Digital Polyphony

This final week of 2009 will consist of a series, as in three, blog entries looking back at the year. A focus on movies, games and a little bit of music and television. This won't hinder the movie reviews, I'm still trying to get caught up on writing those. You can read the first entry over at blogs.

There might also be some new articles, but I think I'll be waiting to 2010 to post them.

Top 25 Holiday Movies

Well, the year is pretty much done and over with. Most people have checked out by now and await travels, family dinners and presents (those that made it through Thanksgiving at least). The television will be flooded with countless Holiday films and thus I have compiled a list of the Top 25 Holiday Movies for your enjoyment. Some are obvious, some are lesser known or even forgotten about. So enjoy.

This will be the last article of the year and a good one to go out on. That doesn't mean there won't be new reviews (still some award contenders out there) as well as new blogs (notably the 2009 Best of Blog I'm still working on). 

I'm also going to be looking to revamp the site slightly and organize thing, make sure all is in working order and so on. I hate dead links or missing images, and I'm the only one that can fix it. This is a great time to do that as well as work on new articles for 2010.

So have a happy Holiday and keep checking in on blogs/reviews.

Peter Jackson Review Special

This weekend's review special takes a look back at most, but not all, of Peter Jackson's films. Heavenly Creatures, The Frighteners, King Kong and the most recent, The Lovely Bones. Jackson has always been a visionary...storytelling sometimes hit and miss. They can be found in the Quick Reviews as I grow closer and closer to 300 reviews.

So why no Bad Taste and Dead Alive (Braindead for you non-US folks)? Maybe for another horror special.

Expect a Holiday Top 25 this coming week.

Rules of Hollywood #3

A new rule of Hollywood article is now up, and far more in line with what I had in mind in terms of lenght (the Screenwriting two-parter got way out of hand). You can read it here.

Currenly working on a Holiday Top 25 and a new Nostalgia article. I'm running through a bunch of screeners at the moment as well, so I won't be doing a review special this weekend but still reviewing quiet a few movies in hopes of getting as many done before Awards season is over as I can. Precious, Pirate Radio, The Messenger, Caroline and more.

James Cameron Retrospective

Not quite a retrospective in the usual sense as much as it is finishing off the final few films from one of the greatest directors of all time. I've already reviews the Terminator films and Aliens in their respective series look backs, so you can find those if you like. Go to Quick Reviews to take a look at Piranha 2 (only for this look back and I just happened to have already seen it, otherwise I would have skipped it), The Abyss, True Lies and Titanic.

A new Rules of Hollywood later this week. I saw quite a few movies over the holiday so expect a lot of newer film reviews this week as well as some more videogame related blogs including Dragon Age (addicting) and both Uncharted titles.

 Top 25: Movie Fight Scenes

It's almost Thanksgiving. You know what that means? Beating someone to a bloody pulp, stabbing them and looking awesome while doing it.

Actually, nearly a month in development, the newest Top 25 is up. Top 25: Movie Fight Scenes. Trying to find the clips was what took the most effort, but also the fact that some movies I just tended to overlook when, as I thought more, couldn't believe I would dare leave them off. Martial arts, 1980s action, classic swordplay or just the utterly bizarre, I hope you have as much fun reading as I did tediously putting it together.

Three Science Fiction Classics

Having done so many science fiction films during the Filmmaker look back (Close Encounters, 2001, Alien, Aliens etc...), I feel there's three that I need to get out there right just, well, because they need to be done and added to the archives. You can probably bet I won't be panning them, but maybe you'll be interested in my thoughts.  You can find Blade Runner, Gattaca and Planet of the Apes in Quick Reviews.

Next weekend we'll get back to filmmakers with a look back at the remaining films of James Cameron. His big ones might already be covered, but there's still some we need to tackle before the release of Avatar next month. Next week will also bring us a new Top 25 Article, which would have been up this week if it weren't for Windows 7 Driver issues. 

 The Films of David Lynch (Part 2)

Part two of our look back to David Lynch's filmography is now up, covering Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, Lost Highway, The Straight Story, Mulholland Drive and Inland Empire.

Now, any Lynch fan will notice there is one film missing: Wild at Heart. Well, I simply haven't seen Wild at Heart and after hearing so many bad things about it, I'm not exactly rushing out to see it either. It's sat in my Netflix waiting list for the better part of two years and I keep pushing it further and further down as more alternatives tend to intrigue me. I kept saying to myself I would only do a look back to a filmmaker if I've seen everything they've done. As I was thinking of a filmmaker to do, Lynch came to mind. In fact, he was always on the backburner because I felt I should be true to my personal word and wait until I see Wild at Heart before doing a look back to his career.

