The craftsmanship in this Open Thread has been perfected by generations of Malaysian carvers. But it can be yours for only $19.99. Our Overthinkers are standing by.
In theaters, there’s an absolute garbage retelling of The Three Musketeers coming out. If you want slightly more refined fare, try critical darling Martha Marcy May Maylene, which features the youngest Olsen sister (there was a third!) in a starmaking turn. There’s also Margin Call, a thinly dramatized narrative about the unfolding of a credit crisis; I’m genuinely excited about this one.
Music news: we have something old (the Rolling Stones’ 1978 album Some Girls …), something new (… being re-released with a lost track), something borrowed (the title of T-Pain’s newest album, dropping in December: rEVOLVEr) and something blue (Mark Lee, at T-Pain’s professed lack of autotuning on the new joint).
And they gave Kelsey Grammer a TV show again.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxZSS8pViww
Could T-Pain rule 17th century Paris with an iron fist while Elizabeth Olsen howled at the gates? Or is there something we missed? Sound off in the comments, for this is your … Open Thread.
Oooh “The Three Musketeers” is finally out! I haven’t laughed that hard at (not with) a trailer in a long time. Between the cannon-firing blimps and the matrix-style slo-mo doges, there’s just so much ridiculousness.
Can someone take one for the team, watch this, and report back?
I might just have to do it. I love the Three Musketeers. Love the 1970s version with Oliver Reed and Christopher Lee. Love the silly Disney version with Charlie Sheen and Tim Curry. Don’t love, but still kind of enjoy the 2001 version where they brought in the whole Matrix stunt team.
And I have fond memories of an open-air theatrical production, starring a certain overthinker as the Man in Black. I’m not going to name him, but his name rhymes with Bat Lather.
Fortunately, my face is obscured: http://cl.ly/3e47333s0K1d0U211o2w
For the record, this was one of the most fun summers I ever had—I met my girlfriend, and there were 2000 people watching us every night.
Wait. There’s a younger sister to the Olsen twins? And she might actually be a great actor? That sounds like a movie right there! It’s practically Gypsy!
Sing out, Louise!
Politics for a minute: Does anyone else think it’s unusual that the GOP frontrunner (at least for the next fifteen minutes, until Sarah Palin says goshdarnit, she *is* running for president, doncha know?) is a black man? Herman Cain is the hot pick right now (granted, the election is a year away), but I kinda wonder if the GOP is pulling a 2008 move by strongly implying at least that their main guy for the top job is not a boring old white guy (instead he’s a slightly crazy old black guy). It’s too early to tell if he’ll sustain a lead (hello, Rick Perry), but the guy has buzz. Just thought I’d throw that into the mix.
Pop culture-wise, everything seems to be taking a backseat to the World Series (NBC’s lineup Thursday was all reruns), but it gave me a chance to take more than two minutes out of my life to watch “Whitney.” Given that this is NBC and they’re desperate, it’s no surprise that the show has been given a second season. But I wonder if the people who greenlit this show ever bother to watch it. It’s that bad.
Herman Cain is likely not going anywhere past the primaries. He’s too far to the right. His purpose for the GOP at the moment is the same as that of dudes like Kucinich and Sharpton in Democratic primary debates- he’s pushing the other candidates further to the extreme, but in the end, the party will not want his name on the ticket. Despite how it’s portrayed in the media, the political spectrum of the aggregate public is pretty much a normal bell curve. The parties know this, so they pick candidates closer to the center for national elections. That buzz is precisely why he’s being humored, since it draws attention to the campaign itself. They’re drawing up the base for the initial campaign, but they’ll tone it down later, and by then, that base will already be sucked in. And then, if their strategy works, they’ll have the tail end of their side of that bell curve (said base) voting for them, along with enough of the middle of the bell itself. Point: Cain is ridiculous, and that’s the purpose he serves. It’s his character, and not in the “moral character” type, but cast-list type. Because those kinds of character, they’re apples and oranges, and I’m replacing a bunch of oranges.
Exactly. Last time around, Rudy Guliani and Mike Huckabee had early leads in the polls. If I am recalling correctly, neither of them are currently in the White House.
The SNL take on the debates was pretty enlightening. To paraphrase:
Mod: Mr. Cain, do you think your platform can withstand the public scrutiny that comes from being the frontrunner?
Cain: Absolutely not!
If there are any Canadians out there, were you as disappointed as I was that Dan for Mayor and Hiccups were cancelled?
Bit of light nostalgia: I finally got around to seeing Thor this weekend. Afterwards, I went and listened to the Hammertime podcast. I think the movie makes a little bit more sense if you think of like Schechner said – a prerequisite for watching The Avengers next summer. If Natalie Portman is in it at all, it’s going to be for no more than 5 minutes, and it won’t be pivotal to the plot of the movie. So she’ll end up being a throwaway character, therefore undeserving of better development.
I thought the movie was fun and interesting, but it’s only my third favorite pop culture depiction of Odin and Thor. My second favorite is the Norse gods as cruel and selfish children in Erik the Viking. The best, of course, is Douglas Adams’ “The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul”, the Dirk Gently novel where Odin has checked himself into a rest home. (Actually, Thor gets the girl in that book by being smolderingly handsome and otherworldly, so Natalie Portman’s response to him is not without precedent.)
The local “classic rock” station just had a DJ praising Obama for getting Bin Laden and Qaddafi (there’s a million different spellings of his name, just go with that one), which is humorous to me because this is the same station that runs the “just to the right of Hitler” morning show John Boy and Billy. I wonder if this DJ will be working there come tomorrow
That’s actually something about which I’d be interested in getting an update, should the DJ lose their job.
Hi overthinkers, long time listener first time commenter here, breaking my vow of silence with a Movie News Flash: Korean revenge tragedy Oldboy is going to be getting the remake treatment with none other than Mr Spike Lee in the director’s chair.
Personally I’m very excited to see how this comes out, as well as pleased and surprised that the project wasn’t snapped up by the arch schlock-purveyor Mr Tarantino (not to detract from my respect for the the man as a creator and distributor of schlock and meta-schlock, a field in which he is unmatched).
Season’s greetings to the overthinkers from 52°37’44″N, 1°16’18″E and thanks for all the fish.
It’s good to hear that Spike Lee is doing the remake. Last I heard it was Spielberg, who doesn’t have enough edge. I haven’t read the comic, but apparently it’s not as dark as the movie, or is but in a different way? But yeah, Lee is good news.