Film is Pwn

Age, sex, geographical location, socio-economic status and many other things are used by brilliant marketers to advertising in a targeted way. Movies, just like any product, can be broken down similarly.

I must admit my love for the weird indie films that often gain critical appeal but are big losers in the world of the typical movie viewer. I was amused as I stumbled across something on the New York Times today which shows according to popularity of rental to a particular zipcode movies from the most rented list off NetFlix. Some of these movies are:

• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button — which was complete trash and a waste of my blasted time!
• Paul Blart Mall Cop — which was utter rubbish and a device to rob me of 2 hours!
• True Blood Season One — which is a train wreck of sex and violence
• twlight — don’t even get me started.
• The International – one of the most dull and pointless “action”/espionage movies I’ve ever seen
• Hancock – #1 movie of wasted potential on the list
• Wanted – this was probably the best movie about bending bullets I’ve ever seen. At least 1/2 star!

Anyway, look and enjoy. The correlation of particular movies to particular regions and locales is astonishing or not so (depending on how you look at it).

There’s is a definite correlation of the types of movies I enjoy and how they tend to be enjoyed by people of certain areas. I’m sure you’ll be able to find a similar connection to the types of movies you enjoy as well.

New York Times NetFlix Rentals Map Overlay

I’ve been hearing a lot of horror stories of heightened airport security and precautionary measures on planes where passengers aren’t allowed to have books in their lap or go to the bathroom for the last hour of the flight.  It reminded me of the last time I got on a plane, on my Business Trip From Heck, which I have sworn will truly be the last time I get on a plane.  It wasn’t so much the flight as the entire experience, a business trip no less.   This is prior to Film Is Pwn’s existence, and I documented it all at the time (September 2007).  I initially posted it on my myspace page (remember those?) and I’m republishing it here for your amusement and because I’m feeling lazy and don’t want to post an actual film related blog.  Enjoy!

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I’m a regular viewer of the At The Movies TV show, formerly known as Siskel & Ebert/Ebert & Roeper.  At the Movies is currently hosted by two film critics whose opinions I enjoy even when I disagree, A.O. Scott of the New York Times and Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune.  For the past ten weeks Scott & Phillips have been unveiling their picks for the top ten movies of the decade.  While Scott & Phillips are entertaining and knowledgable film critics, they are your classic film critics.  By that I mean they are prone to like dull, subtitled, Belgian films about the angst of existence when normal humans would prefer a good action film. 

I still count myself as a “normal” fan of movies, despite two years of writing film reviews.  I’m going to give you my favorite ten movies of the decade, but first, let me share with you their selections, with my comments in bold. (more…)

This is about baseball, but I’ll tie it in to the realm of film if you bear with me for a moment.

I’m a big baseball man and a die-hard Chicago Cubs fan, so since 1945 I find myself in the unenviable but inevitable position of watching the World Series, the champions of their respective leagues battling it out for the ultimate prize, and not having my beloved Cubbies there to root for.  So each year I must pick a team to root for that is not the Cubs, generally an underdog like the Rockies or the Rays (never the Marlins . . . stupid Marlins).
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It’s the eve of Halloween, or “All Hallow’s Eve” if I wanted to be pretentious (and as a writer of a blog, I must be a little pretentious), a fact that’s pretty difficult to escape.  My officemates have filled cubicleworld with spooky decorations and there is a costume contest on Friday (I’m dressing as a human!); the multiplexes are overflowing with the latest batch of horror flicks that I’ll never see (this means you, Saw VI!); and every channel is broadcasting some manner of scary movie or television show this weekend, from the SyFy Channel to the Weather Channel.
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There are very few things in my life that upset me – I am a pretty laid back fellow.  But there is one thing that angers me more than anything else.  It makes my heart race, my blood boil, and even makes me want to speak in a volume above the generally accepted social norm.  That thing is DVD region coding, the greatest injustice of our time.  For those of you not familiar with DVD region coding, let me explain.  Before I do that however, I want your word that you won’t grab the nearest blunt object and run off to the homes of DVD industry executives.  You promise?  Good, here goes:

DVDs have what is called a region code (numbered 0-8 although 7 is not currently used and 8 applies only to international venues).  Code 0 is great, it means the DVD can be played in any DVD player.  After that is where the true horror begins… the codes limit you to using only DVDs in your region:

REGION 1 — USA, Canada
REGION 2 — Japan, Europe, South Africa, Middle East, Greenland
REGION 3 — S.Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Parts of South East Asia
REGION 4 — Australia, New Zealand, Latin America (including Mexico)
REGION 5 — Eastern Europe, Russia, India, Africa
REGION 6 — China
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I don’t want to start off this entry on a controversial note, but I will admit: I like jokes.  No, it’s true.  I like laughing, I like funny people, and I think humor is generally a good thing for men, women, and children ages 3 and up.  But, I truly fail to see the humor in Sacha Baron Cohen’s full length practical joke film, Bruno. (more…)

Earlier this week, former Secretary of Defense under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, Robert McNamara passed away at the age of 93.  McNamara was, to put it lightly, a controversial figure, considered “evil” by some, best remembered as the architect of the Viet Nam war.  Even though I’m a conservative Republican (and McNamara served under two Democratic Presidents) I am a huge admirer of the Errol Morris documentary The Fog of War (2003), which is essentially the audio-visual autobiography of Mr. McNamara. 

The film follows McNamara’s life through his service in World War II (including his sobering thoughts on deserving to be prosecuted as a war criminal if the Allies lost); ascension trough the Ford Motor Company (where he became the first President not a member of the Ford family); being recruited as one of JFK’s “Best and Brightest;” the Cuban Missile Crisis and how close we came to World War III; looking back on the mistakes and misconceptions of VIet Nam; and so much more. 
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In a mega-rare occurrence for me, I attended live theater over the weekend.  (For those unaware, ”live theater” is kind of like a movie, except instead of watching a screen, you are watching actual human beings on a stage performing the action right in front of you.  Amazing, I know!)

Rest assured, even though I’ve attended my first local stage production, I did not get any more cultured, as the play I saw was Evil Dead: The Musical, presented by Actor’s Theatre of Charlotte.
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No, not the “go to the beach, take a vacation” part of the Summer, I’m hypothesizing that the Summer movie slate in 2009 has nothing that remotely piques my interest half way as much as Star Trek did, and I’d be (pleasantly) stunned if any of them were half as enjoyable. (more…)

Just a quick word on some of the new DVD releases, what I’d recommend renting and what I’d recommend skipping: (more…)

Since Film Is Pwn’s inception, there have been several movies I started to watch but just COULDN’T stomach long enough to even write a scathing review of.  Considering some of the crap I’ve made it through, that says something about these films that I think they deserve special attention.  To commemorate our first anniversary, I present them to you in no particular order:

• Vertical Limit (2000): I’d enjoyed Chris O’Donnell’s classic remake of Sylvester Stallone’s Cliffhanger many years ago while roommates with Tom Stephens, and figured it would be a cinch to refresh my memory of the blubbering inanity to craft a humorous blog on the film, which features Bill Paxton impersonating “Macho Man” Randy Savage among other strange occurrences.  I quit about ten minutes in, finding the dreadful mountain-climbing/rescue picture unwatchable without a friend to endure it with. (more…)