Movie of the Month/LAMBcast #68: Oldboy

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The voters in our last MOTM poll overwhelmingly selected Oldboy as this month's film, and it's not hard to see why. Chan-wook Park's genre-spanning 2003 film shockingly was not an instant classic, but has become more than a cult icon in the eight years since its release, climbing the IMDb Top 250 (it currently sits at #97) and, more importantly, becoming more and more known as one of the quintessential Asian films of the new century.

For those unfamiliar with it, the plot synopsis from IMDb:

"An average man is kidnapped and imprisoned in a shabby cell for 15 years without explanation. He then is released, equipped with money, a cellphone and expensive clothes. As he strives to explain his imprisonment and get his revenge, Oh Dae-Su soon finds out that his kidnapper has a greater plan for him and is set onto a path of pain and suffering in an attempt to uncover the motive of his mysterious tormentor."

First up, the links! Thanks to all of the LAMBs that sent in their posts for this edition of the MOTM. Be sure to check out the varied opinions on this controversial film over at the LAMB.

It's also time to vote on next month's movie. I've included many of the choices from last month, but swapped a few out to keep it interesting. You have one week to vote.

Online Surveys & Market Research

As we do every month, the LAMBcast is tied into the MOTM. We had a jam-packed show with six participants for our MOTM-theme, with Nick, Jason, Kai, Jess, Univarn and Dylan on board. Bonus: there's a SHOCKER of an announcement given by a couple of the participants. You won't believe it when you hear it!

Also on tap:

* (An epic) Rants of the Week
* Trailer Talk: Conan the Barbarian
* Last LAMB Standing

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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!

If you haven't seen Oldboy then you can either rent it or watch it online with LOVEFiLM - the home of free movies online.

And then...

The State of the Cabins (3/30/11)

Movies watched for the first time (non-theatrically) since last week:
None. Pop Culture At Home has been brought to me by Dexter lately, as Mrs. Fletch and I have polished off Season 5 of the serial killer drama. With that complete, I shall now have time to delve into some more videos...provided we don't start up a new show (Mad Men? Breaking Bad?)

Music I'm currently obsessed with:
* I dunno...I'm really stinking when it comes to this particular segment of The State. Good news is on the way, though, as three brand spankin' new CDs are on the way from Amazon (hooray for old school! And weird that CDs are old school!) - the latest from DeVotchKa (I know, I mention them often) and Kings of Leon (worried about this one, like it might be the last I buy from them anytime soon), along with one from the back catalog of White Stripes, Get Behind Me Satan, as a recent listening of "My Doorbell" had me bopping to that for a few hours. Hooray for me having a good song in my head for once. And hey, how 'bout we use that as the song I'm currently obsessed with. See, I just had to talk myself through this...



Book I'm currently reading:
* I am currently bookless.

Since the last State, I have finished both The Breach and Sputnik Sweetheart.

The Breach, by Patrick Lee, is an enjoyable sci-fi page turner - a tale of loss and redemption that travels all over the globe, from Alaska to Wyoming to Switzerland and back, all the while delving into Men in Black-style otherwordly stuff, time travel, and other things best suited to comic books. It gets murky and cumbersome at times, and the writing is competent but fairly generic: you won't walk away from the book thinking you've just read the work of a literary genius, and Lee has some serious work to do in the character development department (even physical characteristics would help). Solid if unspectacular. I think it'd make for a great (kinda dumb) action flick...or maybe just great.

On the other side of the spectrum is Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami. It's all character and (almost) no plot. Frankly, I'm not sure which I prefer - Murakami is clearly a skilled writer, and I was never really bored, but I still felt unsatisfied upon finishing the book.

I believe next up will be some massive book Mrs. Fletch has that's a collection of Roald Dahl short stories.

Things to Click On
* Alex continues her movie sketches, but also wants you to know about her Tumblr blog in which she tracks down and posts old, cool foreign movie posters. The one for The Terminator is the fucking bomb. I want. (Film Forager)

* Note to those writing reviews from Univarn - it ain't enough to just state an opinion to be a critic. On the whole, this is basic stuff, but some people tend to forget what being a critic is all about. I think it's more coincidence than anything, but Max posted a similar essay at Anomalous Material on the same subject. (A Life In Equinox)

* Are you ready for The Big Lebowski 2? Tara Reid is. (Funny or Die)

* The rejuvenation of the LAMB's Movie of the Month is nearly complete. Our next film is Black Dynamite. Full details here. (The LAMB)

* Wanna be a filmmaker but think you need expensive equipment? Think again. (Mashable)

* Andrew starts with a simple question, "What Kind of a Movie Would You Make?," but ends up getting all introspective about his life and stuff. (gmanReviews)

And then...

