myself got excited when I happened upon some massive clearance sales at the K-marts in town. I ended up buying several hundred dollars of LEGO sets (mostly from the outgoing Toy Story line) for less than a third of their normal prices. This was going to be fun!

Alas, just about the time we started this, the sales at the store (which had been fairly consistent since I opened it) suddenly dried up. As of this post, we haven't had a sale since April 11th. It was disheartening, particularly for Mrs. Mosley, but I have reassured her that it's bound to bounce back. We'll eventually make a profit on the sets we bought with the seed money (though most of them have been put into storage and will only be offered several years later when all the store copies are gone).

This post is let you know about the store, and also for myself to keep a list of hyperlinks to the places I need to check for LEGO to buy with our remaining seed money (and if you want to use them too, knock youself out!):

Craigslist

LEGO Store Deals

Amazon

Kmart

Walmart

Toys R Us

Next Week: The Lesson Plan

"Ten": The Office (Part Three)

2011-04-23T23:02:00.003-04:00

I'm going the full "Gregg Toland" on this project, which means the ceiling will be visible in this room. I was able to take advantage of a fistful of windows I had grabbed at one of my last visits to Pick-a-brick at Downtown Disney. These were placed in a grid pattern inside a frame of black bricks. This is the result.

The ceiling itself is does not cover the entire room but only about 3/4 of it. I need to have some room where the camera is for closeups and the ceiling would have gotten in the way. With this design, it can slide back and forth and hold it's position onto any combination of walls depending on the shot (The two notches of ceiling flanking the window bank are permanent pieces since I won't need to put the camera there).

The final element was the elevator and doors. I had done the swooshy "Star Trek" doors before in the Blast Reynolds short, but those doors were operated individually. This time, I wanted a single control to open and close the doors smoothly at the same time. So, we bring out the gears.

The turning of one gear turns the rest of them and the doors open and close simultaneously. This will make filming a bit easier. And so, we now have our Office.

Finally, here is a test shot, converted to B&W and widescreen dimensions:

Next Week: The Going Concern

Indiana Jones and "The Chicago Way"

2011-04-22T12:03:00.003-04:00

(Earlier this month, my grandfather-in-law Don wrote a post in his brand new blog that was based on a discussion I had with him several years ago on the morality of heroes in contemporary Hollywood films. My response ended up being so long that I went ahead and turned it into a post. Go have a look at his original essay before reading mine. It'll make more sense that way.)

One of the most famous scenes from Raiders of the Lost Ark came about because of dysentery. As the story goes, the original script directed Indiana Jones to disarm a hulking swordsman with his whip. Harrison Ford, however, was suffering from food poisoning that day and suggested to Steven Spielberg that Indiana would more likely just shoot the guy. And so, cinematic history was made.

Spielberg has stated repeatedly that his intention in creating this film was to pay tribune to those old Republic serials of the 1940's. In those films, the heroes very much wore white hats (if not in the literal sense) and the villains were very black-hearted foes indeed. But with the post war period and the rise of film noir, our heroes started to take on a grayer sheen. Their motivations weren't always so pure and their actions weren't always so ethical, but we rooted for them anyway because, on the whole, they fought for the forces of good.

Looking at Harrison Ford's other iconic role of Han Solo in Star Wars, we get a prime example of this. Here we have an independent beholden to no one and not above petty crimes such as smuggling to make his living. In a character-defining scene early on in the film, he shoots a bounty hunter under a table as his opponent holds a gun on him and jokes about killing him.

Is it self defense? Yes, but not exactly what you'd call fair play. Yet in 1997 when Lucas made a modification to this scene so that Greedo shoots first, there was a fan uproar that was deafening. In his book "On Writing", Stephen King wrote that you can write anything as an author as long as you tell the truth. In simpler terms, you must be true to your characters. Lucas's little edit might have made Han's actions more morally acceptable, but it struck a false cord with a character that had been embraced for his flaws.

Getting back to Indiana Jones, the swordsman scene as scripted could have been taken out of one of the old serials that Spielberg loved so much: An honorable fight between two great opponents. And though Indiana is clearly Han Solo's moral superior (he "steals", yes, but not for a profit), his decision to shoot the guy comes at the halfway mark in the film after we have seen Indiana endure so much already. Again, it comes down to character, and his expression of "I really don't have time for this" says all that needs to be said about his character's actions.

Which brings us to The Untouchables. Like Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark, this is meant to be a fun action film. Unlike those two films, it's not the escapism of Sci-Fi or Treasure Hunting Adventure. We're dealing here with real history and real people that once existed. Furthermore, the film is directed by Brian De Palma, who on the whole produces more disturbing films that his contemporaries Lucas and Spielberg. The Untouchables was one of his few stabs (a successful one, most would agree) at a more mainstream popular entertainment.

And yet... and yet we are presented with a scene that causes problems with some viewers. In it, lawman Elliot Ness is pursuing a hitman on a rooftop. The hitman starts to descend a rope and Ness traps him there with his gun drawn. There is a moment of consideration on Ness's face, but he soon helps the hitman up and starts to escort him into custody. While crossing the roof, the hitman brags about killing Ness's friend. Ness then force marches/runs the handcuffed hitman to the side of the building and pushes him off, where he dies on the street below.

This is the scene that Don has an objection to and I understand it completely. Coincidentally, about twenty years ago when I was attending UNF, I had an argument with a fellow film buff about this very same scene. It became very heated as he was angry that we were acting so indifferent to a scene that upset him so. Yet his objection was not to the immorality of the action per se, but rather the action being performed by a character that, so far in the film, had very much been a by-the-book cop. I never asked him about his opinion on Han and Greedo or Indiana and the Swordsman, but I can imagine he would be less bothered by those two scenes because of the characters involved.

Yet one can make arguments in defense of Ness's actions. As my grandfather-in-law pointed out, he seemed to be in a fit of rage when he pushed the hitman off the roof. More importantly, his memory was jogged when the hitman mentioned Jim Malone. As Malone told Ness in a church earlier in the film:

Malone: "You said you wanted to get Capone. Do you really wanna get him? You see what I'm saying is, what are you prepared to do?"

Ness: "Anything within the law."

Malone: "And then what are you prepared to do? If you open the can on these worms you must be prepared to go all the way. Because they're not gonna give up the fight, until one of you is dead."

Ness: "I want to get Capone! I don't know how to do it."

Malone: "You wanna know how to get Capone? They pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. That's the Chicago way!"

If a man pulls a sword on you, you pull a revolver. If a man pulls a blaster on you over a table, you pull one under it. Malone, it seems, would be in good company with Indiana and Han.

But let me address some other aspects of Don's essay and we'll get back to Mr. Ness in a moment. In terms of sadism and cruelty by heroes and villains alike, I think this is largely confined to the period of the 1980's when our action heroes were played by actors like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stalone. It's been noted by many a film buff that the Reagan era produced action films that were particularly brutal, such as the unapologetically violent Commando, which is the film where Schwarzenegger holds a man over a cliff edge and drops him. It's a film that really symbolizes the era, and not in a good way.

Platoon is also from this era, but I don't think it belongs in the same group as the action vehicles described above. Yes, there is action, but the film is at its core a drama about how people can lose their moral center when in the middle of a war zone. Yes, the actions taken by Chris are reprehensible, but I think the film is never meant to be looked upon as a white hat/black hat affair. There are too many shades of gray when you’re knee deep in the muck. (Speaking of War films with moral ambiguity, I would point you to my essay on The Dirty Dozen and how it presents us with flawed heroes, only to drive home at the end that they were used to do the "dirty" work that needed to be done while the more noble soldiers fought the "good fight".)

The last example noted in Don's essay was Mel Gibson in The Patriot. Given that this film was made in 2000, it doesn't have the excuse of 1980's excess to fall back on, but it does have Mel Gibson. There was an article that I read around the time Apocolypto came out that reviewed how many of the films involving Mel, whether actor or director, have a measure of sadism.

Mel getting tortured with electric shocks in Lethal Weapon.

Mel getting tortured with needles in Conspiracy Theory.

Mel getting his toes smashed with claw hammer, one by one, in Payback.

Mel getting sllloooowwwlllyyy drawn and quartered in Braveheart.

Then there are his two non-starring directorial efforts: The Passion of the Christ and the aforementioned Apocolypto. Both received generally favorable reviews, but critics were quick to warn off people who have queasy stomachs.

But quicker than you can say "What's my motivation?", you can see the clear line running through most of these films: Threat to family and loved ones. This is the reasoning/excuse that will dismiss almost any behavior by the hero imaginable. Schwarzenegger in Commando going after his kidnapped daughter. Gibson in The Patriot defending his family and avenging his son. With this, you have two age groups satisfied: Young boys who tend to enjoy violence in and of itself are pleased, and older viewers (who should know better) are able to put aside moral objections because they know that they would do anything for their loved ones as well.

But lets look at the villains. More so than heroes, villains are usually of the two-dimensional sort, and that's not confined to a particular decade. That's just a result of poor scriptwriting, which will forever and always be with us. But I'd like to offer evidence that there are glimmers of hope in this area. Some of the most successful action films of the past fifteen years have been impressively nuanced with their villain character portraits. Take The Matrix, where we get a marvelous monologue from Agent Smith on how his actions are motivated not by riches or power or love of violence, but from the desire to escape an environment he finds repellent. In essence, he tells Morpheus that he’s simply trying to complete his job so he can leave work and go home. That’s a motivation we can all appreciate.

Then there is the first Pirates of the Caribbean film, where Captain Barbossa explains to Elizabeth Swann how their quest is not riches but to simply have the undead curse lifted from them. “I feel nothing”, says Barbossa for emphasis. It’s not a haughty threat from an overconfident villain, but the plea of a desperate man. When he finally gets his wish, he is cruelly shot and his last words are “I feel… cold”. He dies, but you get the feeling that he died with a level of satisfaction that he died a feeling human being.

The crazy thing about these two films is that they didn't really need to go this extra length (and they are therefore all the more commendable for doing so). The rise in Sci-Fi and Fantasy have granted filmmakers permission to present bad guys that are embodied in forms other than human, which means that their motivations aren't entirely necessary to map out. Aliens, mutants, zombies, robots and every other hip genre trope allow our heroic leads to mow them down with wild abandon with little thought to moral consequence. One can imagine what a bloodbath a film would be that had the hero fighting rampaging aliens who had also kidnapped his daughter.

But getting back to Ness, I'd like to close this essay out by comparing his rooftop scene with a scene in the Sci-Fi show "Firefly". For those unfamiliar, It is set 500 years in the future where a totalitarian government called the Alliance rules over all the planets that humans have been able to inhabit. A renegade ship captained by Mal Reynolds tries to avoid the Alliance as best he can and make a living doing jobs that are often less than legal (and if that sounds awfully familiar to certain character and ship from Star Wars, give yourself a gold star). Mal once fought a rebellion against the Alliance but lost, and the loss of this war left Mal disillusioned and without a cause to fight for (More on this in a moment).

In the episode “The Train Job”, he and his crew are hired by a ruthless gangster to rob a train of certain goods. After the job is done, Mal finds out that the stolen material was much needed medicine for a remote settlement of farmers. He decides to return it to the proper owners, which brings the gangster's henchmen down on him like a ton of bricks. He and his crew defeat them, and then we are given this scene:

In a number of ways, it’s very similar to the scene in Untouchables: The Hero attempts to do the right thing, but the villain mouths off once too often and compels the Hero to give a little push that results in the (handcuffed) villain’s death. Both scenes are played for comedy (it’s a darker humor for sure, but humor none the less), but it’s overplayed in the Untouchables. Whereas Mal does what he does for very practical reasons (eliminating the need to run from this maniac for the rest of his life) and it’s something he very briefly debates over in his head before doing it, Ness commits his act out of rage and is allowed not one, but two one-liners after the deed is done (“Did he sound anything like that?” “He’s in the car.”). Of course, Untouchables was made in the 1980's, and delivering one-liner’s after dispatching an opponent were practically required in action films of that era.

