What was the last movie you've seen?

[MrPopo]

I agree that's the usual case. But Smith has roots in the independent film scene; Clerks was done for $25,000. He certainly has the means to make his own movie if he really really wants to.

[Ack]

MoA has 40 escalators. You know where i'm going.

There's not a year that goes by, not a year, that I don't read about some escalator accident involving some bastard kid which could have easily been avoided had some parent--I don't care which one--but some parent conditioned him to fear and respect that escalator!

[noiseredux]

MoA has 40 escalators. You know where i'm going.

There's not a year that goes by, not a year, that I don't read about some escalator accident involving some bastard kid which could have easily been avoided had some parent--I don't care which one--but some parent conditioned him to fear and respect that escalator!

Well done.

[Luke]

Doesn't Kevin Smith have enough money at this point to just say "Fuck it, I want to make whatever the hell I want"?

Kevin pimped out his own wife...and enjoyed it. You ask the guy what is job is and he'll tell strangers, the press, and his best friends the same "I"m a media whore". The guy has a thirst for depravity and lechery. Doesn't make him evil, but it is who he is.

And he is balls out crazy honest as when he tells jokes, he's isn't joking. He's not trying to get a laugh when he says "Sure I'd take a dick in the ass if it means my movie will get distributed"...he would take a dick in his ass to make that happen.

Totally a Take it or Leave It type of guy, and if you don't agree with him, fine. Fuck knows I wouldn't some stranger sticking his fingers up my wife, but at least Kevin gives it to you straight. "Sure, finger my wife". He doesn't care, his wife doesn't care, whatever it takes to make scratch.

Back on to movies...

Wednesday will be "Meetin' with Keaton" Night. BATMAN, MR.MOM, BEETLEJUICE, GUNG-HO, and BIRDMAN will be playing in different rooms of my house, with different foods to go along with the movies. I'll probably throw together a few Keaton themed games (feel free to shoot out suggestions) as well as Keaton themed foods.

[SirGawain]

Wednesday will be "Meetin' with Keaton" Night. BATMAN, MR.MOM, BEETLEJUICE, GUNG-HO, and BIRDMAN will be playing in different rooms of my house, with different foods to go along with the movies. I'll probably throw together a few Keaton themed games (feel free to shoot out suggestions) as well as Keaton themed foods.

Could have people only speak in TLC quotes, a la The Other Guys. Might be pretty funny

[Luke]

Could have people only speak in TLC quotes, a la The Other Guys. Might be pretty funny

Good idea.

I'm also thinking about making the rules of "Can't talk, just wink, smile, or nod". Keaton has those moves down.

[dsheinem]

I saw Run All Night today. It was exactly what you'd expect, which was exactly what I was expecting. So for that, it is good.

[Gunstar Green]

MoA has 40 escalators. You know where i'm going.

There's not a year that goes by, not a year, that I don't read about some escalator accident involving some bastard kid which could have easily been avoided had some parent--I don't care which one--but some parent conditioned him to fear and respect that escalator!

As a kid I saw Rescue 911 or some knock-off show where a kid got horribly maimed by an escalator and it traumatized me into being insanely cautious while using them.

Until I became a dumb teenager then I just started fucking around on them.

[Pulsar_t]

Hickey and Boggs

A solid buddy-cop film from the seventies. It was a less stressful epoch.

[Ack]

I've wanted to watch Hickey and Boggs for years.



Ruggles of Red Gap

This is the second movie based on the 1915 novel by Harry Leon Wilson. And it is quite ridiculous. Basically an American couple from Red Gap, Washington, win a British butler in a game of Poker. The wife prefers to keep Ruggles as just a butler, but the husband has this weird notion that people are equal and therefore treats Ruggles that way. Eventually Ruggles comes to agree with this and sets up a life for himself in Red Gap, all while getting up to serious misunderstandings and hijinks. It is all around good fun, even if at times it is a little odd.

So what's odd about it? Well, apparently all Americans are extremely stereotypical Texans, no matter where they are from, unless they are from Boston. If they're from Boston, they're stuck up assholes. But everyone else in America? From Texas. And all people are created equal...except the one Chinese guy who opened a Chinese restaurant and was gunned down in the street for it apparently. The movie is a product of its time, and Ruggles sees the best of America while occasionally hearing about the worst(for instance, he comments that America is the land of "slavery" early on). There is also a moment of humorous ignorance that the Americans have towards their own history which leads into the most powerful moment of the film, which brings me to the most interesting cultural highlight of the film...

...this movie is partly responsible for why the Gettysburg Address is now so very popular within the American psyche. At a pivotal moment in the film, when all of the Americans in the bar realize they don't know the Address, Ruggles reveals he has memorized it while studying American history and then rises and performs it. The actor who played Ruggles, Charles Laughton, was apparently so moved by the words contained therein that it took him a day and a half to finish the scene because he kept openly weeping whenever he would recite it. Laughton incorporated the Address into his stage performances and performed it for audio recordings and on radio.

The end result of this strange fusion is perhaps a movie purely about America, at times vapid and insipid, often lowbrow and low class, but yet still heartwarming and inspiring for just what a single man of any position in life can accomplish once he realizes that his value is the same as every other man's, regardless of birth or station.