When good directors go bad

Although it is unfair to blame only the director when they're responsible for cinematic doodoo, it is the "getting back up after falling down" -Batman's Dad

that is most interesting to see.  In each of the following cases, the director embraced their misstep and then moved on to make more greatness.  I would have included John McTiernan, the guy made Die Hard and Predator, but after Last Action Zero he fell off the trolley completely...  his paper wings burned in the hot sun.

Danny Boyle - Sunshine

Although a critical and commercial failure, Sunshine was at least an ambitious endeavor.  Hard sci-fi all around here: spaceship crew flying a bomb into our dying sun. 

Unfortunately, the story falls apart and things get formulaic once the really sunburnt, disgruntled captain shows up to start causing a fracas.  Kind of like Jason X, in the movie Jason X.

Boyle bounced back after with Slumdog Millanaire and 127 Hours, both decent enough pictures that don't hold a candle to his master-work, "The Beach", which should have won the Oscar for Best Use of Moby.  

You are absolutely...wrrright!

Darren Aronofsky - The Fountain

He should have never made this movie/grown that beard

The Fountain is a polarizing movie, in that some find it to be pretentious shite, while others, like myself enjoy the effort and find it to be simply"meh".

Bum-to-Bum scene from Requiem. 

After Requiem for a Dream, Aronofsky was cursed by the teeming wannabe filmmakers who love to see a fall from grace.  His jewiness seemed to get in the way of his brilliance, but the guy has got undeniable talent.  The Wrestler and Black Swan have taken my semi to almost fully erect, and I only have high expectations of what he will bring next.  

The funny thing is that there have been countless TV shows, trailers, and even other films that recycle the score from both Sunshine and The Fountain.  Thinking there is probably "Oh, no need to come up with original music, just re-use the score from that piece-of-shit movie no one saw anyways.."

Well, guess what Hollywood, I'm the dork that knows what you're doing.  And I disapprove.

Next time: Ridley Scott and Kathryn Bigelow, both have taken a dip in the poo-poo fountain.

Josef Müller-Brockman. No relation to Kent Brockman

Josef Müller-Brockman poster design is like sex for the eyes. Except there's no guilty feelings or toweling up after.
Check out more of his priceless works here. You can't even buy prints of most of these so they actually are priceless. Weaksauce.

Rob Bottin: Manolith

Rob Bottin is responsible for some of the gnarliest shit that human eyes have had the pleasure of gazing upon.
Only a man of this epic size and with hair of that scale could leave such a masterful legacy in his man-wake.
So take a journey with me, and we'll see how a bright-eyed, bushy-haired 14-year-old on the Cantina set of Star Wars as Stan Winston's apprentice, became the man who made Quato.

At 20 he was making the creature effects for the Thing and causing underwear to be shitted the world over.   Credit may be due to "master" John Carpenter, however this movie is scary because the monsters in it are fucking terrifying, even to this day.  No CG in this bitch, just fake skin and blood and snot, like it should be.  More of Bottin and his technique here

He then designed the titular suit for Paul Verhoeven's masterpiece Robocop. The suit is undeniably one of the coolest things ever designed for film.  It made Peter Weller even cooler than he actually is, and that is quite an accomplishment.  

Paul Verhoeven and Rob Bottin made a walking robot man convincing, which to me, is more impressive than Jesus' resurrection... the actual Jesus.  Verhoovs went on to create some of the finer motion pictures, some weren't so hot, but that new one 'The Black Book' or Schwvartz-book! is quite entertaining.

Total Recall also had Bottin involved with the make-up FX, creating such classics as:

Two Weeks lady

Cohagen these people need air

Quato: Open your miiiiinnnnddddd

Bottin hasn't worked on much since then, and has vanished into the woods like the humble, sasquatch-like hero that he is.  Perhaps he'll return after the VFX renaissance, when nerd's talents will be used for practical purposes and not to make lame-ass CG caca. 