"Firefly" was sadly cancelled after only one season, but it was allowed to be spun of into the 2005 feature film Serenity that wrapped up most of the major plot strands quite nicely. Mal, who had always exhibited a core of decency in the show towards his friends and the oppressed, finally found a cause to fight for again, and through this he becomes the true hero he was always destined to be. It was a wonderful capper to a wonderful saga, and emblamatic of the rocky path some heroes take. Not all of our movie heroes are that well drawn, but we cherish the few that are.

"Ten": The Office (Part Two)

2011-04-16T21:06:00.001-04:00

Sadly, the Office was not completed this week, but significant progress was made that I can share with you. As you can see below, the walls were finished as were the windows. You can get a better idea of how dramatic and striking I wanted those windows to be.

I added a free-standing globe to the far left corner, and you can see some parts of the wall with studs on them. I plan on placing some kind of paintings or maps there at a later date. With the studs already there, all I will have to do is stick them on.

And here we have the major furnishings for the office: Two guest chairs, the governor's chair (slightly larger, natch) and a desk roughly the size of an aircraft carrier.

This is an exaggeration, but the desk is pretty huge. I had originally wanted to do a non-rectangular design similar to the desk in the Metropolis picture I posted last week. This proved difficult, so I decided to go with a rectangle. For a smooth surface, I would need to use multiple tile pieces which would mean the desk would not have a uniform sheen to it. Then I thought of these massive 10 x 16 tiles I have from one of the Batman sets. It initially seemed too large, but it really started to grow on me and I'm liking size more and more. It suits the room and it's occupant.

One last thing for the week: The family got to all visit Chamblin's Bookmine together this morning. And as I was chasing little C.C. around, I came across a section of hardcover adventure novels for young boys printed in the early sixties. I picked one up for $7.00.

This isn't precisely the genre I'm aiming for with the film, but it could still provide some inspiration on the areas I haven't completely figured out yet. Besides, it should be a fun read.

Next Week: The Office (Part Three)

"Ten": The Office (Part One)

2011-04-09T09:17:00.009-04:00

In Metropolis, the shot of the skyscraper transitions to an office near the top of the building. To further steal, uh, I mean pay homage to the 1927 film, this is exactly what I'm going to do. We've seen the skyscraper already, so let's look at the office:

Impressive. And I wanted to duplicate that feeling with mine. I went through two different sizes for the base floor of the office before I arrived at 32 x 32, which was much larger than the previous two versions. Though the first two seemed to be large enough on a practical level, they simply didn't have the grandeur I wanted to communicate. Now that I have ended up making the room the size of a crater plate, this should no longer be a problem:

Incidentally, those four gray corner pieces with the holes in the sides were used for a reason, which I'll get to in a moment. For now, we need to add a a layer of black pieces to solidify the structure and then, on top of that, the brown pieces that make up my "wood floor". Like so:

This is another case of me being ridiculously anal. It's a black and white film, so you'll never see it as a wood floor because you don't see the brown. Next comes the bases for the walls, which are shown here:

Ah, but why did I build the base for the walls separately? This is why:

The four sides click into place and can be removed individually in order to place the camera for shooting. I used the same method for the Hypersleep room in Blast Reynolds and the town square in Tale of two Robots. With the time I had left this week, I built the walls up to the chair rail that extends all the way around the room:

I hope to have the room done by next week and not have to go into a "Part Three" with the blog posts. I still have some furniture to build, the remainder of the walls, the ceiling with lights and the sliding door mechanism. So I'm not done yet by a long shot.

Next Week: The Office (Part Two)

"Ten": The Three Month Update

2011-04-02T08:05:00.002-04:00

So here we are at the one quarter mark and progress has been good. All of the larger props have been built, and so I must soon advance to the sets. There will be four sets in all: The Governor's Office, the Hero's Jet Hanger, the outside of the Villain's silo (on the moon's surface) and the interior of the silo (underground). The Office will be the first to be built.

Outside of building, business at the Bricklinks store continues on very steadily. I was even able to use some of my profits to get Mrs. Mosley an anniversary gift last March. My only regret is that I didn't know about Bricklink back in 2007. If I had, I would have bought every friggin Batman set Tuesday Morning had. The Minifigs alone would have netted me a 100% profit from what I paid and I would have still had a huge load of bricks left for my collection. Oh, well.

One piece of business to be addressed very soon is the perfection of the green screen. I want to go ahead and get a piece of green cloth for the purpose so that it's large and seamless enough that I don't have to concern myself with shifting around that piece of poster board. The table that I set up for my studio runs right up against some tall, black metal shelving, which will be ideal for hanging the fabric from.

That's all for now. See you next Saturday.

Next Week: The Office (Part One)

Chiwetel Ejiofor Quote of the Month: April 2011

2011-04-01T08:20:00.000-04:00

Mrs. Mosley and I sat down for a movie night recently and watched Angelina Jolie kick all sorts of ass in Salt. It really is a fun ride, and Jolie has a good time with it. Ejiofor plays Peabody, who is the man chasing Salt. The fact that he is an agent in pursuit of a gorgeous woman who is incredibly deadly in hand-to-hand combat was not lost on Mrs. Mosley as she turned to me during the film and said, "So, he's the Operative".

Not quite, but a bit of that coldness came through in one great exchange between Peabody and Salt's partner Ted Winter (Liev Schreiber):

Peabody: "Protocol is clear. We bring her in or we bring her down."

Winter: "Do you have any idea who this woman is? What she's done for this country? Does that mean anything to you?"

Peabody: "Should it?"

"Ten": The (Re)Cast

2011-03-26T08:21:00.001-04:00

I ended up changing quite a bit with the original cast and thought I'd share that this week. Instead of a crowded group shot, let's look at them in terms of the scenes that the characters share.

The first scene is between the Governor and our Hero. Clothes and hair changed in both characters. For hair, the color stayed the same, but I was able to acquire (through BrickLink) some more detailed, nicer looking hair pieces.

For clothes, I changed the Governor's blue suit for a different black suit. When I learned that I would have to sand down the necks for easier head movement (as opposed to hollowing out the heads), I became reluctant to do that to the blue suit as it goes for a nice price on BrickLink. I'm not selling it yet, but I like to keep my options open.

The Hero's outfit changed completely because I reconsidered his role. At first, he was going to be a member of the military forces, which meant he wore a uniform. But I decided he should be an independent adventurer kind of like the Sky Captain, so he gets a bomber jacket that I thinks suits him more. Plus, as an independent, he doesn't have to explain to his boss why he hasn't shaved in three days.

After he leaves the Governor, our Hero suits up and meets with his crew in preparation for takeoff. Less changed here as the Hero's spacesuit is the same. The crew's Power Miner overalls are also the same, though I changed their helmets to a darker color and added a visor for when they are doing dangerous work. Also, one of the two crew heads are different. The remaining flesh heads I had for the crew looked virtually identical, so I got a new one off of BrickLink and there we are.

As I said in the original Cast post, I was unsure with the helmet colors of the bad guys and thought I might purchase some extra black helmets for them. I'm glad I did as the faces really pop now and will be much more satisfying in the fight scenes. I also ditched the robot and gave that torso to the lead bad guy so that he shared a similar look to his henchmen.

So now I'm done with the cast (I think).

Next Week: The Three Month Update

"Ten": The Prototype

2011-03-19T08:30:00.001-04:00

The Prototype is the spacecraft our Hero uses to fly to the Villain's moon base. My goal was to build a futuristic looking jet that communicates the ability for great speed while also being "functional" (i.e. has a cockpit that a minifig can fit into and theoretically work). This required some LEGO skills that I do not have a great abundance of, but I like to think that after so many weeks work, I did a pretty good job of it.

The very first obstacle was the wings. My original vision was that it should be shaped like a dart and have three fins equidistant apart (think of a tiny cousin of the Star Wars Lambda-class shuttle). I quickly realized, however, that wings pointing downward would make it difficult for the gliding crash landing it has to perform on the moon's surface. Not wanting the wings to be boringly horizontal, I pointed the tips up to just a degree.

This is easier said than done, and the method of attaching the wings to the body at such an angle was quite a chore. Once the method of joining was decided upon, the shape of the wings was next. I really wanted to use SNOT methods with their construction (which is a LEGO term for Studs Not On Top). Having them in a forward-pointing orientation eventually allowed me to create the most aerodynamic design. I was particularly happy with some unique arch pieces from the recent "Prince of Persia" purchase for the back of the wings. A nice fluid design.

The cockpit needed to be detailed and visible, given that we will have multiple shots of the hero sitting inside it. I went through all the different LEGO windscreens there were available and found the best one for the job already in my collection. It had a wide curved pane that wouldn't distort or block the Hero's face in the shots during the flight. Finding the best way for it to fit the ship and appear to have an "airtight" seal was another chore, but eventually resolved itself. Of course, the most fun portion of this was putting in the instrumentation, including a new piece for the main computer screen right in front of the pilot.

And so, that's it. I'm going to take about a week's break now that it's done. Next week, we'll cover some changes I've already made to our cast of characters.

Next Week: The (Re)Cast

"Ten": The Missile and the Corpse

2011-03-12T08:34:00.001-05:00

This week was to deal with "The Prototype", but that project is proving more difficult than I had thought, so we have a pair of simpler builds to showcase today.

The first is pretty simple: The Missile. This is the deadly projectile that our hero is sent to stop. Notice there is no detailed bottom to it, and that's because the bottom of the missile will never be in the shot. We'll see the top of it as the hero approaches the silo on the moon's surface and we'll see the shaft as he is in the silo, but never the bottom.

One further note about this build: Over 50% of it is made from parts I recently purchased through Brinklink store proceeds. That little shop is quite productive!

This second build requires some back story. I've been collecting LEGO since I was a kid and I still have parts from Classic Space sets stretching back to the mid 1980's. Now, LEGO is not indestructible. It develops wear and tear in the form of scratches, dirt and, yes, bite marks. The pieces that show the worst wear and tear are naturally the white ones.

While working on the prototype (which is going to be dominantly white in color) I started picking our the grungier white pieces and came upon an idea. The moon's defences has shot down a number of invading forces, and I was planning on this info being revealed in the dialogue between the Governor and our hero, but what if we actually showed one of those shot down ships?

I then gathered the rest of the dirty pieces and places them in a basket and worked on a ship just from that, with the intention of making the design look very much like Classic Space but with bits of it blown off and decaying. The above is the result. If nothing else it proved a morale booster: While the Prototype continues to confound me, I was able to build the above in about fifteen minutes with my daughter sitting on my knee.

The spaceman corpse was another fun idea. I have a number of torsos where the old planet symbol is fading or nearly faded off. I plopped a skull head on him and outfitted him with the space suit and presto: A callback to a distant LEGO age (Not only does this closeup give you a good look at the spaceman, but it also gives you a better idea of how grungy those bricks really are).

The more I thought about this the better I liked it. The Governor can have an additional line to the hero about "the surface of that moon is littered with shot down craft. It's like a graveyard". And that will be linked back to whent the hero lands and sees the corpse. Being that the corpse's craft and his own are both white, he can have a "There but for the Grace of God" moment when he passes it by. Maybe he'll even throw it a salute. Great stuff.

