LAMBcast #43 44: The Halloween Ep

Well, as you've hopefully noticed, in addition to Blog Cabins being on hiatus, the LAMBcast has also not been around for a bit. The events I described in the LAMB's birthday post have also kept me from being successful at not being a flake in these regards. As a result, we're gonna be out of order for a couple weeks here. First up is our Halloween-themed episode (chronologically #44; #43 will be posted in a week or so, and then we'll be back in order), where host Jason, along with James, Kai, Nick, and Dylan present you with a double-live album (read: it's long) in which we discuss our Top Five flicks that scare the crap out of us. Also on top:

* Listener Feedback
* LAMB of the Week
* Trailer Talk: Don't Be Afraid of the Dark
* Last LAMB Standing

For the LAMB of the Week, we take a look at LAMB #5, Invasion of the B Movies:


If you'd like your site to be a future LAMB of the Week, hit me up via email and I'll add you to the queue.

For more information on the LAMBcast, check out the topic at the LAMB Forums. Music provided royalty-free by Kevin MacLeod's Incompetech website. Big thanks to Kevin for providing this service. The LAMBcast loves feedback, too. Either here in the comments section or to blogcabins@yahoo.com or to our Facebook page. Also, we're on iTunes, and would still love a review, even if it's a bad one.

Thanks for listening!

And then...

Stained Glass Cinema Sunday Monday (#113)

I'm back, and I've got a big stash of SGCs that will keep us going here for months to come. Ready? Let's do this!

BEGINNER

















EXPERT

















Standings:
J.D. - 36
TheGreatWhiteDope - 26.5
Dreamrot (smacdonn) - 7
Nick, Wendymoon - 6
Clive Dangerously, Justin, simoncolumb, JLG - 5
Steel11Kane (Kano), BD79, Rachel - 4
Jason/Daniel, David Bishop, Jason Soto - 3
TJMAC510 - 2.5
Evan Derrick, Andy, TheAnswerMVP2001, Alex - 2
TonyD, Luke Harrington, Adam Ross, Anders, Dave, Big Mike Mendez, Nic Cage, CaptainRon19, Anh Khoi Do, Tom - 1

Here are the altered/actual posters from last time:

And then...

The CoW (10/3 - 10/15)

Two weeks for this one, so you know it's gotta be special.

The winner of the Chong Li Memorial Comment of the Week is...

Two in a row!
Univarn, who in response to the current poll options (the same thing he won for last time out), said:

"I believe Cher has to win this poll. She's the celebrity equivalent to a zombie. Keeps dying (retiring) only to come back. As for the whole human eating thing, I can't comment at this time. Suffice to say I met her once, woke up 3 days later missing flesh my lower thigh. Coincidence? I think not!!!!"

And then...

TGITDNMAR (10/15/10)

It's that time again for TGITDNMAR, which (obviously) stands for Thank God It's The Day New Movies Are Released.

It's back! I'm trying to get back in the groove of things over here...please be patient. That goes for my blog reading as well.

Red
I won't go nearly so far as to say that this looks proper good, or even that I'll like it, but it certainly does look like fun. I'm just hoping that it's the kind of fun I can get behind, rather than the Wanted-y fun that I've gotten a vibe from watching the trailer lately, what with the Willis-exiting-the-spinning-car thing and the Malkovich-shooting-a-missile-with-a-bullet thing. Clearly, realism is not what the filmmakers are going for here (shocking that I came to this revelation, I know).

Still, it's a movie about 55+ spies starring the above-mentioned actors as well as Morgan Freeman, Helen Mirren, and Blog Cabins favorite Karl Urban. I'm in.
Fletch's Chance of Viewing (in the theater): 77%

Jackass 3D
Never seen more than five minutes of this pop culture phenomenon in all its years of existence. I don't see anything that will change that now. I get it, but the adult version of seeing a dad get hit in the nuts with a baseball bat from his kids (thanks, America's Funniest Home Videos!) has just never held that much appeal to me.

Coming up, on an all-new Ow, My Balls!...
Fletch's Chance of Viewing (in the theater): 1%

Conviction
IMDb states that this film is being released today. They didn't display it as "limited," so I figured it was a wide release. So I go to Box Office Mojo, and it shows that it's only being opened in 11 theaters. Nevertheless, this film stars Hilary Swank and Sam Rockwell...and today was the first time that I'd heard or seen thing one about it. And it's not a chick flick or a kid flick or some obscure horror flick, which is usually the case when a film comes out with me being largely unaware of its presence. This does not bode well for Conviction.
Fletch's Chance of Viewing (in the theater): 8%

And then...

