Speed Racer
in theatres and imax fri 05.09
the wachowski brothers make a family film a trippy one with new camera focusing tricks, insanely high-def colours and...ninjas
2
The Fall
limited release fri 05.09
from the director of the cell
a visually opulent, fantastical epic about five extraordinary gentlemen who unite to fight the power
shot in 23 countries with a cast of over 1000 people
3
Boom Blox
wii game in stores tue 05.06
steven spielberg makes a video game a modified version of jenga with bigger explosions and realistic physics
4
The Tracey Fragments
limited release fri 05.09
ellen page plays a teenage malcontent whose rage at the world splits the screen up into a dozen or more separate images at once
5
Noise
limited release fri 05.09
from the writer/director of the believer
a diatribe against car alarms in manhattan
[pause]
6
this week's featured song ToToM "1 2 3 4 My Violent Heart"
from the album Bootleg Is Resistance: Vol. I
nine inch nails vs. feist
» download
"Grip Like a Reckoner"
white label
the go! team vs. radiohead
» download
On the drive to work today, I heard "Fly" by Sugar Ray on Star 101.3, and Super Cat's breakdown — the best part of the song — was missing! I guess it was too ethnic for an adult contemporary station.
For a long time, I thought Super Cat and Sugar Ray's DJ were the same guy in the video for "Fly," and his omnipresence amazed me. He's sitting poolside, the camera pans into the pool, and he's in the pool! Whaaa?
I'd include Sugar Ray's DJ among the least essential band members of the 90s, along with the rapper in 311, the dancer in The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, U-God in the Wu-Tang Clan, and the guy who says "you gotta keep 'em separated" when The Offspring perform "Come Out and Play."
The Paper is my new favourite television series. It bucks the conventional wisdom that a show needs likable characters to succeed.
For the uninitiated, The Paper follows Amanda, the editor-in-chief of a high school newspaper, and her editorial staff, who hate her with the passion of the Christ.
I should sympathize with Amanda, but she reminds me of the female EIC of my high school paper, whom, as a member of the editorial staff, I resented and disparaged with fellow editors.
I was [sigh] would-be EIC Alex — without the histrionics, though, and a bitchy gay and silent-but-deadly tagalong encouraging me.
Hello, my name is Jon, and I have a problem respecting authority.
The creator of The O.C., Chuck and Gossip Girl is developing a new X-Men movie that will revolve around a teenager who is attending the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning. [more]
Should be a television series, not a movie. A teen soap set at the Xavier Institute is a legitimately promising idea.
» Why don't computers in movies ever run Windows or Mac OS? Microsoft and Apple aren't exactly reluctant to place products in entertainment properties. If I had the resources, I'd document all the curious operating systems I've seen in movies. In Iron Man, for example, the Dell in Tony Stark's office runs an OS with a Mac OS X-like dock and Vista Flip 3D-like folder viewing.
» I hate when I click on a news headline link and a video opens. Just because you can present news in video form doesn't mean you should.
» The blogosphere contains many strange, miserable people who can't handle watching a movie at a cinema.
» To the homeless woman I passed on University Avenue in Palo Alto: You need to edit down your sign. No one can read a whole paragraph while walking by. Thus, no one will re-consider snubbing you.
» University Avenue is home to an inordinate number of rug stores.
» The Sharks are the Tracy McGrady of hockey.
» As if absurd surcharges aren't enough, Ticketbastard begins selling tickets on weekend mornings.
Why do I think I've seen this Travel Channel special on hamburgers before? [more]
I think everyone's seen that Travel Channel special on hamburgers before.
» This weekend, I discovered that I cannot sleep on couches anymore. After sleeping regularly on a tatami, a couch wreaked absolute havoc on my back.
» Opposite the couch was an unopened Monopoly box that promoted the inclusion of a "speed die," so the game can bore you faster.
I also devoured Entertainment Weekly's summer movie preview issue.
Notes:
» The actual previews continue to shrink. I remember when "also playing"-type flicks received half a page.
» Layout totally phoned in the design for this year's summer preview.
» UN Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie on Wanted: "Now that I'm holding this shotgun, my little boys are going to think I'm so cool when they're 11."
» My interest in WALL•E plummeted after learning that it's almost dialogue-free.
» I'm not sure that Hancock is an improvement over its working title, Tonight, He Comes.
» Director Rob Cohen on The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor: "Ever since I converted to Buddhism and made Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, I've wanted to make a movie about China."
» "Kevin Costner is a layabout who choice will decide the presidential election in Swing Vote." Better/worse than the Supreme Court?
With his WWE contract about to expire, Jonathan Coachman was hired for an anchor position at ESPN. [more]
Coachman's attempt to blow up a midget backfires
Hey, Rich Eisen was a stand-up comedian before ESPN hired him.
The eateries around my office all tune their televisions to CNN during my lunch hour, so I see a lot of The Situation Room, and every day, Wolf Blitzer wheels out Donna Brazile and a mystery Republican for a chat.
Donna Brazile is useless. Go finish second in a horse race! I'm trying to eat!