Thursday, November 26, 2009

Happy Thanksgiving from Lulu Eightball

Just a little something to kickoff the holiday. Emily Flake's Lulu Eightball is bitterly funny and it's one of the main reasons I pick up Boston's Weekly Dig every week.

I particularly like the one on the upper right. Happy Thanksgiving!

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Nerd Rant: Clash of the Titans Remake

Complaining about the unoriginality of Hollywood is about as useful as complaining about the weather, and using phrases like "raping my childhood" is offensive, cliché, and so cliché it's offensive. But I just watched the trailer for the remake of Clash of the Titans, and I am stunned once again by Hollywood's unoriginality and I feel like my childhood has been raped. Or at least molested.

The 1981 Clash of the Titans is one of the first movies I remember watching, ever. I was 5, and my parents took me to a drive-in to see The Fox and the Hound. It was a double feature with CotT following the forgettable Disney feature, and I guess my parents stayed assuming the kids would fall asleep.

I didn't fall asleep. The movie should have scared the crap out of a 5-year-old, but I fell in love with it. It was and continues to be one of my favorite movies of all time. Technically, it was directed by some guy named Desmond Davis, but anyone who knows it (and I know it very, very well) thinks of it as a Ray Harryhausen film, the last real Harryhausen film made. Yeah, the special effects are dated, but they are still amazing for the time period. It's worth watching the movie just for the creepy Medusa scenes, but there's plenty to admire in terms of the other effects. And it's a fun story. And Laurence Olivier is Zeus! Can the remake have that?

I implore anyone who's never seen this film to watch the original and not the remake. And if they decide to remake Jason and the Argonauts, I may be forced to rant again.