LAMBcast #42: Whatcha Been Watchin' Lately?

Jess, Kai, Nick and Dylan do what we do best - b.s. about our recent film watching experiences, spanning from The Boondock Saints 2 to The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and more. Also on tap:

* Listener Feedback
* LAMB of the Week: Rachel's Reel Reviews
* Trailer Talk: I Am Number Four
* Last LAMB Standing

For the LAMB of the Week, we take a look at LAMB #43, Rachel's Reel Reviews:


If you'd like your site to be a future LAMB of the Week, hit me up via email and I'll add you to the queue.

Music provided royalty-free by Kevin MacLeod's Incompetech website. Big thanks to Kevin for providing this service. The LAMBcast loves feedback, too. Either here in the comments section or to blogcabins@yahoo.com or to our Facebook page. Also, we're on iTunes, and would still love a review, even if it's a bad one.

Thanks for listening!

And then...

Fletch's Film Review: Toy Story 3

It's been like six months since Toy Story 3 came out. Everyone knows it was great. If you haven't seen it, you either never were going to see it or you are definitely going to, you're just one of those people that never goes to see movies in the theater. Bully for you.

Anyway, whaddaya know, I thought it was pretty good, too. Well, outside of a bizarre, overlong, intensely dark finale. But I also talked about the film at length some months ago during the two-part Pixar LAMBcasts on the subject. So if you want analysis and subtext, go there. For now (it's been waaaaaay too long), it's time to break out the soon-to-be-world-famous Fletch's Stick Figure Synopsis!!!

	Expectation: "It's in the hole!"
	Reality: "It's in the hole!"

LAMBScore:

And then...

Poll results; new poll

On the heels of the 30 days of crazy blog-a-thon, I cherry-picked some choice psychos and included them in the latest poll. The winner, with 23% of the vote...Norman Bates! Coming in 2nd, one vote behind Bates, was Se7en serial killer John Doe, and I have no idea how he wasn't the runaway winner of this thing. He starved that guy for a year, carefully keeping him alive (and taking pics!)...oh, and let's not forget about all of the other people he painstakingly butchered. He makes Patrick Bateman out to be positively sane in my eyes. Anyway...

So last time was craziest, how about another -iest this time? Pick the celeb that frightens you the most...if you dare.

And then...

The State of the Cabins (10/6/10)

Things to Click On
* filmgeek took me for a trip down memory lane. You might like taking it, too. (Final Cut)

* Think you've given a certain cash-grabbing director enough of your money? Shawn has, and I sure have as well. (7 Dollar Popcorn)

* Anytime I become aware of a post that's been written in my honor, it gets a link here. Nick counts down his Top 10 Sports Movies (note, Nick does not like sports, hence some of his wacky choices). (R2D2)

* Weird - when I started the LAMBcast, I thought I was following a number of great ones that I ended up loving. Turns out, a group of us all started at just about the same time. The Film Cynics just celebrated a year (no commemorative post), as did Simon and Jo. Happy birthday to us all (and here's hoping that Simon, Jo, Steve and/or Brian can all make it onto a future LAMBcast). (Screen Insight)

* Kai and Heather are back with another tag-team Top 10 list, and it's another kickass one. (The List/Movie Mobsters)

* And finally, another list: Alex counts down her Top 5 Teen Comedies. You gotta love anyone that loves Better Off Dead this much. (Film Forager)

Movies watched for the first time (non-theatrically) since last week:
* None!

It's all Dexter, all the time at Casa de Fletch. Close to wrapping up season 2, and I'm currently mildly upset at the awesome Netflix for only having those first two seasons available via Watch Instantly. Gonna have to go all old school and get a single disc at a time from them for seasons 3 and 4. Boo.

Music I'm currently obsessed with:
Nothing comes to mind this week. Revisited The Postal Service's great (and only) album, Give Up this week. Still waiting for another. For whatever reason, Death Cab just doesn't do all that much for me, but P.S. I love. Weird, I know. Here's a homemade music video to my favorite tune off the album, "Nothing Better." (Sidenote: Every time I listen to it, I wonder if Gibbard's lack of sports knowledge is responsible for the "third quarter" line in reference to a soccer match - in which there are no quarters - or if it was intentional.)



Book I'm currently reading:
* Per Jess (I believe), I'm reading David Baldacci's The Camel Club. It's a political conspiracy theory thriller (page turner) that I imagine will read similarly to a Dan Brown book, minus the puzzle aspect (I've not read a Baldacci novel before).

