Is This Thing On?

Been a while; anybody still out there? Here's a list of some things that don't suck. Been a pretty decent summer:

Bon Iver Bon Iver*

Battles Gloss Drop

The Cars Move Like This

Explosions in the Sky Take Care, Take Care*

Foo Fighters Wasting Light

Junior Boys It's All True

Maritime Human Hearts

Release the Sunbird Come Back to Us

Mock Orange Disguised as Ghosts

The Sea and Cake Moonlight Butterfly

Washed Out Within and Without

The Wooden Birds Two Matchsticks

Fringe

Friday Night Lights* (TV) - May not be new to you, but it is to me.

Shark Week

Captain America: The First Avenger

Super 8

Have given in to the realization that Cowboys & Aliens isn't going to be mind-blowingly awesome, but I'm holding out hope it's going to be fun. Let you know after tomorrow...

*If you don't like this Album/Show/Movie, listen to/watch it again, and try harder. If that doesn't work for you, get your head checked.

BTW...

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Daft Punk Don't Care That You Think Tron Is Stupid

So what if the movie is based on an overblown game of laser-tag? Daft Punk are bringing their "A" game, and that's almost enough to make this endeavor legitimate in itself. Based on this 10-minute musical teaser, they are wisely making a shift back towards the glory days of Discovery. In other good news, it's sounding like there's a very real possibility that this is going to involve some sort of double-album. Lucky us:

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'24' Gets "Jacked"

Well, you could see this coming from as far away as just about any one of the plot twists of the past 3 seasons: 24 will come to an end at the conclusion of this, the eighth, season. Sort of. According to EW.com, a movie franchise is already in the works, which could be really interesting. Relieving Jack and Co. of the constraints that exist because of its "real-time" format could do a lot of good, and, according to Keifer Sutherland, this version of 24 will definitely not be held within those same confines. Can't say I blame them. As Keifer also states in the article, “The writers are producing the equivalent of 12 films a year, which is unheard of." Good point. Ironically, this season has done a much better job of keeping me on my toes than either of the past two. That is, until they pulled out the old "there's a double agent that's infiltrated CTU" plot twist again. Anyway, now that this has all been decided, maybe it will heighten anticipation a little bit as this season winds down. We shall see. I wonder what they're gonna do with the clock sequence at the end? Maybe it will explode or something...

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EW: Batman vs. Superman

It's the 75th anniversary of DC Comics, so some guy named Darren Franich over at Entertainment Weekly posed the idea of settling the Batman vs. Superman argument once and for all. He proposed two different ways to interpret the argument: (1) Which of the two has been able to evolve over 3/4 of a century and stay interesting, and (2) Who would win in a fight?

I don't think that anyone can come up with a realistic argument for Superman when it comes to question #1. Despite the extreme valleys that the Batman franchise has suffered through (i.e. an embarrassing television show in the 60s and two hideously terrible movies in the mid-90s), the peaks have been too high, and the potential for a completely human character with flaws is just so much greater than a perfect superhero with limitless power and no true equal.

In regards to question #2, Franich takes the lame, inside-the-box angle, without even really mentioning that in the only legitimate confrontation the two had (Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns, which is regarded by many to be the greatest graphic novel of all time), Superman flat out gets dealt with - by a 55 year-old Batman no less.

I better stop before I really get rolling. In the words of Linda Richman of Coffee Talk, "I'm a little verklempt, talk amongst yourselves..."

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Patton Oswalt is a BIG FAN

If you haven't seen a really weird movie in a while, here's one for you. It's Patton Oswalt like you've probably never seen him before. It's not exactly funny per se, but after watching it I could see how you could get away with calling it a BLACK comedy. Big Fan is written and directed by Robert D. Siegel, the writer of The Onion Movie and The Wrestler. There was barely any press for this movie, and I could see how it might not be a big money maker. But, this film is great and a must see for any fan of Patton. So just rent this movie and watch Patton be a weirdo. You can watch the trailer HERE.

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I Love Movies!

Hey everybody! The "I Love Movies" podcast is one of the best things that has happened to me in a long time. It's taped in front of a live audience at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in LA and hosted by Doug Benson, comedian and ummm... "herbalist" behind Super High Me. He always has at least two guests on the show with him each time. Some of the best so far have been Aziz Ansari, Thomas Lennon & Ben Garant, Patton Oswalt, David Cross, Bob Odenkirk, Matt Besser, Matt Walsh, Jon Hamm, and the list goes on. I don't think I realized how clever Benson is until listening to these podcasts. I really only knew him from Comedy Central specials (which suck because the comedians have to really hold back for the censors), and Super High Me, which I did enjoy. But, it is all about movies, so don't think you won't enjoy it if you aren't into pot or pot related humor. Now, in my experience, it's really hard to recommend podcasts to people because they have to find it and download it and so on and they just won't do it. So, I thought if I put the links right here maybe someone will actually check it out because if you like movies and/or things that are funny, this IS something you've been missing. There are usually two a month and sometimes more. You can find it on itunes or the link below, and if you like it also try "Never Not Funny", "Comedy Death-Ray" and "Comedy and Everything Else". So check it out and as always, Willem Dafoe is a shit head (you'll get this joke later).

