Hello World, Marc Here: Well, it’s Wednesday and there’s nothing I’m absolutely compelled to write about so I throw this one out there for your consideration. I watch movies a lot…let me reiterate, a lot.  Now, when I’m zoning out of a movie I’m not really into or one I’ve seen a thousand times, there’s one thing that I’ve begun to notice on an increasing level.  That is that actors don’t wear their seat belts in a scene where they are driving a car.  Now its not a big detraction for me, but it still makes me go “hmm”.  The fact that they’re not wearing it just seems to jump…

This is a topic I have been thinking about for the past few years.  As a fan of (mostly) American cinema, I have seen, what I consider, poor acting, good acting, and great acting.  One example for each of those categories would be Mark Wahlberg, Daniel Craig, and Russell Crowe. Now, I realize my examples above are actors for one genre, being ‘action films’, but it should give you what I think are “poster boys” spanning the range of actors in cinema now-a-days.  Usually, in film today, it’s tough to get an original story out of Hollywood, a character that requires an actor to “stretch” to pull off the role,…

If there’s one thing I don’t appreciate in Hollywood, it is the over-use of an actor.  Now don’t get me wrong, I love seeing my favorite actor(s) in as many movies as possible and I enjoy seeing them on screen, testing their range and trying new things but I hate it when they are suddenly everywhere at once.   They,very quickly, become so popular that they’re in pretty much everything, then they disappear for a while and come back in bit parts in so many movies spread throughout out the year…take Terrence Howard for instance.  I’d like to see him on more films as the lead role, not a supporting…

A few days ago, I read about Michael Jordan watching his son play basketball in some championship game or something, but I don’t remember the specifics (shows you how much we care about things outside the film world doesn’t it?) Anyway his son plays for a Chicago High School called Whitney Young.  That got me thinking, “where had I heard that name before?”.  Well I was on my way to work and then it hit me.  There was a movie with Jeff Daniels and Jena Malone  called Cheaters.  It was an HBO film (written/directed by John Stockwell: “Cougar” in Top Gun) about an inner-city Chicago high school who cheats on…

Hello World, How many people out there know Robert Rodriguez?  How many people have seen his films?  OK, how many people own Once Upon a Time in Mexico? If you have it, I suggest you watch the special feature entitled “10 Minute Film School”.  Its really worth your time.  In 10 minutes he explains how he was able to do more things digitally, in a short period of time, (and right from his own home) than could be done using other common methods.  He uses the phrase “work at the speed of thought” and shows you right there examples of what he’s talking about.  If that’s not cool, then I…

We’ve all played fantastic, fun and legendary video games in the past.  These are the types of games you still see made into t-shirts and still talk about them to your friends when you’re drunk…well I do anyway. Certain games stick with you forever because of the quality of the game, the replay value and the hours you spent trying to beat it.  To me, Mario Brothers 3, Wing Commander 3, Max Payne, Doom, Resident Evil 2 all fit the bill for the above mentioned criteria.  Then years later, you hear rumblings and go…”What? They’re what??…a movie version of the classic game I grew up with???…Could you repeat that, I…

I’m not one for scary movies.  Its not that I am afraid to see them, its just that they bore me.  They seem even more predictable than a romantic comedy.  Usually, I think I have a good “Spider Sense” when it comes to those types of films.  When I see a trailer, about 95% of the time, I can say with certainty, “Well that’s gonna suck”…and it does.  After that, I am also usually on par with how film does at the box office as well.  Aside from the trailers (whose ‘magic’ I wrote about in a recent post), the #1 indicator which almost confirms that the movie will bomb…

As anyone who sits in a theater watches a 2:30 trailer before their movie starts can attest to, the Trailer Industry is nothing short of pure magic.  It can simultaneously whip an unsuspecting crowd into a frenzy, or repel even the most patient and trustworthy fan of any genre or series.  Whether or not its a predictable trailer or something new, for that small duration of time even lamest film imaginable could be spun to look like the second coming of Christ, or vice-versa.  Sometimes after seeing a crappy movie which looked good in the trailer, I have to ask myself, “Did it happen again?  Did I just get led…

As anyone who sits in a theater watches a 2:30 trailer before their movie starts can attest to, the Trailer Industry is nothing short of pure magic.  It can simultaneously whip an unsuspecting crowd into a frenzy, or repel even the most patient and trustworthy fan of any genre or series.  Whether or not its a predictable trailer or something new, for that small duration of time even lamest film imaginable could be spun to look like the second coming of Christ, or vice-versa.  Sometimes after seeing a crappy movie which looked good in the trailer, I have to ask myself, “Did it happen again?  Did I just get led…