Meet the Fockers... I saw the film on Christmas Day, and needless to say, the film was friggin’ hilarious!!! Probably the best film I’ve seen at the theater in a while. If you haven’t seen it yet, watch it! The commercials don’t do justice to its hilarity, hahaha. Seeing the Chihuahua hump anything that moves and the little kid cheerfully repeat the words, "Ass-hooooooole" alone is worth the price of admission.

THE RETURN OF THE KING: Extended DVD version... Yesterday, I attended one of my relatives’ Christmas party in Hawthorne (near Inglewood and LAX airport), and to kill time, we watched the extended DVD version of the third Lord of the Rings film...all 4 ½ hours of it. Actually, I went home right after Frodo destroys the Ring at Mt. Doom. No need to see a bunch of pansy Hobbits jumping up and down on a bed again. Anyways, out of all the extra scenes that were added into the film, there were 2 scenes that really stood out from the rest: Saruman’s death scene (oops, did I spoil it for you guys?? No I didn't.) and the Mouth of Sauron scene. Saruman’s demise takes place at the beginning of the film, when Gandalf and company find Merry and his boy toy—err, friend Pippin toking outside the Tower of Isengard. Words are exchanged between Gandalf and Saruman—who is standing at the very top of the tower, and the scene eventually ends with Saruman plummeting to his death after being stabbed in the back by his assistant Grima Wormtongue (the dude who was watching Saruman create gunpowder for a bomb in The Two Towers). What caused Wormtongue to do such a dastardly deed? He was standing next to Saruman when the wizard slapped Grima like a little bitch after Grima said something insubordinate.

The other cool addition to ROTK is the Mouth of Sauron scene that occurs near the end of the film (well, I wouldn’t say it’s near the end). It takes place as Aragorn, Gandalf and the rest of their army approach the Black Gates of Mordor to finally confront Sauron’s forces, and a lone figure—shown in the pic above and to the upper left-hand image of the montage below—riding on a horse exits from the gate to deceive Aragorn and Gandalf into thinking Frodo is dead by flaunting that metal vest Frodo received from Bilbo Baggins in the first LOTR film. [In case you forgot, or don’t care (I’m pretty sure it’s the latter), the metal vest was taken from Frodo when the Orcs bring his unconscious body to a Mordor tower after Frodo is bitten by Shelob the Spider.] This villain is such a cool-looking character, even though he gets his head chopped off by Aragorn. Being a Star Wars fan and all, why can’t a Sith Lord look like this in one of the prequels? Oh well, Darth Sidious still rules!!

Despite such a detailed journal entry about Lord of the Rings, I’m still a bigger Star Wars fan. How big a fan am I? You’ll know on New Year’s Day. Bring on Revenge of the Sith!




EDIT: Oh- and the dude getting stabbed by an arrow in the lower left-hand image of this montage is LOTR director Peter Jackson, making a cameo in his own Oscar-winning film.

I watched Lemony Snicket’s A Series Of Unfortunate Events at Paramount Studios last night... It was okay. A lot more entertaining, in my opinion, than Ocean' 12 because of Jim Carrey's performance. The one big flaw that I found with the movie was that they didn't explain the significance of those spyglasses (you'd obviously have to see the film to know what I'm talking about). But according to my friend Sarina (who works at Paramount and was able to get me in for free. Thanks, heheh), Paramount is planning to make sequels to Lemony Snicket since the story is based on a series of children's books. So essentially Paramount is trying to do what New Line Cinema did with Lord of the Rings and Warner Bros. did with Harry Potter. Though I'm pretty sure Lemony Snicket will be the least successful of the three book-turned-movies franchises. Oh yea, I forgot about The Bourne Identity and The Bourne Supremacy.

...

Make that the least successful of the four book-turned-movies franchises. Oh, and I forgot about Mario Puzo's The Godfather (and Jurassic Park...though only two of the films were based on Michael Crichton's novels)!! Dagnabbit, nevermind!!!



EDIT: After the movie, Sarina, one of her Paramount friends and her sister (we all watched Lemony Snicket together) and I walked over to the set where they were shooting an action scene for the hit TV show 24. My question is: Shouldn't they be filming 24 at the Fox Studio Lot in Century City and not at Paramount, since 24 is a Fox show? Sarina replied that it was probably cheaper to film at Paramount.

