Tag: Jason Schwartzman

A “Bored to Death” Movie? … No, I Want More!

by MCDave

For nearly a year we’ve been living with the news of a return for one of HBO’s most under-appreciated television shows. Back in January of 2013, it was first reported that the once-cancelled, 30-minute comedy show, “Bored to Death”, would rise from the grave … but this time, in feature length form. While any news of a resurrection had my attention, the truth is, I wanted more. Call it greed, call it wishful-thinking, call it whatever you want. Bottom line: “Bored to Death” NEEDS TO MAKE A COMEBACK!

trio

While the television show’s typical small-mystery format would translate nicely to a longer feature-length film boasting a more complicated and developed riddle, simply giving “Bored to Death” the movie-treatment is like trying to cover a gunshot wound with a tiny band-aid. Clearly ahead of its time and undeniably original, “Bored to Death” developed a trio of characters that were lovable and laughable all at the same time. Leading star and unlicensed private detective, Jonathan Ames (played by Jason Schwartzman), helped relieve boredom from all of our lives. His quasi-dangerous and often hilarious mysteries transformed the mundane into a spectacle, giving each of its “trapped in a 9 to 5 lifestyle”-viewers a method of escape.

bored duo

Schwartzman was hardly the lone highlight in HBO’s lost, but never forgotten, masterpiece. Along with his pot-smoking sidekicks George (Ted Danson) and comic-book creator, Ray (Zack Galifianakis), the trio of bone-headed heroes made for some of television’s finest moments during its short-lived run from 2009-2011. These three comedic actors are all household names in their own right, yet still, “Bored to Death” feels like the pinnacle of their performing careers. With each progressive season outshining its predecessor, this is truly the best you’ve ever seen Zack Galifianakis, Ted Danson and Jason Schwartzman … and I do mean EVER (yes, I’m including The Hangover and “Cheers”)!

gali

“Bored to Death” also landed a ton of fantastic cameos from Kevin Bacon, Kristen Wiig, Olympia Dukakis, and the list goes on. In fact, one season three regular,Wedding Crashers co-star Isla Fisher, spoke out emphatically about the show after receiving word of a potential movie in development. Fisher would be thrilled to reprise her role in a “Bored to Death” feature length film, however, fans of the show desperately need to come together and clamor for more.

With the recent string of television show revivals over the past decade, including “Family Guy” and “Arrested Development”, now is as good a time as any to band together and stand up for “Bored to Death”. Fans of the show, and I know you’re out there, need to be vocal in our efforts. Social media has become a modern tool for spreading messages, and I have one message that I want heard LOUD AND CLEAR …

BRING BACK “BORED TO DEATH”!

The time is now.

 

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Geekscape Movie Reviews: “Moonrise Kingdom”

by Scott Alminiana

Hipster director Wes Anderson is back with “Moonrise Kingdom,” his follow up to 2009’s “The Fantastic Mr. Fox.” Anderson co-wrote the story with Roman Coppola (they previously wrote “The Darjeeling Limited), in which two 12-year-olds fall in love in 1965 and run away together into the wilderness as authorities search for them.

Newcomers  Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward play the roles of star-crossed 12-year-olds, Sam Shakusky and Suzy Bishop, and they give terrific performances. These aren’t regular kids, these are kids seen through a Wes Anderson filter.

Sam is an orphaned kid, disliked by both his foster brothers and his fellow kaki scouts. Suzy is a misunderstood girl, who lives in a lighthouse with her three younger brothers and parents (Bill Murray and Frances McDormand). The two meet and begin writing each other, soon hatching a plan to run away together into the great unknown. Scout Master Ward (a wonderful Edward Norton) soon realizes that Sam has “flown the coup,” enlists the help of police captain Sharp (an out of character Bruce Willis, but great none the less) and forms a search party made up of the kids from the scout troop, who are out for blood. Along the way, we are treated to performances from Tilda Swinton as Social Services (no really, that’s her name in this), Jason Schwartzmen as Ben, a scheming con-artist of a camp counselor, and Harvey Keitel as Commander Pierce.

I can’t give enough credit to Wed Anderson for his work here. If you’re not a fan of his, this isn’t going to win you over. If you are a fan of his work however, like me, you will find this endearing and charming without ever being cutesy or mushy. From the opening shot to the closing credits, there is always something wildly entertaining going on in each frame, be it the subtle look on a character’s face, or the wonderful narration of Bob Balaban. There are a few parts where the pacing does drag a tad but overall the film works wonders.

If you want to a see a film that is hilariously heartfelt, where you may find yourself smiling frequently throughout, then this film is for you. If that doesn’t sound like your type of movie, go see “Battleship” instead. The choice is yours, but choose wisely.

