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12 Aug 16:08

Here’s an infographic of the most “badass” fictional weaponsThe...













Here’s an infographic of the most “badass” fictional weapons

The folks over at the British costume supplier MorphCostumes are back with an infographic that breaks down the expansive world of fictional weapons. The chart ranks 30 iconic film and TV weapons, noting their strengths, weaknesses, and overall “badass score.”

More at avclub.com

06 Aug 15:24

Every NFL mascot ranked in order of creepinessCheck out the full...

30 Jul 16:52

18 Cool Things You Didn't Know You Could Do with Google

by John Farrier

Go to Google and type in two foods with "vs" in between them. You'll see a nutritional comparison. 

And that's only the beginning! I learned a lot from reading this BuzzFeed article describing 18 things you can do with Google. For example, you can draw by hand Japanese and Chinese characters and have them transliterated and then translated into English. You can also build with LEGO and calculate tips.

30 Jul 16:29

A Tumblr Created To Help 50 Cent Recover From Bankruptcy

by Zeon Santos

(Image Link)

It’s hard to imagine 50 Cent being bankrupt, what with all the mansions he lives in, expensive vehicles he drives, and hundred dollar bottles of champagne he has been pouring out for over a decade. Oh, now I see it.

Bankruptcy was clearly in Fiddy's future from the very beginning, but when the big B came crashing down around his head Mr. Cent was shook up, and he didn't know where to turn.

Lucky for him, a few of his loyal fans have created the Tumblr site Make 50 Cent Rich Again, where visitors can click a link and play the track "Piggy Bank" on Spotify, thereby earning 50 a cool $0.0011 per listen.

So far the site has earned Fiddy nearly $14.00, which, if nothing else, is about halfway to a decent dinner!

-Via Hollywoodlife

30 Jul 15:59

Gulliver’s Park in the Turia Riverbed

by Miss Cellania

(Image credit: Google Maps)

The enduring image of the story Gulliver’s Travels is Gulliver tied down while tiny Lilliputians walk over his body. The scene is recreated well at Gulliver’s Park in Valencia, Spain. An enormous likeness of Gulliver serves as a playground for children, who climb over him just like in the book (or movie).

The Gulliver Park is probably the most inspired playground I’ve ever seen. Valencia’s Fallas artists have created a giant replica of Jonathan Swift’s hero in the Turia Riverbed, sprawled out on the ground and bound by ropes. The body is cleverly designed, with Gulliver’s hair and jacket serving as slides, folds in his sleeves and pants becoming stairs, and the ropes which trap him knotted for climbing.

(Image credit: Mike Powell and Juergen Horn)

Mike Powell and Juergen Horn got to see the park up close, and have plenty of photographs so you can get up close to this magnificent sculpture and see how much fun it is for kids.  

29 Jul 20:10

48 Amazing Facts For Those Who Love Facts

by Zeon Santos

Are you a factoid fiend? A lover of bite sized nuggets of information for your brain to chew on? Do you enjoy dropping factoid bombs on people at parties and thereby blowing their minds?

Then you’ve gotta check out 48 Amazing Facts from mental_floss on Instagram, it’s like a bowl full of crunchy factoid cereal and goes great with milk!

So you can fill your hungry mind up for free with facts that will wow people with their factualness, like this tasty true crime tidbit.

As per mental_floss usual, the facts are a fun blend of very interesting, very geeky and very fun to read, so take the plunge and be sure to follow their Instagram account after you’ve had your fill of the factoid fun!

Read 48 Amazing Facts From the mental_floss Instagram account here

29 Jul 19:50

Every Suicide Squad Member's Story of Origin

by Lisa Marcus


YouTube Link

This video by ThingsAndStuff gives the comic backstories of every Suicide Squad member in under five minutes. Just the primer for anyone who is interested in seeing the upcoming film yet has not read the DC comics upon which it is based. Via Design Taxi

29 Jul 18:59

Magicians Photobomb Reporter, Give Performance

by John Farrier


(Video Link)

Ashish Joshi, a Sky News reporter, stands before the Palace at Westminster in London and gives a report on Prime Minister David Cameron's proposed reforms of the UK's National Health Service. In the background, two professional magicians named Young & Strange move into the camera view and perform an elaborate trick.