But no...Wild at Heart is universally accepted as his worst film and there's actually a good chance I won't ever see it. I should. I know. But right now, I don't think so.

 Other Updates: Older Updates have been archived (link at the bottom of this page) and I'll be doing some new game reviews this week (long time coming). There should be a new Top 25 this week also, but I'm having some DVD ripping issues of the scenes I want so until I get that done...

The Films of David Lynch (Part 1)

David Lynch films are incredibly hard to review, so this retrospective is going to be a slight departure to the others (Spielberg, Kubrick, Coens, Scorsese, Tarantino). They're often non-linear, surrealist cinema where half the time you have no idea what is intentional and what in unintentional or...wait for it...what is intentionally unintentional. Yeah, wrap your head around that one. To review Lynch, you have to understand his mindset and where he's coming from as a filmmaker. You have to understand the now often-used term "Lynchian" which is known for vagueness, dreamlike, disturbing, odd with a concentration on use of sound (often ambient noise) little music and slow-paced imagery that, eventually, will come to form a complete picture...or not...it's kind of up to him.

I like to call Lynch the "Anarchist" of cinema. He's without form or function but for the sake of not having form or function...therefore it's entirely full of form and function, thus my reviews aren't going be in my typical style as much as it is to reflect on the product as a whole, so I want to prepare you for that and note it also won't follow the typical review format of Good, Bad etc..Only the Final Rating and a few paragraphs on impressions.

Postmodern cinema, or some will just say flat-out bizarre, our first trip into his world can be found in Quick Reviews starting with Eraserhead, The Elephant Man, the always polarizing Dune and the masterpiece Blue Velvet.

A little late, but the newest in-depth help column of Rules of Hollywood is finally up and covers the second and final part of Screenwriting. This one goes into detail on what to do if you actually have a script, but more specifically what not to do and the problems I see every day regarding it. 

Rule #3 will be up soon as well and should be a nice one for all the film school buffs out there. 

New movie reviews are up and another Top 25  article should be done for the weekend

Premieres, birthdays, dinners and parties have cut into my writing time, not to mention my deadline for completing a screenplay on spec. I'll be taking a break from reviewing for a week or so, but look for a new Rules of Hollywood Article and maybe the occasional blog this week. After doing a movie a day this past month, some of which I had to rewatch (or see for the first time, such as Zombieland and Trick R. Treat) I'm honestly burned out on it. I have quite a few in the pipe though I've been meaning to get to.

The newest, and long-time-coming article is now up. This installment of Liquid Nostalgia focuses on Batman. Not just any Batman, however, but the classic 1989 Tim Burton film. Also included are the top 10 "I'm Batman" moments where I find that trying to get precise clips in a movie is easier said than done.

Lots of updates today. The reviews are still going forward daily for your Halloween viewing pleasure and there's a new Trailing Trailers up in the blog section.

That's not what this update is for, because it is for Rules of Hollywood #2: So You Want to Be a Screenwriter. This is part one of two that will focus on you screenwriters out there with hopes and aspirations and maybe a better understanding of what to do and not do (and maybe a better understanding that, perhaps, writing a script just isn't your thing).

I'm not really a "video guy" but I was playing around with windows movie maker (I enjoy the simpleness more, although Sony Vegas has more bells and whistles) when putting together clips from Batman and felt...why not?

A new list under the Top 25 Banner - Top 25 Games that Deserved Sequels. There are a lot of great games that have come and go and some seemed like a new series or trilogy in the making, they were just solid titles, then stuff happens and that just never occurred.

A new series is up and running. Having lived in Los Angeles and worked in Hollywood for a few years now, I feel sharing thoughts, advice and stories is a nice change of pace from the rather clinical articles I normally do. Rules of Hollywood will have its own section and sort of be randomly updated, perhaps one a week or two a month, depends on what I can express satisfactory to me.

Also, the horror movie reviews have already started with The Thing and Dracula in the Quick Reviews section. So far so good on the idea of doing one a day.

The second and final part of the Coen Brothers retrospective is up with reviews covering the modern masterpiece Fargo, The Big Lebowski, O Brother Where Art Thou?, The Man Who Wasn't There, Intolerable Cruelty, The Ladykillers and Burn After Reading. You can read them in the Quick Reviews section.

Also a new blog is up. I don't post updates of those often with the sidebar noting them, but it's one that videogame fans might enjoy taking a look at.

The first look back at our next major filmmaker(s) - Joel and Ethan Coen. You can check out Part One, covering Blood Simple, Raising Arizona, Miller's Crossing, Barton Fink and The Hudsucker Proxy in the reviews section.

I'll run through the rest come Monday. I'm still compiling all the stuff for October, this is going to be fun.

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