The State of the Cabins (1/5/11)

Things to Click On
* Jason Bellamy's Bests of 2010 post is phenomenal - the best post I've read this year! Full of creative awards for the last year in film. You'll never think of How to Train Your Dragon the same way again, either. (The Cooler)

* Speaking of Jasons, Mr. Soto's latest "Jason Made a Video" is a must watch for the opening minute alone. Yeah, it's an inside joke, but goddamn is it a good one. (Invasion of the B Movies)

* It's been around for a few weeks, but the new game over at Hoping for Something to Hope For is, as you might have guessed, right up my alley. Here's the third one.

* James lets you in on his Top 20 Discoveries of 2010. Love the idea of this post. (Cinema Sights)

* Univarn has been on a tear lately. Just check out anything from the past two weeks or so (I had to skip the film reviews as I've not yet seen the flicks, but the editorials and poster wrap-up have all been terrific). (A Life in Equinox)

Movies watched for the first time (non-theatrically) since last week time:
* About a Boy
You know how, just because someone has a British accent, they seem smarter and more refined than their North American counterpart? Can the same be said for films?

I swear, were About a Boy made with, say, John Cusack in the lead, it would have come off a lot worse than it did. (This might have already happened...did anyone actually see Martian Child?) I, too, was pretty smitten with About a Boy, but I just had this nagging feeling that it was more familiar and cliched than it actually was. Asshole, Peter Pan-y bachelor learns to love someone besides himself, earning a family and a sense of purpose along the way. Haven't we seen this a million times? Was the writing really that much more superior so as to make it stand out from the crowd?


Sadly, I don't know if I have the answers to those questions, and I'm going to do my best to not care. I was charmed by Hugh Grant - ironically, perhaps liking him more in this asshole role than in any prior role of his. Anything's better than watching this suave, good-looking guy stumble and stammer his way through another character, right? I've been somewhat of a basket case over the last two and a half months, so I wasn't surprised that the super-happy ending got to me, either. Yes, it got dusty in there.

A winning film, with a hilarious intro. Who else could threaten to 'shag' their goddaughter and come away smelling of roses?

P.S. - I completely forgot that the Boy was the one that grew up to be Colin Firth's love interest in A Single Man. Jarring, really. He really did look strange in About a Boy - Mrs. Fletch even thought they'd done something to his eyebrows to make him look like a Vulcan.

Fletch's Film Rating:

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

LAMBScore:

Music I'm currently obsessed with:
* Nothing in particular. Picked up the latest from The Black Keys, Royksopp, Kanye West and Vampire Weekend...now it's time to take them all in.

Book I'm currently reading:
* Notice a trend here?

Usually, I don't like to read consecutive books from the same author, as it feels better to mix it up. Too much of the same thing starts to blend all together into one giant book. Yet, I guess a desire to continue reading something light took me from the second in the Camel Club series by David Baldacci, The Collectors, to the third one, Stone Cold. Ironically, similar to the second and third books in the Millenium trilogy, The Collectors and Stone Cold do blend together. There's a new story and villain here, but a large portion of Collectors was left on a cliffhanger that's sure to be resolved in Stone. And I'm enjoying this third book probably even more so than the prior two. I think there's a fourth (and maybe even a fifth) novel in the series...I just might take them all on in a row.

And then...

LAMBcast #43: The Social Network

The long-awaited episode 43 has landed! We're almost back on schedule here, as episode 45 ought to be up sometime around Wednesday. In the meantime, host Jason is joined by James, Marshall and LAMBcast noob Univarn as they break down The Social Network. Yay, I made it through that without using a "Like" pun or anything like that. Also on tap:

* Listener Feedback
* LAMB of the Week: The Dark of the Matinee
* Trailer Talk: And Soon the Darkness
* Remember the Times

For the LAMB of the Week, we take a look at LAMB #120, The Dark of the Matinee:

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...

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...

The CoW (9/26 - 10/2)

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

The Comment of the Week goes to...

Univarn, who in response to the current poll options, said:

"To be honest, I think if Univarn was one of the options I'd win this new poll hands down."

And then...