Sky News has confirmed that the entire incident was staged and that the video never actually aired, which is a shame. They should have done this live.

-via 22 Words

29 Jul 18:04

Airbnb Lets You Stay in a Van down by the River

by John Farrier

In a classic Saturday Night Live sketch, Chris Farley plays Matt Foley, a motivational speaker who is basically a failure in life. By his own admission, he qualifies because he's 35, divorced, and lives in a van down by the river. He threatens wayward teens that if they don't get their lives turned around, they'll end up like him, living in a van down by the river.


(Photo: Airbnb)

Now you can live that way, too! Airbnb renter Jonathan has converted a few vans in New York City into little campers. They're parked as normal vehicles, so visitors can get the full experience of urban van-dwelling life. $35 per night can get you a bed that sleeps 2 near New York's scenic East River.

-via Jalopnik

29 Jul 17:07

Haka for a Teacher

by Miss Cellania

(YouTube link)

Dawson Tamatea taught at Palmerston North Boys' High School in New Zealand for almost thirty years. One of the things he taught students was a haka.

Tamatea died unexpectedly July 19 at the age of 55. Students got together to do the haka that he taught them as a tribute when Tamatea’s hearse arrived for the funeral service. They were joined by former students. A lot of them. It was a fitting tribute to a much-loved teacher. -via reddit

29 Jul 16:23

Ridiculous Celebrities Who Are Secretly Money Making Masterminds

by Zeon Santos

Celebrities who have adopted a goofy professional persona, or those who became famous for ridiculous reasons, are hard to take seriously.

And yet they’ve achieved far more monetary success than most of us can even dream about in our less than famous lives, so they’ve gotta be on to something!

Take Carrot Top, for example- goofy prop comic and burly body builder combined into one mighty peculiar package has earned over $75 million dollars performing in front of around 100,000 people a year in Las Vegas.

How ya like ol’ Carrot Top now?

Read 6 Stupid Celebrities Who Are Secretly Business Geniuses at Cracked (contains NSFW language)

29 Jul 15:10

Paramount Is Making A College Football Comedy Written By Two Guys From ‘Veep’

by Penn Collins

As college football season approaches, we’ve got news that two of the many funny actors from HBO’s Veep, Timothy Simons and Matt Walsh, have gotten their football script Red Shirt picked up.

There’s no plot synopsis yet for Red Shirt, which is a term for college football players who are taking season off due to injury or any other reason. Presumably, a redshirted college football player would have even MORE time on their hands than a regular college football player, which is a pretty scary proposition.

Fortunately, the duo will be returning to Veep, which generally kicks off in April.

Simons has a number of other projects coming up in the next year, including Goosebumps, Gold, Michelle Darnell, and Christine.

(THR)

The post Paramount Is Making A College Football Comedy Written By Two Guys From ‘Veep’ appeared first on Screen Junkies.

28 Jul 21:49

A New Marvel Season Every Six Months From Netflix

by Dan Wickline

DaredevilNewWhile at the Television Critic’s Association today, head of Netflix content Ted Sarandos told the audience, including Variety’s Laura Prudom, that Marvel’s Jessica Jones will debut by the end of 2015 and that ideally there would be a new Marvel series every six months. Once all four of the series have been launched, they will crossover in the Defenders, but some series will have multiple seasons before that happens as is the case with Marvel’s Daredevil.

Also there appeared to be a quick glimpse of Krysten Ritter as Jessica Jones in the sizzle reel. Hopefully Netflix will release that to the internet soon.

