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List of movies in production based on contemporary novels

Linda — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 19:00:55 +0000

If you are any bit the discerning reader, then you must hate those mass market movie cover books that come out after a wonderful novel has been adapted. It pains me that fresh copies of Ian McEwan’s Atonement have the cheap glossy cardboard covers with Kira Knightly and James McAvoy on it. Associated Content released a list of Books Slated to Become Movies in 2009-2010 earlier this year filled with Twilight, Harry Potter, and other NY Times bestseller drivel. Get a head start on your Fall reading with this list of engaging and exceptionally well written contemporary novels that are slated to become movies.

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (2010): This Man Booker Prize shortlisted novel is a tour-de-force of emotions and metaphysical themes. What does it mean to be human? Ishiguro explores the nature of humanity in this sweetly subtle sci-fi novel.
Life of Pi by Yann Martel (2011): Martel won the Man Booker prize for his hilarious novel about a boy stranded in the middle of the ocean with a Tiger. A must read.
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho (2011): This novel has been compared to St. Exupery’s legendary novel The Little Prince. In the Alchemist, a young boy sets off on a journey to find his “personal treasure” ,whatever it may be. And along the way he lerns some very valuable life lessons. This is a great book for anyone and everybody and easily ranks in my own top 10.
Middlesex by Jeffery Eugenides (2009): Eugenides’ last novel, the Virgin Suicides, was an indie hit. Will Middlesex have as much success on HBO?
Veronika Decides to Die by Paulo Coelho (2009): A darker novel than the Alchemist, Veronika Decides to Die centers around our title character’s inner struggle. She decides to commit suicide, but ultimately fails. After being told that she has done irreparable damage to her heart, she decides to spend her last few days doing whatever she wants and inadvertently discovers herself. Michelle Geller will play Veronika in the upcoming film. Read the novel first to see if her portrayal of the tortured Veronika is a thumbs up or thumbs down.

Any more? Let me know in the comments below!

-Linda

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Patrick Swayze, you will be missed #swayze

Will — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 00:44:13 +0000

Patrick Swayze has passed on. I’d like you all to remember what our world would look like without this man:

We would never have driven the reds from our shores (Wolverines!)

Baby would still be in that corner.

Without a Cooler, the Double Deuce’s bouncers would never have learned when to be nice… and when not to be nice.

Demi Moore would never have finished her sculpture.

Finally, Chris Farley would probably be a Chippendales Dancer if Swayze hadn’t beaten him in the audition.

You will be missed, Mr. Swayze.

(1952-2009)

Will

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New Movie ‘Bright Star’ Embodies Keats Poetry

Linda — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 18:30:41 +0000

Are you a lover of poetry? Then the upcoming movie Bright Star is a must see. The movie depicts the love story between the poet John Keats and Fanny Brawne, the girl next door. And perfectly timed to coincide with the movie is the recent opening of the John Keats House in Hampstead, England. After a 2 year renovation, the House opened for public tours on July 24th.

The newly renovated home is now filled with priceless antique furniture from the early 19th century. If you would like to bring a bit of old regal English style from the days of John Keats back with you, you can furnish your home with dark wood furniture, such as a dark wood armoire or dark wood buffet, a plush chesterfield sofa, and an elaborate plug in chandelier. You can mix and match traditional and modern aesthetic to create a unique design! Many of these traditional furniture pieces can be found for less with modern alternatives. Check out these budget friendly tufted sofa alternatives from Avenue Six. You get the same plush look for a about $500 instead of $3000. What a steal! But I digress…

It was in this house that Keats wrote some of his best known and much loved poems such as Ode on a Grecian Urn, The Eve of Saint Agnes, and Ode to a Nightingale. The House was painstakingly restored as close possible to the same condition as when Keats had lived in it. On display are items such as Fanny Brawne’s engagement ring from Keats, a brooch containing a lock of Keats’ hair, and Keats’ life and death masks. A visit to the House offers a peek into the life of a much talented poet whose brief life produced an inspiring amount of great art.

So arm yourself with a copy of Keats’ poetry, curl up on chesterfield, set a course for England or just the movie theaters and enjoy the beautiful words and wonderful poetry John Keats.

