A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III

Scattershot and offbeat, “Charles Swan III”‘s strongest attribute is that it’s odd.

The 2013 Winter Movie Season Preview

Ok, boys and girls. The Holiday Season is over… and the Spring Season, full of mini Blockbusters, is still months away.

Between now and then lies Hollywood’s dumping ground. The Hollywood fields lie fallow in the winter, bearing little quality product. It’s the two months of the year we need to “Get through”. While January typically offers some limited releases from the prior year going wide, there’s typically little else to get excited over.

Will this year be different? Are there any movies to get excited about these next two months? Let’s take a look at the release slate and see what we’ve got!

Moonrise Kingdom

With the end of the year rapidly approaching, I’ll be circling around to a handful of reviews over the next month or so that I didn’t have a chance to review when they hit the theatre initially. I’d include this in the “Under the Radar” series, but… with stars like Ed Norton, Bruce Willis, Bill Murray, Frances McDormand, etc., plus a heavy national advertising campaign in spite of a slow national roll out, “Moonrise Kingdom” isn’t under the radar at all.

Still, I couldn’t wait for it to hit cable. This was one of my most anticipated movies for the year, I had to see if it was a Top Ten candidate.

The answer? It just might be.

The 2012 Holiday Movie Season Preview

Ok, folks, here we are! One of the major movie release seasons of the year is upon us, The Holiday Movie Season!

The Holidays started a little early this year, with “Skyfall” (undeniably a major release) opening in the first week of November. So we’re underway! Between now and the end of the year, we’ll see some of the biggest films on the 2012 docket get released, including the conclusion to the “Twilight” Saga, “The Hobbit”, and “Django Unchained”!

Click through to check out what the Holidays hold in store!

Movies That Everyone Should See: “Rushmore”

Herman Blume: What’s the secret, Max?

Max Fischer: The secret?

Herman Blume: Yeah, you seem to have it pretty figured out.

Max Fischer: The secret, I don’t know… I guess you’ve just gotta find something you love to do and then… do it for the rest of your life. For me, it’s going to Rushmore.

Movies That Everyone Should See: “Caddyshack”

The Snobs against the Slobs.

I’m alright.
Nobody worry ’bout me.
Why you gotta give me a fight?
Why don’tcha just let me be?

News Worth Sharing: Ghostbusters 3 “A Go”.

Yeah, I’m not too excited either, guys.

CNN.com’s enterainment blog reports that the long gestating Ghostbusters 3 is officially a go. For those of you not aware, GB3 has been in development for like 500 years now – well ok, maybe it only feels that long – but there’s been numerous holdups, including debates over the script, whether to bring back director Ivan Reitman (who hasn’t had a big hit since 1990’s “Kindergarten Cop”), and most notably, whether or not they could convince Bill Murray to participate.

Apparently now Aykroyd is saying they’re going to go ahead with or without him.

**SIGH**

Movies That Everyone Should See: “Ghostbusters”

In 1984, MTV was at the peak of its powers.

Nowadays, MTV is home to such fare as “Teen Mom”, “Jersey Shore” and “Real World/Road Rules Challenge”s. But in the mid 1980s, MTV was a cultural touchstone. Not only were they showing music videos, but music videos were as important (it seemed) as the song itself. There are still songs I can’t hear to this day without thinking of the video.

And one of the biggest videos of that year was Ray Parker Jr.’s “Ghostbusters”. Here’s the list of celebrity cameos in that video, thanks to the song’s Wikipedia page: “Chevy Chase, Irene Cara, John Candy, Melissa Gilbert, Nickolas Ashford, Jeffrey Tambor, George Wendt, Al Franken, Danny DeVito, Carly Simon, Peter Falk, Terri Garr and Casey Kasem; all of whom exclaim the “Ghostbusters!” line of the song when shown.” The song itself hit number one on the charts and stayed there for three weeks straight.

That year, the Ghostbusters logo was everywhere. Posters and shirts and mugs with the little “Do not Ghost” symbol were all over the place. Of course, there were the requisite action figures, Ecto One mobiles, Slimer piggy banks, etc, etc. In the years since, this movie has spawned sequels (I’m including the long gestating Ghostbusters III), cartoons, video games, and countless merchandise.

What I’m trying to say, is this movie wasn’t just a big hit, it was a cultural event. It was the highest grossing comedy of all time at the time, and it entwined itself into our cultural DNA immediately.