Tag Archives: movies

Caffeinated Links: How to Sustain Creativity and Inspiration, Greatest Action Setpieces in Film History, and What Is Love

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Erich Campbell on consuming broadly in order to create with focus – “In my opinion, creativity and problem-solving are cultivated, not granted like a wish; they grow, and like any growing thing they must be fed and cared for, given the proper environment. Once grown, the resultant creativity must be trained and exercised, pruned and the selected offshoots allowed to flower. Taken step by step, I think all people are capable of incredible creativity.” RT

Good read on how Singaporeans have developed a misplaced sense of entitlement in the wake of the city-state’s massive economic success- “The level of materialism – what you wear, where you live, what you drive, what you wear on your wrist – has become a key determinant of the value of human life. This is absolute nonsense.

But it’s the unintended consequence of the fantastic economic success which we have enjoyed. In our headlong rush for more money, a lot of values seem to have been lost.” RT

Incredible video essay mashup of some of the greatest action scenes in film history. Scenes from classics of the past ten years and more including Batman Begins, North By Northwest, Scarface and more. RT Indiewire

Ta-nehisi Coates on the resurrection of the Peter Parker/Mary Jane marriage in the upcoming Marvel comics. “I say this because I knew, from a very early age, that there was love in my house, imperfect love, love that was built, decided upon, as opposed to magicked into existence.That was how Peter loved Mary Jane. They were not destined to be. She was not his Lois Lane. His Lois Lane—Gwen Stacy—was murdered for the crime of getting too close to him, and the guilt of this always weighed on him. Whatever. While the world was fooled, Mary Jane Watson knew Peter Parker was Spider-Man.” RT Atlantic

“Still Alice” Official Trailer

This film, shot in three weeks, has been building an incredible momentum, and Julianne Moore is the easy frontrunner right now for Best Actress. I’m so excited to see it.

Movie Review: Cypher starring Jeremy Northam and Lucy Liu

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Sometimes, in my quest for action films/thrillers I have not yet seen, I dive deep into the IMDB archives. Which is how I came up with Cypher, a 2002 spy film starring Jeremy Northam and Lucy Liu. Of course with that cast I had to watch it, and it obtained a not-negligible 6.9 rating on IMDB, so I thought, how bad could it be?

Alas…it was awful. I’ll spare you the details, except to say that the entire film was shot in muted sepia tones, as if attempting to give some noir-ish credence to a very silly plot that draws heavily on post-Cold-War paranoia in a story about brainwashing, double agents, and corporate espionage. Morgan Sullivan leads a very dull suburban life until he’s recruited to act as a corporate spy…and then recruited by that company’s competition. Morgan quickly adapts to his new identity, taking up smoking and switching his alcohol to “Scotch…single malt…on the rocks” like any good Bond-pretender. However, not all is as it seems…

And it wasn’t even so bad it’s good, it was just ludicrous and boring, an odd catch-all of Bond films, noir spy conventions, and Walter-Mitty surrealism. However. The cast is stunningly good-looking (I would positively kill to see them paired in some other film), so have some screenshots to please your eyes.

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Thanksgiving Movie

I’m watching Night at the Museum for the first time and it’s unexpectedly pretty and heartwarming. vlcsnap-2014-11-27-11h03m01s47

New Trailer Roundup: American Heist, Disney’s Cinderella, Al Pacino in Danny Collins

American Heist. For a second I thought “this could be good!” and then…Hayden Christensen. Also, old warhorse of a premise and extraordinarily bad dialogue. I love Adrien Brody, and heist films, but this isn’t for me.

Disney’s live-action Cinderella, starring Lily James and Cate Blanchett. It looks cute but unexceptional, though casting Cate Blanchett as the evil stepmother was a stroke of genius, and great soundtrack

Danny Collins starring Al Pacino. This is a “meh” for me – it’s probably charming and I may watch it on DVD

Rudderless Trailer starring Billy Crudup and Selena Gomez

Really, really good Lumineers-esque music, father-figure bonding, and more? Me wants it precious.

All the Videos You Need Today: Joel McHale, Lea Michele, Annie Trailer, Transformers Age of Extinction Trailer

Joel McHale parodies True Detective on his show The Soup and it’s pure and fantastic (and you don’t have to have seen True Detective to get the parody)

This looks oddly, bizarrely…perfect

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[Film]: Movie Stars On Star Wars Episode 7

Joss Whedon, Ewan McGregor and others on whether they’d appear in JJ Abrams sequel if asked. Jason Statham says he’s not a Star Wars fan and is henceforth dead to me.

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