Pretty In Link: Part I

This is something I haven’t done for a while, but don’t worry, I’ve been storing up some of the funniest, cleverest, juiciest and generally rad links on the net just for you. Some are movie related, many comic related and others art related, but my passions aside . . .some are just fantastic. There are so many links I’ve broken it up into two editions so if you’re an internet voyeur like me, then I hope you enjoy these.

30 Random Movie Titles To Which `That’s What She Said’ Would Be An Appropriate Rejoinder: This really doesn’t need any more explanation. Once again, the guys at Pajiba have outdone themselves. http://www.pajiba.com/seriously_random_lists/30-random-movie-titles-to-which-thats-what-she-said-would-be-an-appropriate-rejoinder.php

Slinky: The Movie: “It’s a rubber coil.” I never get sick of this. Ever. I rewatch it about once a week and it’s endlessly hilarious because, well, every week brings more freakin’ ridiculous movie projects backed by huge studios based on pre-existing products that sure, may have been popular, but do not make the basis for a film. There has never been a better example of this than the trailer for Hugh Jackman’s Reel Steel. Alternatively, watch this animated conversation between a screenwriter and a Hollywood executive about Slinky: The Movie. Hi-bloody-larious. http://www.screenjunkies.com/movies/movie-news/pitch-for-slinky-the-movie/#

If Rappers Were Marvel Comic Characters: As both a hip hop and Marvel comic fan, this is gold. http://smokingsection.uproxx.com/TSS/2011/02/if-rappers-were-marvel-comics-characters#page/16

Photos from the 2010 National Geographic Photography Contest: They’re responsible for capturing and publishing some of the most amazing photos. Period. These finalist images are no exception and freeze some of 2010’s incredible moments in time. http://nedhardy.com/2010/11/22/47-incredibly-amazing-photographs-from-the-2010-national-geographic-photography-contest/

Russel Crowe Preparing For A Roll: Filmdrunk in and of itself gets a link of its own, but this particular post is one of Vince Mancini’s best. I dare you not to gut laugh, I dare ya. http://filmdrunk.uproxx.com/2011/03/russell-crowe-is-preparing-for-a-roll

Pics, Pics, Pics: Comics Alliance have a weekly segment where they trawl file sharing site like deviantART and Tumblr for the best new fan made (often geek orientated) art. Here’s the best three weeks of the past few months. http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/03/25/best-art-ever-this-week-03-25-11/ http://blog.moviefone.com/2011/02/18/best-movie-art-ever-this-week-zombie-steve-urkel-ewoks-vs-care-bears/ http://blog.moviefone.com/2011/02/11/best-movie-art-ever-this-week/

Scream 4: Warning: This link is to an extremely violent image from Scream 4. If you don’t care, then click and enjoy deciphering just what the ill-fated victims favourite scary movie was. http://www.movieline.com/2011/03/see-an-incredibly-violent-image-from-scream-4.php

50 Of The Internet’s Greatest Missing Posters: I have no idea where people find this shit, but I’m sure grateful they do. http://www.uproxx.com/feature/2011/03/lost-and-found-50-of-the-internets-greatest-missing-posters/#page/4

Superhero Where’s Wally: Awesome. http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/03/09/superhero-wheres-waldo-ulises-farinas/

Joss Whedon Responds: Like a Buffy remake without Joss Whedon wasn’t blasphemous enough, now they’ve hired some 28-year-old extra to write the screenplay. While Buffy fans everywhere were raging over this latest development, Whedon – being the preverbal genius that he is – responded with this hilarious and incredibly witty response. Yeah, like we didn’t love you enough already J-Wheds. http://au.eonline.com/uberblog/detail.jsp?contentId=212644

DC Fan Posters: More fan art, this time French deviantART user Herobaka gives us some flashy and frankly fabulous DC superhero pin-ups. http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/01/13/herobaka-dc-fan-posters-gallery/

Inception In Real Time: Thank God there are nerds out there who can make layered clips like this and post them on You Tube for all of us to view. It’s a mind-bogglingly cool look at the different time settings within Inception. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHBlYJ-tKcs&feature=player_embedded

The 10 Most Absurd Lyrics From Nicki Minaj’s Pink Friday: The album has been out for a while now and I had high hopes for it. Her mixtape was pretty good, but it’s her guest spots on tracks for everyone from Kanye West to Mariah Carey that had me thinking Nicki Minaj was one of the most exciting and unpredictable female MC’s in the game. Turns out, her debut album proves she’s just like very other `meh’ pop star. Hip hop blog The Smoking Section put together this hilarious and, as they called it, absurd slideshow featuring the most lazy and ridiculous lyrics from the album. An amusing analysis. http://smokingsection.uproxx.com/TSS/2010/11/barbie-recall-the-10-most-absurd-lyrics-from-nicki-minajs-pink-friday

Dilbert Is Sexist: Scott Adams, it turns out, is a massive douche. http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/03/25/scott-adam-sexist-mens-rights/

How Bane Will Fit Into The Dark Knight Rises: While the interwebs is still alight with debate, rumour, speculation about who Joseph Gordon Levitt will play, whether Marion Cotillard will be Tahlia Al Ghul and so on and so on . . .at least we have the assurance of two new characters: Selina Kyle/Catwoman and Bane. For me, I think Bane is the more interesting of the two because he’s a rarely explored characters and this exploration from Screen Rant looks at a few of the storyline possiblities. It’s all speculation at this stage, but it’s still an interesting read. http://screenrant.com/batman-dark-knight-rises-bane-robf-97315/all/1/ Stay tuned for Part 2 . . .

