As a film lover and someone who loves to keep his ear to the ground to hear about films that people are talking about, I found “The Strange Thing about the Johnsons” to be a film everyone was buzzing about since 2011. Premiering at Slamdance, director Ari Aster’s short film has made waves across the board amassing a following of film lovers. The aspect about Ari Aster’s short film is that it’s built a foundation of movie lovers that have seen the film and either love it or absolutely despise it. Checking the buzz on the net, I’ve seen so many viewers who detest it from head to toe and just bash it endlessly, while others appreciate and adore its guts. One commenter of the film claims this is a part of the Jewish agenda to tarnish the African American image.
Ten Reasons Why We Love Seth Green
Seth Green has built up an incredible body of work. Spanning almost four decades, Mr. Green has managed to rise from his start as a child actor, and survived the infamous curse of the child star to carve a career for himself in the mainstream, and cult arena. Seth Green has set foot in every corner of Hollywood imaginable, and he just continues re-inventing himself and taking bold moves with his career. He’s had plenty of flops (ahem–“Without a Paddle”), and many mediocre jobs (“Can’t Hardly Wait”), but Green still comes out ahead in the end. This is due to his personable nature, his humility, his ability to connect with geeks and fanboys eye to eye since he is one, and because he is one of the most daring comedic actors alive today. He takes risks, and when he’s in the zone he can inspire raucous laughter from everyone.
People love Seth Green, and we do too. Whether it’s earning the love of comedy fans in his role as the demented Chris Griffin on “Family Guy,” keeping the love of nineties kids with his role as Wiley in “Airborne,” gaining the attention of action fans in films like “The Italian Job” and “Knockaround Guys,” or earning indie cred in the abysmal “Party Monster,” Seth Green is never afraid to try something new with his career and take a chance on a project. What’s more is he always seems to enjoy doing favors for his close circle of friends adding his credit to their work. Seth Green is a very popular entity who can act, write, and pretty much shill his stuff shamelessly on shows like “The Soup” without coming off pathetic. It’s because he’s so damn funny and likable. Here are ten reasons why we love Seth Green.
Forensic Speak: How to Write Realistic Crime Dramas [Paperback]
The lovely Jennifer Dornbush has written one of the few manuals for writing that I tore through in a matter of hours. “Forensic Speak” is a painstaking guide for screenwriters, and authors of all kinds who want to write a crime or detective novel, but don’t know all of the terminology that comes with the profession. Writing a novel or screenplay without knowing the terminology not only immediately removes all believability from your story, but is distracting to the viewer or reader who may know more than you do, in the end. I assumed “Forensic Speak” would be three hundred pages of endless terms and definitions, but Ms. Dornbush structures the book to where anyone seeking a reference for a particular terminology can find what they’re looking for.
Dungeons & Dragons (2000)
I remember when I first read that “Dungeons & Dragons” was about to come to theaters in cinematic form. At the time of the film’s release I was obsessed with fantasy, and dragons and wouldn’t you know it? Zoe McLellan was co-starring. To fans of obscure science fiction, she co-starred as a gorgeous nerd in the TV series “Invisible Man.” If you want to know what that is, look it up. It’s a long story. I digress. McLellan would go on to play a gorgeous nerdy librarian in “Dungeons & Dragons” who really didn’t do much in the film. But she looked fetching the entire time. What makes “Dungeons & Dragons” such an astonishing film, is that it was released by New Line Cinema in the year 2000. As stated by other movie critics, “Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring” would be released a year later around December of the same time.
Judge Dredd (1995)
Before the comic book movie revival of the twenty first century, the nineties didn’t have that many notable comic book movies to brag about. There was the awful “Tank Girl,” and the even worse “Barb Wire.” There was “Spawn,” and “Generation X,” and “Nick Fury: Agent of SHIELD,” “STEEL,” and “Batman and Robin.” And like those aforementioned titles, Hollywood adapted these titles completely missing why readers actually flocked to them in the first place. Never content with laying waste to more underground comic books, Hollywood eventually got its hands on Judge Dredd and turned it in to a Hollywood schlock fest that was so desperate for an audience it cast Rob Schneider in a major role.
Firefly: Ten Years Later
Back in 2005 I remember going to the movie theaters to see “Land of the Dead” with my mom an equally rabid horror fanatic, and sitting down to watch the previews. I remember fondly sitting in front of the screen watching the trailer for the upcoming movie “Serenity” and marveled at how interesting it looked. It wasn’t love at first sight, it wasn’t immense curiosity, but just a mild interest that made me think about it and push it in to the back of my mind for a good while.
Months later prior to the unleashing of “Serenity” in to theaters, the Science Fiction channel in America aired a marathon of the entire “Firefly” and when I sat down to watch it from beginning to end it dawned upon me why “Firefly” was cancelled and taken off television so quickly many people didn’t even know it was on. “Firefly,” during the marathon, often began every episode with a brief prologue from Nathan Fillion explaining the basic premise of the series. And then it kind of saddened me that the producers or network simply didn’t have confidence in the show. And worse, they didn’t have confidence that the audience could play catch up.
Roseanne: The Complete Fifth Season (DVD)
With the rising star status of Roseanne from acclaimed female comedian to basic household name, Roseanne completely changed in season five from a light hearted show about a poor family trying to get by, to a darker but still very funny series revolving around family dysfunction, the pain family can inflict on us, and the struggles of women more than anything. Men became more evil and oafish as the series continued in to season five, and the lovable but hard working Dan Conner turned in to the lovable and somewhat moronic Dan Conner who still had good intentions. The shift is gradual but noticeable. And most of the season’s storylines revolve around the pain men can inflict, and how weak women can be around men they love.