Maegan and I always see new Pixar movies the first weekend they are released, so we just saw wall-e today. Pixar films are always great and wall-e was no different.

I'm not going to post a full review, but I do want to share that I felt like I needed to exercise after the movie. (You'll understand after you see it.)

Labels: movies

I just came back from seeing The Simpsons Movie with Maegan. It was eeexcelent. I knew going in that I would love the movie but I also knew that I would still be disappointed from unrealistically high expectations. The biggest problems weren't with the movie at all, but that I had already seen so much of the film in trailers, promos, and sneak peaks.

I don't want to spoil the film for anybody so the rest of this post is in stealth mode. If you've seen the film or don't care, highlight from HERE...

Favorite Unexpected Moments:

• "Why would anybody go to the movies to see something that's on television for free?"
• After endless attempts to cover it - Bart's full frontal nudity.
• The Fox News ticker.
• Everybody in church runs in to Moe's and everybody in Moe's runs in to church.
  
• Lisa punches Bart square in the face.
• Bart's wanted poster graffiti looks exactly like another family
  
• Eski-MOE'S
• To Be Continued... Immediately
• Marge leaves Homer (not a favorite part but totally unexpected)
• The polar bear kicking the fox
  
• Maggie actually speaks for the first time. If you didn't sit through half the credits then you missed it.

Post-Movie Questions:

• What ever happened to the pig? He was last seen in a burning house that then crumbled into a sink hole! Spider-Pig is dead, isn't he?
• What about the toxic lake which is no longer isolated and I assume even worse after months under a dome?

...to HERE to read the hidden text.

P.S. If you do want the entire movie spoiled click here.

Labels: movies

As part of a promotional campaign for the upcoming Simpson's Movie, several 7-Eleven stores around the country have been transformed into Kwik-E-Marts. The stores have even been restocked with brand name products from the show, including Buzz Cola, Krusty-O's Cereal, and Squishee drinks. But the Simpson's branding doesn't stop there as they've included details such as "The Freezer Geezer" and a great El Barto graffiti of "Skinner Stinks" spray painted on the back of some stores. Lines have been long at some stores. Unfortunately for me, none of these Kwik-E-Mart stores are around here.

More Photos

Labels: movies

The Simpsons Movie just relaunched their official website. Half of the site is annoyingly under construction but you are able to make your own custom Simpsons character. Maegan wanted to make herself into a Simpsons character, so I Simpsonized the entire family (and then PhotoShopped it more).

Labels: funny, movies

Last year my television station launched a major multi-media promotional campaign for a contest called The Mayberry Code. (I blogged about receiving an Emmy nomination for the promo and I'll find out if I won in two more weeks.) My totally original concept was to place Barney Fife from The Andy Griffith Show in the role of a detective trying to uncover a dark mysterious secret by means of decoding cryptic clues. Of course this is a spoof of the plot to The Da Vinci Code, but with the unique twist of adding Deputy Fife into the mix.

Yesterday I was astonished to discover that a short film was released with almost the exact same premise as The Mayberry Code! A film titled The Norman Rockwell Code ^[IMDB] is the story of Barney Fife's son, a detective trying to uncover a dark mysterious secret by means of decoding cryptic clues. Sound familiar? Watch the trailer.

Spoofing The Da Vinci Code is not such a unique idea but what are the odds that two different parodies would each feature the same television character from over 40 years ago (or his son in this case)? We launched our on-air campaign in April of 2006. The Normal Rockwell Code was released a month later in May. However they began filming in February before we ever sent out our first press release. Purely an incredible coincidence. I guess great minds think alike.

Although there are a lot of similarities with the initial premises, both projects had significant differences too. We created promos only while they created a full 33-minute feature (complete with on-location production, a detailed plot, and extensive script.) We utilized actual footage from The Andy Griffith Show while they utilized real actors. We relied on tongue-in-cheek comedy while they used shtick routines. It's really apples to oranges, especially considering their bizarre sea-related conspiracy plot line.

