Here Come the Guns

Attempting the record for most "Thriller" dancers in Mexico!

12,937 people in Mexico City on Saturday made the attempt to break the world record for the largest number of people dancing to Michael Jackson's Thriller at once!

That's a LOT of zombies!

500 Days of Sanford

This is pretty funny how they spoof the 500 Days of Summer movie trailer for this political ad. It even sounds like the same announcer!

Death Panel Advisors

Death Panel Advisors - watch more funny videos

Will Mr. Darcy do the Conga?

Hat tip: Smart Bitches

Tarantino On There Will Be Blood

This is really interesting. Tarantino talks about the friendly rivalry he has with Paul Thomas Anderson. He says that Anderson making the masterpiece that is There Will Be Blood spurred him to "bring up his game" and make Inglourious Basterds.

I also like his comments on Daniel Day Lewis and the broken leg his character had in the beginning. I felt the same way about that long journey he must have made into town -- and how fascinating it was that Anderson didn't feel the need to show any of it. From Daniel Day Lewis' performance, you could just picture in your mind that he did it.

Meryl Streep -- Where's the Masterpiece?

Popwatch led me to this hilarious mock editorial by Meryl Streep in The Onion.

...the name Meryl Streep isn’t really synonymous with one truly unforgettable film. It’s weird to think about, but it’s undeniably true. Go ahead, try and name a classic movie I’ve starred in. Not a classic character I’ve portrayed, mind you, but an overall amazing piece of cinema. You can’t. You just can’t.

Then she starts going through her movies, including those she's won awards for, and the really hilarious thing is that it's true. She is undeniably great, the movies, meh, not always great (and Julie & Julia is just the latest example.)

Kramer vs. Kramer: “Let’s be honest, Kramer Vs. Kramer isn’t really a masterpiece in the same way that, say, The French Connection or On The Waterfront is a masterpiece.”

Sophie’s Choice: “I looked at AFI’s top 100 movies list and Sophie’s Choice was No. 91, behind Forrest Gump and The Sixth Sense. And truthfully, all I could say was, ‘That’s about right.’ “

The Deer Hunter: “[H]ow long was I in the The Deer Hunter? Three, maybe four minutes? Truthfully, I don’t really remember being in the The Deer Hunter at all.

Oh, and for those of you who want to say The Devil Wears Prada? Please. I don't need your charity.

So here we are. I'm 60 years old without a One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest or Bonnie And Clyde to my name. Meryl Streep: "Great actress, okay movies."

And by the way, The Manchurian Candidate is not a classic. Well, at least not the one I was in.

Read the whole great article here.

Agora Trailer

Well, we get a bit of a glimpse of this epic movie starring Rachel Weisz in this trailer.

Set in fourth century Alexandria, the story tells of the love of a slave, played by Max Minghella, for his master, played by Rachel Weisz. She is Hypatia, a teacher of Neoplatonist philosophy and, for the film’s purposes at least, a rather infamous atheist. The possibility of their romance is set against the uprising of Christianity.

Add this one into the best actress mix.

Freaky Gushers Ad

Truly trippy. And to think, my kids beg for these.

I couldn't help think of Dieter from SNL while watching this. Dance, little monkey, dance! LOL!

Just showed this to my 8 year old. I wish you could have seen the "What the....!" look on his face. He said, "I wonder how much they paid those dancers?!"

Hat tip: EW Popwatch

Inglourious Basterds - Mini-review

I saw Inglourious Basterds earlier this week, and I've just been letting it sink in. I think I need to see it again because there is so much going on, that I know I didn't catch it all.

First off, it's an excellent film -- and also a lot of fun. From the trailers and many commercials, you know the set up. Brad Pitt's Aldo Raine leads a group of American Jews in Nazi occupied France looking for Nazi scalps. The Germans call them the "Basterds". Horror director Eli Roth plays one of the "basterds" who is known as the Bear Jew, and his choice of weapon is a baseball bat.

What you haven't seen in the commercials is the character of Col. Landa, "The Jew Hunter," sent to find all the hidden Jews left in France. Landa is played by Christoph Waltz, an actor known for TV work in Germany, who won the best actor award at Cannes for this role. Waltz is simply amazing as Landa. Waltz, a German, also speaks French and English fluently. Tarantino said he despaired of finding a German actor for this role, as they couldn't speak the English parts well enough. He told NPR's Fresh Air, "What I write is a kind of poetry, and I needed someone who could speak my English lines like poetry." As Waltz auditioned with the first scene of the movie, minutes in, Tarantino knew he had found his Landa. It's a tour de force performance, and I hope earns him a nomination for supporting actor for this film. He charms, and also has just this lethal edge to him the entire time. Watching him eat streudel and fussing with a cigarette in one scene, you're fascinated, and terrified for the other character he's questioning. He simply owns every scene he's in, including those with Brad Pitt.

Ah, Brad Pitt as Aldo Raines. He just chews up his part as the Southern boy leader of this band of basterds. Total fun to see him in this part - "And I want my scalps!" I also loved Michael Fassbender as Hilcox, a former film critic (!) sent on a spy mission to pose as a German officer. He explains his accent away to some Germans by saying he was in the movie, Die weiße Hölle vom Piz Palü, (The White Hell of Piz Palu) a movie about a mountain disaster in the Alps. I actually looked up clips from that movie on YouTube, and notably, it's a silent film! Michael Fassbender is very funny in this movie, and it's great to see him have a chance to show a sense of humor for once.

There are so many movie references that fly by in this movie. It's a movie about movies, from the Spaghetti Western music used, to the movie theater that plays a prominent part in the plot. I actually laughed out loud at one point because of the music Tarantino chose to use -- David Bowie's "Putting out Fire (with Gasoline)" from Cat People! I have to say, it made sense at that point of the film, but it was just crazy, too. Brad Pitt's character has a noose scar that is never ever explained in the film, but is yet another film reference to a Clint Eastwood western.

I read this great review of Inglourious Basterds on Spoutblog before I saw the film, and I kept thinking about what Karina Longworth had pointed out. This is a film about propaganda and rumors.

The film’s guiding spirit is encapsulated in an exclamation by Landa in the first scene: “I love rumors! Facts can be so misleading.” Tarantino has made a movie about World War II filtered through rumor — verbally-transmitted urban legends, to be precise. There is no casual conversation in Inglourious Basterds; virtually every scene involves an interrogation and a chance for someone to brag about and/or live up to their reputation. Conscious of the world they live in — ie, not Hitlers, not ours, but Tarantino’s — characters on both sides of the divide take an active role in their own myth-making, to make sure that word gets out as to who they are and why they are to be feared, and everyone takes great pride in knowing that word is getting around. The film’s most oft repeated phrase is “What have you heard?”

Longworth saw the film at Cannes, and hated it, and then she watched it again and gained a new appreciation for Tarantino's film.

Tarantino has made a WWII fable, and we're tipped off to this by the beginning, "Once upon a time, in occupied France..." He's made his own revenge fantasy and rewritten history, but it's not just about that. There are layers and layers here, and it's going to take multiple viewings for me to puzzle them out. I won't say much more, because it's just fun to watch the plot lay out. Since it's Quentin Tarantino, you're never quite sure just what's going to happen next, but you know that you'll have a great time watching it.

Four stars, and I urge you to see it in a theater so you can experience it with an audience. Didn't August used to be the dumping ground for bad films? Certainly not this year! I hope we see Christoph Waltz again come Awards season -- and in more films to come. What a treasure Quentin has unearthed!