Slice: New Paul Posters, Abalone Shells, "The Sting," Etc.

It's been a good while since I've done some doting on him.

I've spent the past couple weeks fixing up my new Brooklyn digs, and I've been surprising myself at how adept at adult life I've managed to be. I wended my way to IKEA by myself, after standing underneath a Crooklyn overpass, where I heard none other than:

"Baby, you can't take me ANYWHERE without a condom and some money. I know, KNOW, you don't got either of that. bye bye!"

At that, i almost started to run for fear of some airborne VD, but then the bus came and i went to IKEA. I took a car service home.

But, I bought a desk, a lamp, a trash can, etc. and managed to tote it home all by myself. Might've sprained my back (nothing like a fractured femur!) getting everything up the four flights, but, nothing a little bed rest couldn't cure -- a bed I'd managed to get up those same four flights alone.

While I twiddle my thumbs, thinking of what should adorn the wall facing my bed, there's only one thing -- one man -- I want to wake up to every morning.

The large prints are ordered, the frames will be bought today -- I'll get to wake up to Paul every morning, staring at me, as I stare back into his dreamy blue eyes.

Some good Newman clips -- oh, how I miss him being around this dreamworld.

"Cool Hand 1":



"Cool Hand 2":



"The Sting":

Slice: Bad Blake, The Dude, "Crazy Heart"

"I'm Bad Blake. My tombstone'll have my real name on it--til then, I'm just gonna stay 'Bad.'"

It's finally out! I've been waiting for "Crazy Heart" to grace the silver screen for months, and today I get to see it. The Dude (err, Jeff Bridges) and Maggie Gyllenhaal star in this film about a hard-living, disaster of a country singer, Bad Blake (played by Bridges), and a journalist (Gyllenhaal) that's doing some exposé on the man behind the music.

I'm such a sucker for these two, (and, secretly, sad folksy country music), that I can't imagine I won't love it. Angelika Film Center, here I come to empty my (shallow) pockets, once again. Will report back.

"Crazy Heart" trailer:


And, for shits, a "The Dude" clip because there can never be too many viewings:

Slice: Ode to Ms. Portman, and her New "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" Film

My fondness for Natalie Portman has grown readily, if unsteadily, over the years; the early infatuation began with her role as Mathilda, opposite Jean Reno, in “The Professional” (a film I was much, much too young to have seen in 1994, but that was also the year that “Pulp Fiction” became a favorite—thank you, unaware parents). That fondness subsided when Portman began accepting roles in “Anywhere But Here” and “Where the Heart Is”—and I really thought I'd never regain my affection when she took part in ruining “Star Wars”—not once, but thrice.

But, somewhere around “Garden State” and “Closer,” she became a mainstay in my favorites list of young leading—or, supporting—actresses. She's always been so beautiful, can be so endearing, yet now she seems to make all the right movie choices.

And, no Great Choice tops the fact that she's signed on to star in and produce “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies,” a film that's based on the book by the same name, by Seth Grahame-Smith “and Austen.” [quotes mine.] This is too great.

From Variety:

“Described as an expanded version of the Austen classic, the book
tells the timeless story of a woman’s quest for love and independence
amid the outbreak of a deadly virus that turns the undead into vicious
killers.

Portman will play feisty heroine Elizabeth Bennet, who is distracted
from her quest to eradicate the zombie menace by the arrival of the
arrogant Mr. Darcy.” [Sweet. Darcy was always such a needling foil.]

Given my infatuation for Portman, and my tried-and-true love of good zombie films—I'm keeping my toes crossed that this was yet another right choice. If not, it's at least bold; and, that's great, too.

Slice: Movieclips.com, Heavenly-Dire Clips, Time-Suck

Last week, the movie gods unveiled a sweet online paradise when Movieclips.com went live. I was straight off the heels of remembering my first (and, hopefully, last) layoff from a corporate behemoth, The Blerg, and I was looking for fictitious commiseration. This website provides cinephiles like myself with most anything they need.

You can hover over the tiny icons that promise a minute or two of your favorite movie scenes; it suggests a bunch beneath your search results to entertain yourself while your specific movie-choice loads.

While we close PopSci for February, I've been checking out some favorite scenes of telling the "Haters. Gonna Hate." (see above animation) of the corporate world to go shove off.

See below iterations of a couple fun movies from the past decades, where the characters tell their bosses and/or stories of their disillusionment--and their desire to QUIT.

Lordy, me, the resolution and nice capsulized versions of these bits gives me goosebumps. Please check out the Movieclips site, yourself.

"Half Baked"

Steve Martin, in "Parenthood": ("I have been KILLING myself, aren't you Dazzled?")