 

Sarandos on Marvel’s #Netflix shows: Ideally “every six months, you’ll get a new season or series from #TheDefenders group” #TCA15

— Laura Prudom (@LauInLA) July 28, 2015

Once all four Marvel Netflix shows have been launched, they’ll cross over for Defenders, but “some will selectively have multiple seasons”

— Laura Prudom (@LauInLA) July 28, 2015

We got the briefest brief hint of #JessicaJones in the Netflix sizzle reel; Krysten Ritter walking down a street, opening a door. That’s it!

— Laura Prudom (@LauInLA) July 28, 2015

A New Marvel Season Every Six Months From Netflix

28 Jul 17:39

‘Ferrell Takes the Field’ Trailer: Will Ferrell Brings Passion and Ignorance to Baseball

by Ethan Anderton

Ferrell Takes the Field trailer

Earlier this month, we got a small tease of Will Ferrell making America’s pasttime even greater in the HBO documentary special Ferrell Takes the Field, featuring the comedy star playing every position in baseball, on ten different Major League Baseball teams.

Now the full trailer has arrived, showing just how the Anchorman and Step Brothers star shook up the ball diamond. Even if you’re not a fan of baseball at all, this looks like it’s going to be thoroughly entertaining. Watch the full Ferrell Takes the Field trailer after the jump!

Here’s the trailer, straight from HBO:

The special was taped on March 12th this year when Ferrell went to five different spring training ballparks, being traded around to the Oakland Athletics, Seattle Mariners, Chicago Cubs, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Cincinnati Reds, Arizona Diamondbacks, San Francisco Giants, Chicago White Sox, Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres. As a Midwest guy, I’m pretty happy he played for both Chicago teams.

Ferrell describes his short baseball career perfectly, “There’s no doubt I turned some heads today. I brought passion to the field, dedication, ability and a lot of ignorance.” No matter how much ignorance he brought to the table, Ferrell can be seen pitching, catching, batting and even arriving to one game by helicopter, right in the middle of the field, like a damn American hero.

All of this was done in tribute to Bert “Campy” Campaneris, a professional ballplayer for the Kansas City Athletics who played all nine positions in baseball while playing against the California Angels on September 8th, 1965. But he also did it to help raise awareness and money for organizations dedicated to fighting cancer, including Cancer for College, which helps individuals adversely affected by cancer to realize their dream of a college education.

In a speech addressing the historical day in baseball, Ferrell said:

“They say nothing’s more American than heading to the ballpark, grabbing a hot dog and watching nine guys from the Dominican Republic make magic on the field. But today I learned they are wrong. Make that eight Dominicans and one guy from Irvine, California.”

If this proves to be something fans like to see, I wouldn’t mind seeing Ferrell doing this for football, basketball and hockey. We could have a little sports documentary special franchise brewing here.

Ferrell Takes the Field will premiere exclusively on HBO on Saturday, September 12th at 10pm Eastern/Pacific time.

The post ‘Ferrell Takes the Field’ Trailer: Will Ferrell Brings Passion and Ignorance to Baseball appeared first on /Film.

28 Jul 16:40

Tiny Ant-Man installations

by noreply@blogger.com (John)


By Slinkachu for Marvel.
28 Jul 16:07

Dorco Pace 6 Six Blade Razor w/ 10 Cartridges $10 + Free Shipping

by Oski1981
Dorco Pace 6 Six Blade Razor w/ 10 Cartridges  $10 + Free Shipping

Thumb Score: +896
Update: Deal is back w/ coupon code SLICKDEALSP6

Dorco USA has Dorco Pace 6 Six Blade Razor w/ 10 Cartridges for $20.25 - $10.13 with coupon code SLICKDEALSP6 = $10.12. Shipping is free. Thanks Oski1981
27 Jul 14:55

semperannoying: Tunisian Anti-Riot unit = AKA Shredder’s...



semperannoying:

Tunisian Anti-Riot unit = AKA Shredder’s Henchmen

24 Jul 14:25

Funko's blind-boxed WWE figures include Andre the Giant and the Iron Sheik

by noreply@blogger.com (John)


Available for preorder.