It's alright so far. I'm not engrossed with it, and am put off a bit by the occasions when Baldacci condescends his readers by doing something like writing "RPG" and then two sentences later explaining what that is (it's all done very unnaturally), but otherwise I imagine it'll be a breezy read.

And then...

Fletch's Favored Five: 2003 in Film

Now, the ninth in a continuing series in which I count down my favorites from a particular year in film. Previous entries:

1984 * 1985 * 1988 * 1990 * 1991 * 1993 * 1997 * 2002

I'm going to use Wikipedia to kickstart my brain, year by year, and I'll throw out a Favored Five here and there. If you want to refresh your memory in a similar fashion, just go to Wiki and type "[four-character year] in film." Here's the one for 2003. I won't pretend that Wiki is the end-all, be-all of filmic knowledge or that these yearly lists are 100% accurate, but they're an excellent place to start and a great resource.

2003
It's weird - some years, it seems there are 30 films vying for my Favored Five, and narrowing down to the honorable mention list can be even harder. Other years, I'm struggling to find movies that I'm passionate about...2003 is one such year. That's not to say necessarily that I don't love the ones that made the Five here - it's just that in a year with hundreds of releases, many of which I've seen, I expect to have to make some tough choices.

Notable movies not yet seen:
Elephant
The Last Samurai
Love Actually
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
Oldboy
Seabiscuit

Honorable mentions:
Confidence - Really not all that great, but a fun heist flick filled with a solid cast, and I'm a sucker for heist flicks.

Holes - If I were 11 in 2003, this would likely be my favorite film. If you're a fan of The Princess Bride, see this. They have very little in common aside from their tone, but Holes is a fun ride, and features Jon Voight overacting (as usual) - what more could you want?

LOTR: Return of the King - Would be higher if it didn't feature a giant spider-like thing (yeah, I'm a baby about spiders) and didn't have 14 false endings leading to its 7-hour run time.

The Five
5. Big Fish - Also known as "the last Tim Burton film that I can honestly say I liked." It practically defines whimsy and is pretty corny, but its emotional heft is pretty solid - I have to admit that it got a little dusty at the end the first time seeing this. Funny, well-written, and features Danny DeVito naked. Wait, that last thing's not really a plus, is it?

4. Kill Bill, Vol. 1 - It's pretty unlikely that any Tarantino flick doesn't at least make my top five in any year that there happens to be a Tarantino flick. I'm on record as not being the biggest fan of the never-ending final battle in this one, but the pluses far outweigh any negatives, and it's not really a negative, anyway - it just didn't make me geek out like it might have so many others. The premise of the two Volumes are just so solid.

3. Shattered Glass - I tried, Hayden. I tried to defend you (halfheartedly) for years, based solely on your wonderful performance here. But time has most definitely proven that this was merely a case of perfect casting and/or excellent direction (from Billy Ray, of whom I'm now a fan and am awaiting new material from - Breach is a solid film as well, starring Ryan Phillippe, no less). Nevertheless, Peter Sarsgaard was the larger revelation here - I wouldn't say that I have a man-crush on him or anything, but I've certainly followed his career pretty intensely after this one (though it's largely been a disappointment due to many a bad decision). Shattered Glass is pretty excellent - I can't think of too many other films about journalism that I find as gripping.

2. Code 46 - If you've been following me for any length of time, you'll know that I'm one of the chief flag wavers for this tiny sci-fi indie directed by Michael Winterbottom, starring Samantha Morton and Tim Robbins. I won't gush over it any more here, except to refer you to all my past gushings. It's not a perfect film, but does so many little things so well that endear me to it.

1. Finding Nemo - Much as a dig the previous film, it's hard to top what's indisputably one of Pixar's best flicks (let's give Wall*E and Up a few years before anointing them the crown-bearer). Taking on the challenging underwater setting - a nightmare for animators, for sure - director Andrew Stanton and his team produced a touching, poignant, funny, and of course beautiful film...about fish. Par for the course for Pixar. Hear more about this one in LAMBcasts 29/30.

And then...

Fletch's (mini) Film Review: Devil

I don't know if you're aware of this or not, but M. Night Shyamalan is associated with this film. Boy, you'd never know it from watching it, though - set in Philly, double-twist ending, guilt-addled protagonists, a heavy dose of spirituality...it's unlike anything he's ever done before!

All jokes aside, at least there were no scenes involving the stars talking to plastic trees.