Guest Blogger: Phan Tieu T.
loves Keats!

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The Best, Worst Movie Ever

Brent — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 22:54:06 +0000

It is very easy to understand why this could possibly be one of the greatest, worst movies ever; the staring role is played by Gary Busey. Now this isn’t the somewhat normal Chet Steadman, Gary Busey. This is the 2005, I’m clinically insane Gary Busey, playing a killer gingerbread cookie. This fact alone should be enough of an incentive to rent the movie, but I’ll give you a little sneak peak about the awesomeness that is, The Gingerdead Man.

The start of the movie begins with deranged patron Millard Findlemeyer (Gary Busey) going psycho and opening fire on the Leigh family and killing 3 family members, all except the daughter Sarah and her mother Betty. Millard is eventually captured and sentenced to the electric chair based on Sarah’s testimony. His ashes are sent to her mother, and to vow her son’s revenge, Millard’s mother mixes her son’s ashes into a secret gingerbread cookie mix and send it to Betty and Sarah Leigh’s Bakery.

The rest of the movie depicts Gary Busey coming to life as a gingerbread man wreaking havoc around the bakery and killing the remaining members of the Leigh family. Now remember, this is the best, WORST movie ever, so watch this movie with that mindset and you’ll be thoroughly entertained.

Brent

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The Office

Brent — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 00:30:17 +0000

The best show currently on television is The Office, featuring Steve Carrell, Rainn Wilson & John Krazinski. However, with the ongoing writer’s strike, the continuation of this show is in serious jeopardy. It will be a very sad day if the writers and producers of the show decided to discontinue this amazing series. Because of this, I have bought every season of the show on DVD, and I encourage you to do the same. This would make a perfect holiday gift. It’s office humor and constant awkward situations are something that everyone can relate to. The actors and actresses are marvelous in their roles and you’ll find yourself relating to the characters on a deeper, more personal level. The season that are available now on DVD are:

Season 1
Season 2
Season 3

For those of you who are not familiar with the show, I’ve included some of my favorite scenes for you to enjoy. I really hope you consider investing in these DVD sets that you will watch over and over.

Brent

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How to survive Monday without Heroes

kris — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 17:32:06 +0000

So, I loves me some Heroes. Now with the writers strike in full force there is worry that volume 2 (expected to end about halfway through the season) may be the end of Heroes for this year. Which means that we will only be getting 11 episodes of our Heroes goodness this year before having to wait until 2008. So, in preparation for such a disaster I have compiled a handy set of tips to get through the possible Monday nights without a new episode of Heroes:

1) Test to see if you have a super power: Chances are you don’t, but it never hurt anyone to try (unless we’re talking Claire or Peter’s super power, in which case trying might hurt, a lot). Consider staring at a bottle for the hour you would be watching heroes. You’ll never make it move, but at least you won’t have to think about what you would be missing in a new episode.

2) Read the Heroes comic books: One thing that always amazed me about the series is that some of the coolest stuff happens off the air. If you haven’t read the comic books then you should really check them out. This break from new episodes will give you a chance to catch up on all the goings on that you missed outside of the show.

3) Read other comic books: There is a reason that everyone loves this show. It brings back memories of our childhood days reading the X-men and other tales of super heroes and incredible people. Why not go back and relive those days for real. Consider heading over to your local comic book store and picking up some new graphic novels. Most comic book store clerks are disturbingly knowledgeable about their work, so you’ll have no problem getting all the information you need (and more) about some good comics to start with. (might I suggest Neil Gaimon’s 1609 series).

4) Cry: If all else fails, express your distress for your broken Monday night with a good wailing cry. Sure, people will wonder why you’re crying over a TV show, but you know better! So let all out, it’ll be a great laugh for the rest of us when your roommate films it and puts it on Youtube.

