And a good morning to you, Overthinkers.
First, THE DEAD HAVE RISEN AND ARE MAKING ALBUMS. Not literally, of course, but a new album of rare and unreleased Jimi Hendrix tracks, “Valleys of Neptune,” debuted at #4 on the Billboard charts this week. Also, Michael Jackson’s estate signed a deal with Sony for $250,000,000 in exchange for ten albums over seven years. “In exchange” is perhaps a misnomer, since Blanket probably wouldn’t be in the studio cutting new hooks.
Just LEAVE ME ALOOOOOOOONE! Dah-dah nndah-da! Dah-dah nndah-di-da!
Second, MEN WITH GUNS ARE COMING FOR YOU, if you’re a protagonist in any of the movies opening this weekend that is. Repo Men (not to be confused with the cult classic), The Bounty Hunter and Diary of a Wimpy Kid open this weekend. Additionally, last year’s Swedish adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo opens to limited audiences in the States this weekend. If it’s half as good as the novel, see it.
Sorry for all the misleading headlines; you know we’re not normally like that. But THE BUS IS SPEEDING OUT OF CONTROL! HURRY UP AND SAVE YOUR … open thread.
Re: THE DEAD HAVE RISEN, don’t forget Johnny “Zombie” Cash’s recent release, “American VI: BRRAAAIINS.”
Repo Men, ugh. After seeing multiple commercials for that movie and _still_ having NO idea what it could actually be about** I finally looked it up online, and golly does that look like its going to suck. Really, Forest Whitaker? Sometimes it seems like he’s totally intent on having the most absolutely inconsistent and random (in terms of both quality and genre) film career in Hollywood… well, maybe other than Nicholas Cage.
Also, as you mentioned Repo Men should definitely not be confused with Emilio Estevez’s classic Repo Man. In an amusing little side note, when searching “Repo Men” on IMDb, the top responses in order are “Repo Man”, then “Murder, She Wrote” (??), _then_ “Repo Men”, but a little further down the page is a movie I’ve never heard of that sounds freaking incredible: “Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins”. Any early-80’s action movie starring Fred Ward with the tagline “A hero who doesn’t exist must save America from an enemy we never knew we had.” is a movie I’m going to need to see.
*sigh* I miss the ’80s.
**Brief disclaimer: I know a trailer shouldn’t summarize the plot of a movie, nor should it even give key plot points away. In fact, some of the best movies I’ve seen were preempted by totally ambiguous previews, and for many kinds of movies this is even preferable (see: District 9, and, hell, even Cloverfield). But for what is clearly an early summer season popcorn action flick, at the very least the _basic premise_ should be understandable from the (various) previews, and so far no one I’ve discussed the movie with has any idea what the heck’s happening in it. Then again, maybe “Jude Law + big explosions!” is premise enough, who knows.
@lee Please, sir. We all know that the true Zombie entertainment renaissance will not occur until George Romero dies and comes back as a zombie director.
@Christopher I have seen what you’d call an extended commerical for Repo Men (it’s 40-45 seconds as opposed 15 to 20 seconds of random explosions and violence) and here’s what I can gather about the plot. IN THE FUTURE, organ transplants are so expensive that you need to go to loan sharks to pay for them. If you can’t pay for the transplant, they do the transplant anyway and then send Jude Law to repossess the organ with extreme prejudice. The twist becomes is Jude Law becomes injured and gets an organ transplant. And ironically, he cannot afford the operation so they send his old buddies to repossess his organs. Hilarity ensues as Jude Law uses every action cliche in the book to stay alive. The commerical didn’t convince me to spend the $9.50 to go see it despite the successful formula of Jude Law + Explosions = Big Box Office return.
IN THE FUTURE, organ transplants are so expensive that you need to go to loan sharks to pay for them. If you can’t pay for the transplant, they do the transplant anyway and then send Jude Law to repossess the organ with extreme prejudice. The twist becomes is Jude Law becomes injured and gets an organ transplant. And ironically, he cannot afford the operation so they send his old buddies to repossess his organs.
There’s so much wrong with that I don’t even know where to begin.
Yeah.
So, completely off-topic, I watched the pilot to Comedy Central’s new show Ugly Americans, and I was very pleasantly surprised. They’d been marketing it as though it were the next Drawn Together, which just made me roll my eyes, but it came on after Colbert, and I was busy doing something on the other side of the room from the clicker. By the time I got the remote in my hand, I was already drawn in. Basically, it takes place in an alt-version of Manhattan that’s half-populated by “illegals,” here represented by zombies, were-beings, extraterrestrials, demons, and various other degrees of freaks. Even as these freaks are isolated as “other,” their freakiness is played pretty deadpan by the characters, which makes the storytelling feel very assured and the universe seem real. I think Overthinkers who approach it with an open mind are likely to find it rewarding.
Anyway. Perich, no questions? What gives?
@Jon Eric: I forgot. In my defense, I’ve been doing a lot of drinking this week.
@Christopher: “Remo Williams” is one of the hidden gems of early 80s action movies. You owe it to yourself to see it.
Everytime I hear Repo Men I think of Repo! The Genetic Opera, which is really strange because I’ve never seen it, it came and went fairly quickly, and I don’t think it ever registered on my consciousness. But apparently it did? Does anyone know what I’m talking about? I think both films share plot elements but admittedly not knowing much about either I could be very mistaken.
I find it incredibly sad to think about certain artists who weren’t fully recognized or admired or brought into the popular consciousness until their deaths (not saying that this is the case here). On some level, I think anyone who produced something and puts it out into the world is seeking an audience and if people are going to respond favorably at some point, it’s sad it couldn’t have been while they were alive. Unless you believe in an afterlife. But then, presumably those people would be occupied with other things.
Repo: The Genetic Opera was wonderful and amazing.
Basic plot of Repo Men starring Jude Law: In the future, organ transplants are readily available but very expensive, people need to obtain financing to afford them. If they can’t afford them, the Repo Man comes and takes the organs back.
Basic plot of Repo: The Genetic Opera starring Anthony Stewart Head: In the future, organ transplants are readily available but very expensive, people need to obtain financing to afford them. If they can’t afford them, the Repo Man comes and takes the organs back.
Apparantly, the reason there’s not a lawsuit in the works here is that while Repo: The Genetic Opera came out first, there’s enough evidence that Repo Men was in the works long enough ago that its inception actually predates the creation of Repo: The Genetic Opera, and I guess they’ll just let everything cancel out.