Next week (I swear): The Prototype

Hey! You found a non-LEGO related post! Five points Gryffindor!

2011-03-11T10:58:00.001-05:00

Of the movies that routinely sustain a beating among critics, Superman Returns comes up again and again. There has been an increase of this lately as the latest "reboot" is in the works and pieces of casting news leak out every now and then. And yet, the movie holds a special place for me. For one, it was a very significant film for Mrs. Mosley. Shortly after seeing (and loving) it, she delved into her inner geek and discovered a whole world of fanfic and community that she has found endlessly rewarding. For that alone, I owe Bryan Singer a debt.

But the other reason is that every frame shows Singer's love of the original. There was genuine affection there and a desire to replicate that experience with a few modern tweaks. As an extension of the original two films, it worked wonderfully well. It's few faults (Spacey Lex's real estate scheme was nuttier and made less sense than Hackman Lex's) can be forgiven.

I bring all this up because another wunderkind director has decided to replicate another movie nostalgia. This time, J. J. Abrams has conjured up a story that seems like a lost Spielberg film done sometime between Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial. Little surprise, then, that Spielberg helped produce the thing. The film is called Super 8. Have a look:

I have no doubt that Abrams and Spielberg, men from two different generations that yet share the same passion for filmmaking, took particular glee in making their protagonists budding filmmakers as well. And it gets to me, too, especially in the middle of the LEGO project as I am. It's an escapist fantasy that I would like to escape into, just like I did thirty years ago at the now-demolished St. Johns Theater off of Roosevelt Boulevard. I am so there.

In the end, I guess this was a LEGO-related post after all. That's OK. You can keep the points.

"Ten": The Chroma Key

2011-03-05T10:23:00.006-05:00

For this first green screen test, I got some standard green poster board and propped it onto the rear of the studio table. Then I took three pictures: one of the Ground-To-Air guns in front of the green screen and two different shots of the skyscraper. (Given that the Chroma Key feature of the Power Director software is for video, not stills, I can't show the finished product. But here are the three test photos for the hell of it):

I uploaded these and tested the first shot with a green screen star field behind it and the other two shots with one of the Fort Matanzas blue sky pictures I took.

The result? Promising. I didn't make any effort to get that screen and the lighting exactly right because I'm still learning, but even with a slapdash effort it looked pretty good. One corner didn't show the green screen effect, but that was because of a shadow and is easily fixed the next time. More troubling was the green aura around the guns and the skyscraper. With better lighting, this again may disappear or be minimized. However, I did discover that once the video is transferred to black and white, these effects are less noticeable. Those effected the most were the antennae on the guns, so those might eventually be pitched, which is no biggie.

I'm encouraged by these initial test and can't wait to take it further, and there's the possibility of getting some fabric to replace the poster board. But before that can be done I need to construct more of the sets and props including... a very daunting design indeed.

Next Week: The Missile and the Corpse

Chiwetel Ejiofor Quote of the Month: March 2011

2011-03-01T09:48:00.000-05:00

As I mentioned last month, the pic for March is American Gangster, which is the second time Ejiofor starred alongside Denzel Washington in as many years. Ejiofor plays Huey Lucas, the younger brother of Denzel's drug kingpin Frank Lucas. The exchange doesn't really give Ejiofor a memorable line, but it is notable in that Frank gives Huey a warning that he himself eventually doesn't heed for a single night, and it's this one slip up that leads to his downfall.

Frank Lucas: "What is that you got on?"

Huey Lucas: "What? This?"

Frank Lucas: "Yeah, that"

Huey Lucas: "This is a very, very, very nice suit."

Frank Lucas: "That's a very, very, very nice suit, huh?"

Huey Lucas: "Yeah."

Frank Lucas: "That's a clown suit. That's a costume, with a big sign on it that says
'Arrest me'. You understand? You're too loud, you're making too much noise. Listen to me, the loudest one in the room is the weakest one in the room."

"Ten": The Studio

2011-02-26T08:18:00.009-05:00

On my previous films, I did most of the actual filming on our dining room table. Truth be told, we rarely did our dinning in there anyway, so it wasn't a big deal that I took it over. Now that we have a new home and a baby that we're trying to teach some civilized manners to, it's a bit more important that I do my LEGO filming elsewhere (not to mention keeping all the loose LEGO out of reach of said baby). The solution was to find a new table to do the filming. So, instead of buying one, I made one:

So what we have here is a hanging wooden door (which had to be removed from the laundry room when we moved in) setting atop two large boxes that our child car seats came shipped in and wallah; a table! The room is our garage where we have some black shelves with miscellaneous boxes of stuff against one wall. The table runs right up to the shelves and is in absolutely nobody's way, so it's all good.

Of course, the table didn't stay empty for long as I moved extraneous containers of LEGO (plus my creations so far for the film) over to it's surface. I also got a folding chair to sit at and we pretty much have the set up we need.

One other minor thing to note: On President's day this past Monday, Mrs. Mosley and I took a little day trip down St. Augustine way to visit Fort Matanzas. It was an absolutely gorgeous day. In addition to the pictures we took of the fort and each other, I took about a dozen of the blue skies from on top of the fort, like this one:

The purpose of these was to use them for the green screen behind the skyscraper, so although we'll be hoping that viewers will imagine the skyscraper to be in some advanced city on another planet, it will in actuality be plain old Florida.

Next Week: The Chroma Key

"Ten": The Skyscraper

2011-02-19T08:24:00.004-05:00

When I first started thinking about the look of the skyscraper in my film, I wasn't thinking about anything fancy. As long as it looked big and imposing, I was fine with it. Given that you only see it briefly in the establishing shot, that's all it needed to be, right?

But first impressions being what they are, I decided I needed something really grand and distinctive looking (even if the shot in question only lasts about ten seconds). I decided to seek some divine sci-fi inspiration.

For those of you who don't recognize that imposing structure, it's a building in the classic 1927 film Metropolis. This picture is a favorite of mine and I've been using it as my work computer wallpaper for many years now.

I came to two decisions right at the start: First, if I were to build something like this, I was going to have to go microscale, which is a building style in which models are constructed smaller than in standard minifigure scale. Second, the tower would have more than four sides like the one in the movie. Sorry, let me adjust that statement: The tower would appear to have more than four sides. Given that the camera only sees one side of it, making a false front tower should be easy enough.

So here we have the base of our tower:

I took a T-section road plate and built the tower facets over the smooth part while being anchored to the back section with the studs. That way I could use hinges to make whatever angles I needed without having to worry about how to fasten them down. That back structure is going to be pretty thick for something that doesn't even get seen, but it's going to need to be in order to anchor down the front and ensure it's structurally sound.

Here's is the final tower (front view and rear view, which showcases the anchoring structure).

Those two structures on either side are stand-ins for shorter buildings that will be built later. The top of the tower is kind of incomplete, but the camera won't reveal it with the angles I'll use. The camera will be moving forward between two tall buildings built on those front corners and then pan up the skyscraper. Up near the top of the building will be the penthouse office that belongs to the governor, which is where our first scene takes place.

This penthouse presented me with a problem. The camera will stop on the outside of the penthouse windows and then switch to an interior shot of the office. In order for a smooth transition, the exterior (microscale) must reasonable match up with the interior (minifigure scale). My original vision for the office window (a huge rectangle of glass overlooking the city) wasn't distinctive enough to make a strong enough visual link between the scenes.

My solution was to abandon "flat" windows altogether and go with an angled look.

These roof window pieces (which are 27 year old pieces from this set) in two horizontal banks of four match extremely well with the transparent "cheese slope" pieces in the microscale tower. You'll get to see the full effect of these once the office is constructed, but that's later.

Next Week: The Studio

"Ten": The Ground-to-Air Defences

2011-02-12T09:50:00.003-05:00

Here we have the first construction that I actually built for the movie. It took some planning and about eight to ten hours of construction and re-construction, and the props are going to appear for probably five seconds in the final cut. Well, if you're going to do something right...

Anyway, what I was aiming for here was some futuristic anti-aircraft guns that are used to shoot down any incoming spacecraft approaching the moon. This means that the guns would have to rotate on a turntable and also raise it's gun barrel to just short of straight into the air. This was the result:

My first breakthrough in designing these was the decision to use X-Pod saucers to go on either side of the gun itself. It gives it a nice sleek look and implies that they function as shielding. The way the gun barrel will rise and fall while the saucers don't seem to rotate was another plus. Here's a shot behind the red discs:

The color choices were very deliberate. This being black and white, I want most of the props and sets to contain black and probably no more than two shades of gray (One of them being the dominant). Too many different grays would make it look muddled. The black sets it off and makes a nice sharp contrast to the rest of the prop.

The one concern I have with this is the antennae and gun barrel both being black. When I eventually shoot this, I will for the first time be using green screen. My concern is that the black parts that intersect with the green screen (which will eventually project a star field) will tend to blend in. The antennae can easily be changed with another color, but the gun barrel would be more difficult. We'll just have to wait and see until we do our first green screen test.

Next Week: The Skyscraper

"Ten": The NASA Pic

2011-02-05T09:10:00.004-05:00

We'll be doing some green screen work in this film. The details of how that's going to work (and how well it's going to work) will be for a later post. Right now, I wanted to share the process for what to put on that screen for a particular shot.

The shot in question will be of our hero in his prototype spacecraft racing to the moon where the bad guy has his missile. For this, I would need a shot of the moon from high up and the darkness of space punctuated by stars. First, the moon:

This pic is from the NASA archives (courtesy of Gimp Savy's easy-to-search website) and is thus in the public domain. There were a lot of photos to go through, but this one suited my needs best. Specifically, it has a nicely detailed surface and the horizon breaks lopsided over opposite sides of the frame, thus communicating great size. Once I had chosen the pic, I put it into Microsoft Office Photo editor to rotate, crop, expand dimensions, color the sky dead black and finally add stars. Here's the result:

With any luck, we'll see our hero racing across this space and make a turn towards the moon's surface (but that comes later).

Next week: The Ground-to-Air Defences

Chiwetel Ejiofor Quote of the Month: February 2011

2011-02-01T07:48:00.003-05:00

I was going to start off introducing this next quote as being from the only character Ejiofor has played to date that is due to return in a sequel. But upon reviewing the latest IMDb entry, it appears that the planned sequel to Inside Man has been scrubbed. That's a pity, because that film was wonderful proof that Spike Lee could work outside his normal subject areas and still turn in a cracking action film.

Ejiofor dons his American accent for his role of Det. Mitchell, who is partnered up with Denzel Washington's Det. Frazier. They get some nice scenes together, and one wonders if they're chemistry here was the reason Ridley Scott would pair them up again in the following year's American Gangster (which will be next month's subject). But for now let's just watch Ejiofor put aside the Bard for some good old American slang.

Det. Mitchell: "Hey Keith, let me see your shoe."

Det. Frazier: "What?"

Det. Mitchell: "Lemme see your shoe."

Det. Frazier: "Why?"

Det. Mitchell: "'Cause I have never seen anyone put their foot that far up a guy's ass."

"Ten": The Store

2011-01-29T08:28:00.005-05:00

This little project has so far, and will continue to, cost me a bit of money. Oh, we won't have to put on a second mortgage or anything, but I do fully expect to have spent several hundred dollars on materials and such before the year is up.

Which means that an additional income devoted to pay for these things is ideal, which is why I'm presenting... Alonzo's Misc Bricks!

