BTTF2

If you're a dude and were born in the late 70s or early 80s, you are probably obsessed with the Back to the Future movies. And we've all been hoping for the awesome Nikes that Marty wears in BTTF2 and, up until we could drive, all wanted hoverboards.

I saw Michael J. Fox on Letterman a few nights ago and he was discussing a fundraiser auction thing he's doing for his Parkinson's research foundation. Here's a pretty awesome video about it -

The Greatest Frontman of the Greatest Rock Band of All Time

Freddie Mercury, of course. And Sacha Baron Cohen will be playing him in an upcoming movie. I can't wait.

Read all about it.

The American

I didn't even have to watch the whole trailer to know this is gonna be awesome. I find that things that start with "American" are totally awesome, and this goes to a whole new level.

Double 0 Zero

Since I don't have a blog called "This Is Totally Not Awesome," I have decided to use this one to share some rather unfortunate news, namely that the next Bond film is on hold because of the uncertain future of MGM.

eonline.com

And here's a bit of trivia about the movie, courtesy of IMDB -

Ian Fleming's short story "007 in New York" is rumored to be the basis for this film. It was first published in the The New York Herald Tribune in 1963 and then in the US edition only of Fleming's 'Thrilling Cities". It was first published in the UK in November 1999 in The Sunday Times magazine supplement as a tie-in with the film release of the Bond movie The World Is Not Enough (1999). Its working title was "Reflections in a Carey Cadillac" and its original title was "Agent 007 in New York" when published in the NY Herald Tribune. The story features a Bond Girl called Solange, a name which was used for a character in Casino Royale (2006). For the first time in 2002, the short-story was added to the "Octopussy and The Living Daylights" compendium which includes these two short stories plus "The Property of a Lady". This was the first time that the short story was published alongside other Bond short stories. "007 in New York" is the shortest and also arguably the least well-known of all the Ian Fleming James Bond short-stories. The story is famous for representing two story elements: (1) it includes James Bond's only literary shopping expedition and (2) it includes his recipe for scrambled eggs.

NetfWiix

I got my girlfriend a Netflix subscription for Christmas, since we had recently gotten to a point where we were renting a movie every week from Blockbuster. Contributing to Blockbuster's demise, I decided that it only made sense to spend the 10 bucks/month for unlimited movies from Netflix. I thought I would miss going to the video store and browsing through the movies, but I don't. At all.

Now that we have Netflix, we don't watch as many movies as we used to, of course. But alas, Netflix just sent me an email that if you own a Wii, which my girlfriend does, then you can order a free CD that converts your Wii into a Roku-type box that streams Netflix to your TV. Talk about the gift that keeps on giving -

So, if you have a Wii, go here and it should arrive in 1 day. Sorry you have to wait so long.

Wedding Singer

I was just sitting here thinking to myself, "wouldn't it be hilarious to find that band that swears in classic songs from the movies Starsky & Hutch, Old School and The Hangover and hire them for one's wedding?"

I don't know if you can do that, but they have a website and they go on tour and stuff. That's pretty awesome.

http://www.thedanband.com/

The B Movie Team

I used to get all psyched for sequels to movies I loved or when they would turn old TV shows into blockbuster Hollywood movies. I even got excited about the GI Joe movie before I started hearing about all the production problems and the fact that it wasn't screened early for critics. That's a very bad sign.

You know what? When they make movies about old TV shows, they almost always suck, because if they had a good idea for an action movie, they wouldn't need the gimmick of an old TV show (that's probably really terrible if you were to watch it today, by the way, but happened to be good during its time) to get people to watch it.

Doing remakes of movies from other countries, however, seems to work pretty well. Maybe they're smarter than we are.

I do have to make an exception for Miami Vice, even though many people think that was also terrible. The movie was directed by the creator of the TV show and more of an embodiment of his vision anyway. I loved it. Saw it twice in the theater and had a Miami Vice theme party on opening night. If you didn't like it the first time, give it another shot. Have I ever steered you wrong?

Oh, so the reason I was prompted to make this post is that they're filming a movie version of The A Team. As soon as I saw that on WWTDD, I heard the theme song in my head. Which brings me to another point of contention. Why don't they include the theme songs in the movie versions??? In the 80s the theme songs were the best part of the show. They got you all psyched up to watch. I give you Air Wolf, as an example. The opening song is so awesome that you watch the show even though it's terrible.

So, here's the A Team theme. I guess I should say "the The A Team" theme -
A-team theme

And here's the A Team theme played on classical guitar -

Here's Airwolf -

And Miami Vice -

Look how good Magnum PI's is -


See how awesome the 80s were?

Go See This Movie

Killer Dead Ringer

Holy crap this dude looks like Bale's Bateman. Song's not a bad Talking Heads cover. The original was, of course, featured in the classic "Wall Street," without which, there would not likely have ever been an "American Psycho."

More Sicker Than Your Average Post

I just came across this in a recent issue of Time. There's an open casting call for a new film about the Notorious B.I.G. There's a website with audition tapes that have been sent in.

This is the first one I checked out, and it's pretty awesome. It's shot pretty dark, but it's a pretty damn good impression. I like the word pretty.

http://content.foxsearchlight.com/RUBIG

Dahctah Jones, Dahctah Jones!

I am really surprised at how excited I was to read on WWTDD about production starting on the fourth Indiana Jones movie. There's even a photo of Harrison Ford in costume -

I think it's pretty awesome that you can see blood on his ear and pants. That's hardcore.