I Love Movies
& Follow him on twitter here
http://twitter.com/DougBenson

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The 'Robocop' Rap

This thing is AWESOME. In 10 minutes DJ Mayhem & MC Mouthmaster give us a synopsis of the original Robocop film, complete with sound bytes and samples from the original theme. You really need to watch this in it's entirety:

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Current Spider-Man Franchise Squashed

The Playlist, amongst others, is reporting that Spider-Man 4 is officially off the table and the entire franchise will be scrapped and rebooted in about 2 years or so. Sam Raimi (director) and Tobey Maguire are washing their hands of Spider-Man for good. Thanks to Spider-Man 3, the real question is whether or not anyone cares at this point. More details here.

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Fikaked: Daily!

• Weekend Box Office: Seems The Hangover did fantastic, the marketing gurus couldn't make Land of the Lost look anything but really stupid, and neither one of them could take out Up as #1. Entertainment Weekly is now reporting that the final weekend tally actually has Hangover taking the top slot.
• Chris Nashawaty is taking this opportunity to kick Ferrell while he's down. What, exactly, was not hilarious about Step Brothers?
• Jay-Z just released a new track called "D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)". Evidently, like a lot of people, HOVA isn't a fan of of the pitch-correcting software, which is interesting since his boy Kanye just released an album full of Auto-Tuned tracks about 6 months ago. Not sure if this will be on The Blueprint 3 According to Pitchfork, it will in fact be on The Blueprint 3, which is due out in September:

• In the summer's biggest train-wreck so far, I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!, "Speidi" have managed to create a pretty impressive spectacle, and it's kinda hard to turn away. According to EW, Heidi has actually been checked into a Costa Rican hospital after spending the night in some sort of torture chamber, a punishment for trying to leave the show (and then begging to be brought back).
• Over @ The A.V. Club: 27 Ridiculous Yet Entertaining Pop Culture Fights. Does anything else need to be said?
• Surprise! Idol winner Kris Allen has signed to Jive Records. You can't tell me that Adam Lambert isn't breathing a sigh of relief right now.
• Half-Blood Prince might be delayed in IMAX theaters for a couple weeks because of an exclusive deal featuring Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen, which will feature several IMAX-only action sequences. Booyah! I can wait an extra two weeks for another installment of Potter-mania.
• Some general possibly-in-the-works excitement: Anchorman 2 & possibly two new 'Sherlock Holmes' flicks, a new 'Robin Hood' franchise that involves Ridley Scott & Russell Crowe, Ghostbusters 3, and a Short-Circuit remake.
• Tonight: The season premiere of Weeds, I'm a Celebrity... and Jon & Kate Plus 8 overkill continues, Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives does "American Classics" and "Family Favorites" on the Food Network, The History Channel is running a special on the history of 'hillbillies', Conan has David Duchovny & comedian Bill Burr on the Tonight Show, and Jimmy Fallon's got Kelly Ripa & Mark-Paul Gosselaar coming on Late Night.

Pardon the mess; this thing is a work in progress...

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Hey, Wanna Go Pick Some Snowberries?

I was reminded by a good friend that it's time to get some Christmas up in this piece, so I thought I'd quickly share a list of my favorite Christmas songs & movies.

Currently my top 10 tracks:

10. "Mele Kalikimaka" - Bing Crosby

9. "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" - Frank Sinatra

8. "The Little Drummer Boy" - Sufjan Stevens

7. "Christmas" - Rogue Wave

6. "A Holly Jolly Christmas" - Burl Ives

5. "Happy Christmas (War is Over) - John Lennon

4. "Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home)" - Death Cab For Cutie

3. "Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree" - Brenda Lee

2. "White Christmas" - The Beach Boys

1. "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" - Tchaikovsky

... and the movies:

10. Gremlins

9. Home Alone II

8. The Santa Clause

7. A Charlie Brown Christmas

6. A Christmas Story

5. Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer

4. Home Alone

3. Scrooged

2. Christmas Vacation

1. Elf

*Edit* Huge Christmas Blunder/Automatic Lump of Coal in my Stocking: I left Jingle All The Way off my list. Absolutely unacceptable, I know.

Happy Holidays!

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