Movies I’m Looking Forward To

I haven’t been able to write a post for awhile now. I apologize. I’ve been quite busy with alot of things. Constant rehearsals, shows, and work have really been taking over my time, and at the end of the month, school will take up the remainder. I’m hoping that I’ll still be able to update somewhat frequently, but that will all depend.

Anyway, recently I drove up to Phoenix with some friends of mine to experience “The Dark Knight” on an IMAX screen. Needless to say, it was pretty damn awesome. A few pictures of this trip can be found on my Picasa page: http://picasaweb.google.com/wherethehellistaylor

So, in the spirit of movies (since there is a lack of good ones out right now). He’s the Top 5 movies that I want to see, definitely in NO PARTICULAR ORDER:

1. The Road (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0898367/)
Starring: Viggo Mortenson, Charlize Theron, Robert Duvall
Director: John Hillcoat

Adapted, of course, by the novel by Cormac McCarthy, I cannot wait for this film to come out November 26 this year. There’s no trailer yet for this film, but I’m hoping one comes out soon. I’m really worried about them ruining the book, though.

2. Killing Pablo (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0284236/)
Starring: Christian Bale, Javier Bardem(?), Chris Pine
Director: Joe Carnahan

This movie is going to be based off of the book by Matt Bowden (one of his other popular books that was turned into a movie was “Black Hawk Down”). It’s about the life of Pablo Escabar, one of the world’s most notorious drug bosses in history. He was a huge Colombian cocaine kingpin. Now, yesterday, when I saw this, it had Javier Bardem (from “No Country For Old Men”) cast to play Pablo Escabar. When I looked today, that credit was removed and Chris Pine was magically on there with no credit. The casting of Bardem confused me though, because Escabar was a very short, fat guy. Bardem is most definitely not. Needless to say, the book was amazing, and I’m looking forward to the movie all the same.

3. Terminator Salvation (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0438488/)
Starring: Christian Bale, Anton Yelchin, Moon Bloodgood
Director: McG (I’m not making this up. He’s director alot of TV, including “Supernatural”, “The OC”, and “Chuck”)
Trailer: http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/terminatorsalvation/

I haven’t been a HUGE fan of the new Terminator movies, but this one looks pretty awesome. I’ve also been a growing fan of Christian Bale. I wasn’t a huge fan of him, but I’ve grown to like his very subtle style (one of the reasons I first disliked him). I love apocalyptic shit, so I think that’s why I’m drawn to this movie (as well as “The Road”). Thanks to Hudson for giving me the trailer. I saw it in “The Dark Knight”, but it was good to see it in HD.

4. Watchmen (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0409459/)
Starring: Malin Akerman, Carla Gugino, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Billy Crudup
Director: Zack Snyder
Trailer: http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/watchmen/

Based off of a graphic novel/comic book (yet again, another comic book that I want to see a movie of). I have no idea what this shit is about, but it looks really visually awesome. I’m thinking about reading the comics/graphic novel just so I know what’s going on, but I like Snyder alot in terms of his visual direction.

5. High School Musical 3: Senior Year

5. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2

Well, I guess there’s only FOUR movies that I’m looking forward to right now, and that I’ve discovered. Feel free to leave some comments on movies that you think I’d like that maybe I haven’t found out about yet. Anyway, that’s more than enough of an update for now.

J.A.C.K. Web Series

I find it funny how I get into these kicks between film and theatre. I love both, and I’d like to do both, but sometimes one trumps the other for a couple months. Anyway, a couple months ago, Jacob and I were talking about doing several different web series. One of them was “J.A.C.K.” which was about an “anti-mafia mafia.”

So last night I went out and filmed a “minisode” for the web series. We filmed from 9 PM – 3 AM and then I edited all day today. I’m pretty proud of the finished product (of which I directed, did the cinematography, and edited). The only thing I’m upset about is the audio. At times it spiked and it’s not very good quality in general. I really need to get a proper shotgun mic.

Anyway, I uploaded the video to Stage6 (a DiVX company that lets you upload pretty high quality videos). It does require a small download (the web player), but it’s well worth it to watch good high quality videos.

Join my audience for the series (sign up at Stage6 and click the ‘Join’ button to the right in the channel): http://www.stage6.com/JACK-The-Series

Watch the minisode here: http://www.stage6.com/JACK-The-Series/video/2026188/Minisode-1:-First-Time-Together-Again

No Country For Old Men

 

Well, I just got back from seeing No Country For Old Men. I wanted to see it because I have always enjoyed every Coen brothers movie. This was definitely not a typical Coen brothers movie though. I did enjoy it alot, and I recommend that all of you go out and see it immediately. The way the movie ends was very much a Coen brothers film, and alot of people just said “What the fuck?” “Ooook.” after the movie…then again, I’m in Tucson; people’s taste in films here only rise up to Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story so it doesn’t say much.

Here’s a synopsis of the film:

Violence and mayhem ensue after a hunter stumbles upon some dead bodies, a stash of heroin and more than $2 million in cash near the Rio Grande.

I’m currently reading The Road by Cormac McCarthy and I might just have to pick up No Country For Old Men after I’m through with it. From what I’ve heard, they stuck pretty close to the book with this movie.

This was the first time in awhile that I went to a movie by myself. It was actually a pretty enjoyable experience. I was really able to concentrate on the movie and on the aspects of filmmaking. The only gripe was that this one guy behind me started commentating the film to his girlfriend for the first 15 minutes of the movie. I was about ready to get up and move when he finally stopped. I don’t understand what possesses people to start saying exactly what everyone is fucking seeing on the screen. I don’t get it…

Anyway, go see the movie, you won’t be disappointed…

Superbad! (also Clark and Michael)

Well, I just got back from seeing Superbad after wanting to give it a chance when I first saw the commercials. The main reason I wanted to see it was because Michael Cera (Arrested Development) is one of the stars and I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve seen him in. And I was actually happy to see little moments within this movie that were completely “George Michael Bluth” from Michael Cera.

The humor is definitely not high brow, and if you have even an ounce of class, you probably won’t enjoy this film. The movie is chalk full of penis, vagina, and sex jokes as well as outrageous hybrids of curse words like “cock fuck” and the like. The script was written in a way to make the entire movie seem like a conversation, which brought it down to Earth and made it seem very real.

The best part of the film, by far, are the two cops. Played by Bill Hader and Seth Rogan, it was most definitely the best characters and most hilarious scenes. Included in these scenes is the hilarious Fogell/McLovin (Christopher Mintz-Plasse).

At two hours, it’s fairly long for a comedy, and the third act seemed to drag on a bit. Luckily, there was enough momentum to keep things moving, and I was happy all the way through. I really went into this movie with low expectations and was pleasantly surprised by the end of the movie. However, a word to the wise: the movie is quotable enough that you can guarantee the Internet will run it into the ground faster than you can say “vote for Pedro”, so for the love of God see it early. If you don’t get sick of the jokes before even walking in the theatre, I’m confident to say you’ll love it.

My friends and I sat in the theater during the credits and just kept quoting different parts of the film. I would say that if you like my sense of humor, you will definitely like this film.

Also, I just want to say that if you liked Superbad, or Arrested Development, you should check out the 10 episode web series called Clark & Michael (introduced to me by my friend/nemesis Dom in New York). It stars Michael Cera and Clark Duke (who actually make an appearance and a line in Superbad as Party Teenage #1) and is a mockumentary about two clueless writers trying to make it in LA. It’s only 10 episodes long and each episode is only 10-12 minutes long. I would recommend to invest a night to watch them all.

Anyway, that is all for now. Feel free to leave Superbad quotes in the comments.