With Heath Ledger’s menacing portrayal of The Joker and everyone swearing its the best bad guy ever, despite my having seen this kind of character portrayed by Robert De Niro years before in Cape Fear, I decided to take a stroll down memory lane and pen a list of my favorite movie villains…from movies I’ve seen, of course. I know I’ve missed a few so I’ll probably revise this list from time to time. So here they are, in descending order of release, sorted by year: Continue reading »
One of the persons whose work helped influence my career path of television and filmmaking died Sunday. Stan Winston, whose work includes Aliens, Predator (series), Jurassic Park (seres), Roots, Edward Scissorhands, The Thing, Terminator (series), Batman Returns, Interview with the Vampire, Pearl Harbor, Artificial Intelligence: AI, Constantine, Iron Man, Galaxy Quest, End of Days, Lake Placid, Small Soldiers, The Relic, Congo, Leviathan, Starman, Tank Girl, Mousehunt and the Creature Features series, passed away Sunday from multiple myeloma.
Before working in the film industry, Stan Winston was a stand-up comedian. Mister Winston moved to Hollywood in 1968. At first he wanted to be an actor, but no jobs came his way and the following year he became an apprentice in the Makeup Department at Walt Disney Studios. One of the founders of visual effects companies Digital Domain, Stan Winston Digital and Stan Winston studios, Stan Winston is only the second special effects artist to be honored with a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Stars.
He will be missed.
Last night’s episodes of Bones and House were pretty damn good. I even got choked up watching House. That’s right. I’m a grown, straight man and I was tearing up like a kid watching Old Yeller last night…because of a TV show! What’s up with that?
Tonight: it’s more Hell’s Kitchen goodness. I couldn’t give two shakes about American Idol this year…not since the little girls who watch the show voted off Carly and Syesha but kept those two untalented douche bags left standing.
As we near the start of the “Countdown to Battlestar Galactica Season Four”, a four day countdown beginning on the first of April, I found this little article shedding light upon the dubious future of the best show on television.
When I got Season 3 on DVD I immediately watched the original cut of “Unfinished Business”, my favorite episode from the season. I can see why and where the cuts were made and it was interesting to see what was cut out and what those bits of information continued to work as mostly subtle character development. In fact, watching any of the deleted scenes from BSG, you are given the impression that the stuff that makes the cutting room floor are still little gems in their own right and it must be very hard (as confirmed by showrunner Ronald D. Moore) to have to pull interesting little character scenes so the episode will run in the time allotted by the network.
As Moore has mentioned several times, BSG is a character-driven show; it’s a show about people who are thrust into a situation where they must survive in whatever way possible, or perish. And these little scenes that are cut out from the episodes proper, that they gracefully let us see in deleted scenes and alternate versions of the episodes, only maintains that notion. BSG is probably best seen on DVD. Like Season 2.5 and the alternate version of the episode “Pegasus”, BSG Season 3 gives us a lot of relevant character information apart from what we’ve seen in the episodes as-aired. Check it out.
I almost forgot about this little short film called bigLove directed by Leif Tilden back in 2001. It’s one of the first films ever shot and digitally, having never touched celluloid. It’s a very sweet story and you should check it out right now at SPIKE powered by iFilm. It stars Sam Rockwell and Mary McCormack.
Well, I’ve decided: Conchata Ferrell is my favorite actress. She stands atop a short, distinguished list of personal favorite film actors along with my favorite actor, Gene Hackman. Kinda make a cute couple, don’t they?
So I’m watching Family Guy last night and at the end of the episode they do a reference to the Star Trek: The Next Generation season three cliffhanger episode “The Best of Both Worlds Part 1″. The music behind the scene when Louis returns is the exact cue from the climax of that TNG episode where Picard had been transformed into Locutus of Borg and introduces himself to the Enterprise-D.
Then the music hits its crescendo as Riker makes his decision to fire on Locutus’ Borg Cube, possibly destroying it and killing Picard, when the screen cuts to black and “to be continued…” followed by the executive producer credits fade in and out on the screen, the music pounding away. They did that for yesterday’s episode of Family Guy when Louis appears and reveals that Stewie attempted her murder and Stewie gives her a menacing look and it cuts to black with “to be continued…” followed by Family Guy’s executive producer credits, in the same distinctive, blue titling of TNG series. I turned to the master control operator next to me and said, “I betcha I’m the only guy in the universe who got that reference.”
I’m wondering if that’s true or not. How about you? Did you catch the reference, too?
It’s Halloween: time for the annual office costume party!
I came as Dr. House from the hit FOX TV series. Click on my picture to see the slideshow. Then I went to the Evanescence concert with Gibby, Jesse and his girlfriend (and happened to sit down with Mike Quinn and his wife) at the Dodge Arena. I’m not even a fan, but I liked what I heard. Of courses I sang along with my favorite song from them, “Call Me When You’re Sober”.
Pictured from left: Celia, me, Diana
I’ve finally gotten around to putting our horror short film “The End” online. The film was produced for the CineSol 36 Hour Film Contest where participating teams had to create a ten minute short film with set parameters over a weekend. Eric Salazar, who plays Gabriel in “The End”, won best actor.
Funniest commercial in a while. I mess up the guys at work saying the famous line, just the way Cootie Queen says it. I must know who made this spot. I’ve placed it here for two reasons: 1. to share with the world, 2. personal easy access. But, anyway…here it is:
iPhone users click here to watch the video.
And now, for those of you following along, I will attempt to transcribe and translate the commercial. Here is the script for scientific dissection:
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