Miniature models of Episode III: Here's an article that dealt with all the miniature sets that were built for Revenge of the Sith. For those of you who thought the prequels overdid it on the CGI (that's computer-generated imagery for the layperson), here's an excerpt from that article:

"To the layman, it's become increasingly easy to credit the amazing visuals of modern effects movies to the ever-present computer. If the talents of digital artists are often casually dismissed with a simple, "it's all CG," then the physical art of miniature construction is often completely ignored. In reality, the Star Wars prequels have featured more miniature work than the Original Trilogy -- Episode I alone had more models than the original films combined. It's the way in which miniatures are used that has changed dramatically."

To the naysayer who doesn't know jack about movie visual effects or even filmmaking in particular, and uses the clichéd "It's all computer-generated" when commenting about certain fantasy/epic films, TAKE THAT!

I saw Ocean's Twelve last night... It was entertaining, but also a bit confusing in how the main heist was explained at the end. Also, Soderbergh was a little too happy using those handheld Steadicam shots. Either he chose that visual style for this film or he was running behind schedule and didn't have time for more dolly camera movements! Also, there was a small subplot featuring Catherine Zeta-Jones' character that was thrown in at the last minute that I could care less about. Ocean's Eleven was obviously a lot better. On the plus side, the new trailer to Batman Begins was shown before the screening...as well as the Meet the Fockers trailer and a preview to Be Cool, which stars John Travolta, Vince Vaughn, Uma Thurman, The Rock and...Christina Milian.

I saw Blade Trinity today... It was pretty entertaining. Then again, I also thought National Treasure was enjoyable when I watched it about 2 weeks ago, so what does that tell you about my standards? I have The Matrix sequels, Starship Troopers and some Star Wars parody called Thumb Wars on DVD, for cryin' out loud!! But seriously, the new Blade film was okay. The "reaper dogs" were cool. Vampire Pomeranians, hahaha. In the words of Bart Simpson: "You can't make that stuff up."


My favorite Blade film is still Blade 2.

Batman Begins domestic and international teaser posters:



Click here for more details on the film...which I haven't talked about in my Blog for quite a while. Last I heard, composer Hans Zimmer (Gladiator, Black Hawk Down, The Last Samurai, Hannibal, Pearl Harbor, Crimson Tide, Broken Arrow and...The Lion King) was helping on the music score. That should be interesting...considering all of Zimmer's scores have been unique in one way or the other. In other music news, Kanye West, Usher and Alicia Keys lead the list in Grammy nominations. See how quickly I changed the subject?

Revenge of the Sith Teaser Trailer: Highlights from the preview... Oh, and by the way-- I watched The Incredibles over the weekend. Good film... Pixar has done it again! Though I don't know about The Cars, though. Might be the weakest of the movies done by the animation company, from what I've seen in the trailer that was shown at the theater. Speaking of which, the ROTS trailer looks awesome on the big screen! The computer monitor doesn't do it justice.

Revenge of the Sith teaser poster revealed:



Click here for more details.

Rest In Peace, SUPERMAN... Christopher Reeves: 1952-2004.

Well, since today is the release date of the most anticipated DVD set ever, I just felt like doing something extremely geeky and posting up screenshots from all of the Original Star War Trilogy DVDs. If you’ve never seen any of the films before (no matter how good The Lord of the Rings trilogy is, it is no where as iconic as the Original Trilogy), then you’ll no doubt be confused and ask “What the hell are these?” to the images below. The first montage of photos is from A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back. The second montage includes images from Return of the Jedi. And of course, the third montage includes images from all 3 films. These images should pretty much answer a very lame question one of my friends (who's never seen any of the 3 films) asked me a long time ago: Are the original Star Wars films in black & white?

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Eww.

FIRST OF ALL...What does the average person who's never seen a black & white movie before have AGAINST black & white films? What-- 'Cause they're OLD?? Whatever. You're not gonna become blind or suffer a heart attack (or turn gay, but I don't want to go there since that statement's politically incorrect, haha) or anything if you watched a film with no color. Again, whatever!



