Robot Chicken
Season One

My friend Robyn Yannoukos is an intern at ShadowMachine Films working on Robot Chicken and after watching the first 6 episodes of Moral Orel, another stop-motion animated series on Adult Swim that's also produced by ShadowMachine, I decided to see what sort of work Robyn's been doing.

Robot Chicken is insanely hilarious as beloved childhood toys rape and murder each other in rapidfire one-liner visual gags and retro mashup parodies.

My favorite visual gag from Season One depicts two naked guys playing a backyard game of ring-toss with donuts:

[from Season 1, Episode 09 "S&M Present"]

And my favorite parody features a vengeful Jesus hellbent on killing the Easter Bunny:

[from Season 1, Episode 02 "Nutcracker Sweet"]

Cheers to Seth Green and Matthew Senreich for creating such a twisted show.

Bill Hicks: Sane Man
dir. Kevin Booth
1989

"Today, a young man on acid realized that all matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration. That we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively. There is no such thing as death, life is only a dream and we're the imagination of ourselves. Here's Tom with the weather."

It's debatable whether or not Denis Leary straight-up stole Bill Hicks' pissed-off, chain-smoking on-stage persona, but it's very hard to deny that Denis Leary at least "borrowed" many of Bill Hicks' routines. A casual comparison between Bill Hicks debut concert film Sane Man (1989) and Denis Leary's debut concert film No Cure for Cancer (1992) reveals striking similarities, including jokes about John Lennon, Jim Fixx, cigarettes and drugs. In fact, both films end with the comics pantomiming death.

Now I'm not going to go so far as to call Denis Leary a "thief." I happen to like Leary a lot. But I love Bill Hicks even more. Hicks' comedy is much closer to social commentary than Leary's. And Sane Man is a classic example of Bill Hicks' hilarious rants.

RIP Bill Hicks

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Current Music: Let The Buyer Beware by Lenny Bruce

The God Who Wasn't There
dir. Brian Flemming
2005

I first read about The God Who Wasn't There over at Jason McCracken's blog.

more coming soon...

Ruthless review at Ruthless Reviews

Brian Flemming's blog

MythBusters
Season One

Self-proclaimed "MythBusters" Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman use their special-effects expertise and good ol' fashion science to test the plausibility of urban legends. On his personal website Adam describes the show as "Jackass meets Mr. Science" but I'd describe it more like Junkyard Wars meets Bullshit.

MythBusters is not only informative, it's also explosively entertaining because Adam and Jamie never stop short of merely replicating the myth. Even if a myth is "busted" they add whatever it takes to the equation in an attempt to duplicate the otherwise impossible results (which usually means death & destruction for Buster the dummy). It's also fun to watch Jamie and Adam argue over methodologies or trade blame when something goes wrong, but that really doesn't happen often because the combined brain-power of their diabolical minds usually produces scientifically sound tests with spectacular success. Well, the tests are successful, but the myths themselves rarely pass the tests without being busted.

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
dir. Tetsuya Nomura & Takeshi Nozue
2005

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children

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Current Mood: :o
Current Music: The Understanding by Röyksopp

Funeral Parade of Roses
dir. Toshio Matsumoto
1969

Toshio Matsumoto's Funeral Parade of Roses is a gender-bending retelling of a classic Greek myth mixed with psychedelic meta-filmic metaphor.

Matsumoto occasionally breaks the fourth wall and disrupts the already nonlinear narative to interview the actors about their on-camera and real-world roles as drag queens and druggies.

I'd bet money that Stanley Kubrick saw this film while he was developing A Clockwork Orange because the use of frantic cheesy music over sped-up action is just too perfect to be coincidental.

Even after 35+ years, Funeral Parade of Roses is still avant-garde and very shocking. It will forever be etched into my memory as "the film with a rose sticking out of the butt of a man in a bare-assed lineup."

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Current Music: Mer de Noms by A Perfect Circle

Rescue Me
Season Two

Season One of Rescue Me was all about the downfall of Tommy Gavin, while Season Two marked his comeback. Tommy's happiness doesn't last for long though and by the end of episode 12 (a tear-jerking episode ironically named "Happy") Tommy has fallen back further than when he lost his family and his job.

The season ends with a cliffhanger which may prove that Tommy still has a way to go before he hits rock-bottom.

Gantz
ガンツ
"First Stage"
(Season One - 13 eps)

I decided to watch Gantz after Régis IMed me some image links from GANTZ.net. Régis wasn't impressed by what he saw, but it sparked my interest.

After watching the first season (aka "The First Stage") of the show, must admit I like what I saw (violence and T&A), but I was very frustrated by the pacing of the show and by the lethal inaction of th characters. I frequently found myself yelling "RUN Fucker!" or "SHOOT Goddamn it!" at the TV as the characters stared blankly at their attackers or went off on some internal monologue reflecting about their soon-to-be-over lives instead of taking actions that would potentially save them or their fellow pawns in the sick and twisted game that is GANTZ.

I've heard the The Second Stage is faster-paced and I really hope so because the occasional exploding head or jiggling breast in the first 13 episodes barely kept my attention during the tedious parts.

Vol. 1	Vol. 2	Vol. 3
Vol. 4	Vol. 5	Vol. 6

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Currently listening to: Lost Dogs by Pearl Jam

Da Ali G Show
Season One

Booyakasha!!!

Season One of the American version of Da Ali G Show is hilarious (though Season Two is even funnier)

Sacha Baron Cohen is such a great chameleon that if he wasn't so freakishly tall * and his characters weren't so well, freakish, he'd be able to interact we the same people in rapid succession as Ali G, Borat and Brüno without anyone realizing that they are all really the same person.

At least that's what I used to think. After listening to the audio commentary on the first episode of Season One I discovered that part of the reason his transformation into each character is so complete is that he doesn't use wigs or fake mustaches or anything. Cohen pretty much lives (at least in appearance) as each character for long periods of time as they shoot all the segments featuring that character. Then production stops until he can grow the necessary hair / facial hair combo before they can resume shooting again as the new character. I've personally had Ali G's goatee and Brüno's faux-hawk, but I can't image walking around with Borat's fro and mustache.

* OK Cohen's not that freakishly tall... he's the same height as me: 6'3"

Other ALI G posts:
Da Ali G Show - Season Two
Ali G Indahouse

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Current Mood: D
Currently listening to: Simple Things by Zero 7

Bright Future
dir. Kiyoshi Kurosawa
2003

Kiyoshi Kurosawa (no relation to Akira) has made a name for himself as a director of horror/suspense/thrillers, but he departed from his previous work to create Bright Future, an enigmatic exploration of slacker youths.

Most reviews that I've read (see links below) have been quite unfavorable, but there is something about this film that really resonates with me. Maybe it's because I myself am a huge slacker searching for that "pet" project to spark my motivation, or maybe it's cuz I'm a huge a Tadanobu Asano fan.

Reviews:
Midnight Eye
Onion A.V.