[PODCAST] Timur Bekmambetov breaks Mike's heart.

News that Wanted director Timur Bekmambetov is planning to film his own take on "Moby Dick" causes Mike to spiral into deep depression. A Fox producer explains how in the heck a movie based on computer game "The Sims" is supposed to work. Also, Mike and I discuss Universal's royal diss of superstar directors Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson -- and how it kind of made sense.

Reviews: Lakeview Terrace and Ghost Town.

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(Note: While I waited until today to post this podcast on my blog, it's been up on iTunes since Wednesday. My advice would be to subscribe to our podcast via iTunes so that you can get it online ASAP in the event that I am too busy with the paper to post anything on my blog.)

The new trailer for Oliver Stone's W looks utterly fantastic.

But don't take my word for it. See for yourself!

W.


After three different cuts of Alexander left me scrambling for a bottle of Tums, plus the fact that World Trade Center was a pointlessly over-budgeted TV movie of the week, there was a time when I thought I was done with Oliver Stone. Sure, JFK is one of my all-time favorite movies. Yes Salvador, Wall Street, Born on the Fourth of July, and Nixon were excellent films as well. But the one-two combo of Stone's last two films was enough to make me consider turning my back on the director for good.

I am glad I held onto hope, however, because it looks as though Stone might have done the impossible -- he's taken a man who may very well be the most despised man on Earth, and while he's not shying away from Bush's shortcomings as our president, it looks like Stone is trying to identify with Bush, figure out what makes him tick, and even portray him in a manner that almost appears sympathetic in a way. Way more credit that I would have given the president.

Bush isn't the dumbest man on Earth, but at least 70% of all Americans (regardless of how they voted in 2004) agree that the man is in way over his head, and had no business being our leader. That said, I'd imagine that if Bush never had an inkling to get involved with politics, he might have been a cool dude to hang out with. Especially now that he's drinking again.



Didn't he quit doing that out of his love for Jesus and his wife? Sad.

Synecdoche, New York trailer

Question: You're legendary screenwriter Charlie Kaufman and you've written a script about a man (Philip Symour Hoffman) who attempts to turn a giant warehouse into an epic play about New York city. You want pal and frequent collaborator Spike Jonze to direct it, but he's too busy getting jerked around by Warner Bros. over Where the Wild Things Are. What do you do?

For Kaufman, the answer was to direct the film himself, and direct it he did. After watching the trailer below, all my mind could resigister was MUST. SEE. FILM.



I can't wait. I just can't wait.

And if you are quick to get another Charlie Kaufman fix, check out this 2.5 hour interview he did with wire magazine.

[PODCAST] Will 20th Century Fox rebound?

When your biggest film of the summer was the $80 Ashton Kutcher comedy What Happens in Vegas, you know you've got a problem. Needless to say, 20th Century Fox is planning for a rebound, which Joe and Mike discuss at great length on this week's show. They also figure out what made Tobey Maguire agree to do Spider-Man 4 & 5 (even though part 3 sucked), and they contemplate what an action comedy would be like if it starred Katherine Heigl.

This week's reviews: Burn After Reading, Righteous Kill and Transsiberian.

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Reservoir Dogs tickets are available right now.

To ensure that more of our online readers get their tickets this go round, we are selling a very limited number of "Reservoir Dogs" tickets online. These tickets will put you ahead of the curve, out of the rat race, and more importantly, in a theater seat when Tarantino's debut unspools in beautiful 35mm.

I seriously couldn't enjoy myself during "The Big Lebowski," because of all the online and radio supporters who got shut out. That's why I hounded the theater to set up online tickets in advance. This is my gift to all of you. Hope you take advantage of the opportunity.

Here's the link.

Good luck, and I hope to see you there.

NOTE: Because there is no way they could possibly verify a student I.D. via computer, the Carousel can only charge the general admission price plus a $1 online surchage. Yeah, it's not a $1 ticket, but for peace of mind, $4 ain't bad either.

[PODCAST] Let's get Bangkok Dangerous!

On this week's show, Mike and I discuss the debunk the ridiculous rumor that Will Smith was about to play Captain America. We also celebrate Darren Aronofsky's big win at the Venice Film Festival for The Wrestler and contemplate what a Ghostbusters 3 movie could be like under the control of Judd Aptow and two guys who write TV's The Office.

Plus we discuss the insane result of our recent screening of The Big Lebowski.

Reviews: Bangkok Dangerous and Traitor

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Michael Moore gives his next film away for free.

Michael Moore, who made headlines in 2004 after 'bribing' potential college voters by giving away packs of ramen noodles (retail value: $.09) has decided to outdo himself in '08. Moore is giving away his next documentary, Slacker Uprising, away online for free.

Here's the trailer:



The site for this film is billing the movie's free online release as the first time something like this has happened with a major movie. That's debatable. Johnny Knoxville and his crew previously gave their quasi-sequel Jackass 2.5 away for free online weeks before it's DVD release, and if I am not mistaken, something similar happened with a Morgan Freeman project two years ago.

Anyway, the trailer looks interesting at least. I especially dug Moore's response to the prayer team. If you want to see Slacker Uprising when it gets released for free, simply visit the movie's website and register.

The Big Lebowski: E-mail from those who didn't get in....

So as most of you know, there were A LOT of people who didn't get in to see The Big Lebowski last Wednesday. So many in fact, that my mailbox was filled with messages from some of those people we turned away.

Here are a few of the messages that really stuck out:

[P]lease do it again, i was so sad when i saw all my friends going in as i was stranded in the parking lot with no dude or man or jesus. <3

[A]s one of the dudeless, i say an encore would rock!