Kris

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Movie List

Brent — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 20:45:19 +0000

So it’s about that time of the year again when family and friends start calling you randomly and sending you emails asking about your holiday wish list. Well, at least with my family it’s like this. Throughout the year I always seem to find really cool electronics or toys or equipment that I would love to have, but when the holiday season rolls around, I always seem to draw a blank and can’t remember what any of them were, and thus, my list is empty. I’m sure this happens to many people besides myself, including my own family and friends that I’m purchasing gifts for. The only thing worse than having to search countless hours for a gift to buy someone, who doesn’t have a list or hasn’t given you any ideas, is to surprise them with something they absolutely hate. It’s happened to everyone, both on the gift giving side and the receiving end. What I’ve learned from all of this, is that you can never go wrong with a good DVD. No matter who you are, everyone enjoys the time to relax and watch a good, quality movie. In my quest to help you buy a DVD for that special someone, I have listed my 5 favorite movies off all time. Because I too have trouble buying gifts, I would love to hear your top 5. Here it goes…

1. American History X (1998) – Edward Norton, Edward Furlong

2. Dumb and Dumber (1994) – Jim Carrey, Jeff Daniels

3. Blow (2001) – Johnny Depp, Penelope Cruz

4. Shawshank Redemption (1994) – Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman

5. 21 Grams (2003) – Sean Penn, Naomi Watts

Others that almost cracked the list would include:
Back to the Future, Dazed and Confused, Memento, Seven, and Die Hard

Comment, critique and post your own listing.

Brent

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On Demand is a beautiful thing.

kris — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 17:41:17 +0000

Boring weekends are never a good thing. Typically the television studios choose the weekends that they know you will be sitting around doing nothing to show the marathon of terrible teen comedies or really bad sci-fi thrillers. I was in such a pickle this weekend before realizing that I was in fact the owner of Comcast On Demand. Not one to venture outside into the terrifying light of the bright orb in the sky, I knew that I must find another form of entertainment. This is when I discovered two glorious things:

1) Godzilla Final Wars.
I am a big fan of Godzilla movies. Anyone who tries to tell me that the production value is terrible, the writing is non-existent, and the acting is near high school level is just missing the point. The fact is there is something innately satisfying about the movies that keep me coming back. Well I was under the impression that the Ultimate in Godzilla movies was Godzilla vs. Mechazilla (the one made this decade). That movie seemed to have the highest budget of any Godzilla movies I had seen, and was quite entertaining. This was until I came across Godzilla Final War. This movie is literally the Godzilla movie to end all Godzilla movies. The movie begins with Godzilla getting trapped under the Antarctic by what can only be described as a flying drill of death. As monsters being to attack every city on the planet, a force of mutant humans that were conveniently discovered is formed to do crazy wire fighting with giant monsters while wearing motocross gear. This alone is the premise for a great movie, but then aliens show up. Now there are aliens, monsters, super mutants, and just about every other sci-fi element possible in a movie. Oh and Don Frye. At the end of the 2 hour movie I felt as though I had lived 2 lifetimes, I had to take a nap.

2) Flight of the Conchords
New Zealand is not exactly a place that crosses my mind more than once every 5 years. I think it has been burned into my mind as “the place they filmed the Lord of the Rings.” You can imagine my shock when I discovered that they have comedy over there. In fact, the tiny island seems to have bred the funniest comedy duo I have seen in quite some time. The Flight of the Conchords is one of those shows that gets canceled even though it’s better than anything else on TV. Sure, I had seen a few advertisements floating around, but I never really considered giving the show a shot. Finally this weekend I was told by a friend to watch Episode one, and had to then watch the entire Season one. The show is pure comedy. The best way I can describe the show is, and I apologize for the butchery I am about to commit, “Arrested Development with Music.” It just has the feel of ridiculous people, in ridiculous situations. It’s real in a lot of ways, but it also has a certain surreal nature that gives it its charm. The best way to show the brilliance is this:

and

oh and

Kris

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The Fall TV lineup, Or Heroes and everything else.

kris — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 19:10:11 +0000

Honestly, it goes without saying that television these days is nothing but worthless junk spread out over 99% of the day on 4500 channels. It’s gotten to the point where quite often the best thing on TV was made in 1994. Every once in a while a show like Heroes comes along and actually provides us with some entertaining television, but most of the time we get another version of CSI, a new reality show, or Law and Order CAARIWS (Crimes against angry rabbits in white suits) Unit. The main problem is that the studios have no idea what people actually like. Sure, they have a pretty good idea of what people watch, but when it comes to what shows people really enjoy and why they enjoy them, they are clueless. Take for example the new shows on the fall lineup:

ABC – Cavemen (aka ‘it’s like those funny Geiko commercials, see!), Carpoolers (nothing says hilarious like 3 hours of morning traffic), Pushing Daisies, Private Practice, Dirty Sexy Money (…what?), Big Shots, Women’s Murder Club (…?),
CBS – The Big Bang Theory (oh euphemism), Cane, Kid Nation, Moonlight, Viva Laughlin! (musical/drama… I’m bashing my head into my desk right now).
CW – Aliens in America (Never been done before!), Reaper, Gossip Girl, Online Nation (It’s a show about the internets!), CWNow (lolnews?), Life is Wild (rawr?).
FOX – K-Ville (a village of K-feds? I could only dream.), Back to you, Kitchen Nightmares (a reality show about cooking, how unique), American Band (oh boy, more bad music from reality TV stars), Nashville (MORE bad music from reality TV stars – country edition),
NBC – Bionic Woman (Vroommchahahahahhaa), Life (Always look on the bright side of it).

So that is the network TV schedule. Just by the names alone you can tell that the majority of these shows are going to suck. The returning shows aren’t much better. In fact, in the entire network TV lineup only one show is worth watching: Heroes.

And cable isn’t much better. Comedy Central brings us new episodes of Futurama and South Park, but they also bring us new episodes of The Sarah Silverman Program, and for that they cannot be forgiven. FX gives us a heaping wad of nothing. HBO decides that they want to stop offering quality TV. SciFi takes a break from playing movies like Megasnake to give us new Battlestar Galactica. Showtime… well, does anyone even watch Showtime? Finally, USA proves that they can in fact show nothing but Law and Order for 23 hours a day.

As I said, American TV studios have no idea what makes entertaining TV. The key word in that statement is “entertaining.” We have gotten very good at making flashy, quaint, charming, high-budget, and star studded TV, but we have no idea what makes entertaining TV. Lets look at Japanese television and a show called Ninja Warrior. The concept is simple, take people who’ve been training for months and put them on a challenging obstacle course. When they win it is a feel good story of triumph, and when they lose we get to chuckle that they just fell in muddy water. We used to do television like this. We were the nation that brought the world American Gladiators, but now we remake it years later as a reality TV show.

Worthless.

Kris

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Superbad = SuperAWESOME

Brent — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 21:25:56 +0000

So this weekend I was finally able to go see the movie Superbad, which stares Jonah Hill (Accepted & Knocked Up), Michael Cear (Arrested Development), and Christopher Mintz-Plasse. After seeing previews a couple of weeks ago, I honestly didn’t know what to expect out of this movie. I knew the actors in this movie had a reputation for being comedic geniuses, but other than that I hadn’t the slightest idea of a possible storyline.

Let me tell you though, this movie was freaking awesome. The comedic performances from all three main characters, as well as the supporting roles, were amazing. From start to finish, I found myself cracking up at all the wise-crack humor and bizarre situations these high school characters encounter. I also found my new comic hero, McLovin (played by Mintz-Plasse).

The movie starts off with three high school friends on a quest to score a hot chick before they graduate in two weeks. The only problem with their plan is that they aren’t the most socially accepted kids at school. Their best opportunity arises when they are invited to one of the popular girl’s parties, on the condition that they provide everyone with alcohol. Fogell, aka McLovin, comes to the rescue by obtaining a fake ID. From then on, the events and situations they go through will stay with them as they go their own ways to college.

This cast of characters really has something going for them. I personally see them as the next close knit group of actors to continue doing films together, such as what Hollywood has declared, the “frat pack”, which includes actors, Will Ferrell, Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, Jack Black, Steve Carell, and Luke & Owen Wilson. There view on comedy is new and unique, and I expect a lot more great things out of this group. So don’t miss the opportunity to see one of the best comedy’s of the year!

EDIT: Oh and the DVD is cool, too

Brent

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