The BBTS also has the Walgreens exclusive Marvel Legends Ant-Man.
23 Jul 17:34

Mr. Potato Head Is Back: Don Rickles Returns For Toy Story 4

by Peter Sciretta
Corey

Love Rickles

Don Rickles Toy Story 4

Tim Allen and Tom Hanks have already confirmed they are returning for Toy Story 4, but what about the rest of the toy box gang? Well we now know comedian Don Rickles will officially reprise his role as Mr. Potato Head in the fourth installment of the Pixar animated film series. Read the Don Rickles Toy Story 4 quote, after the jump.

Don Rickles

89-year-old comedian Don Rickles confirmed the news to Closer Weekly:

“They just signed me to do the fourth Toy Story. We start [work on it] in September, and I’m very delighted with that. … “When John [Lasseter] approached me for the first one, I said, ‘I don’t do comedy with cartoons, dummies and toys. Leave me alone.’ And [John] said, ‘No, you’re gonna love this!’ Then he told me the money and how nice it was going to be and, I said, ‘Yeah, I can give it a try.’ All of a sudden it’s going on 17 years.”

Before we get to the details on Toy Story 4, lets get to a bit of fun: Rickles recorded Mr. Potato Head lines for the Disney theme park ride Toy Story Midway Mania. Here is a video showing some outages from the recording session as presented at D23 Expo:

Rickles’ returning for Toy Story 4 shouldn’t come as a big surprise. A fourth Toy Story film has been rumored to be in the works for the last five years now. Last year Toy Story 4 was officially announced as it was revealed that John Lasseter would return to direct a screenplay written by  Rashida Jones and Will McCormack based on a story dreamed up by the Pixar dream team of Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter and Lee Unkrich. Lasseter has insisted that the sequel is not about money, but they came up with a great story idea worth exploring.

We still have no idea what the story will be about (but that didn’t stop us all from taking some guesses), but it is expected to reunite Woody, Buzz and the whole gang in an all new adventure. Pixar animation studio president Jim Morris has said that the new film will not be a continuation of the story of Toy Story 3, offering only some vague hints about the film’s plot:

It is not a continuation of the end of the story of Toy Story 3. Temporarily it is, but it will be a love story. It will be a romantic comedy. It will not put much focus on the interaction between the characters and children. I think it will be a very good movie.

Toy Story 4, which will hit theaters on June 16, 2017, will be co-directed by Josh Cooley, the head of story on Inside Out.

The post Mr. Potato Head Is Back: Don Rickles Returns For Toy Story 4 appeared first on /Film.

23 Jul 17:34

‘Super Mario Bros.’ Honest Trailer: The Awful Movie Based on the Video Game…Kinda

by Ethan Anderton

Super Mario Bros Honest Trailer

We’ve seen enough movies based on video games to know that they just don’t seem to work very well for some reason. Whether it’s too much fan service for those who played the games, or maybe video game stories are only fun when you’re the one in control of the main character, Hollywood just can’t crack them.

But before there were dozens of examples of this, Buena Vista Pictures took a swing and missed hard with Super Mario Bros., probably the worst video game movie ever made. Actually, it’s probably one of the worst movies ever made period. And now Honest Trailers has taken aim at the weird half-ass video game movie for your enjoyment.

Watch the Super Mario Bros Honest Trailer after the jump!

Here’s the Honest Trailer from Screen Junkies:

From the strange, germaphobic nature of Koopa (Dennis Hopper) to the unnecessarily abundant practical use of plumbing by Mario Mario (Bob Hoskins) and Luigi Mario (John Leguizamo), it’s all just an absolute mess.

