Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Exit Through the Gift Shop



Oh Banksy, you lovable rapscallion you.
i went into this movie only knowing that it was a documentary Banksy made about a guy trying to make a documentary about Banksy.
Hilarity ensues.
While i had heard of most of the street artists featured in this, i never had heard of the focus of the movie, Mr. Brainwash.
Basically, he's an eccentric French man that never went anywhere without his camera, and by chance he stumbles into the world of street art and managed to film some amazing things.
He meets and records various artists around the world, and eventually meets the elusive Banksy, and Banky lets him into his world.
It's hilarious because this goofy French guy is in a world of his own, someone comments that they're not sure if he's retarded or not. This is exemplified in a scene where Banksy shows him the Princess Diana money he made, and explains how he never did anything with it because he didn't want to be accused of counterfeiting. After explaining that, the Frenchman asks "Did you make these?"
Once Banksy realizes this guy is nuts, he encourages MBW to go do some art of his own, and to let him have all the footage he's recorded over the years.
After this, the birth of Mr. Brainwash happens, and he hires artists to make his art for him and has a huge art show, and makes ridiculous amounts of money on his factory made art.
And it all comes down to the title of the movie, the marriage of consumerism and art.
It's a great movie in that it shows a lot of footage of street art being made, and that it introduces the world to this crazy little French man.

"I used to encourage everyone I knew to make art; I don't do that so much anymore." - Banksy


five out of five

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Consoul



This is really neat.
Basically it's the life (and then the re-life) of some random guy.
Pain, suffering, loss, and monotony.
All in awesome 8-bit form!
And it's done so well, i love the little touches, like the guy his wife was cheating on driving over his bike. Brilliant moment.
And there's something truly awe inspiring when he dies, it's like playing Mario in a nightmare, and it gives me a true sense of death, which is odd.
The rocker re-life is kind of amusing, of course it's obvious how it was going to end, but the Trainspotting reference was fun.
It's a great watch, and the music is superb.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Mystery Inc.


Everyone loves Scooby-Doo, well everyone with a soul anyway.
There's something charming about the cheap animation, lame laughtrack and goofy montages.
The series hasn't always been great though. After a time they tried to fresh it up, make it more exciting, and everything that was Scooby-Doo suffered.

And no, i'm actually not talking about Scrappy-D00, as annoying as he may be, Scooby-Doo was pretty much the same with him around.
i'm putting the blame on someone much more sinister than Scrappy, that's right, it could only be...

Vincent Van Ghoul!

At some point in the 1980's they came up with the novel idea of having Scooby, and (part) of his gang face off against real paranormal creatures, and thus the 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo was born.
Even with Vincent Price doing a voice, this cartoon was mostly forgettable, it did however start a horrible trend that continued for far too long, namely having the creatures turning out to be, actual creatures.

Think about, the horrible TV movies like Ghoul School, or the one where Shaggy turns into a werewolf to race, and this continues until the Zombie Island movie, and beyond.

i give the first live action movie a pass because well, not only was it hilarious, having Scrappy being behind it all was the greatest twist ever.
Even if they did end up cutting the best scene of the movie:



The second movie however, gets no such pass.

There was another show a few years back, that tried to recapture the original series, and mostly it failed, i watched a few episodes and i can't even remember what happened, all i remember is it tried to hard to be campy, 70's camp isn't the same as 00's camp.
Then there was a really juvenile live-action movie, you can be family friendly without making bad jokes, that's all i have to say.

But now, in the amazing year of the future 2010, we have Scooby-Doo: Mystery Incorporated



And my god, is it amazing. i never thought there'd be a new Scooby-Doo cartoon this amazing.
Just look at this:


They're actually disliked for solving the crimes because the town gets tourism due to all these crazy people in costumes. So many other great touches though, having Fred being an oblivious oaf that's obsessed with making Rube Goldberg traps, Shaggy and Velma being in a relationship, having real action scenes topped with jokes and gags that are actually really clever.
The only disappointing thing is that Shaggy and Scoob are no longer vegetarians, so much for being two groovy peas in a far-out pod.

And then there's the voice actors:
Frank Welker as Fred Jones and Scooby-Doo
Matthew Lillard as Norvelle Rogers
Casey Kasem as Colton Rogers (Shaggy's father)
Patrick Warburton as Sheriff Bronson Stone
Vivica A. Fox as Angel Dynamite

There have even been cameos by John DiMaggio and Billy West

Oh, and also worth mentioning:

Lewis Black as Mr. E

Mr. E keeps sending the kids clues, in a mystery that's spanning the entire season, very exciting stuff.
The real mystery is how Lewis Black got involved, i'm not going to question it though, as it is awesome.

So yes, Mondays on Cartoon Network, i except all of you with a soul to be there.

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Zombieland



Hey! You got coming of age romance in my zombie movie....
In the first few minutes of this movies, i was afraid it was going to be painfully stupid, but after the rocky start, it went into an excellent and violent intro (almost as good as the intro in JCVD), and everything was good to go when Harrelson's character came into the picture.
There's honestly not too much to say about this movie, it's funny, dark, gory, and has a few cute moments, like Little Rock explaining Hannah Montana to Tallahassee. i also really loved that touch, that they went by location instead of name.
And the Bill Murray cameo was by far one of the greatest random cameos ever.
i actually finally decided to sit down and watch this movie, because i read an interview with Bill Murray that mentioned the line about him regretting Garfield.
He claimed the only reason he agreed to Garfield it because he thought the Joel Cohen that wrote it was the Joel of the Coen bros.
Odd as it doesn't explain the sequel, but that's Bill Murray for you.
Bottom line, the movie is an enjoyable teen romance with zombies.
Watch it if you haven't.

four out of five

Minecraft: the Movie



Yes, another post 'bout Minecraft.
Well mostly i'm just giddy because Notch posted this on his blog.

This video is triumph to coincidence and serendipity, i was recording because i was about to fuck another mountain, and instead, well, i got hugged by a creeper.
The great coincidence, is when i was trying to think of fitting music, i remembered that the wonderful Minecraft song had a line about opening the door and the creeper exploding.
Since i wasn't recording sound, that creeper exploding is in the song, and it syncs up perfectly.

i'm glad the video is bringing other miners joy, i laughed for a good five minutes after it happened.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

y? 'cause i gotta!



And here we are, y. And i, er, uh. What?
Nah, it's a neat song, and i love the tin foil knight. Unless i missed something though, it seems the "like hell" song never happened.
So perhaps they're going to go past the six lettered songs.
Technically, i supposed they already have since u was split in two.

bounty –noun
1. a premium or reward.
2. generosity in giving.


i do feel i have received something special.
There is a chance this is just more of the puzzle, and the true bounty is yet to be.
So we wait, we wait, because goddamn this is awesome.

Sunday, August 1, 2010

In the year 2010


Where are the malfunctioning robots? The Soy Pop vending machines?
The new airplanes, the Jetson sounding cars, the cure for seventeen stab wounds to the back?
i mean, i guess there are video phones, but they barely work.
Why must cartoons lie to me.

Well good thing i can go kill myself in the suicide booth that was installed two years ago.
Oh...
reality bites.