What was I talking about again? OH YES...that facetious question about the Original Trilogy being shot in black & white. If the NEW FILMS are in color, HELL--not only in color but shot IN DIGITAL [with a High Definition (24P, or Perfs) camera provided by Sony and modified by Panavision...but the average Joe or Jane obviously wouldn't know that...'cause he or she is average. Just kidding, heheh.], what makes you FREAKIN' think the old films would be in black & white??? Then again, some people were crazy enough to think the prequels were remakes of the old films, and that Jake Lloyd was a young Luke Skywalker in The Phantom Menace. Boneheads.

BELOW: Look-- They're in COLOR! (No wait, they always were!)





Anakin Skywalker: Mr. Badass. These behind-the-scene shots below are from The Return of Darth Vader featurette on Disc 4 of the DVD set. As you can see, Hayden Christensen is pretty much gonna spend the most of next year’s Revenge of the Sith looking all pissed and homicidal with his lightsaber. From a fan’s standpoint, can’t wait! ... What? You don’t expect someone who acts like Corky Romano or Screech to become Vader, do you?

Fullscreen is for monkeys. I don’t even know why people continue to buy this butchered version of a film on VHS and DVDs. What— Is it because in widescreen versions you obviously have the two matte lines at the top and bottom of the movie frame? Well BOOHOO, you’re breaking my heart. "Hey, I don’t want the widescreen version of The Passion of the Christ... Those two black bars are on the screen!" Loser. People who prefer the fullscreen version of a film (A.K.A. the film with a 1.33:1 aspect ratio format...A.K.A. "pan-and-scan") over widescreen are just as lame as people who don’t like black & white films ‘cause they’re “old” (more on this diatribe tomorrow). Think about it… What would you rather have...the two matte lines on the TV screen or an image that is only half the size of what is on the original theatrical version? I prefer the two matte lines on the screen anyday. Now, if the reason why you’re holding off on buying widescreen-formatted films is because you want to buy that nice-ass, WAY-expensive High Definition 16:9 Widecreen TV from Best Buy first, then that’s different! As long as you let the fullscreen version go the way of...um, I dunno, all those species of insects in the burning Brazilian rain forest (8-track tapes and the Dodo bird are clichés), then it’s all good. If you wanna see a pan-and-scan film, watch a broadcast of it on network television!


(Images courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox)

Now, what got me to dislike the 1.33:1 aspect ratio in the first place was me buying the fullscreen VHS version of the film Independence Day (above) in November of 1996. I showed my dad the movie when he got back home from work, and while watching it, I noticed that he wasn’t as into the film as I thought he would be. Of course, it may have obviously been that ID4 is a big pile of sci-fi crap (though I still enjoy the film), but I also attributed it to the fact the full splendor of the images (especially during the action sequences) wasn’t showing on the TV screen. From there on out, I vowed that every film I bought would be in widescreen. Of course (I like saying that), I didn’t really practice this till I began buying DVDs. I bought Gladiator and Saving Private Ryan in their fullscreen incarnation on VHS…and I, um, cough-cough (how ‘bout them USC Trojans?), bought Titanic in fullscreen VHS as well. Of course, James Cameron is a genius in the sole fact that the way he framed the images during filming actually allowed everything that you see in the widescreen version of the movie to be visible in the fullscreen version AS WELL. If you’re watching the fullscreen version of Titanic, you’ll notice that there’s considerable empty space at the top and bottom of the images, and that’s because those spaces were matted off (a.k.a. covered by the two black bars) for the theatrical release! Pure genius, Cameron!!


(Courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox and Paramount)

Anyways, where was I? Oh yes… Fullscreen SUCKS. I urge my readers out there (ALL 10 of you. Just kidding… Look at the hit counter at the bottom of this page, haha) to forsake the ghetto “This film has been formatted to fit your TV screen” version and go with the “So what do you prefer? The 1.85:1 or the 2.35:1 aspect ratio?” version. Me? I prefer 2.35:1. But I shot my short films The Broken Table and Envious in 1.85:1, haha. Oh, and using the Final Cut Pro editing software program, I matted my first student film, a BLACK & WHITE cinematography project (creatively titled Cinematography Project), with BOTH 1.85:1 AND 2.35:1 matte bars. It’s SO COOL that that film, which was shot in fullscreen, was framed well enough for the other two aspect ratios to be compatible! Parno rules!! Just kidding. That is all.