Courtesy of the Brick Link website, I now have an online LEGO store where you can browse through all the bits and pieces that I don't really need in my collection and will be happy to pass along to you for a moderate price (plus shipping & optional insurance). I opened the store this past Thursday night and the next morning found someone had placed an order for $82 worth of bricks. I think I'm going to like this sideline.

Sidenote: Although I didn't originally state my intentions of doing so, I'm going to pretty much confine my posts to updates on the project done every Saturday. I'm not saying there won't be posts on other topics (The Quote of the Month posts, for example, will continue), but most of my mental energy will be on the "Ten" project and the blog will be reflecting that. For my half dozen or so steady readers out there, I hope you don't find it boring. If you do and long for a return to my normal mix of content, well, I'll see you in January 2012. 'Till then.

Next Week: The NASA Pic

"Ten": The Cast

2011-01-22T08:52:00.011-05:00

So it's about time you've met the cast of my little film, so here they are:

The cast has gone through a number of changes, but this is basically whom I'll be working with. Starting on the left hand side, we have the two outfits of our hero: Standard uniform and Spacesuit. Next we have two of his assistants. Then we have the Administrator, for lack of a better authority figure name. Suffice to say that he's the hero's boss. The next four are the red shirts (or should I say red helmets) that serves as the bad guy's henchmen. The minifig with a wheel rim for a head will be the bad guy's requisite robot. And finally, on the far right end, is Mr. Bad Guy himself.

Some notes on the figs themselves: The torsos range all across the board in terms of LEGO themes. Both of the hero's outfits are from Star Wars sets. The assistants are from Power Miners. The Administrator's suit is from Batman. The henchmen and the robot all hail from a 2004 series called "Alpha Team". And, finally, Mr. Bad Guy himself has a torso that hails waaaaaay back to 1994 with the "Ice Planet" series.

So, enough of the LEGO geek lingo; what are the film making issues with this lot? First off, the original heads that I was going to use were the traditional yellow. It was only when I did my color test and found that the yellow blended too well with the red helmets that I decided to go with flesh colored instead. This wasn't easy as I didn't have a lot of those to work with. Most are from Star Wars, Batman and the very recently purchased Prince of Persia palace set (that's Jake Gyllenhaal's head as the hero).

Another decision I made with the heads was to only use those with pupils. I wanted to get away from the dead-eyed stare of the original LEGO smiley faces, and that eliminated some of the Star Wars flesh heads right off the bat (damned disposable rebel troops). As it stands, I think I'm happy with the heads I have chosen and will probably not have to order more... but that could always change.

That being said, I can't say that I'm entirely happy with the contrast between heads and helmets. It's better than it was, but it's still a little too close. With his white space suit, the hero should be fine, but I may find myself buying extra black helmets for the baddies to better contrast with the faces and also set them strikingly apart from the hero during the fight sequences.

One final detail: As a sacrifice for the sake of film making, I will be slightly hollowing out the hero's head some time soon. This is so I can turn his head easily when performing the stop motion shots.

I just hope Jake doesn't mind.

Next week: The Store

"Ten": The Color Test

2011-01-15T13:41:00.006-05:00

One of the first decisions I made about the new film was that it would be in black & white. There were two main reasons for this. The first is that the story was originally going to be a next chapter in the "Blast Reynolds" adventures. Eventually, I decided I wanted to start with a new hero and go for something a little less hokey than the Flash Gordon serials approach I used with the original. Yet monochrome still had a classic and crisp look to it, so that element stayed.

The second reason was a matter of supply. Although I have a generous amount of LEGO, I don't have that much, especially when you consider the scope of this film and the number of large scale sets involved. Doing black & white allows me to use the more garish colors I have buckets of because it all comes out in shades of grey. Besides, when dealing with a story that predominantly takes place on a barren moonscape, color is less of a concern.

The next step, before the building of the sets, was to gauge what colors looked like when made monochromatic. So I performed a test:

Here we have a list of the predominant LEGO colors in my collection. The bottom ten represents the largest share, while the top four I only have in smaller amounts. As you can see, some colors that are strikingly different such as red and blue become nearly the same hue in monochrome.

(And for those non-LEGO people out there, "Bley" is a nickname for a sickly blueish grey color that LEGO recently started using in their sets.)

So I now have a guide for when I'm building the sets so that I have an idea what they will look like in back & white. And not only the sets, but the cast of characters as well... which will be in my next update.

Next week: The Cast

It's a wonderful thing when it finally feels right.

2011-01-14T11:26:00.002-05:00

Writing is something I've been trying my hand at for many years now, but most of the time it has been a slog. I have now made two attempts at the whole NaNoWriMo thing and have fallen through both times. If I'm to be honest with myself, I have to admit that the joy just isn't there.

On the other hand, the time I have spent making videos for YouTube have been incredibly fun. The end product has varied, of course, but the process has never been less than grand, and that's a concrete fact that I should pay attention to. I'm a movie person more than a book person, and it should not have taken me this long to finally realize that my natural artistic output would mirror these tendencies.

I decided that with this new year I would make a new LEGO film building on what I have learned from the other three. Previously, I had deadlines to meet that confined my work to three or four months, but this time I'm giving myself until the end of this year; One year to work on a project from beginning to end and ensure that it's as perfect as it can be.

I have a new laptop and new editing software. I have the LEGO. And I have plans (oh, do I have plans...) to make a nice, tight ten minute space adventure to truly entertain those who see it. The past two weeks has been a blizzard of little notes and storyboards and ideas and I've been having a blast. I'll be passing along pictures and updates on the project (which I'll name "Ten" for the time being) for your viewing pleasure.

Tomorrow: The Color Test

Lizzy and Darcy, Together Again!

2011-01-11T18:18:00.004-05:00

Mrs. Mosley and I could hardly believe it when we found out Jennifer Ehle played Geoffrey Rush's wife in The King's Speech and we had watched the whole film without realizing it. Furthermore, we were presented with a Pride & Prejudice reunion when she shares one scene with Colin Firth. Now, courtesy of the Austen blog Elegance of Fashion, we have photographic proof!

If you're going to make one remark in bad taste, you might as well make it two.

2011-01-11T11:04:00.003-05:00

First off: How many people made this connection when you first saw Jared Loughner?

Yeah, I didn't think I was the only one.

And the other item is this story from CNN about how the folks from Westboro Baptist Church are planning to protest the funeral of the little girl killed by Loughner:

"Threat of funeral protest met by 'angels' in Arizona"

How many of you read that headline and sincerely wished they meant the Hell's Angels?

Stay tuned for "Beck Justice" costarring Robert Davi!

2011-01-10T20:17:00.003-05:00

Thank you to Daily Kos for preserving this from Glenn Beck's website.

That poor bastard wants to be Jack Bauer so badly he can taste it.

A Cockney reality folding in upon itself

2011-01-07T11:04:00.005-05:00

Well, if Serafinowicz can do it, and if Coogan and Brydon can do it, then surely... Michael Caine can do it:

Dreams and Imagination: Inception vs. Sucker Punch

2011-01-06T14:32:00.004-05:00

Now that the 2010 movie season has passed and we are in the midst of awards season, discussions about Inception have revved up again. One of the complaints I've heard about the film is that the dreams weren't all that dream-like, and the complaint is just as frustrating now as it was then (Spoilers Ahoy).

Let's run through this. There are two major sequences that take place within dreams: The Dream-within-a-dream at the beginning and the Dream-within-a-dream-within-a-dream at the end. In the case of the former, the first level dream (with the revolutionaries outside the window) is supposed to mimic reality and make the subject believe they are in the real world. The second level dream (with the oriental palace on the cliff) is also supposed to be believable if just a bit stylized. Like this:

All of those lanterns on the ceiling make a great visual and is just over-the-top enough to denote a place in dreams (similar to Hollywood love scenes where the bedroom is absolutely riddled with lit candles and you wonder how long it took to light the damn things).

In the sequence that ends the film, you have three levels. The first level is again supposed to mimic reality. It's only when Cobb's subconscious interferes in the form of a train barreling down a downtown street that the spell is nearly broken (fortunately, the subject has a bag over his head at the time):

The second level is also supposed to mimic reality to a point, with the only dream-like imagery coming from the famous hallway fight sequence. Even in this case, the concept of rotating gravity is not just for the sake of being a dream, but rather is due to the dreamer being tossed around inside a rolling van in the first level (an explanation I just adore because it makes such lovely sense).

For the third level, all parties are aware they are in a dream, but they only get as fantastical as framing it as a James Bond action sequence on some snowbound fortress. It's a cool concept, but it failed in the execution because all that came out of it was some poorly choreographed action sequences where I didn't know who was who and what the hell was going on. Given this result, they might have just as well gone with something far more surreal. But even then, I'm willing to give it a pass.

There's a great joke in the movie Living in Oblivion about how movie dream sequences always include a dwarf when, in fact, dwarves aren't regularly remembered from actual dreams:

"Have you ever had a dream with a dwarf in it? Do you know anyone who's had a dream with a dwarf in it? No! I don't even have dreams with dwarves in them. The only place I've seen dwarves in dreams is in stupid movies like this! 'Oh make it weird, put a dwarf in it!'. Everyone will go 'Woah, this must be a fuckin' dream, there's a fuckin' dwarf in it!'. Well I'm sick of it! You can take this dream sequence and stick it up your ass!"

When I dream, I don't see purple polka-dotted rhinos or Richard Nixon on a unicycle dressed as an astronaut. I usually dream about myself in known places where the architecture has gotten skewed to add extra floors and absurd breezeways that connect buildings. In other words... much like the stuff we see in Inception.

The one area where Inception really dropped the ball was with the flashback dream sequence (wrap your mind around that one) that consists of Cobb and Mal in their own private paradise. Given that they control their surroundings, you'd think they'd skip the rows and rows of skyscrapers and go with some beautiful What Dreams May Come type of surroundings.

But who knows. Maybe Cobb and Mal are just City people at heart.

This all leads me to a movie coming out in March called Sucker Punch. Haven't heard of it yet? Here's the trailer:

So here we have five nubile young women creating a dream world of their own that includes, among other things, crumbling cathedrals, burning zeppelins, fire-breathing dragons, cyborg Nazis, futuristic cityscapes, WWI biplanes, killer robots and a big-ass samurai Mecha with a Gatling gun. Call my cynical, but this seems far less like a conceivable dream world of five institutionalized young women and more like director Zack Snyder throwing every flippin cool geek idea into one movie because anything goes in a dream sequence.

This is not to say this thing isn't going to be entertaining. I'm sure it'll be a hoot. But with Inception, Nolan created a storyline and plot that was engaging, and had some nice visuals to boot that served the story rather than distract from it. Sucker Punch looks very much like the visuals came first, and they serve not only to dazzle the audience, but to distract them from how thin all other aspects of the movie are.

And let me just end this piece with one last thought: BRRRRAAAAAWWWWRWRMMRMRMMM!!!

With a special shout-out to KKC

2011-01-06T09:33:00.002-05:00

The AV Club has a very nice write up on Johnny Carson and The Tonight Show as part of their Very Special Episode series. Some things are gone forever.

"Hey, I can bring the Zep and we'll read some Psalms, or somethin'."

2011-01-02T15:29:00.005-05:00

For months now, under the little news section on the First Coast News website titled "Community", there has been the same damn headline:
"'Forget Pizza Parties,' Teens Tell Churches"

I've seen it so often now, I've started to fill in the lines that should follow:

"Local Pot Heads Retort, 'Noooooo, Dude. You're On To Something, Here.'"