A seven-figure settlement in "Office Space." This is from YouTube, since the MC site is giving me errors (it could be my fiddling with the html so it won't Autoplay), but ... I can't watch/relate this scene enough. It's brilliant. I work hard and very, very well at PopSci; at The Blerg, I was Peter:

And, finally, a new tawdry favorite, "Wanted" scene:

Slice of Grice(s), Episode 2: Jack

Sigh.

(Brother G is making me add a disclaimer. That's as far as I'll go: Disclaimer.)

Slice of Grice(s), Episode 1: An Introduction

Slice: THE Final Destination, Right.

I don't know if most people remember Devon Sawa, but a young little Ms. Grice does; he starred in Casper. He was so handsome and ... sigh. Then we saw him again in a later and little-known (not very unknown, we all saw "Scream" and those sorts) film called Final Destination. Weeeellll that latter movie went on to some straight-to-video sequels (some on-screen success, here and there) lore -- and 14 years later, they're releasing "The Final Destination."

One wonders (and hopes) that it's similar to the finality of "The Fast and the Furious", "2 Fast 2 Furious," "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift" ilk ...

Only "Alien" and "Terminator" can pull off this type of longevity.

Slice: `I Will Find You. I Will Kill You.': Taken Trailer

Talking with the main (sigh) Bloomberg movie reviewer yesterday, he asked if I'd like to join him to see "Taken," the upcoming kidnapping movie starring Liam Neeson.

"Knowing your tastes, I bet you'd like it. Also, remember that any time you want to come with me, just let me know."

Oy. From the first sentence, something tells me he doesn't think I have the most refined movie tastes or am a classy lady (who would?). From the second, I really need to take him up on that more -- I'm on a tuna-fish budget, after all.

I checked out the "Taken" trailer, which I know I'll like. It may just be a churned-out action/thriller, but I'm a sucker for Liam Neeson ... and action/thrillers in general.

"I will find you. I will kill you." AWESOME.

Trailer for "Taken," followed by the 1990 trailer for "Darkman," when I first gained respect for Neeson -- at the ripe age of 7. I remember the first time I saw it at the good old League City Dollar Cinema. Ah, those were the days.

Thanks Mama G for allowing for my warped movie sensibilities!

"Taken"



"Darkman"

Slice: `Billy the Kid' Documentary, Looks Sweet, Thank You VSL

Oh, how I love when the Very Short List plops something down in my inbox. They've introduced me to so many interesting things on the Interweb. They were, after all, the folks who found Man on Wire for me. That was such an eye-opener, and something I'd never have found on my own. Today, they gave me a new documentary that it sounds like I'll fall in love with. It's "Billy the Kid," and of it, they write:

Adolescent angst is well-mined territory for writers and filmmakers. So it’s a credit to first-time filmmaker Jennifer Venditti that her documentary, Billy the Kid (available on DVD next week), feels so fresh and yet still so painfully familiar.

This Billy is a troubled and lonely 15-year-old living in rural Maine. A Van Halen enthusiast who practices karate and dreams of wooing distressed damsels, Billy’s got it rougher than most: “I’m different in the mind, different brain,” he says at the start of the film (after filming was completed, he was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome).

Her first film and she won Best Documentary at several film festivals. Impressive.

Slice: `Lethal Weapon 5' Is Perhaps No More, Says Donner

It was just pointed out to me by Work Friend that the alleged "Lethal Weapon 5," which had so lifted my spirits but a week ago seems to be dead in the water. Say it isn't so, Richard Donner!

Nope, Donner says, it's so, as reported by Coming Soon:

"It's too bad, actually, because Channing Gibson, who wrote the fourth one, and Mike Riva, a designer on three of them, and myself and Derek [Hoffman, an associate at The Donner Company] had an incredibly strong story for the fifth movie. But we weren't given the opportunity and I think maybe I could have convinced Mel to do it. But Warners chose to go with Joel Silver."

"Yes, the project is pretty much dead in the water unless someone had the sense to come to me."

I like his candor. Unfortunately, so few people seem to have any sense. The full L.A. Times article is here, if anyone cares that much. Doubtful.

Fleeting Faith in Humanity, Idiot Chihuahua and The Shining

A part of me died today.

It happens pretty often, as I tend to walk around with an annoying woe-is-me, weight-of-the-world mentality, (something I should work on).

But this is really, really bad.

I was skimming my Google Movie blogs, searching for a Slice of news to offer about the upcoming Martin Scorsese and Robert DeNiro collaboration (!!) when I was slapped in the face with the horrifying news that "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" was NUMBER ONE at the box office this weekend. $29 million worth of worthless tickets were sold.



I just ... I just ... I'm speechless. As if I weren't already scared enough for the U.S., now my fleeting faith in humanity has me feeling like Wendy hiding in the bathroom as Jack comes after her with the axe. (In "The Shining.") If I don't read good things about the Scorsese/Deniro movie, I may be too depressed to move.