Dumb & Dumber: One of only a few films enjoyable in both the fullscreen and widescreen formats!

(Images courtesy of New Line Cinema)

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow... Yesterday, I watched that film at Paramount Studios (my friend who works there was able to get me in for free). Fun movie. The visuals were really great, and it was obviously clear that Writer-Director Kerry Conran was inspired by 1930s and 1940s adventure films and comic strip serials up the wazoo. On the other hand, however, I don't know if I would wanna see it again--at least in the theater. As I said, the visuals were really great. Maybe TOO great. I would mention plot, but I'd only be pointing that out 'cause movie critic Kenneth Turan pointed that out in his Los Angeles Times review yesterday. Hell, I watched Pearl Harbor TWICE at the theaters in 2001...obviously I don't mind watching a film again even if the plot isn't on the same level as that in, say, The Usual Suspects. As for Sky Captain, it's sensory overload staring at all the images in the movie, haha. Anyways, that's all.

The final scene with Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow was pretty funny. Their on-screen bantering reminds me of that between Indiana Jones and Marion Ravenwood (played by Karen Allen. Do I EVEN need to tell you who played Indy??) in Raiders of the Lost Ark.

...

And WHY the heck was I talking like a snooty movie critic just now?

From the TIME.com article previewing the upcoming Star Wars DVDs:

...And the frail 32-year-old (George Lucas) with a galaxy of ideas in his head seems near implosion. As Mark Hamill recalls, "He really looked like he was ready to burst into tears."

As a recent film school grad who had to endure a main actress walking out after the first day of shoot on my senior thesis film Envious last December, forcing to cut short the shoot on the third and supposedly final day of filming because it began raining (and I was filming outside), and being forced to dish out a thousand dollars more for my pick-up shoot (which I couldn't do till 6 weeks later because of winter break and legal reasons with the film department), I think it was that comment made by Hamill which convinced me why Lucas should do everything he could to have these films meet the vision that he originally had for them.

The TIME article points out that the 1977 version of Star Wars was a joy for fans but a reflection of the anguish Lucas went through to make it. While most of my actors and close friends say that they (supposedly, heheh) enjoyed my film after I gave them copies, I myself am reminded, when I watch my own film, of how pissed I was (and don't ask me about the tears part) when it began raining during my shoot...and of other things I wish I could do to fix my film (such as stick to using ONE film stock as opposed to two because of continuity reasons, and not having a main character wear something drastically different from what they wore at the start of the film since the audience won't know that that's suppose to be the same character from the previous scene).

So more power to Lucas. Don't let the nostalgia of people who obviously weren't on set to help you get this movie made (but those are the people that made Star Wars popular!! Well woopty-friggin' doo) prevent you from fixing something that you struggled to make in the first place.

The bottom line: Creating a film is a highly emotional process that most non-filmmakers can't completely appreciate.

Update: And yes, I found a replacement for that actress...6 HOURS before I was to begin Shoot Day #2!

George Lucas: The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones are "VERY HARD TO FOLLOW." Compared to the cookie cutter, no-brain action films Hollywood pumps out on a weekly basis, YES they are incredibly hard to follow. Consider how stupid the average movie goer is, the short attention span (if something doesn't blow up every 15 seconds they fall asleep) and it's really not suprising. If you're smarter than that average then rejoice, but don't pretend everyone is keeping up with you. If they were then a movie like Alien VS Predator would never have been made.

Update: Click here to hear Yoda fart. "Slimy? Mudhole? My anus, this is."


Yoda pretending he's Kobe.



'Kay, ENOUGH childishness.

