What's on your mind?

Any movie plans? Errant cinematic thoughts to unpack? We'll listen. And hopefully you'll inspire future blog posts. Sound off in the comments.

Lifeboat of Pi

Despite having not read "Life of Pi" in its previsual form -- I know I know --  I found myself unduly excited this morning seeing this image from the Ang Lee adaptation. Is it because I love cats? Unfilmable books? Ang Lee? All about the above? ☑

24 Frames has an article about it involving a Scorsese/Lee conversation about Lee's 3D learning curve. Here's the image.

Despite his belief in the format, Lee was open about his struggle to adapt to the technology. While filming "Life of Pi," he said, the 3-D cameras were cumbersome, and he compared working with them to "operating a refrigerator." 

I gotta be honest with you. I love Marty Scorsese almost as much as any random film buff but his current incarnation as "Mr. 3D" may lead to divorce. Irreconciliable Differences. I preferred Marty when his cause was film preservation. 3D just takes me out of movies, ironically flattening their visual interest for me. It feels like a straight jacket to me or rather, a toothpick propping my eyes open, forcing me to see things I don't want to see. Maybe I need to use my own imagination to add the depth, I don't know. I just hate it. I keep trying to love it because powerful and great filmmakers like Scorsese and James Cameron (a hero of young me and I still love his movies) will never give up till all movies require glasses.

But 3D just makes the movies less magical for me. Sniffle. I adore Titanic and seeing it in 3D just made it... smaller. It no longer felt like THE MOVIEST OF MOVIES but just "a movie".

I'm only tolerating 3D because I have to. 

Someone toss me a Lifeboat. Life of Pi needs less 3D and more Tallulah! Can I get an amen?

Alfred Hitchcock's LIFEBOAT OF PI

Have any of you read the book? I understand that young "Pi", an Indian boy, finds himself on a boat after a shipwrech with only a hyena, a zebra, an orangutan, and a Bengal tiger. Since only Pi and Shere Khan are in the official image I'm assuming the tiger ate the other animals already?

If I were to be shipwrecked on a boat with four animals those maybe aren't the four animals I'd choose. I'd think I'd go straight herbivore across the board. Not that you can choose in a shipwreck.

But if I had to go with famous movie animals...

Life of NathanielR

Someone to entertain, someone to protect, and someone who might rescue me and look great doing it.

And there's no way it'd be anything but a 2-D picture.

Don't leave me floating in this ocean all alone... Which movie animals could you handle a shipwreck with and have you resigned yourself to movie glasses forever?

Link. Link. Link. Etcetera

The Wrap Glee's Chris Colfer is Struck By Lightning in a darkly comic high school movie which he also wrote. It's a Tribeca hit. Will it transfer outside the festival?
Art of the Title Saul Bass' work on Bunny Lake is Missing 
Stale Popcorn starts a 1994 project (great year) with one of my personal favorites Reality Bites and, yes, I think that's Winona Ryder's single greatest performance.

Movie|Line asks you to a caption a new pic of Nicole Kidman from Paperboy. Damn, I wish I'd seen this for Say What before they did.
MNPP (NSFW) Les infidèles with Jean Dujardin gets even more notoriety: Dujardin takes it like a man
MNPP ...and of course Jean Dujardin is all hilarious about it in a promo 
Self Styled Siren is hosting another film preservation blog-a-thon and as a little appetizer a piece on Farley Granger and Alfred Hitchcock. Ugh, I love Rope (1948) so much.
Chicago Tribune yesterday's it girl Rooney Mara replacing last week's it girl Carey Mulligan in the new untitled Spike Jonze movie, his first since Where the Wild Things Are. (No word on if today's it girl JLaw was ever discussed). 

Four Avengers moments
Pajiba the most deplorable comments on a negative review of The Avengers on rotten tomatoes. Every time I read a piece on superhero movies not getting the respect they deserve I think: the fanboys bring it on themselves. 
In Contention Kris stumps for The Avengers under the "best ensemble" category at SAG 
Joe Utichi interviews Joss Whedon on his ups and downs and downs and downs and back up again in Hollywood 

Finally... What if The Avengers had been made in 1978? 

My ears. My ears. Bleeding. (The eyes on the other hand enjoy their 70s kitsch)

Burning Questions: Romantic Comedy Pet Peeves

as tempting as it is, we can't blame everything on Kate Hudson Michael C. here with some constructive criticism for the rom-coms of the world. Is there any genre in more dire straits than the romantic comedy? If you counted the genuinely great recent examples on your fingers you would be back in the 90’s before you ran out of digits. 

I’d love to write a post outlining a scenario where the rom-com is saved but I don’t see that happening. Not unless the current movie industry is demolished wholesale and replaced with a system that doesn’t release a shamelessly mediocre product in the hopes of turning a modest profit before forever banishing the title to the murky depths of Netflix Instant. Such daydreaming is fun but let’s be serious. Better to ask the more practical question:

What are some quick fixes for the Romantic Comedy? 

I’m not asking the world here. Hollywood can keep the meet cute, the gay best friend, and running to the airport. I’m talking a few pet peeves that if eliminated could lift the genre up a notch or two. Amy Adams’ time is valuable. Let’s not waste it. So with that in mind here are a few plot devices that rom-coms should cease and desist using immediately...

Dream Girls, Opposites and Whack Jobs with Wacky Jobs after the jump...

Click to read more ...

We're Making Gong Li Wait...

Tsk-tsk.

This week's edition of "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" has been postponed. It couldn't be helped. But if you've already watched it, start discussing over at The Film's The Thing where one entry is already posted. We'll do two episodes in a row next week on Tuesday May 1st  (this one, Raise the Red Lantern) and Wednesday May 2nd (Pariah, 2011). For more of what's on the "hit me" schedule, click here.