My very own Jake Gyllenhaal!

2011-01-02T13:12:00.005-05:00

Target has a funny idea of what constitutes a "Clearance" price.

Here in these days after Christmas, when LEGO has released two new themes that the stores have to make room on their shelves for, a high amount of older sets have been put in the Clearance section. Yet when the Target near my house decides to take only four bucks off a forty dollar set, it's not exactly the kind of price cut that will have them flying off the shelves. When they decide to do a 50% cut, then we'll talk.

Well, this morning we had that conversation.

Mrs. Mosley were on the other side of town and went to the Target there for baby shower gift. When I hit the LEGO in the Clearance aisle, I saw the same anemic 10% to 20% price cuts that I had seen before. Except for one:

An eighty dollar set for forty bucks was too tempting to pass up. Realistically, this set should have been marked down months ago given that it's for a movie that totally tanked at the Box Office. The smaller Prince of Persia sets, I should note, are still going for full price. Perhaps Target knows that the sets will still appeal to the LEGO nuts like me regardless of theme. Parts is parts, after all.

Given that the awesome LEGO deals at Tuesday Morning have dried up, I was very happy to get my hands on this. I suppose the only drawback is that, now that I've organized by color, I have large amounts of two new hues to make a special space for. But compared with my other to-do list items like fixing the toilet, I'll consider more LEGO sorting to be not a chore at all.

Chiwetel Ejiofor Quote of the Month: January 2011

2011-01-01T09:02:00.001-05:00

I hesitated in using Chiwetel Ejiofor for my 2011 Quote-of-the-Month pick. Though the man is brilliant and is certainly deserving of a year on my blog, his resume is shorter than previous subjects (and thus less movies to choose from for when I'm gathering quotes). However, given that the Mosley household signed up with Netflix last month, I suddenly have a lot more access to films than I used to. So Chiwetel Ejiofor it is!

And out first quote is from a favorite of Geeks everywhere: Serenity. Joss Whedon created a very believable and in some cases sympathetic villain with The Operative, and Ejiofor's terrific performance very much does it justice:

The Operative: "I'm sorry. If your quarry goes to ground, leave no ground to go to. You should have taken my offer. Or did you think none of this was your fault?"

Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: "I don't murder children."

The Operative: "I do. If I have to."

Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: "Why? Do you even know why they sent you?"

The Operative: "It's not my place to ask. I believe in something greater than myself. A better world. A world without sin."

Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: "So me and mine gotta lay down and die... so you can live in your better world?"

The Operative: "I'm not going to live there. There's no place for me there... any more than there is for you. Malcolm... I'm a monster.What I do is evil. I have no illusions about it, but it must be done."

Baby Girl

2010-12-23T11:04:00.000-05:00

I'm singing off for the holidays, folks. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

And here I thought another store was closing.

2010-12-22T10:44:00.005-05:00

So one of the headlines on the First Coast News website this morning was this:

CSX Slams Movie Blockbuster as 'Complete Work of Fiction'

The article is speaking of the film Unstoppable, which I had previously mentioned my indifference to here. Apparently, most of the movie going public agrees with me.

Given that the budget was an even 100 million and it has only recouped 3/4 of that after six weeks in theaters, the word "Blockbuster" may be a tad generous.

The Damned United

2010-12-21T14:53:00.001-05:00

I know it's part of Hollywood's DNA to prettify everything, but sometimes they really miss the bloody point.

The Damned United tells the true story of Brian Clough, a notorious coach who presided over the Leeds United soccer team for a grand total of 44 days before being fired. For those looking for your typically uplifting sports film, you should look elsewhere. Far from being underdogs, Leeds United were beloved champions whose coach was leaving to take over the national team. Clough, on the other hand, was not your plucky, likable idealist, but somebody with a chip on his shoulder and willing to step on a lot of toes to get what he wants. Add to all this that the film takes place in the grungy factory towns of Great Britain during the fashion-challenged seventies, and you have a film that in most ways is the polar opposite of your average American sports film.

So, when it came to marketing the film, they took a shot of the film's star Michael Sheen (The Queen, Frost/Nixon) from a scene in the film...

...and replaced the background with some other pics from the film and the usual text, resulting in a nice poster:

Except... that wasn't the poster. The image above is from the DVD cover. The actual poster used to market the film is this:

Which leads me to two questions: Who the hell is this and what have they done with Michael Sheen?

The bags under the eyes are replaced with a wistful smile. The swept back hair (a universal movie indicator of badness) is replaced with a darling tuft of curl at the top of his forehead. The Homer-esque stubble is replaced with a baby's bottom shave. It's like they crossed Sheen with a Renaissance cherub.

The DVD cover is not only a more accurate depiction of Sheen, but it's also a more accurate depiction of the character. Clough is not the type of coach that we're used to seeing in uplifting sports films, but the poster sure makes us want to think so.

And I have to wonder if the studios second-guessed their modifications, because there was one other poster they put out:

Well, if that isn't splitting the difference, I don't know what is.

At this rate, Davis Rules will never hit DVD.

2010-12-18T13:02:00.007-05:00

If a man takes a stand and states that he only drinks wine to dangerous excess and doesn't even touch beer or hard liquor, then it's hardly something to commend him on. Sure he has taste, but the guy is still an alcoholic.

I find myself using that justification whenever I read yet another Randy Quaid story. I'm indulging in celebrity rubbernecking, but at least it isn't for Brittany Spears.

The difference here, in my mind, is that Quaid was turning in quality work a mere five years ago (I would give both Brokeback Mountain and The Ice Harvest enthusiastic recommendations). The guy is talented, and to think that a man who is otherwise completely healthy may be at the end of his career is a tragedy.

His case also has the benefit of being unique. No illegal drugs are to be found in this story; Just pure, unadulterated crazy. All outward appearances indicate that it's due to his wife Evi, who has played Michael Shannon to his Ashley Judd.

Their story reads like a movie script, and I have little doubt that it will one day become one (probably after both of their deaths). The sad question now is this: at the rate their going, how soon will that be?

Biblioteca Pornographia

2010-12-17T16:12:00.002-05:00

Now this is just cruel.

While sorting through the normal junk mail that I get at the library, I came across a catalog from Barcelona, of all places. It's for a company called M. Moleiro and they produces stunning books consisting of illuminated manuscript reproductions.

The catalog itself simultaneously dazzles with it's full color reproductions of sample pages and also frustrates because they include zero information on cost (either in Dollars or Euros). Now I am fully aware that such items are a matter of "If you have to ask, you can't afford it", and I also know that this catalog is really intended for special collections with some coin to spare, but they can't even allow me to fantasize owning one of these babies by giving me a ballpark figure up front?

Hey, Moleiro? What's Spanish for "Blue Balls"?

Groan all you want. I'll make more.

2010-12-16T10:06:00.004-05:00

Perhaps I should make it a point to post really awful made-up jokes every two years or so. So here it goes:

What did the Motivational Speaker say to his clone?

You're not a repli-cant. You're a repli-can!

Ta Da!

2010-12-11T13:03:00.000-05:00

My early Christmas finally arrived on Wednesday and I had it assembled by 11:30 that night. And here it is (cue the Monolith music from 2001):

Ain't it glorious?

This isn't an actual picture of the one I got (Mine is in Walnut instead of Dark Cherry), but you get the idea: Massive Media Storage. With all the DVD's and CD's put in, we have it at about 3/4 full, and I have been instructed by Mrs. Mosley that I'm not allowed to go beyond that (much like the LEGO Armoire agreement of 2008). This is fair, and will help to keep my spending in check.

One final word of warning to you, dear readers: No matter how cheap the deal is, don't purchase anything from DeepDiscount.com. They completely screwed the pooch in terms of customer service on my order and I eventually went with AVThingInItsPlace.com, who shipped it the day after I ordered it and arrived less than a week later. Kudos, AVTIIP. Kudos.

In. Awe.

2010-12-11T10:41:00.002-05:00

The Beaver

2010-12-06T17:33:00.003-05:00

I could really care less about Can-Mel-Gibson's-Career-Be-Saved film The Beaver. The one interesting thing in the trailer is that the voice Gibson uses as The Beaver sounds remarkably like Ray Winstone (which makes it hilarious). So the question is this: Is that voice Mel Gibson's, is it Ray doing an uncredited role, or is it Steve Coogan?

Friday AV Club News

2010-12-03T13:15:00.002-05:00

Two Onion AV Club news items that tickled me just now:

The eight-bedroom Staten Island mansion used in The Godfather is up for sale with an asking price of $2.9 million—or “an offer they can’t refuse,” according to the hilarious Associated Press, although we’re pretty sure said offer would still need to be “lots of money,” as opposed to intimidation. It’s the perfect, insanely expensive Christmas gift for the pop-culture aficionado in your life. Just think of all the fun you could have with it—recreating the lavish wedding scene in the backyard, throwing a James Caan-style hissy fit about government agents in the driveway, etc. Unfortunately, the owners long ago replaced the tomato patch where Don Corleone died with a swimming pool, but maybe you can ask them to put it back in the contingencies?

You see? Forget all the yachts and the limos and the solids gold bathroom fittings. This is what rich people with style spend money on.

Assuaging fears that the just-wrapped Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides would be your final opportunity to see Johnny Depp swan about as Captain Jack Sparrow, Hitfix reports that Disney has been “quietly telling cast and crew” to set aside a future chunk of their lifetime to devote toward filming fifth and sixth installments in the franchise. The plan is to shoot them back-to-back—a strategy that left director Gore Verbinski a shattered man when he narrowly pulled it off on the second and third films, but which nevertheless earned the studio a shitload of money, so all’s well that ends profitably. Given that the Pirates films so far have already exhausted the myths of the Flying Dutchman, Davy Jones, and now The Fountain of Youth, expect the sixth film to just be two hours of Depp getting drunk on a beach.

Regrettably, I'd probably pay money to watch that. But in my defense, watching Johnny Depp get drunk on a beach is guarnteed to be more entertaining that the next Transformers sequel.

Samuel L. Jackson Quote of the Month: December 2010

2010-12-01T08:46:00.002-05:00

The Negotiator falls into the category of a really good film that is largely forgotten. I didn't say great, mind you. Nobody is going to confuse it with The French Connection. But what it does, it does extremely well. Part of this goes to the two actors that star in the film who were both at the top of their game when it was made.

Jackson plays Danny Roman, an ex-hostage negotiator who takes some hostages of his own. Kevin Spacey plays Chris Sabian, another hostage negotiator called in for the crisis. And so you have two guys whose characters, by their very job definitions, know how to talk and how to talk well. It's the making of an entertaining night at the movies.

Lieutenant Danny Roman: "I like westerns, like Shane."

Lieutenant Chris Sabian: "It's interesting that you pick one where the hero dies."

Lieutenant Danny Roman: "What are you talking about? He doesn't die. He rides off into the sunset, and that kid says 'Come back, Shane!'"

Lieutenant Chris Sabian: "That's a common misconception, in the last frame he's slumped over on his horse."

Lieutenant Danny Roman: "So he was slumped, slumped don't mean dead."

We now rejoin this blog already in progress.

2010-11-30T08:27:00.000-05:00

So much for NaNoWriMo.

One of these days I'll get it done, but it was not to be this year. I had even sworn off blogging for the month (and continued the hiatus even after the Novel writing had ceased). To be sure, I'll let you all know when that bestseller is written.