He actually worked on Fight Club makeup FX as well, and gave us a failed attempt at Ed Norton shooting himself in the face, and most notably Bob's beauties...

Æon Flux was great... I just wanted to write Æ actually

There was lots of cool shit about Aeon Flux; interesting concepts and storylines that unfortunately Hollywood tainted forever with it's aborted fetus of a film adaptation.
Peter Chung, the creator and animator was responsible for these awesome shorts which preceded the MTV series, which was OK but didn't have the scope of his earlier stuff.


Sexy.  I thought it was cool how every shot in this is only two seconds long.


She dies in each one of these shorts, like Kenny

The opening to the series is also badass, in a "Yeah, I can catch a fly with my eyelashes, you wanna fight about it?" kind of way



Peter Chung also did the intro for the cartoon C.O.P.S. which was a pretty dope show for it's time.. remember when Bezerko overdosed? That was crazy.  I also had a Buttons McBoom-Boom toy growing up.

TV commercials sometimes don't suck

In this age of hi-speed whozits and wireless hoo-ha's, it's getting harder and harder to get people to watch TV commercials.  I dreamt of a day when I would be able to fast-forward commercials, and now that it's here, I yearn for the marketing rape that used to round out the live TV experience so well...

Every now and then a commercial spot comes along that transcends the internet/TV divide.  You witness these and your ass is glued for 30 seconds.
Here is one for New York Pizza, keeping in mind this is from Europe, where they don't have MPAA censorship from whining pussies crying in their momma's pillows whenever they hear the fuck word or see a woman's nipple.



Canadian ads aren't so bad, and in between 'A Part of Our Heritage' spot and a commercial for Molson Ex, there might be a little gem...
I liked this Globe and Mail spot because its effective and non-threatening like other newspaper commercials.  Just makes you want to read a copy of the Globe, drink some chai tea and watch the squirrels.



I've always liked this spot for British Airways... it feels epic with that music playing and it has that great airplane whooshing sound at the end of it.  All good ads have that sound at the end.



One day there won't be any more ads as we know them, and they will be embedded into the shows and movies themselves.  All I know is the most effective marketing for Diet Coke was having George drink one on Seinfeld when he eats the spicy kung pao chicken.  Whenever the spicy is too much I reach for the Diet Coke.  George likes his chicken spicy.

See below: another classic example

The Walking Dead titles are gnarly

Cool show that I thought started with a lot of promise.  The Zombie Apocalypse is a story backdrop that has been soiled and used-up like one of those gross public bathroom towel-loop hand dryers.  

Being original in this category is a tall-order, so I was impressed with the believability of the first few shows.  Unfortunately there's too much crying and mexican stand-offs to make this a truly "Must-watch" (in zombie voice) TV show.  Kudos to AMC for bringing another risqué program to the masses, Walking Dead for it's for brutal gore and Mad Men for Don Draper's womanizing.

Take a look at Daniel Kanemoto's fan-made title sequence from the site Art of the Title Sequence

Really cool animation and breakdown.  His entire portfolio can be found here

The actual main titles used in the show are also well done.  They blend in stealthily and move at a swift pace.  Which is how you would have to behave if you lived in a zombie world.

Some sequences in Walking Dead made me think of World War Z, an awesome book that hopefully will translate well to the big-screen.  I highly recommend reading this little ditty...

Lets talk about sex

oops, hit me, ooh ooh ooh hey, uh huh, oh, come on
Just listening to that famous loop got me thinking about the good things in life.  For me, they include anything related to film, design, (f)arts, and the entertainment bizznass.  My life has been a tireless search for nuggets of knowledge pertaining to these areas of interest, and my mission is to create a one-stop shop.
A place where you could get a king can of your favorite wine, thaw some Pogos from the freezer and just kick back and enjoy.

And here is when that guy in Commando gets impaled by a pipe.  Just because.