Tuesday Top Ten - Motion (Picture) Sickness

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JA from MNPP here. First off, my apologies to those of you with weaker constitutions. This might not be your sort of Top Ten list today. With that out of the way, want to know why I still won't eat cherries to this very day? Since it's "The Witches of Eastwick week"I think y'all can probably put two and two together. Take a giant silver bowl of them, stir in a trio of witchy women under the influence of one Big Bad, and shake thoroughly - out spills what might be the always game Veronica Cartwright's most memorable cinematic moment. (And this is a woman who has been terrorized by Hitchock's birds and phallically attacked by HR Giger's Alien, so she knows from memorable scenes.)

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You'd be excused for expecting it to be the walls and furniture to be what tumbles out of her mouth since she spends the first half of the scene devouring the scenery in a tour de force of bravura overacting, but the devil's in the details - that red-stained torrent of cherry pits is something you just don't forget, even 25 years later. (Watch the whole scene here.)

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So in it's honor, a list!

Here are 9 more cinematic spews... from Bridesmaids through The Exorcist

Click to read more ...

'Best Shot' Resumes Production on June 27th

"Hit Me With Your Best Shot" returns from its month-long hiatus in two weeks. Will you join us? I'll try to catch up soon with Possessed (1947) which had terrible timing given my father's passing. Other than a short upcoming moment with Joan Crawford, what's next?

 Wednesday June 27th - THE STORY OF ADELE H. (1975)

For Isabelle Adjani's birthday (and considering that Victor Hugo madness will be heading our way at Christmas time) we'll look back at François Truffaut's Oscar nominated tale of obsessive love. Trivia: Adjani held the "youngest Best Actress nominee" record for three decades until a certain Whale Rider teared up.

*THURSDAY* July 5th -PICNIC (1955)

Technically this is a Labor Day movie as opposed to 4th of July but the point is who wants to sit at home blogging on Independence Day? I've never seen this - hence the choice - but I hear it's visually appealing (James Wong Howe on cinematography duties!) and I enjoy me some Kim Novak and William Holden. Bonus points: filling in the Oscar gaps. This one was nominated for 6 Oscars including Best Picture.

Wednesday July 11th - ROAD TO PERDITION (2002)

It's the tenth anniversary of Sam Mendes' self-consciously 'best shotty' graphic novel adaptation with Tom Hanks, Paul Newman, Jude Law, little Tyler Hoechlin before he was an alpha werewolf and the then (mostly) unknown Daniel Craig who found it all so fucking ridiculous.

Wednesday July 18th - PINK NARCISSUS (1971) 

I like doing short movies for this series (since it's asking a lot to assign y'all a movie each week) and this one is only 64 minutes. Luishergio suggested a NSFW edition and why not? This influential cult classic (the debt Pierre et Gilles owe will never be paid in full) about a rent boy's fantasies was shot almost entirely inside director James Bidgood's apartment and yet it's visually ravishing (the intense color helps). It's one of those movies then that all indie filmmakers without $ resources ought to look at.

Wednesday July 25th TBA
Wednesday August 1st TBA
Wednesday August 8th TBA.. it's so hard to choose but you get the point.

Previously on "Hit Me With Your Best Shot"
in case you missed any... 

Curio: Witches Brew

Alexa here, chiming in for The Witches of Eastwick week. The film remains one of my 80s favorites, a strong showing in an especially strong year for women in film (Moonstruck! Broadcast News!). Veronica Cartwright's second-most-famous gross-out scene had me off cherries for 10 years, minimum, so I was surprised that no one has designed a minimalist cherry poster for the film yet. 

Custom poster design by Alex Kittle.

Instead, the climactic voodoo scene seems to inspire artists the most. Here are some of the better voodoo poster designs, and one voodoo curio, in honor of the frizzy-haired trio...

Click to read more ...

Tony Awards 2012

Neil Patrick Harris sang and danced and wisecracked and otherwise hung out (har dee har har... see Spider-Man gag to the left) at the Tony Awards last night.

Did you watch?

 If so what delighted you most? I'll admit right up front that this may be the season from which I'd seen the least amount of nominated shows in the past decade. I only saw three: Bonnie & Clyde (terrible), Porgy & Bess (strong) and Follies (genius/wondrous I saw it twice despite barely going to Broadway shows this year.) Porgy & Bess and Once (based on the great movie about the budding romance between two musicians) stole many of the trophies Follies might have won if the Tonys loved Stephen Sondheim shows as much as his legion of obsessive fans do. 

Since I am very very tired today, herewight ten highlight tweets via me (and photos and winners) from last night as sort of retroactive fake live blogging...

Awww. it's Mrs Hugh Jackman. (According to Hugh, she's terrible at keeping secrets)

Click to read more ...

Box Office: Hair-Raising Franchise Battles

One could argue, and some did, that we didn't need another Alien movie after four regular features and Alien vs. Predator mash-ups. One could argue, though no one bothered to, that we didn't need another Madagascar. Yet both films had robust attention from audiences for their opening weekend. When all the new entries are crowd-interest family films always win since they have better legs at the box office. Their target audience doesn't even require legs to get to them since they're carried to or wheeled to the movie theaters question via their parental units.

an unlikely franchise showdown: Aliens vs. Madagascar

THE DIRTY (BOX OFFICE) DOZEN 
01 MADAGASCAR 3 new $603
02 PROMETHEUS  new $50.0
03 SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN $23 (cum $98.5) Review & Sequel Plans
04 MIB 3 $13.5  (cum $135.5)
05 THE AVENGERS  $10.8 (cum $571.8) Review
06 THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL $3.2 (cum. $31) Review

07 WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU'RE EXPECTING $2.7 (cum. $35.7)
08 BATTLESHIP $2.2 (cum $59.8)
09 THE DICTATOR $2.1  (cum $55.1)
10 MOONRISE KINGDOM $1.5 (cum $3.7) (Wes Anderson's Dark Side)
11 DARK SHADOWS $1.3 (cum. $73.7) Review
12 THE HUNGER GAMES $1.0 (cum. $400.2) Review

What did you see this week? I was busy taking in the musical Rock of Ages, the buzzy poetic Beast of the Southern Wild (ohmgod. Do not miss it when it opens... but lower those Oscar expectations. Not that kind of movie), the Italian coming out comedy Loose Cannons (2010), and Prometheus (more on that as soon as I can manage).