What happened instead in November? Well, among other things, I spent a mint on my car, saw the latest Harry Potter with the missus, bought a new laptop on Black Friday, and ended the month receiving the sad news of my one remaining uncle passing away. The month definitely had its ups and downs.

Tomorrow gives us the final Sam Jackson Quote for the year and the start of a brand new month (not to mention the holiday season). I'll be a busy little bunny, but I'll try and keep you folks updated and entertained (wherever both are possible at once).

November is NaNoWriMo

2010-11-01T19:50:00.001-04:00

Samuel L. Jackson Quote of the Month: November 2010

2010-11-01T08:46:00.004-04:00

The way Hollywood works is this: An actor scores a scene-stealing role in one movie, then they are given some larger supporting roles for which they are also lauded, and then finally they are given a high profile costarring role opposite a big star. Sometimes this actor is not a fresh new face but instead is an old hand that has finally broken through after decades in the business.

That was the way for Eugene Levy after he hit it big with American Pie in 1999. After five years of bigger and bigger roles (in largely forgettable films), he finally got a starring role in The Man, which has him playing the geeky Andy Findler opposite Jackson's Agent Vann. Personally, I would have hoped that one of the greats from SCTV would have gotten better than yet another mismatched buddy cop comedy, but at least it got him a paycheck (and the chance to work opposite Sam, of course):

Andy Fidler: "I haven't met anyone that I didn't become friends with... eventually."
Special Agent Derrick Vann: "Really? Because I haven't met anyone who's ass I didn't kick... eventually."

And with one month to go, I promise to showcase a Sam Jackson film in December that I actually liked.

"I don't drink... wine."

2010-10-31T09:00:00.002-04:00

Courtesy of the Brothers Brick, a stunning LEGO vignette for Halloween:

Pounce! Repeat!

2010-10-30T13:53:00.002-04:00

Nothing is as adorable as watching a young owlet practice the fine art of "Going in For the Kill" (Via Neatorama):

No offence, Zach, but I'm paying attention to Fiona.

2010-10-28T10:42:00.004-04:00

Zach Galifianakis.

Zach Galifianakis. Zach Galifianakis. Zach Galifianakis.

Not to besmirch the man's talent, but I often think that many people simply just like saying his name over and over again (that is, those people who can pronounce his name).

Anyway, though I haven't seen The Hangover or any other of his films yet, I had been exposed to him twice before he suddenly became King of the Universe. The second time was through the "Live at the Purple Onion" trailers that appeared on my MST3K DVD's from the Shout! Factory.

The first time was way back to five years ago when I discovered a video for Fiona Apple's "Not About Love". The video was made in one day by Apple and her friends, which included Zach. So you get a great big helping of Zach poorly lip syncing, Zach running down the road with his belly hanging out and Zach striking poses while standing waist deep in water.

The Long Riders was a loooong time ago.

2010-10-27T17:24:00.002-04:00

From the AV Club:

There will be three Jeff Bridges in movie theaters this Christmas—a one-eyed, grizzly Bridges in the Coen Bros.’ version of True Grit, and both a gray and distinguished Bridges and a creepy CGI bobblehead Bridges in Tron: Legacy—and now there will be one on television too, as Bridges has just been announced as the host of Saturday Night Live on Dec. 18. It’s the first time Bridges has been on the show since February of 1983, when he shared hosting duties with his brother Beau. In a related story, Beau Bridges has announced that come Dec. 18, he will finally be making some real headway on that wall-sized crossword puzzle he got from SkyMall. Nah, we kid Beau Bridges. He’s a good sport.

Hell, I wouldn't joke too hard on Beau. He's a nice guy who works steady and has a project coming up costarring with George Clooney. Jeff should be quite proud of his older brother, Beau.

Dennis Quaid, on the other hand...

Lonely Little Surfer Dude

2010-10-26T15:39:00.007-04:00

The first time I came across the Series 2 Lego Minifigs at Walmart, I bought two of them blind at $1.99 a piece. I ended up with the "Explorer" (Yea!) and "Maraca Man" (Eh).

The second time I went to that Walmart, I was armed with a barcode decoder! Alas, the one I was looking for ("The Spartan") was nowhere to be found, so I gave them all a pass.

The third and final time I went to that Walmart, I discovered that the display was gone. They had initially put it in a back corner where the packages could be easily ripped open and stolen, so I have to wonder if this was a factor in the display going bye-bye. I looked around some more, and in a miscellaneous aisle I found exactly one minifig pack hanging from a hook. Such a sad, sad sight, so I took pity on it and laid down $1.99 plus tax on the mysterious loner. What did I get?

It's not exactly one I was dying to get, but for a buck ninety-nine I'll take the little guy home.

When sex is cute as a button.

2010-10-23T09:34:00.004-04:00

May I just say that more trailers should include William H. Macy and Kate Micucci playing ukuleles:

"YA THINK!?"

2010-10-19T16:10:00.002-04:00

Metafilter publishes a one-link post on the recent debate where Christine O'Donnell questions the separation of church & state. They soon took it down due to it existing mostly as an excuse to laugh at her ignorance of the Constitution, but I still had a window of it up on my computer. Good thing, too, because the Metafilter comments are proving to be the high point of my very crappy day:

Ronald Reagan > Newt Gingrich > Sarah Palin > Christine O'Donnell > ?
posted by The Card Cheat

Ronald Reagan > Newt Gingrich > Sarah Palin > Christine O'Donnell > Potted plant
posted by Dark Messiah

Ronald Reagan > Newt Gingrich > Sarah Palin > Christine O'Donnell > Bag of Hammers
posted by zarq

When I saw the headline for this in the morning I thought it was one of those Evangelical gotcha things where the actual phrase 'separation of church and state' isn't in the Constitution but rather in a Jefferson letter, so I was like 'Oh you stupid...' and then I read the thing and it turns out no, she just has no idea.
posted by shakespeherian

"You actually audibly heard the crowd gasp," Widener University political scientist Wesley Leckrone said after the debate, adding that it raised questions about O'Donnell's grasp of the Constitution.
YA THINK!?
posted by zarq

You guys are being unduly hard on potted plants and bags of hammers.
posted by entropicamericana

Mabye she meant that those words aren't in the First Amendment.
Fucking brilliant way of phrasing it. Good thing she's not vying for some kind of position of authority where she'll have to speak publicly.
posted by Dark Messiah

Hey, there, watch it, Dark Mesiah.

(says the potted plant community)

As horrifying as this is:

Her comments, in a debate aired on radio station WDEL, generated a buzz in the audience.
"You actually audibly heard the crowd gasp,"

You don't think often as gasps being comforting, but for me, this one was.
posted by MCMikeNamara

Happy Birthday, Mr. Corbin.

2010-10-16T12:34:00.002-04:00

Clicking on to the IMDb this morning, I was greeted by the usual list of celebrity birthdays. Among them was Barry Corbin, who today reaches the age of 70. Prior to 2007, Corbin would have most likely been remembered by the general public for Northern Exposure (and by the smaller geekier class for WarGames). But with No Country For Old Men, he took a one-scene role, and the incredible dialog therein, and marked for himself a place in cinema history. Of course, that's my own humble opinion (scene starts at five minute mark):

Ellis: "In back!"

Bell: "How'd you know I was here?"

Ellis: "Who else'd be driving up in your truck?"

Bell: "You heard it?"

Ellis: "How's that?"

Bell: "You hear my - you're havin fun with me."

Ellis: "What give you that idea. I'd seen one of them cats heard it."

Bell: "Well how'd you know it was my truck? "

Ellis: "I deduced it, when you walked in."

Bell: "How many a them things you got now?"

Ellis: "Cats? Well, I don't know. Several. Well, it depends on what you mean by got. Some of 'em are half-wild, and some of 'em are just outlaws."

(Pause)

Bell: "How you been, Ellis?"

Ellis: "You're lookin at it. I got to say... you're lookin' older."

Bell: "I am older."

Ellis: "Got a letter from your wife. She writes me pretty regular, keeps me up on the family news."

Bell: "Didn't know there was any."

Ellis: "Told me you're quittin."

(Sheriff Bell heads toward the kitchen counter.)

Bell: "You want a cup?"

Ellis: "'Preciate it."

Bell: "How fresh is that coffee?"

Ellis: "I generally make a fresh pot ever week even if there's some left over."

(Pause)

Bell: "That man that shot you died in prison?"

Ellis: "In Angola. Yeah."

Bell: "What would you a done if he'd been released?"

Ellis: "Oh, I don't know. Nothin. Wouldn't be no point in it."

Bell: "I'm kindly surprised to hear you say that."

Ellis: "Well, all the time you spend tryin to get back what's been took from you there's more goin out the door. After a while you just have to try and get a tourniquet on it. Your granddad never asked me to sign on as a deputy. Loretta tells me you're quittin. How come're you doin that?"

Bell: "I don't know. I feel overmatched. I always figured when I got older God would sort of come into my life in somehow. He didn't. I don't blame him. If I was him I'd have the same opinion of me that he does."

Ellis: "You don't know what he thinks."

(Pause)

Ellis: "I sent Uncle Mac's thumbbuster and badge over to the Rangers, to put it in their museum. Your daddy ever tell you how Uncle Mac come to his reward? Gunned down on his own porch over in Hudspeth County. Seven or eight of 'em come up there. Wantin this and wantin that. Uncle Mac went back in the house to get the shotgun, but they was ahead of him. Shot him in his doorway. Aunt Ella come out and tried to stop the bleedin. Uncle Mac all the while tryin to get that shotgun. They just set there on their horses watchin him die. After awhile one of 'em says somethin in Injun and they turned and left out. Uncle Mac knew the score even if Aunt Ella didn't. Shot through the left lung and that was that. As they say."

Bell: "When did he die?"

Ellis: "Nineteen zero and uh, nine..."

Bell: "No, I mean was it right away or in the night or when was it?"

Ellis: "I believe it was that night. She buried him the next mornin. Diggin in that hard old caliche. What you got ain't nothin new. This country is hard on people. You can't stop what's comin. Ain't all waitin on you. That's vanity."

Happy thoughts for the weekend

2010-10-15T09:42:00.003-04:00

First off, it was my birthday earlier this week and I got lots of lovely presents. Mrs. Mosley gave me a special coffee mug now that I finally bought a coffee pot and have started brewing at home to save money:

Lovely, that. Would it were a prevailing attitude in this country, but I'm afraid the Tea Party is the very antithesis of this statement (which makes you wonder how they would handled the blitz).

And for the rest of you, a nice little mashup that a Metafilter user stumbled upon. That lovely young lady is Brian Williams daughter, Allison. She's attempting to break into an acting and singing career. I don't know about her acting chops, but that girl has some pipes.

Wild Target

2010-10-12T15:26:00.003-04:00

I think my favorite part of this trailer (and there are many) is the announcer's slight inflection when he has to say two "Rupert's" in a row. I mean, how often does that happen?

It's "NSFW honest car salesman" Friday!

2010-10-08T15:37:00.003-04:00

The first is footage of a salesman goofing off between takes while shooting a commercial, and the second is the straight out comedy clip. I am particularly fond of the stock music used in that second one as it was used for so many commercials in the 1980's:

Your antidote to Mary Hart

2010-10-07T12:23:00.005-04:00

The Onion's AV Club is a source of endless entertainment for me, not least of which for the jaundiced eye they cast on certain bits of entertainment news. While reading the following from their Newswire, you can practically hear the resignation of the writer as they cynically describe the inevitable:

"Vulture nabbed the exclusive report that Mike Meyers’ funny accents have been hired for a big-screen Pepé Le Pew movie, which will bring Looney Tunes’ amorous skunk into the harsh realm of the 21st century via the alchemy of live-action and CGI. Like its similar, previously announced Bugs Bunny project, it’s all part of Warner Bros.’ plan to revive its long-neglected cartoon characters for a younger audience, whose exposure to increased levels of cadmium have made it impossible for them to discern two-dimensional shapes. Pepé Le Pew, occasionally characterized by people who take these things too seriously as a racist caricature of a smelly French person, will once again work his date-rape-y wiles on Penelope Pussycat, with the two being the only computer animated members of a an otherwise live-action cast. It will be a 90-minute fart joke, and it will make lots of money."