Score: 4/5

 

Top 10 Most Bad Ass Movie Teens

by Saintmort

Every once and a while you’ll be watching a teen flick and go… damn… that kid is so bad ass… I want to grow up to be him (this is of course when you’re 30 and slightly idolizing a “supposed” 17 year old kid). Now everyone says Ferris Bueller or Spicoli but let’s face it: they weren’t all that bad-ass (just lazy).

THESE TEENS WERE BAD ASS:

10. Mark “Hard Harry” Hunter (Christian Slater) – Pump Up the Volume
Has anyone ever watched this movie and NOT wanted to start a pirate radio station? Mark Hunter has it all… unreleased Beastie Boys tracks, thousands of fans and Samantha Mathis willing to take her shirt off for no apparent reason at all. He also taught us to “Eat your cereal with a fork and do your homework in the dark”. That lesson alone got me through freshman year of college.

9. Max Fisher (Jason Schwartzman) – Rushmore
Max Fisher isn’t a bad ass by normal standers but you can’t deny that putting on a play with explosions is pretty badass. Not to mention that he starts building an aquarium on school grounds without any permission from administrators as well as knows a guy who can get you piranhas.

8. Ruper ‘Stiles’ Stilinski (Jerry Levine) – Teen Wolf
There’s nothing like a party animal that can help you go from a typical nerd to a full blown marketing image. Wolf Mania blew up and it’s because of Stiles campaigning with “Wolf Out” t-shirts and allowing Marty McFly… I mean… Scott Howard to surf on the roof of his van all over town. And exactly “what ARE you looking at, dick nose?”

7. Dudley “Booger” Dawson (Curtis Armstrong) – Revenge of the Nerds
Okay. So with a nickname like Booger it’s easy to assume that he’s a nerd, but damn it if he’s not the coolest nerd ever. Furthermore… I never really understood why he was one of the nerds but I’m glad he was. He busts out mega joints to light up a party. He wins burping contests and he loves Pi. A major part of being “bad ass” is not giving a F*@% and Booger exemplifies this in spades.

6. Patrick Verona (Heath Ledger) – 10 Things I Hate About You
He’s a romancer. He’s slick. He’s got a sexy accent and allegedly a duck (everything but the feet and beak). Ladies in bands want to date him because after every fight he buys you an instrument and he’ll sneak out of detention just to play paintball. You try making Shakespeare this bad ass and see how far you get. Even DiCaprio came off looking like a whiny bitch and he was in The Beach screaming for 2 hours.

5. John Bender (Judd Nelson) – The Breakfast Club
This list just got real real, mofos. Can anyone even attempt to pretend that John Bender wasn’t the coolest kid ever? There’s two types of kids who go to detention: people who are complete idiots that piss you off and those who are so amazingly bad ass that it was the only way to keep them down. Plus Bart Simpson would be catch-phraseless without John Bender’s “Eat My Shorts” sequence. This bad ass dared to mess with the bull and get the horns.

4. Joel Goodsen (Tom Cruise) – Risky Business
it’s not often a high school kid gets to build a brothel in his own living room, but Joel Goodsen did it and on top of that got to bone Rebecca De Mornay so yeah, he’s sort of a personal hero of mine. There’s absolutely nothing more bad ass than boning a hot Coug before you hit 20.

3. Jim Stark (James Dean) – Rebel Without a Cause
James Dean planted the flag early on what it meant to be a bad ass teen. Jim Stark was a teen that every women wearing figure-restrictive undergarments wanted to be with and every dude wanted to be. And you couldn’t beat him. Just ask Buzz… who’s attempt at wearing a bad ass jacket cost him his life. Oh, and if you want to be his little boy toy, man-friend you don’t end up so well either.

2. Jason “J.D.” Dean (Christina Slater) – Heathers
Now I don’t support murder at all… and after Columbine it pretty much guranteed there will never be another movie like Heathers that made this kind of behavior “bad ass”. Still… do you know anyone who was able to kill all the assholes at their school and make it seem like suicide? Nope… only a true bad ass can use a corn nut to kill.

1. Rudy (Ryan Lambert) – The Monster Squad
What did you expect? He strikes a match for his smoke on his Keds. He bullies the bullies. He peeping toms on your hot sister and he nails vampire chicks with wooden stakes. Rudy even taught that fat putz Horace how to stand up and be bad ass. If you haven’t learned this valuable life lession yet… I will allow this video clip from Geekscape Episode 10: Geekscape X-treme to do the speaking for me:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hckgneUr10

Now don’t you want to go back to High School and try that again?