I watched the entire film online. The Normal Rockwell Code is pretty good. A funny movie, especially if you enjoy The Andy Griffith Show. And the production quality was pretty good too (if you ignore the lightstand and sandbag in the museum shots). Well done.

Labels: movies, television, work

I found this both interesting and surprising as I discovered that a movie is currently being made about the sport of disc golf. Chains is a film about "the fastest growing sport you never heard of". It's set for a winter 2007 release date, and if it is released in theaters at all I'm sure it will be shown at only a select few. Either way, if you watch the trailer you'll see that is a very well produced documentary (so far). They've done a good job adding some ESPN-like excitement to the sport.

I love playing disc golf. I began playing the sport as a kid at summer camp in Massachusetts, way back in 1984. I played just about every day. I used a 165g Frisbee^® brand disc (I'm not sure whether or not specialized disc golf discs existed back then) and the 18-hole course used marked trees instead of baskets.

After a 20-year hiatus I introduced Maegan to the sport this past spring. Disc golf is very popular around the Charlotte region and the US Championships were recently held at Winthrop University in nearby Rock Hill, SC. I still only get out on the course a handful of times each year but I've actually submitted a proposal to our HOA to build a small course around our neighborhood park. No official word yet but I've heard that board members liked the idea. Hopefully in the future I'll be able to walk just down the street with Maegan and play every day like I did when I was a kid.

Anyway, back to the movie. Look what the successful documentary Mad Hot Ballroom did for dancing in 2005, so why not a movie about disc golf? It looks very interesting and I look forward to seeing it.

Labels: disc_golf, movies

Several months ago I saw several early animatic clips from The Simpsons Movie due out in 2007 (here's one) and was immediately concerned about how lowbrow the jokes were. During last night's episode of The Simpsons they showed the first official teaser for The Simpsons Movie. I had been marking my calendar for the release of this movie but I am now completely skeptical that it will be any good.

Staying with their inability to rise above lowbrow shtick, the end of the teaser shows Homer swinging on a wrecking ball between a rock and a building with the words "A Hard Place". That's not funny at all. What I did find funny was their unintentional joke backfire about the movie being in 2D. The entire premise of the trailer is that The Simpsons Movie is not in 3D, yet the first clips shown after that claim show Homer driving a construction vehicle down a hill - obviously created with the aid of 3D computer animation! Now that, I found ironically funny.

Labels: movies

Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby came out on Friday. As I've mentioned before, I had a non-speaking role as Tony the convenience store clerk in a 1976 backstory scene. You can see me in the official movie trailer. In any case, I finally saw the film today.

My scene is in the first few minutes of the film as young Ricky Bobby steals his momma's car when she comes in to buy a quart of milk from my store. Compared to the trailer, the movie shows an extra 5 seconds - an extra 5 seconds to stare at the bald spot on the back of my head being shown on a 40 foot tall movie screen. I was actually distracted during my scene because Patty turned to absolute strangers in the theater telling them "that's my husband!" (They didn't care.) I knew my scene wouldn't be cut from the movie but the next question everybody always asks me is about the credits. I can now tell everybody that my name is not in the credits. The movie was pretty good but nothing spectacular. I thought it was the funniest Will Ferrell movie I've seen but that doesn't really mean much because I'm not a big fan of previous Will Ferrell movies.

Labels: movies

Yesterday, Patty, Maegan, and I went to the world premier of Pixar's newest animated film, Cars. We got the tickets from my employer. Nearly 40,000 people attended the world premier held at Lowe's Motor Speedway - the largest movie premier in history - but we also got exclusive access to see the stars walk the red-carpet.

My summary for the event is as follows:

• Event: Absolutely horrible.
• Movie: Excellent.