The Dude Abides... er...Rides

2010-10-06T08:46:00.000-04:00

Do you think the Coen brothers and Jeff Bridges are having a little fun with us?

"Bow down before me, Palin!"

2010-10-05T13:20:00.005-04:00

I got a kick out of this today:

"General Zod" is currently trending higher than Sarah Palin and Christine O'Donnel. Two stars of the Tea Party movement are getting their asses kicked in the current news cycle by a fictional character. I guess those gals just aren't being malevolent enough. Time for another slanderous Tweet, Sarah!

True Grit: The Full Trailer

2010-10-04T15:13:00.003-04:00

We get a bit of a breather with this expansion. The first trailer was incredibly bleak with no room for humor (unless you count Mattie Ross trying on her hat). This one lets us know that, despite the grave mission of these folks, there will be room for levity (as was the case with Kim Darby and John Wayne).

I hate the fact that the trailer gives away a major plot twist, but I'm sure there's just as much being held under wraps. My faith in the Coens remain eternal (Intolerable Cruelty notwithstanding):

Samuel L. Jackson Quote of the Month: October 2010

2010-10-01T08:45:00.009-04:00

Four months ago I showcased a film titled The 51st State, which was an action comedy starring Sam that seemed to have disappeared as quickly as it had appeared. This can be a common occurrence in a crowded marketplace and, truth be told, the movie wasn't meant to be a huge blockbuster anyway so I doubt there were a whole lot of people who cared.

But then there's Astro Boy, which is based on a classic and well-beloved Japanese cartoon. This was not a low profile project, but one that had been anticipated for quite awhile. People were paying attention to this sucker, and yet it came and went in the blink of an eye. It took in only 7 million dollars in it's opening weekend (the low-budget Paranormal Activity drew in the most for the fifth week in a row). In the end, Astro Boy's final tally was just less than half of it's 40 million dollar budget. And just like that... it was gone.

And Sam? He gives voice to a giant robot named Zog that has a total of three or four short lines in the entire film. The first line, which is the one quoted here, is the one that the filmmakers probably figured would get a great audience reaction when they heard Sam's voice come out of the giant robot. But, with all respect to Sam, the line is underwhelming. Sad to say, the same can be said of the film itself.

Ham Egg: "You can't kill me! The rules of robotics were created 50 years ago!"

Zog: "I'm old school."

A Black Monolith made of Cheese

2010-09-30T13:54:00.012-04:00

If one were to map my love of bad movies, I suppose you could start with Mystery Science Theater 3000, which I only started watching during it's Sci-Fi channel run in 1997. I had a lot of catching up to do, of course, which was assisted by friends of friends who had VHS tapes to lend me and that I dutifully copied. It was a grand time, and I damn near wore those tapes out.

Another phase started when I went looking online for reviews of one particular MST3K subject called Girl in Gold Boots. One of the review links on the IMDb went to a website called Jabootu's Bad Movie Dimension. Upon clicking on that link, I was treated to a thorough (and I mean thorough) eviscerating of the movie in question. It was a joy, and I quickly devoured all of the other reviews on the site, most of which were to movies I hadn't even seen (which did not diminish the enjoyment of the reviews).

But there was one film on Jabootu's list that I had seen (and not with the aide of MST3K, either), and that film was Death Wish 3. Now I know I said that my affection for bad movies started with MST3K in 1997, but that's not entirely correct. Seeing the title Death Wish 3 on Jabootu's site immediately transported me to my teenage years in the 1980's when I first watched this movie on Saturday afternoon television. I remember many things about watching it, but one thing rang crystal clear: It was the first time while watching a movie that I thought to myself, "Wow. This is really bad!".

This did not compel me to turn off the TV, of course. Instead, I enjoyed the badness, and that was something I wouldn't discover again for another ten years or so. More's the pity. I recently revisited all this with the AV Club's latest article in their "The New Cult Cannon" series, which focuses on Death Wish 3. It doesn't go into as much detail as Jabootu (who could?), but it touches on the more ridiculous points of the film and was a nice reminiscence for me.

I think about Jabootu (and other members of the B-Masters) every now and then, but I don't visit the sites on a regular basis like I used to. In the case of Jabootu, the reviews started to have a political bent that completely turned me off, so I parted ways with the site that started me on the road of cheese. Others, like And You Call Yourself a Scientist, can still be depended on great analysis of films both good and bad (though I wish Liz would hurry up and fix the links to her old reviews).

These days, I take in bad movies via my steady supply of MST3K, RiffTrax and Cinematic Titanic DVD's (not to mention my Mill Creek back catalog). And it's a habit that has gown into a hobby, so I can't forget my roots.

Thank you, Death Wish 3, for being so incredibly, absolutely awful.

True Grit: The First Trailer

2010-09-28T12:24:00.001-04:00

Flicks Unseen

2010-09-27T17:28:00.000-04:00

Flickchart has started to get annoyed with me.

Well, no, not really. What it has actually done is run out of movie titles. Ever since I found the option that presented two unranked movies each time to vote on, I've been using it like mad. Well, late last week the website started to slow when I used this function. Now, more often than not, it will freeze up completely in the middle of generating the next pair.

The reason for this is that it's running out of titles. Unfortunately, the site does not appear to be tied specifically to the IMDb, so it doesn't have that wide a breadth. The result is that there are films I have seen that are not on my Flickchart list because Flickchart doesn't recognize them (C'mon, Flickchart? No love for The Beast of War? It's an awesome flick!).

The time for finding new movies to add is grinding to a halt, so let's have a gander at the top 20 voted films (by Flickchart users) that I have not yet seen:

The Lion King - I actually watched the first half on one occasion and then never got around to finishing it. I should fix this soon. If it's any compensation, I've seen the stage show!

Rocky - Yeah, there's no excuse for this.

Superbad - No real interest, guys. Sorry.

Edward Scissorhands - Long overdue, as well. Though it still freaks me out to see Winona Ryder as a blonde.

Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy - I suppose if there's one Will Ferrel movie I'd be interested to see, it's this one, so it's got a shot.

The Nightmare Before Christmas - Two Tim Burton films? Mere coincidence, I assure you!

Knocked Up - See Superbad entry.

Pan's Labyrinth - Not exactly a movie I can sit down with Mrs. Mosley to watch, but I'll get around to it soon.

The 40-Year-Old Virgin - Started it. Way too damn uncomfortable. Shut it off 20 minutes in.

Slumdog Millionaire - I know it's an Oscar winner and all that, but I get the feeling this movie might be a slog to get through. Maybe one day.

Dumb and Dumber - See Knocked Up entry.

Gangs of New York - Mr. Scorsese, I have tried... tried to get through this one (twice!) and no dice. No offence, please. It just ain't gonna happen.

The Graduate - The hell of it is, I've read so much about this film by now (including the ending) that I'm not quite sure how much joy I would get out of it.

The Wrestler - Kind of the same category as Slumdog.

A Beautiful Mind - Funny story: We had started this movie on a night in August 2004 when the power went out due to Hurricane Frances. The power didn't come back until one week later and we never got back to the movie. We should fix that.

Borat - See Dumb and Dumber entry.

Happy Gilmore - See Borat entry.

Top Gun - There's just so much cheese associated with this flick, but I suppose I should indulge myself one night with a big bowl of popcorn and a testament of Reagan-era manliness.

Old School - See Happy Gilmore entry.

Ace Ventura: Pet Detective - See Old School entry.
So there you have it: Seven that I'd like to see, four that I'm willing to see, and nine that can go fly a kite. Thanks, Flickchart!

"Up yours, Commie!"

2010-09-27T10:39:00.004-04:00

Not a lot of people know that, about a year ago, President Obama was feeling pretty depressed at the reactions he was getting to his health care plan and just his presidency in general. In order to cheer him up, the First Lady put together a White House dinner and invited some of the most legendary comedians in America.

At some point after the dinner, President Obama was taken aside by Gene Wilder and given some words of condolence:

"What did you expect? 'Welcome, Mr. President'? 'Make yourself at home'? 'Help me to marry my lesbian lover'? You've got to remember that these are just simple patriots. These are people of the GOP. The common Conservatives of the new America. You know... morons."

The "I'm sick of looking at Zombie Reagan" post.

2010-09-23T16:09:00.002-04:00

New Harry Potter trailer. That is all:

Midnight showings at the Value Voters summit...

2010-09-21T12:17:00.007-04:00

It's been two weeks since I discovered Flickchart, and I've done a lot of clicking since then. Last night, I discovered an option on the site to only present movies that haven't yet been voted on. This way, you can quickly eliminate titles you haven't seen at the rate of about one per second. My current count is 1,700 movies seen (127 days, 16 hours and 20 minutes) and 3,151 that I haven't seen.

Clearly, I'm not the big movie stud I thought myself to be. But given that a lot of those titles is stuff I have no interest in seeing anyway, I'll try not to sweat the stats.

Being presented with titles not voted on at such a rapid clip will present options both great and obscure. The most interesting one I've encountered is a little horror film from four years ago called The Tripper. Check out this one sentence summary: "A Ronald Reagan-obsessed serial killer targets a bunch of hippies who are heading to a weekend-long concert."

Wow. Just... wow.

Skippy of the Day: William Murray

2010-09-20T16:40:00.005-04:00

I have stated before that, as popular as Mitt Romney can be, I believe his Mormonism is more of a deficit than he may think. I go back and forth on this thought, wondering if the radical right Christians can put it aside long enough to pursue the common dream. Given that Glen Beck is also a Mormon, I have to believe that was one of his goals in his recent rally in Washington D.C.

If only they targeted voters who could actually process complex and nuanced ideas (nuance is more of a Democrat thing). Alas, once you've read the signs at any Tea Party gathering, you know this isn't likely.

Yet even knowing this, I have to admit that my jaw dropped to the floor after reading this quote today from William Murray, who is leading the fight against the mosque in NYC:

"I don’t know with the case with Mitt Romney. It could be because of some similarities between Islam and Mormonism, to be very frank with you, and his fear that any criticism of Islam, that those arguments could then be construed or used against Mormonism."

With such complete and total idiocy as this, I wouldn't be surprised if in ten years the Republicans had a Protestants vs. Catholics inter-party fight on their hands.

Just in time for gift-giving.

2010-09-17T10:50:00.004-04:00

Often the question is asked, "When is the right time to buy (insert latest technology here)?"

For me, in terms of Blu-ray, the answer is: When Disney finally releases some choice titles from the vault again.

Truth be told, Mrs. Mosley and I have already decided to treat ourselves to a Blu-ray player this Christmas, but such a fortuitous pair of releases (Beauty and the Beast on 10/5 and the Fantasia/Fantasia 2000 combo on 11/30) just sweetens the pot.

* shakes fist at Amazon *

2010-09-16T17:26:00.003-04:00

Oh, for crying out loud...

