Happy New year, you sons and daughters of total bitches.
Try to get it right, this time.
I’m off to take fistfuls of ludes and watch Wachowski movies with my girlfriend’s raver friends.
Posted under eric's blog
This post was written by Eric on December 31, 2008
It’s that last day of 2008. What are you gonna do? I know what i’m gonna do.
Party like a ROCK STAR! or just a really short kinda effeminate jew kid who loves comics.
one of the two.
Double double toilet and troble
Peep the funk flow,
Dave
Posted under dave's blog
This post was written by Dave on December 31, 2008
I’ve had werewolves on the brain lately. Here are some sketches of the werewolf design for an upcoming project from Mr Eric M Esquivel and I.
Nope
Posted under dave's blog
This post was written by Dave on December 30, 2008
Episode 11 of our podcast if up.
You should listen to it and be a part of the 45th most popular comic book podcast.
No, really. We’re the 45th most popular comic book podcast. Really.
Is that cool, or what?
It’s not?
I thought it was cool.
Who do you think you are, anyway?
Oh, you’re our fan. Ok. You would know.
Peep the Funk Flow,
Dave
Posted under Podcast, dave's blog
This post was written by Dave on December 29, 2008
David Fincher’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a slightly bloated visual effects extravaganza of awesomeness. David Fincher weaves a somewhat simple narrative through the course of the main character’s journey, but does it in a way that is surprisingly satisfactory. Fincher shows again that he’s a master, but unfortunately doesn’t learn from the mistakes of Zodiac. His previous film, Zodiac, a suspense thriller chronicleing the murders by the serial killer of the same monicker, was not received well critically due it’s drawn out running time. Button suffers from the same problem.
I have enjoyed all of Fincher’s movies (besides Panic Room. that shit was awful.) and this was among the best. It’s no fight club, but comparing it to arguably the greatest movie of our generation is a tough feat for any film.
Brad Pitt’s performance was adequite. It’s Brad Pitt. He kinda only does one thing; stand there and look pretty. Oh, and he did a lot of that. I was a little taken aback by how good Fincher actually made him look. The special effects are astounding. Not in an, “oh, my god! Godzilla is destroying tokyo” way either. They’re way more subtle than the trailers actually put forth. Well, not subtle per say, but they serve the story instead of becoming an attraction unto themselves.
Now, on to the bad stuff:
The movie needs a face-lift. BAD. The opening and ending scenes need to go. Completely. Almost every sequence needs to be punched up, thinned out, or nixed completely. The necessity of the editing does not necessarily lie in the pace or flow of the movie, it’s in the overall running time. The movie gets bogged down early on and in the last act focused on details that could be skimmed over in favor of a grander picture.
Hopefully, David Fincher will keep this level of quality, and just make shorter movies. I look forward to his future adaptation of Eric Powell’s The Goon.
Posted under dave's blog
This post was written by Dave on December 28, 2008
Phonogram is the book for everyone who knows that there’s more magic in Morrissey’s quiff than in Gandalf’s wand.
It’s about that impossible hold music can have on the mind, about the playlists that make us feel bulletproof, and the eerily relevant gloom-pop singles that make us wish we were never born.
Inrigued? Good. Then you have a soul.
Kieron’s metaphor of disc-jockeys-as-magicians is genius, and executed as sublty and sophisticatedly as the best issue of Alan Moore’s Hellblazer run.
A staggeringly impressive piece of magical realism.
www.PhonogramComic.com
P.S.-have fun wikepedia-ing all the brit pop referrences you’re unfamiliar with. I know I did.
Posted under eric's blog
This post was written by Eric on December 28, 2008
Ron Howard’s film adaptation of Peter Morgan’s play Frost/Nixon is a great piece of film. Ron Howard is back at the top of his game, after a rather less than exhilarating The Da Vinci Code. Howard shows that he’s got the chops to keep the story moving along at a steady pace without glossing over key elements or character moments. Howard uses Frank Langella’s stellar performance as Richard M. Nixon like a scalpel trimming away any preconceived notions of big bad Tricky Dick. Langella turns what could have been a one-dimensional villain into a sympathetic antagonist.
Michael Sheen’s David Frost is the dark horse in this award season’s race. Despite an outstanding showing, he will be forgotten or looked over in favor of Frank Langella.
There are very few negative things i can say about Frost/Nixon. It’s cast perfectly, acted perfectly, and paced perfectly.
The only element that wasn’t perfect is the film screams the question, “Who will be the Frost to President Bush’s Nixon?” And there’s no answer to that question. I don’t think we’ll ever have a Frost/Nixon like debate where Bush comes clean about Iraq, the Patriot Act, or the illegal prisons in places like Guantanamo Bay.
That’s a shame.
A real shame.
Frost/Nixon is not only a compelling look back into one of our nation’s true journalistic adventures, but also a hopeful look forward. Frost/Nixon dares someone to stand up, to be counted, and to tell the world what is happening. Ron Howard is back where he belongs, making thought provoking films. Not adapting Dan Brown novels.
Posted under dave's blog
This post was written by Dave on December 27, 2008
Well, Bryan Singer fails again.
Bryan Singer’s Valkyrie was lack luster and slightly disappointing. It wasn’t terrible. It just wasn’t great. It wasn’t anywhere near great. It wasn’t even in the same fucking country as great.
Singer lines up a stellar cast, with the notable exception of Mr. Cruise. Bill Nighy is both moving and delivers a commendable performance, Eddie Izzard and Terence Stamp both deliver under used performances, and Tom Wilkinson meets his usual level of excellence. The picture is mildly suspenseful and succeeds at what it sets out to do: explain the nuts and bolts of the last assassination attempt on the life of Adolf Hitler. However, what it forgets is a sense of humanity.
Part of the problem is that Tom Cruise is such a mega-star that he is distracting. It’s one thing if you’re watching Mission Impossible 17: Revenge of the cold fusion, where you know what you’re signing up for. You’re there to see shit blow up and Tom Cruise to deliver sub par one liners without cracking a smile. In a movie where you need to feel an emotional connection with the main character, to feel his struggle against immovable odds, he’s noticeably miss cast. Cruise’s stoic portrayal of a Nazi soldier disenfranchised with Hitler’s Germany is strikingly mediocre. Cruise isn’t bad, in the flick, he’s ok. But the giant shadow he casts is. Every scene you’re sitting in a darkened theatre, looking up at an immense screen, and thinking to yourself,” Wow, look at Tom Cruise talk to those Nazis. He’s really talking to those Nazis. Good for you, Tom. You go, and talk your ass off to those Nazis.”
One wonders, how much of the Tom Cruise casting decision was Singer’s or the Studio’s? After the results Superman Returns, staring a relative unknown, with a supporting cast of bankable stars it still remains to be seen if trying the opposite will have a positive effect on audiences.
Posted under dave's blog
This post was written by Dave on December 27, 2008
the end times
Fuck Family
Peep the funk flow,
Dave Baker
Posted under dave's blog
This post was written by Dave on December 27, 2008
Dr. Van Helsing has Draculas
Malcom X has racism
McCarthy has reds
W.I.L.D.CATS have daemonites
I have women
Posted under eric's blog
This post was written by Eric on December 27, 2008
