March 2008

Run, Fatboy, Run

by Eric Melin on March 27, 2008

in Uncategorized

David Schwimmer directs a barely above average romantic comedy with a very funny leading man, Simon Pegg, who also tidied up the script.

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Stop-Loss

by Eric Melin on March 27, 2008

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Kimberly Peirce’s Iraq war drama follows in the footsteps of “coming home” war movies, and asks some tough questions about the definition of duty.

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Perhaps it’s suitable that MTV films has partnered with Paramount to bring us the story of U.S. soldiers who return home from the current war in Iraq and are very changed people. After all, it is the young generation that’s doing their duty; being sent to fight in that uneasy, messy conflict. (Earlier this week, […]

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You’ve had a week to mull over Eric’s “Director’s Cut” picks for “Top 10 Movies that Prove the Future Will Suck” so, now its my turn to dust off my previous list and make a few adjustments. Since Eric excluded the marvelous “Children of Men” from his updated list, I have also omitted it from […]

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Eric and J.D. review the Judd Apatow-produced, Seth Rogen/John Hughes-written comedy “Drillbit Taylor,” starring Owen Wilson and three kids who stepped out of a “Superbad” time machine three years earlier. Find out why movie studios release movies like this one, directed by Steven Brill (“Without a Paddle,” “Mr. Deeds”), in March. Eric’s print review is […]

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It’s common knowledge that Judd Apatow and his merry band of improv comedians have helped to make movies like “Knocked Up” and “Superbad” way better than your average batch of raunchy comedies while simultaneously seeming more authentic. When Seth Rogen and his friends get in a room together to do improvise the hell out of […]

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Drillbit Taylor

by Eric Melin on March 20, 2008

in Uncategorized

It may be produced by Judd Apatow and co-written by Seth Rogen, but this DOA PG-13 “Superbad” was directed by the guy whose last two movies were “Without a Paddle” and “Mr. Deeds.”

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Alfonso Cuaron’s masterful “Children of Men,” the best film of 2006, takes place in a not-too-distant future where women are unable to give birth and the planet is dying out. It’s a metaphor for the way things are going today. Everybody is so excited to look into the future, but if art is truly a […]

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My third day at South by Southwest 2008 was a busy one. I was wandering in and out of panels all day. The Jeffrey Tambor acting workshop on how to properly direct actors was more than just a chance for the “Arrested Development” star to show how funny he is in real life, it actually […]

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When you wake suddenly from a dream about Doc Brown and Libyan terrorists who drive around in a VW bus to a loud, static-masked radio station at 7:30 am, you know it’s going to be a long day. (Confused? Read yesterday’s SXSW blog here.) A couple cups of coffee and one continental buffet breakfast later, […]

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I’ve only been away from Austin, TX now for 24 hours, and I’ve got a huge hangover—not from drinking (although I did my fare share), but because the work at my job that didn’t get done while I was gone is piling up around me and threatening to bury me. There’s something liberating about listening […]

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Across much of the United States it has long since begun to feel like the winter that wouldn’t end. Right here in Lawrence, KS, the snow, ice and unforgiving temperature just keep coming. I’m desperate for a thaw, and in lue of a magic weather machine, I’ve decided to bust out a list of ten […]

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10,000 B.C.

by Eric Melin on March 7, 2008

in Uncategorized

A suberbly-realistic version of what is was like to be alive in the year 10,000 B.C. may be found on the Discovery Channel. This movie is “Braveheart” with mammoths.

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If Graham Chapman from Monty Python were still alive, he’d be liable to walk into any theater showing this movie and stop the projector at will because it is getting far too silly.

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I’ve always been worried about whether this could even be made into a 2-hour movie, and I’ve expressed plenty of concern about the man in charge, but from the looks of things, the visual sense will be absolutely top-notch. On the official “Watchmen” website,  director Zack Snyder (“300”) has posted the first pictures of five major characters from the movie […]

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