Looks like the IMDb has decided to do another design change. They apparently thought the original design wasn't cluttered and boxy enough, so they threw up a bunch of irrelevant movie posters and such so that you have to scroll down to get to the actual movie list. Add to this the fact that they blow up the headshot to a size that the original was not meant to be blown up to and we get M. Emmet Walsh's memorable mug pixelated all to hell.

I know, I know. Website redesigns are inevitable (especially if my own blog is any evidence). And sucker that I am, there's no way I'm going to stop using IMDb (unlike Boing Boing, whose last design change was so awful I stopped going there altogether). But I'm a grumpy old man who remembers when the IMDb was simply lists of movies that actors were in and we liked it that way, by gum!

Web surfing with Rupert Murdoch

2010-09-14T12:42:00.005-04:00

An article on NPR (via Metafilter) delves into speciality search engines that screen out material according to the users' religious preference. Here are some details (and my one word summary's):

Houdmann says a search on his site would not turn up pornography.

Practical.

If you search “gay marriage,” you would get results that argue against gay marriage.

Predictable.

And if you type in “Democratic Party,” your first search result is a site on Marxism.

Pathetic.

"You're Welcome, America."

2010-09-11T11:31:00.004-04:00

I...... what...... huh?!?!?

A Florida pastor says his church will never burn a Quran, even if a mosque is built near ground zero.

Pastor Terry Jones had threatened to burn the Muslim holy book on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks over plans to build an Islamic center near where terrorists brought down the World Trade Center nine years ago.

He flew to New York and appeared on NBC's "Today" show. He says that his Gainesville, Fla., church's goal was "to expose that there is an element of Islam that is very dangerous and very radical."

He tells NBC that "we have definitely accomplished that mission."

That is, without a doubt, the worst save I have ever seen someone at the center of a controversy attempt. His mission was nothing of the kind. He has tried to transform this (in the wake of the controversy) as a mission against a certain segment of Islam, yet his words and actions have shown that his disdain for all of Islam and it's adherents is quite clear. Sorry, Jonesy, we're not buying it.

And this is all aside from the fact that America really didn't need to be told this about Islam. Islam has fringe elements? You don't say!

Now if you don't mind, Big Media, I'd like you to stop paying attention to this guy now that he's had his fifteen minutes. The only time I want to hear the name Terry Jones again on the national news is in reference to Monty Python.

(And as a side note, it's weird that the names of Python members have cropped up among the right wing, first with Palin and now with this guy. I half expect the next conservative superstar to be named Idle or Cleese.)

Feelin' kinda headachy...

2010-09-10T13:42:00.004-04:00

...so let's put up some nice scenery.

Not exactly a "plummet".

2010-09-09T16:25:00.003-04:00

"OH MY GOD HAV U HEARD OBAMA'S POPULARITY HAS DROPPED SO LOW HE......

......Oh. That's very different. Never mind."

The Godfather Part III

2010-09-08T14:55:00.004-04:00

Flickchart came across my radar (via Metafilter) last week and has instantly become a major time suck, but in a good way. The basic concept is this: You are presented with two movies and asked which one you would rather watch (if you haven't seen one or both of them, it allows you to discard the title for a new one). And then you pick from another two films. And another. And so on. You quickly create a list of (a) which movies you have seen and (b) you're ranking of them.

As I said, a tremendous time suck. As of this posting, I personally have made 3100 of these either/or decisions and in the process listed 633 movies that I have seen. And according to their computations, that group of movies constitutes 49 days, 11 hours, 33 minutes spent watching them. Either you're someone who is impressed or depressed by such calculations. Count me in the former.

One thing you might notice from those numbers is the huge discrepancy between number of movies and number of rankings. This is because each ranking doesn't come up with new titles every time. If they did, they couldn't compare with the other decisions. A logical process, but it means that movies you have zero interest in seeing again will pop up over and over and force you to choose something over it... until you come across one that's just as bad and you have to make a decision (cough Alien Resurrection vs. X-Men Origins: Wolverine cough).

But then it also allows you to reconsider some titles that fall in the middle between brilliant and awful, and that leads me to The Godfather Part III (Spoiler Alert).

For me, Godfather III ranks currently at 238 out of 633, which isn't bad. I have only seen it the once, but I have pleasant memories of it and would definitely be up for watching it again when given the choice between it and, say, Vacancy (currently at 430 and dropping like a stone). The most indelible memory I have of Godfather III is the very last shot:

When the movie first came out, the one critic's comment I remember reading (apart from all the scorn heaped on Sofia Coppola's performance) was how Michael's death in the last scene seemed more appropriate for a Monty Python sketch than the conclusion of the greatest American Crime saga ever put to film.

Being a Python geek in addition to a film geek, I know the exact sketch that critic was referring to. But that's beside the point. The scene is as follows: The elderly Michael Corleone, perhaps permanently crippled from the stroke he suffered in front of the theatre, is seated in a chair in what appears to be a courtyard back in Italy. It is a long shot and we cannot see his face. As the final ascending notes of that familiar tune play, Michael tips over in his chair and (we presume) dies.

The greatest American Crime saga's protagonist, whom we have seen grow over three incredible films, who has been studied and talked about by film scholars and movie buffs over so many years, who reached so much power and influence during his reign, just died suddenly and alone.

There is an incredible sadness there. His father could at least say that he died playing with his grandson and assured that his empire was in the capable hands of his favorite son. Michael has no such compensation.

One could argue this was the karmic debt Michael owed, and one would have a point. It doesn't make it any less tragic, though. It's a fitting end to such a wonderful tale.

We'll be thinking of you, Alec.

2010-09-04T08:43:00.000-04:00

You know, movie buffs gushing about "great casts" can get old after awhile, especially when we have seen time and again "great casts" wasted on utter cinematic drek.

That being said, after reading about the new version of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy being filmed and the cast they lined up, I'm impressed: Gary Oldman (Harry Potter), Tom Hardy (Inception), Ciarin Hinds (There Will Be Blood), Jared Harris (Mad Men), Colin Firth (Pride & Prejudice) and Benedict Cumberbatch (lately of the Sherlock Holmes revamp on the BBC).

Folks, that is an awesome collection of Brits, right there. And the prospect of watching them all play spies in a classic Cold War story has certainly gotten my attention. Can't wait.

Doing it right.

2010-09-03T09:42:00.008-04:00

Back in January, I announced that I was restarting work on something called "The Cattle Corner Project". As I said then, it was probably crazy to think I could find the time to do so what with caring for an infant and trying to sell a house. Turns out I was right, and last week I made the decision to put the project on permanent hiatus.

But then this morning I stumble across this, and my mind begins to wander (and wonder) once again:

If you can't tell from the photo, it's a detailed representation of the city set in Logan's Run. It's stunning work, and inspires me to go back to my project. And in case you haven't guessed from the clues, the purpose of my project was to create a replica of the set and scene from the beginning of Sergio Leone's Once Upon A Time In The West out of LEGO.

And the hell of it is, my project would not be a tenth as detailed as the Logan's Run piece. In fact, I had considered doing it at a slightly smaller scale. But now, having seen this, I wonder if such compromises are necessary. I can do the full thing. It would take time and a little bit of money to Bricklink, but it can be done. I'll be keeping you posted.

"The Roomies"

2010-09-02T09:14:00.001-04:00

Hilarious to people who have seen The Room. Confounding to everyone else:

And once again I say "Thank you, Roger".

2010-09-01T11:07:00.004-04:00

Roger Ebert lays it all down for us:

The time is here for responsible Americans to put up or shut up. I refer specifically to those who have credibility among the guileless and credulous citizens who have been infected with notions so carefully nurtured. We cannot afford to allow the next election to proceed under a cloud of falsehood and delusion.

We know, because they've said so publicly, that George W. Bush, his father and Sen. John McCain do not believe Obama is a Muslim. This is the time -- now, not later -- for them to repeat that belief in a joint statement. Other prominent Republicans such as Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul also certainly do not believe it. They have a responsibility to make that clear by subscribing to the statement. Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh must join, or let their silence indict them. Limbaugh in particular must cease his innuendos and say, flat out, whether he believes the President is a Muslim or not. Yes or no. Does he have evidence, or does he have none? Yes or no.

Thanks for that, Roger. As for your assertion that Beck and Palin are going to announce their intent to run together in 2012, I have my doubts. My view of the ticket is that it would either fail spectacularly or succeed spectacularly, and I don't know if the catharsis of the former is worth risking the horror of the later (no matter how minuscule the chances).

Samuel L. Jackson Quote of the Month: September 2010

2010-09-01T08:44:00.006-04:00

Pulp Fiction, of course, was Sam's breakout role. Even though he got great notices for his dramatic portrayal of crack addict Gator Purify in Jungle Fever three years prior to Pulp, it was the humor and action of Tarantino's hit that launched him into the big leagues.

And so it's reasonable to notice that Sam sort of gravitates to the same type of roles that are equal parts humor and action. The Long Kiss Goodnight is a good example of this (without actually being, you know, good). And one can't help notice how Sam's very first scene has his character holding a guy at gunpoint in a grubby room and speechifying, very much like his immortal encounter with Brett over Big Kahuna Burgers.

Mitch: "Don't give me attitude, sir. You're assuming I won't shoot your sorry ass. When you make an assumption, you make an 'ass' out of you and 'umption'. Now I'm Sgt. Madigan, Vice, and if you do cop a 'tude, jerkoff, I will see to it you spend the next 10 years in prison getting ass-fucked. If the case is thrown out because my arrest was violent, I will personally hire men to ass-fuck you for the next ten years. So if you're an ass-fucking fan, you go ahead and mouth off."

The King's Speech

2010-08-31T12:50:00.002-04:00

Hmmm. British period film concerned with royalty and starring the usual suspects (Colin Firth, Helena Bonham Carter, Geoffrey Rush and Michael Gambon). Yes, I think Mrs. Mosley and I now have something to look forward to in November (Well, aside from HP7, obviously).

Am I Blue?

2010-08-29T23:10:00.002-04:00

Yes, yes. New template and new subtitle.

Maybe I'll have some actual content to go along with the new look later this week. "till then.

Goldline makes the world go 'round

2010-08-28T14:33:00.003-04:00

A little nugget of joy from dcist (via Metafilter):

At Safeway:

A couple, both wearing "Palin for President AND Vice President 2008" shirts, are buying a 12 pack of Budweiser.

The clerk tells them it's $9.50. The couple then starts complaining that they're gouging people in town for the rallies, demands to speak to the manager, and that it's un-American.

Cashier: "No sir, that is capitalism."

Truly Trivial Trivia

2010-08-27T14:29:00.002-04:00

From the IMDb trivia section for Inception:

The third Christopher Nolan movie in five years in which Cillian Murphy's character spends a significant portion of his on-screen time with a cloth bag over his head.

Don't worry, Cillian. I don't think Nolan is trying to drop any hints or anything.

Yes, heaven forbid the show look distinctive from every other cop show on TV.

2010-08-22T16:57:00.004-04:00

Since I last mentioned the Rockford Files revamp last February, the studio shot a pilot and decided against it. However, it would appear that they are thinking of trying it again by replacing Dermot Mulroney with Lost's Josh Holloway.

On the one hand, I like the idea, and I think that Holloway deserves another steady paycheck and a place on TV every week to charm the heck out of us. On the other, I was rather disappointed on this revelation on why the Mulroney pilot was shelved.

"[It] looked like it was shot in the '70s," one source bemoaned to NYMag.com's Joe Adalian. "You didn't even know it was the current day until Jim pulled out his cell phone. It looked like Stephen J. Cannell directed it himself."

And my question is... SO?!?!?