"You obviously do not know who you are f**king with!" - Blade (Blade II)

It doesn't come out till this December, but I can't wait to see Blade III, otherwise known as Blade: Trinity. The first Blade was cool (especially the opening rave scene sequence)...but Blade II was awesome! Those "Reaper" vampires, like Jared Nomak (below), are pretty freaky! And Leonor Varela, who plays Nyssa (the female vampire who has a thing going for Blade) isn't so bad either. Anyways, I'm not planning to watch Blade: Trinity just because Jessica Biel is in it (although she's a plus, haha...or um, is she?), who plays Whistler's daughter Abigail, but also because I want to see how the story ends...and see Wesley Snipes kick more bloodsucking ass! Yep, can't wait.


Photos courtesy of New Line Cinema

STAR WARS: EPISODE III TITLE REVEALED!!!  For those of you who are Star Wars fans, the full title of the third and final prequel is Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith.  Not very unique, since the "of the" part was already used in Attack of the Clones for the prequel trilogy and Return of the Jedi in the classic one, but oh well.  This title was a lot more expected for Episode III, so I doubt fans will get into as much a "hissy-fit" for this one as they did back when the title for AOTC was announced in 2001. Revenge of the Sith comes out on May 19, 2005.




UPDATE: The SITH, for those of you who don't know, which would be most of you (haha), are the main, black outfit-wearing enemies of the Jedi. You know... Darth Vader, Darth Sidious/Emperor Palpatine, Count Dooku/Darth Tyranus and Darth Maul. Oh, and don't forget Darth Bane...but you'd have to be a die-hard Star Wars fan who reads the Expanded Universe novels to know that. Haha.

Gary Oldman up for the voice of General Grievous? That's what TheForce.Net is saying in this article!! Gary Oldman, as you know, played Sirius Black in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, a Russian terrorist in Air Force One, and will be playing Lieutenant James Gordon in next year's Batman Begins. Oldman is an awesome actor, so it'll be interesting to see how he'll voice the Droid General in Star Wars: Episode III...assuming the reports are true!!

Today I watched Shrek 2 at the AMC theater near my house. Good movie... I found it a lot more enjoyable than the first one (even though I didn't watch the first one till it came out on video). Puss in Boots, the cat assassin voiced by Antonio Banderas, is hilarious! Especially when he sings Ricky Martin's Livin' La Vida Loca. What a crack-up. All the other characters were very funny as well (though not a surprise), but Puss stole the show. I also saw Troy this week. Also a good film, though not very original in the wake of Lord of the Rings and Gladiator four years ago. I saw Van Helsing last week.

...

So anyways, I enjoyed watching Shrek 2 and Troy. That is all.

One of the things I learned in my Alternative Media class (the one I'm getting a 'C' in) is how the mass media in the United States cares more about pleasing advertisers and big corporations (the ones financing these media companies) than they do about giving the public what they want... Which is why you'll sometimes find more pages devoted to advertisements than those with actual news printed on them in newspapers like say, the Los Angeles Times. But this is just PLAIN RIDICULOUS.

Put ads on baseball bases? How dumb is that?? What, right before a Major League baseball game cuts to a commercial, the camera is going to focus on these bases? (Which is obviously the point.) "Tonight's baseball game is brought to you by... Columbia Pictures' Spider-Man 2..." Granted, I don't care if the Spider-Man graphic is shown on the TV screen itself, superimposed in front of the image that's being shot, but to have it printed on a baseball base itself? Advertisers will do WHATEVER it takes to promote their product, will they?

Back in the past, and even today, newspapers were afraid to publish certain stories for fear they're going to draw advertisers away...since those stories weren't going to put the consumer reading that newspaper in a "buying mood." Sure, we live in a capitalist society, but that's just plain pathetic.

Click here for the article on the Sports Illustrated website.

UPDATE: So much for the Spider-Man-on-first-base idea. The Sports Illustrated website has reported that the MLB will not allow ads for the upcoming film to be printed on any of the bases in major league baseball fields next month. Great decision. A sweet victory for the Average Joe who's against this crass example of advertisements gone awry. Thanks to me and this journal entry. Just kidding.