It's quite possible that the lowered expectations we have from a "Night" film these days will assist your experience with Devil, as they did with mine (yes, I know, he didn't direct, but as mentioned, his fingerprints are all over it). At its base, Devil is merely a spook story, a convention known as a "Devil's Meeting," rooted in South American folklore, in which el diablo appears on earth to perform some sort of a test on a group of unwilling participants. (The filmed version of Charlie Daniels' "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" coming soon to a theater near you!)

As such a story, it mildly succeeds. The stock characters are there because they are stock characters - your preconceptions about the traits that they hold only serve the premise that much better. Though the film is hampered by overbearing, inescapable narration, overly predictable jump scares and a 'gotcha' ending (followed by a decent one), it's enjoyable enough as a pulpy story to warrant a rental on a dark and stormy Friday night in your future.

	Expectation: "Whatever."
	Reality: "You seem a decent fellow. I hate to kill you."

LAMBScore:

And then...

Fletch's Film Review: The Social Network, Catfish

"What came first, the chicken or the egg? I ate the chicken, and then I ate his leg."

That particular sentiment doesn't really have all that much to do with either The Social Network or Catfish, but something about it seems to encompass the two films together, and besides, how many opportunities do you really get to shoehorn random Beastie Boys lyrics into a dual movie review? Anyway...

It's a bit serendipitous that these two films should happen to be in theaters at the same time (or is it?) - the former telling the tale of the genesis of Facebook, the latter demonstrating how it (and other forms on online media) have shaped our world and perceptions of it over the last 15 years. But when boiled down to their essence, both are really about the same thing: what drives us online in the first place? What is our motivation for creating and cultivating personas in a virtual world, particularly when it's at the expense of our tangible one?

It's somewhat sadly predictable, then, that the answer is the same. It's a common answer for internet-based stories, and really for any geek-themed story, of which these most certainly qualify: the desire for power. The part where it's not sad - where the story changes - is the manifestation of that power, as it can have many meanings. The quasi-non-fictional (or is it quasi-fictional?) Mark Zuckerberg might long for many things, but in the end, The Social Network is no different from Sex Drive or Superbad or countless other teen comedy romps - Zuckerberg wants chicks, man, and he'll stop at nothing to gain the money, fame, and influence needed to get them to desire him. He may be a genius, but as we've learned from a thousand ugly duckling tales, that's just not enough - or at least it wasn't enough for him.

The makers of Catfish don't want me to talk about their film. Really, it says so right on their website ("Don't let anyone tell you what it is"). They have good reason. It is purported to be a straight-up documentary, and for the most part plays as one, but don't let anyone fool you - it's residence in theaters at present is due to two large factors: 1) its connection and proximity to The Social Network, and 2) it's Blair Witch-like marketing ploy.

I won't tell you "what it is," but I'll tell you this: it doesn't matter. With or without marketing gimmicks, Catfish is an important film for our times. The parties involved may not end up with billions of dollars or fame and adulation, but they too are after their own little slice of power, and the lengths that they go to get that slice make Zuckerberg look like a Boy Scout.

Additionally, Catfish brings to us a brilliant kinetic and frenetic flair that I've not before seen in film, truly employing the tools of our modern time to push the story forward. Sure, it might be heavy product placement for Google Earth, but not since my initial viewing of Raiders of the Lost Ark have I been as impressed with the illustration of travel as it's demonstrated by Catfish. Brilliant.

The Social Network
Fletch's Film Rating:

	Expectation: "It's in the hole!"
	Reality: "It's in the hole!"

LAMBScore:

Catfish
Fletch's Film Rating:

	Expectation: "Darn tootin."
	Reality: "Darn tootin."

LAMBScore:

And then...

LAMBcast #41: The Town, Devil

Skeleton crew! James, Nick, and Dylan discuss a pair of flicks - The Town and Devil, as we celebrate our one year anniversary. Also on tap:

* Listener Feedback
* LAMB of the Week: Cut the Crap Movie Reviews
* Trailer Talk: The Dilemma
* The New (replacement) Game!

For the LAMB of the Week, we take a look at LAMB #368, Cut the Crap Movie Reviews:



If you'd like your site to be a future LAMB of the Week, hit me up via email and I'll add you to the queue.

Music provided royalty-free by Kevin MacLeod's Incompetech website. Big thanks to Kevin for providing this service. The LAMBcast loves feedback, too. Either here in the comments section or to blogcabins@yahoo.com or to our Facebook page. Also, we're on iTunes, and would still love a review, even if it's a bad one.

Thanks for listening!

And then...