I'm very grateful that we got tickets from my employer but the event was a planning disaster. Our VIP passes stated very clearly how we absolutely had to be there before 5:00pm. (Keep this in mind when you find out what time the movie began.) While on a slow line to get through security some bad storms moved in, which of couse is not the event planners' fault. It began to downpour heavily with thunder and lightning all around, and the winds really kicked up big time. They decided to move everybody who had already passed through security to safety inside Lowe's Motor Speedway but they kept the hundred or so people who were still in line (including us) outside in the torrential rain, lightning, and winds. To put this weather in perspective, we found out later that there were hail storms nearby and reports of a tornado. Yet the event planners still kept us, children included, outside to fend for ourselves. Total lack of planning. We were one of the lucky few who brought rain gear but we still ended up getting soaked to the bone.

After a full 45 minutes of hoping we weren't struck by lightning, they finally led us inside the speedway for shelter, but kept us corralled in a small area for an additional 45 minutes. By this time it's about 7:00pm and Maegan is hungry but they wouldn't allow us to go to the food stand that was open less than 50 feet away. When the storm finally passed we were allowed to go back to the red carpet area but then it began raining again. Others returned to the shelter but at that point we decided it was better to just sit there in the rain. We did eventually get to see Paul Newman, Richard Petty, George Carlin, John Ratzenberger, and other stars but the red carpet ordeal wasn't really worth all that trouble.

We left the red carpet area and found our seats. They had four giant screens set up around the infield on turn two. They entertained the crowd with a short dozen-lap NASCAR race which was cool, but in Hollywood fashion everybody and their brother had to get their time to perform in the spotlight. Towards the end the crowd was chanting "start the movie!". Despite the fact that this was a kids-oriented movie with several thousand children in attendance, the movie didn't begin until after 10:00pm.

So the event was a disaster, but the movie (when if finally began) was very good. Patty and Maegan loved it and Patty can't wait to buy it on DVD. For the most part I thought it was just as good as any previous Pixar film but I just found the heavy use of animated cameos to be cheesy. I had no problem with a character voiced by Richard Petty to be named "The King" but characters like Bob Cutlas (a sports announcer voiced by sports announcer Bob Costas) and Jay Limo (voiced by Jay Leno) made some moments feel like a bad 1970's Saturday morning cartoon. I felt like somebody was supposed to nudge me with their elbow and chuckle, "Ya get it?". They also had lots of straight cameos of stars playing themselves in car-form, like Mario Andretti and Michael Schumacher. Perhaps I'm alone in this opinon but I just think that when you want people to immerse themselves into a fictional world like that, making connections to celebrities in the real world destroys the illusion. But other than the cheese-factor of those celebrity cameos, the rest of the movie was excellent. And despite the earlier troubles, it was still kind of cool to attend the world premier, outdoors, with 40,000 other people.

Labels: Maegan, movies, Patty

The trailer is out for the movie I was an extra in - and I'm in the trailer! The movie was named "High, Wide, and Handsome" but has been renamed "Talladega Nights". The lead character played by Will Ferrell is named Ricky Bobby and hence the name of the official movie website is RickyBobby.com. Check out the movie trailer and you'll see me in the opening sequence, playing Tony the 1976 convenience store clerk.

Labels: movies

A major motion picture is being shot here in the Charlotte area. The film is a comedy starring Will Ferrell as a Nascar driver. The production company held open auditions for extras and I went expecting that I may get to be in a large crowd in the stands for a race sequence. To my surprise I was chosen by the Director as an extra for an individual role.

This Thursday I took a vacation day to shoot my scenes. I played Tony the Convenience Store Clerk. My scene takes place in 1976 and was with actress Jane Lynch who comes in to my store to buy a quart of milk. I wasn't sworn to secrecy but I don't want to spoil what happens next so you'll need to see the movie to find out what exciting thing happens next.

The role is small and I had no lines. My scene may end up being cut or I may not be in the camera shot. At best I'd only be in the film for a few seconds, but it was lots of fun no matter what. Remember to look for me. The movie is scheduled to be released on August 4th, 2006.

Labels: movies