UPDATE #2: Speaking of Spider-Man 2: Last Sunday night I dreamt I was flying the F/A-22 Raptor jet fighter, was fighting a giant spider in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and was watching an NBA playoff game where the Lakers were kicking the Spurs' ass and not the other way around (check the May 2, 2004 entry). Last night, my dream was a combination of the now-defunct TV show Dark Angel (which aired on Fox from 2000 to 2002) and Spider-Man 2! I dreamt that a couple of people and I had to hide Max (played by the BANGIN' Jessica Alba on Dark Angel) from Lydecker (the main villain played by John Savage on Angel) and Doctor Octopus from Spider-Man 2! At one point, while we weren't running away, I watched as Max and these other people were sleeping on a giant spider-web spun over a street! I think the web was connected to two apartment buildings on both sides of the street...but anyways. It was pretty weird, but a cool dream nonetheless... I think Max got away at the end, and Doc Ock was stuck inside a house or something. Of course, the reason why I had this dream was because I was watching Season 2 of my Dark Angel DVD set yesterday (I have the sets for both Seasons' 1 and 2), and just read the Sports Illustrated article about the baseball bases last night. I know...pretty incoherent journal entry... But this wasn't a coherent dream, now was it?

BATMAN BEGINS: Above are OFFICIAL movie photos of Christian Bale as the new Dark Knight of Gotham! Pictures courtesy of Entertainment Weekly and the official Batman Begins webpage (click on the photos of the new Batmobile below to get to the official site).

George Lucas is more clever than I thought. For those of you who even care about Episode III coming out next year but don't understand why there's yet another new villain in the final prequel (when Count Dooku from Episode II is still alive and Anakin finally becomes Vader), I found this neat little theory at The Force.Net:

"Many people could not understand the reasons for having a new bad guy, when Dooku was available to be developed as a character. But when you think about it, having Grievous is a logical progression. First bad guy was Darth Maul. Shadowy, silent and deadly. Intense use of the Dark Side. Devoted to his master and to his missions. Second one was a fallen Jedi Master, Count Dooku. Knows the Jedi inside and out. A manipulative and devious character. He can twist and turn people and situations to his advantage. Third one is General Grievous. A cyborg with no pity or remorse. His only purpose is to bring death and destruction to the Republic and the Jedi. If Darth Sidious can combine all these traits into one person, that would be the ultimate apprentice. That apprentice's name would be DARTH VADER."

Pretty cool! Here's a neat fan-made drawing that I also checked out at TheForce.Net:

KILL BILL VOL. 2... I saw the film last friday, and I liked it in that it was more story-oriented than Vol. 1. And Pai Mei was hilarious! And dope, 'cause he kicks ass. In case you haven't seen the movie yet, don't expect an action-packed gorefest at the end, since (I said before) it's all story.

Godzilla vs. Mothra: The Battle For... I didn't type the whole title since I don't know what the whole title is--since it couldn't fit the TV screen when I was watching the movie at one of my friends' house. Anyways, Godzilla vs. Mothra was one of 3 cheesy-ass movies that I watched on cable TV today after my friend and I got back from the Laker training facility in El Segundo (near Los Angeles International Airport)...where I got autographs by Slava Medvedenko and Brian Cook. But NO Shaq or Kobe. Or Payton or Malone for that matter. Could've gotten an autograph by Devean George if he didn't drive off once I walked up to his car window (all the players were already in their cars and there was a pretty large crowd of fans who showed up). Where was I?

Oh yea, I watched Drumline, a movie about freakin' college bands; Kangaroo Jack, a live-action movie about a Kangaroo who wears a red shirt during most of the movie (and talks in one sequence, although that part fortunately passed when I began watching the movie); and of course, Godzilla vs. Mothra: The Battle For Pornography (not the real title, but I didn't feel like typing "..."). These movies, however, were so damn cheesy they were entertaining (and my friend and I watched American Ninja 3 at one point). To sound like a snotty film critic, I was engrossed in their banality...although I'll shoot myself if I ever get the urge to type a screenplay that's inspired by these movies. *Shutters...*

UPDATE: I watched The Apprentice on NBC for the first time today...and needless to say, I was missing out! Great show-- But you know Kwame's team is gonna lose! The Spider-Man 2 trailer wasn't so bad either.

UPDATE #2: The full title is Godzilla vs. Mothra: The Battle for Earth. Too plain... I like The Battle for Pornography better.