Blog Archives
Celebrity Skin: Andy Burns Reviews Collaborator
What’s with our obsession with celebrity? The whole TMZ, Perez, gossip sites that so many of us venture to regularly to get our fix – why do we do it? Is it the glamour? I suppose. Maybe we all have a little voyeur in us? Could be. Or maybe we just like watch a train wreck.
In his new film Collaborator, actor/director Martin Donovan shines a subtle light on the power of celebrity and how it can save and ruin lives. Check out the trailer and then read our review after the jump!
Goood Evening? Emily McGuiness Reviews Hitchcock
Christmas is in the air and it’s time once again for the studios to throw whatever they have at us in hopes we’ll make it to the theater. It was with great enthusiasm that I sat down to watch Hitchcock, the film about that director we all know and love in what had to be the coldest theater on the planet. It’s winter in LA - stop it with the God-*@//&#$ air conditioning! I’m not sure what I thought I was going to get out of this film – maybe some sordid details about Hitchcock’s supposed affairs with his leading ladies, or a window on a tortured genius – but the film certainly wasn’t that.
Check out the trailer and find out what it was after the jump!
No Slight Of Hand, Just A Solid Movie – Red Lights Reviewed
Growing up on the X-Files, the phrase “the truth is out there” has been etched into my brain for nearly two decades. I tend to believe in the idea that we’re all looking for some sort of truth, whether we articulate it or not. God, religion, aliens, the Loch Ness Monster. What’s fiction to some are hoped for truths to others.
In its own way the film Red Lights, out today on Blu-Ray/DVD/VOD is about the search for a truth – that there’s something out there more than what we can see.
Find out more about Red Lights after the jump.
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Watch With Amanda: See The First 5 Minutes of AHS and other TV News & Gossip
FX has released the first five minutes of American Horror Story: Asylum and it doesn’t disappoint. The season premiere opens with horny newlyweds Jenna Dewan and Adam Levine wandering around the abandoned asylum featured in this new installment and giving us a bit of a backstory about the building. Viewers will also get a change to “meet” this season’s creepy villain: Bloody Face. Watch the first five minutes of Asylum below (WARNING! It’s explicit, bloody, freaky and not the safest for work viewing). Hit the comments to tell us what you think!
Exclusive Interview: Mark Dillon On His Book Fifty Sides Of The Beach Boys
A few weeks ago we reviewed Fifty Sides Of The Beach Boys, a brand new, in-depth and entertaining look at the band that celebrated its fiftieth anniversary this year. As a connoisseur of all things Beach Boys, I really enjoyed the book and I wanted to find out what went into creating it. Author Mark Dillon was kind enough to answer some questions via email about Fifty Sides Of The Beach Boys, his method of writing and researching the book and much more. So let’s go surfin’ now!
Andy Burns: Congrats on Fifty Sides Of The Beach Boys – it’s a wonderful addition to the canon of Beach Boys literature. I’d like to start by asking, what was your first introduction to the Beach Boys, if you can recall?
Mark Dillon: Thank you, Andy. I was turned onto The Beach Boys by my cousin, Tracy. I was seven and over at my cousins’ house when she put on an 8-track tape of Best of The Beach Boys Vol. 2 and put these enormous headphones over my ears. The songs that really got me were “I Get Around,” “Don’t Worry Baby,” “California Girls,” and “Help Me, Rhonda.” I became a fan for life.
Andy Burns: Your approach to the band’s story and music in the book is unique (and welcome). Could you explain where the idea sprung from?
Mark Dillon: I’d wanted to do a book about the group for about 20 years, but struggled over an approach that was both unique and timely. And then, about three years ago, I was walking on, appropriately enough, a beach — on Lake Huron, not those warm beaches The Beach Boys would sing about — when it dawned on me that the group’s 50th anniversary was approaching. I figured if there was ever a time for re-evaluation, this was it.
The next thing was coming up with a format that properly would celebrate those 50 years. My original thought was to talk to 50 artists inspired by the group’s music, each one dissecting one song. As I got deeper into the process, I figured if you’re going to talk about the songs and their creation, then who better to talk about them than the people who actually wrote and recorded them – in other words, the band members themselves and their collaborators. So, in the end, it’s a mix of hearing from The Beach Boys, the songwriters, players and engineers who worked with them, fellow artists and those who’ve written books about the group. I was shooting for a balance of oral history and cultural appreciation. In other words, here’s the story of the group and its songs, and this is why we should care 50 years later.
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Uncover Fifty Sides Of The Beach Boys
Fun, fun, fun. That’s what this summer has been about if you’re a Beach Boys fan. Their best album in forty years, That’s Why God Made The Radio, peaked at number three on the Billboard charts. Their 50th Anniversary reunion tour has been a critical and commercial success, while the key players – Brian Wilson, Mike Love, Al Jardine, Bruce Johnston and David Marks – all appear to be getting along amazingly well. Adding to all the good vibrations is a new book, Fifty Sides Of The Beach Boys, published by ECW Press and written by Mark Dillon. It’s a unique release that tells the history of the Boys in the words of their friends, colleagues and themselves.
Read on and find out why Fifty Sides Of The Beach Boys is worth reading after the jump!
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Biff Bam Pop Remembers Comic Book Legend Joe Kubert (1926-2012)
Dreamer. Artist. Creator. Inspiration. Teacher. Legend. Only a handful of appropriate words that describe Joe Kubert. Sadly, Joe Kubert passed away yesterday at the age of 85.
A prolific artist, Kubert started in comic books in the early 1940s and continued to draw up until earlier this year. He was best known for the co-creation of World War II hero, Sgt. Rock. He would go on to draw other heroes, such as Enemy Ace, The Viking Prince, Hawkman, and Tarzan, putting his unique mark on all of them. Not only did he influence many great artists through his artwork, he founded The Kubert School in the late 1970s that has and continues to produce fine talent.
Joe Kubert’s legacy will live on through his sons Andy and Adam, those inspired by or taught by him, and his many, many fans. Rest in Peace, Mr. Kubert.
Mariah Carey Joins American Idol, But Who Will Bring The Viewers Back?
Back in May when rumours started swirling about changes to the American Idol judging panel we made some suggestions for getting ‘AI’ back on top as the preeminent singing/talent reality shows. You can check out those suggestions here , but basically we were calling for a shakeup on the judging panel and the introduction of some judges with street cred, personality and maybe a little chutzpah along the lines of original judge Simon Cowell or America’s Got Talent (AGT) rookie Howard Stern.
Mariah Carey – YOUR new American Idol judge
Well, Monday the first shoe dropped with confirmation that songstress Mariah Carey will be joining the AI judging panel. While Carey certainly provides Idol an equal, if not greater, level of star power to the departed Jennifer Lopez, I’m not certain she adds much else to the show. Find out why after the jump!
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