I love that Honest Trailers points out the hard contrast between the brightly colored Super Mario Bros. video games and the “bleak dystopian hellscape” that is Dinohattan. This wholly peculiar and nonsensical place where dinosaurs somehow thrived and evolved and built a Blade Runner-esque underground city isn’t even the tip of this disastrous iceberg.

And even though this movie came out when I was just a kid, I still noticed the similarities between Mario and Bob Hoskins’ character Eddie Valiant in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, so much that I had no idea that the actor didn’t really talk like that in real life.

Also, this is the first time I’ve heard that Hoskins got injured and dealt with so much physical trauma while making the movie. We would have been so pissed if this was his last movie. Thankfully we got over 20 more years of great acting from Hoskins before he passed away last year. Hopefully he’s laughing at Super Mario Bros. with us in the afterlife.

The post ‘Super Mario Bros.’ Honest Trailer: The Awful Movie Based on the Video Game…Kinda appeared first on /Film.

23 Jul 16:37

Cereal Killer trading cards are a breakfast to die forFrom the...





















Cereal Killer trading cards are a breakfast to die for

From the mind of artist Joe Simko, whose earlier work includes Garbage Pail Kids and Wacky Packages, Cereal Killer cards are a monster mash-up of your favorite cereals and horror movies from the last 30 years into a series of trading cards. Titles include Silence of the Grahams, Tales from the Crisp, and Fiber the 13th, which has the tagline “Disembowel Your Bowels.” There’s also Chucky Harms, which are “Magically Malicious!” The cards can be purchased directly from Eye Wax, but are found on Amazon as well. They also sell t-shirts for things like “Eye Pops” or “Fruit Gloops.”

More at avclub.com

22 Jul 16:49

Ant-Man and Vision movie poster concepts

by noreply@blogger.com (John)


Via.
22 Jul 16:19

Video of Big Show slapping each of the competitors on tonight's episode of Tough Enough

by noreply@blogger.com (John)
22 Jul 16:09

Men's Dorco Pace 6 Plus Shaver w/ Trimmer + 10 Refill Cartridges $11.75 + Free Shipping

by slickdewmaster
Men's Dorco Pace 6 Plus Shaver w/ Trimmer + 10 Refill Cartridges $11.75 + Free Shipping

Thumb Score: +185
Dorco USA has Dorco Men's Pace 6 Plus Six Blade Shaver & Trimmer + 10 Refill Cartridges for $23.45 - $11.73 with coupon code SDPACE6PLUS = $11.72. Shipping is free. Thanks slickdewmaster

Contains:
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Deal Editor's Notes & Price Research: The Dorco Men's Pace 6 Plus Six Blade Shaver & Trimmer w/ 10 Cartridges has a very impressive 4.5 out of 5 star rating in almost 2,100 customer reviews on Amazon. ~RevOne
21 Jul 18:09

The recent live episode of How Did This Get Made is very funny

by noreply@blogger.com (John)
Corey

Quality podcast. One of my favorites.

21 Jul 18:00

Watch a Great Video Essay on ‘Looney Tunes’ Director Chuck Jones

by Russ Fischer
Corey

Great if you have some time.

Chuck Jones video essay

Animation director Chuck Jones is celebrated for his Oscar-winning achievements in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons, where he brought to life Daffy Duck, Bugs Bunny, Marvin The Martian, Wile E. Coyote, the Road Runner, and many more. (To say nothing of his work on other animation, such as The Grinch Who Stole Christmas.)

We know Jones’ style, which ranges from frenetic to cooly observational, and we know that he is uncommonly adept at defining and exploring characters, with simple changes of facial expression doing the comedic work that other artists would need huge motions to achieve. Below, you’ll find a terrific video essay on Jones, focusing on how he made some of his tricks work, and what inspirations he drew from when animating his greatest achievements.

This essay comes from Tony Zhou, whose Every Frame a Painting videos are among our favorite essays on the construction of character, comedy, and meaning in film. (We recently highlighted his Jackie Chan essay, for example.)