[M]e and about 10 of my friends we some of the people turned away last night! they would all def. be up for an encore of lebowski, they also brought up the question: is this a once a week thing? i said no but if the turn out is this good maybe it could be???? otherwise let me know when you pre-sell tickets for r. dogs so i make it to that show!

-And my personal favorite-

I happened to be one of the sad and disenfranchised few that was turned away from the theater like some Dickensian beggar. I instead plodded my way home, threw on the dvd and downed Southpaw light, a sad, broken man. Wishing in vain for the company of a lively collegiate audience in lieu of a few slack-jawed gawkers, I retired to my bedroom closet and cried myself to sleep. This is what happens when you fuck a stranger in the ass!
Disparagingly,
Patrick W Towne

I've even had encore requests from people who DID get tickets for the screening, so yeah, an encore screening is very, very likely. I am also considering the possibilities of hosting at least more than one special screening per month. Maybe we could also show a new -albeit vastly underexposed- foreign or indie flick? Or a documentary perhaps? Would you guys be interested in the idea of checking out exciting new films with cheap beer and admission?

Let me know. Shoot a comment below or email me at movieshowjoe@gmail.com.

[PODCAST]: Tuesday's show, sorta.

[NOTE: For some reason, the audio file of Tuesday's show cuts off near the 1-hour mark. I am pretty sure I can fix the problem, however, it's going to require an extra trip to the studio. Should have the full version of the show up early tomorrow morning at the latest.]

While the deep South was being rocked by Hurricane Gustov, Joe and Mike had to take on a different kind of suvere weather formation from Raleigh by the name of Craig D. Lindsey. Craig came back, CD's in tow, and rocked the house with his fantastic collection of CD sountrack hits. This week's topics include Brett 'Rush Hour' Ratner's proposed Guitar Hero movie, George Clooney's next movie with Juno director Jason Reitman, and the magic that is Todd Solondz's ability to find studios that will work with him.

Reviews: Babylon A.D., Hamlet 2, and The Last Mistress.

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The Big Lebowski: Aftermath

I knew something was up at 6:17 p.m.

I rolled up to the Carousel Luxury Cinemas yesterday and asked the guy in the box-office how many ticket we sold for The Big Lebowski, thinking our pre-sold numbers would be somewhere around 10-20. Well, the guy in the box says we sold about half the tickets for the first show.

Half?!?

That's when I knew the chances of this movie selling out were very likely. Then sure enough, at around 7 p.m., we were turning people away. We not only sold out of tickets for the first show, but the 9:30 one as well. Speaking of selling out, at 10:15 p.m., we had sold out of the beer. I had always thought that people enjoyed watching great movies with cheap admission and discount beer, but this was insane.

Best part is that the people who did get in were having a great time. They dug the zine that Mike and I worked on last weekend, of course they enjoyed the movie, and the free pizzas given by Hungry Howies and Spring Garden Bar & PIzzeria were the icing on the cake. One person asked me if he had died and gone to heaven, two people showed up wearing bathrobes. We gave away our DVD, and while the police were there to make sure everything was cool, we didn't have one single fight or scuffle despite the fact that a lot of people had a lot of drinks in them.

The only downside to all of this is that I could not enjoy myself during the movie because I kept thinking about all of the people we had to turn away. I am going to be meeting with Rob McHone at the Carousel to discuss ways to alleviate the seating problem. We might add a show, and we're definitely going to double up our seating configuration. Even then, last night we turned away about 300 ticket buyers, many of whom were wanting to purchase tickets for more than one person. Another thing I want to do is offer tickets online for our October 1st Reservoir Dogs screening way in advance, so stay tuned for further information.

I want to thank everyone who came out. You guys gave the Dude a much better reception than he got the first time his movie played in North Carolina. You also showed that contrary to what a certain local non-profit theatre might believe, Triad residents do in fact want to go see The Big Lebowski.

P.S. Who thinks we should do an encore screening of The Big Lebowski?

I have cool friends.

So as most of you know, Raleigh film critic Craig D. Lindsey visited the studio last night (podcast up momentarily), played some music, and took a hilarious jab at Mike.

Anyway, considering that he drove all the way to Greensboro with today's gas prices, I took Craig out for some dinner, we met with a pretty cool friend of his, and had a riotous conversation wherein Craig dogged me again for the fact that I enjoyed The Mummy Returns. Then after that, he plopped this on the table:



That's right, the 10th Anniversary edition of The Big Lebowski. It doesn't even street until September 9. Unfortunately, Craig won't be at tonight's screening of The Big Lebowski at the Carousel (playing at 7:30 & 9:30 - don't miss it!), but he wanted me to give this away to one very lucky person that attended. Who am I going to give it to? Myself, if I was a terrible person, but that's not the case. Plus I already own the two previous versions of the film on DVD.

So if you would like a shot at this two-disc special edition DVD, all you got to do is buy one of the t-shirts we'll be selling at the film series, which will automatically enter you into a drawing for the discs. Simple as that. T-shirts go on sale at 7 p.m. at $10 a pop, and we'll have our drawing right before the second screening. Should be tons of fun.

On sale tomorrow!

Check out these awesome Mixed Tape Film Series t-shirts we'll be hawking at tomorrow's screening of The Big Lebowski.



With the ten dollars you pay to recieve this shirt, not only will you be helping to guarantee future Mixed Tape events, but you'll also make yourself elligible to win free movie tickets, pizzas, CD's, and other cool door prizes at future Mixed Tape events. Plus, if you ask me, the t-shirts are pretty damn cool.