As with so many of Zhou’s essays, this one airs a simple but important truth: that mastery of cinematic character-building and storytelling is rooted not just in familiarity with films, but in observation of real life.

Zhou quotes Chuck Jones: “All humor, I believe, comes from human behavior, and logic.” Zhou: “How do you improve at understanding human behavior? The truth is, there’s only one way, and it’s not by watching films… Jones believed it wasn’t enough to just watch movies. You had to have interests outside of film. You had to study real life. Most of all, he encouraged [reading].”

[from Tony Zhou, via The Playlist]

The post Watch a Great Video Essay on ‘Looney Tunes’ Director Chuck Jones appeared first on /Film.

20 Jul 16:15

Joe Dirt 2 and the Very Meaning of Art Itself

by Scott Beggs
Corey

I'd still watch it...

Joe Dirt 2

Joe Dirt 2: Beautiful Loser is one of the most fascinating cultural artifacts of the year. No one should ever watch it, but it still raises big questions about the purpose and definition of movies in 2015. Years from now, it will be seen both as a pioneer (that, again, shouldn’t actually be watched) and as the moment the existential fault line between art and commerce rumbled until foundations cracked.

The first of the questions is whether or not this 14-years-later sequel is a movie at all. Technically, yes. With a 115-minute runtime, it’s a feature length narrative. It’s also presented with “limited commercials” on Crackle, Sony’s streaming service. If you thought January was a dumping ground, welcome to Crackle.

It’s free to watch it (like everything on the site), and it’s designed to act as a delivery method for Arby’s commercial sponsorship and to draw attention to the website itself — which means that Joe Dirt 2 is also a kind of commercial. A commercial with three Arby’s commercials inside of it. Promoting the film has focused largely on bringing people to the site.

If you were wondering, no, there’s nothing like being bombarded with a bacon burger advertisement (“Look at all that bacon!”) after watching David Spade get his testicles sucked into an airplane toilet.

Did I mention that no one should actually watch the movie? Because that’s important. It’s a heinous experience, but it’s not so-bad-it’s-entertaining. It’s so bad that even making fun of it is a joyless endeavor. Like making fun of an orphan puppy in a wheelchair. It’s mostly a rehash of the first film complete with retreads of sequences, jokes, lines and cameos. Every scene is a first take where comedians bring their B-game, and writer/director Fred Wolf didn’t find anything to leave behind on the cutting room floor.

Brian Tallerico at Roger Ebert’s site has it covered pretty well, but you should also know that two preps from 1965 say, “Do you even lift?” in the movie because, sure, why not. The movie should be studied for centuries to come in film schools as an example of where fat should have been trimmed.

But the first draft feeling of all of it makes sense because Joe Dirt 2 isn’t just a movie; it’s a commercial for Crackle. A really long, unfunny commercial. For a movie, it was made on the cheap. For a commercial, it’s insanely overpriced.

Which leads to the second major question: who would spend this much money on a commercial? To be fair, I don’t know how much the movie/commercial cost, but I’d ballpark it around $3m simply because of all the locations involved. The most expensive part of the movie was probably the rights to “Sweet Home Alabama.” For comparison, the original was made for $18m (about $25m in today’s money).

In almost every other situation, a decades-later sequel with name-recognition would be a cash grab, but I don’t see how anyone other than Bialystock and Bloom saw this as a winner. The young legend goes that Sony saw #joedirt trending every time the harmless 2001 comedy played on cable, so they saw a market for a sequel. Call it TBS-thought.

Keep that in mind while considering that Joe Dirt 2 has also offered us the bottom of the reboot hierarchy — a trend we’re still trying to wrap our opinions around. Ghostbusters is getting a reboot decades later with a big budget and one of the most bankable comedic duos (Feig/McCarthy) working today. Anchorman got a sequel a decade later for a medium budget, and it went to theaters. Then there’s Joe Dirt 2, which wasn’t released in theaters.

It wasn’t even released straight-to-dvd. It wasn’t even released for rental on iTunes. It was released for free on Sony’s subsidiary streaming site, paid for by commercials (and rationalized as an attention-getter). So it’s a movie using the television show model — a feeling enhanced even further by the vignette-bound nature of the movie’s nonsensical narrative. You come back from commercial to find Joe in a new episode of the same movie.

Thus, Sony saw the name Joe Dirt as big enough to shoulder burger commercials and bring people to their website, but not big enough to get people to theaters or type in their iTunes password.

Our typical understanding is that if something has name-recognition value, then someone, somewhere will usher it into theaters with plausible deniability at their back. Reboot and rehash culture thrives on that mindset. Joe Dirt 2 proves that it isn’t true.

Joe Dirt made almost $31m back in 2001, meaning that after DVD sales, it was either made a little money or lost a little money for Sony. Critics hated it, but it’s actually a pretty harmless, dumb comedy that sticks to a message of being your idiot self and staying optimistic.

Its harmlessness puts it in a position to be used as a commercial. Not a flop, yet not really a success. Like if studios suddenly wanted sequels to Corky RomanoThe Hot ChickSomeone Like YouMy Dog SkipThe New Guy or any other mostly-forgettable films from over a decade ago in order to slap fast food franchise logos on them.

Now, what I’m saying might be unfair. Netflix has, for years, used its online-only programming simultaneously as a way to entertain subscribers and bring new ones to the fold. A kind of advertising for themselves. Any difference between that and what Crackle/Sony is doing (or what TV stations have always done) is purely academic. Maybe Joe Dirt 2 stands out because the usual model involves prestige programming (Orange is the New BlackHouse of Cards) as well as niche entertainment (kids shows, whatever beautiful beast BoJack Horseman is), but Crackle has announced its arrival as a production house with a generic comedy born on the blurry fringe of Y2K’s memory.

It’s hard to sell subscriptions and burgers at the same time.

Thus, the biggest question here is what we use art for now. This isn’t a new situation, but the filmmaking era we currently live in is busting at the seams with movies that act as individual entertainment and as advertisements. It’s no surprise that this era gave rise to the most overt, embedded advertising in history: the post-credits scene.

“James Bond will return…” has been injected with steroids and cameo appearances to the point that we wait to see past the second unit director’s name in order to be sold the next movie.

But it’s not just the post-credits scenes. A lot of movies — big movies, that actually get released in theaters — are also advertisements for the next in the franchise, the series, or the universe. Iron Man is an advertisement for The Avengers is an advertisement for Ant-Man is an advertisement for Captain America: Civil WarThe Hunger Games is an advertisement for Catching Fire. Movies that were marginally successful last year may not even know that they’re advertisements for the eventual sequel in 2024.

The Status of David was an advertisement for The Sistine Chapel. “If you like the way I carve a slingshot, you’ll love the way I paint God.” Like I said, this isn’t exactly new. Just bigger.

So, Joe Dirt 2: Beautiful Loser. It’s a movie. It’s a TV-like series of vignettes glued together by commercials. It’s a commercial itself. It’s a mascot for a website.

However, it’s also — in its awful way — the first of its kind. A unique piece of cinema that lives at the crossroads of artistic design and the ad sales team. I have to wonder if, like direct-to-video and online rentals, we’ll eventually see the legitimization of this format. Legitimately entertaining movies delivered online for free with only the occasional annoyance of a meaty commercial break and the suggestion that we should watch The Fifth Element next. Films — good films — made to act as entertainment, commercial and commercial conveyance device all in one. Joe Dirt 2 could be only the beginning.

I hope it isn’t. Although Christopher Walken is still pretty great.

"Joe Dirt 2 and the Very Meaning of Art Itself" was originally published on Film School Rejects for our wonderful readers to enjoy. It is not intended to be reproduced on other websites. If you aren't reading this in your favorite RSS reader or on Film School Rejects, you're being bamboozled. We hope you'll come find us and enjoy the best articles about movies, television and culture right from the source.

20 Jul 16:11

How Looney Tunes Animator Chuck Jones Became a Master of Visual Comedy

by Scott Beggs

In 2006, Roger Ebert wrote this about Chuck Jones’ cartoons in his “Great Movie” column:

These cartoons, and all the cartoons from the same tradition, seemed doomed to play for a week and then disappear (although sometimes there would be a collection of “Five Color Cartoons” before a kiddie matinee, and London’s Piccadilly Circus had a theater that played only cartoons). Then, just as the studios pulled the plug on cartoon shorts, color TV came along to give them a new life, and now on cable and DVD they seem immortal.

There are two ways to regard them: As silly little entertainments, or as an art form that in its own small way, its limitations permitting an infinity of imagination, approaches perfection.

“Limitations permitting an infinity of imagination” is a beautiful way to describe the craftsmanship behind Jones’ classic cartoons. From the beginning of cinema history, animation was plagued by its total freedom in a way we seem to reserve solely for CGI these days. The ability to do anything inevitably becomes the context by which we judge the finished product — a reversal from the bulk of movies that have to be forgiven their trespasses due to financial constraints. They only had so much money, they only had so much time, you can’t expect the mechanical dragon to look better than it does.

That mindset is one of many reasons for the duality of animation that Ebert mentions. Plenty of people see those brief shots of joy as frivolous, but Looney Tunes characters haven’t endured 85 years on accident.

In his latest Every Frame a Painting video essay, Tony Zhou breaks the format in order to explore the evolution of Jones’ style and skill. Both seem born from the self-imposed restrictions Jones placed on his work and his one-two punch comedic formula.

That formula owes a lot to Vaudevillian and silent film humor, particularly physical comedy from greats like Charles Grapewin, Buster Keaton and Harpo Marx. Expectation + Reality = The Funny was a major equation in early 20th century entertainment, and Jones capitalized on the exaggeration possible in animation to ramp that physicality up to 11. This wasn’t a simple case of copying and pasting; Jones was a comic master who served to push comedy forward in a medium that is unfortunately regarded by some as kids’ stuff.

This is another stellar video from Zhou, who explores Jones’ genius with gusto and clear reverence, ending on one of the most hopeful, artistic notes about inspiration that Every Frame a Painting has ever seen.

What I find most interesting — particularly in the video’s focus on limitations — is that those restrictions are both wisely manufactured by Jones and inherent in the freedom of animation itself. Animation allows you to create a character with no face, which offers the limitations of telling a story with a character with no face. Jones rightly recognized that sometimes those natural restrictions weren’t enough to keep the storyteller focused on the best possible gags and situations. There had to be more.

It’s within that framework that Jones and the Looney Tunes team were able to craft characters with singular goals who nonetheless felt fully realized and rounded. Oh, and hilarious.

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17 Jul 21:19

Dancing life away in Hoboken {video}

by hoboken411
Corey

Ahhh I hate the guy who runs this site!

The future is so bright (let’s spend it dancing!) Everything must be going perfectly well around these parts! No problems whatsoever! Judging by the scene along Newark Street recently, society is in such great...

The post Dancing life away in Hoboken {video} appeared first on Hoboken411.com.

17 Jul 20:53

Watch Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Chad Smith Join Foo Fighters Onstage In NYC

by Stereogum
Corey

They covered "Stay with Me" by Rod Stewart.

Fuck yes.

Chad Smith and Foo FightersSometimes, a band that's led by a drummer and already has another drummer just needs to add a third drummer to the mix. Last night, Foo Fighters played a show at Citi Field in Queens, despite Dave Grohl still being laid up with a broken leg. During their set, they packed in a ton … More »