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Into the Dileep

I got to interview someone who was in Inception. INCEPTION! It’s like getting to interview someone from Brick but on a much more widely appreciated scale! Said person is Dileep Rao, also known as “that Indian guy” from Drag Me To Hell, Avatar and, yes, Inception. Coming from a theatre background originally, Rao has had incredible career. With only three movies under his belt, his box office average is over $363 million in the US and $1.2 billion worldwide, which is freakin’ insane and largely thanks to the huge success of his trio of features. Anywho, Rao is a clever and well-spoken lad and I had the chance to interview him last week ahead of his appearance at the Supernova Pop Culture Expo in Brisbane this weekend. Because it just wouldn’t be fair to give you interview snippets, here’s my full transcript with Rao where we discuss Inception, Nolan, Will Smith, Inception sequels, that ending, geeks, a possible role in The Dark Knight Rises and Inception. Movie Mazzupial: It’s lovely to talk to you Dileep, where are you talking to me from? Dileep Rao: I’m in California, based in Santa Monica there. MM: Now you’re coming to Australia for the Supernova Pop Culture Expo, is it your first visit here? DR: Yeah, it is. MM: Great, any touristy things you’re looking forward to doing? DR: I’m looking forward to doing the non-stereotypical touristy things. I want to see the town get lost a bit and see what I like. As soon as I find my hotel I like to go and get lost in the crowd of the city a bit. MM: Now, I’ve got to say, this is kind of surreal for me to interview someone from one of my favourite films of all time – Inception. But I suppose you get that a lot? DR: Thank you, that’s great to hear. It’s funny, out of all three of the films I’ve done I always get people coming up to me and saying Inception is one of their favourite films of all time, I’m honoured by that, it’s very moving. The boldness and intellect of Inception is great and people feel rewarded by that and have strong feelings about it. It’s nice and refreshing to see a movie that’s powerful and intellectually challenging within a blockbuster. MM: Definitely. Tell me about that experience, what was it like working with Chris (Nolan)? I mean, he’s kind of considered the new Stanley Kubrick right? DR: I’ve read that a lot and it’s not fair to put the burden of that on him. Stanley Kubrick has a whole career of films and has passed on, whereas Chris is still a young filmmaker. I’m the first person to champion and applaud Chris and there’s no doubt he’s one of the greatest filmmakers living. He’s one of the greatest living directors, I love working with him. He’s brilliant. It’s very unusual to have all these different movies from one person and in different genres. In that way he’s like Kurbrick. He had magic in The Prestige, then goes and does a comic book movie; he’s a masterful storyteller and a great writer. In fact, his writing is equal in quality to his filmmaking. MM: Yeah, that’s definitely one of the great things about him. Now, back to Inception, you got to slap Joseph Gordon Levitt! How awesome was that? DR: (Laughs) We had a lot of fun doing that scene because he had to just sit there, while Tom Hardy, who was in the background, and I would be just cracking up. Joseph couldn’t do anything, he just had to sit there and not react and we would be laughing like crazy. It was one of my favourite days on set. MM: Speaking of the set, it must have been an incredible experience working with such an incredibly talented cast and group of filmmakers. DR: It was like the 1927 New York Yankees but with the greatest actors in the world all in one room. Leonardo (DiCaprio) has been doing this for so long and is one of the greatest of our generation and Marion Cotillard is one of the greatest of our generation. I think that’s once of the greatest things about Chris is that the greatest - whether that’s cast or crew - want to work with him. I’m honoured to count myself as part of that. MM: Inception has had this kind of incredible response where it hasn’t even been out for a year yet and it’s already considered a modern classic. How does it feel to be a part of that? DR: It’s a tremendously amazing thing; I can’t take that lightly. I wouldn’t put it up against anything. I think its one of the coolest films ever. When we watched some for the cuts before it came I was like `I’m in it’ and I felt naked. It still blew my mind even then. I’m just so proud to be in it, its only been out 7 - 8 months now and people already consider it kind of one of the greatest films of the last decade, which is the same sort of things they were saying about Avatar.

MM: Now, I have to ask; what’s you opinion of the ending? I’m frankly against the whole “it’s a dream theory” but what’s your take?

DR: Well, I don’t think it helps to give an opinion about it because it ruins the wildly imaginative possibilities. But at the end in that lingering shot you hear the top start to wobble, which I think gives it away.

MM: Yes! Exactly!

DR: (Laughs).

MM: I swear this my last Inception question, but it’s been reported online in the past few days that Warner Bros are looking at Inception sequels, can you tell me anything about that?

DR: Can’t say anything on that. MM: Fair enough. I read that you were originally training to be a doctor before you started pursing acting and theatre. That must have been a huge life decision for you?

DR: It was. I wanted to be a doctor and I was studying to be one, but I changed my mind before it became too much of a reality. It was a hard decision and one that had to be made because I knew there was some part of me that would never be expressed in that profession.

MM: It’s turned out a pretty bloody good decision for you. I mean, out of the three feature films you’ve done it’s been Sam Raimi, James Cameron and Christopher Nolan. People spend their whole lives trying to work with directors and you’ve smashed them all back to back.

DR: I’m really lucky, you know? I think that when those things happen you’re pinching yourself all the time, but at the same time you have a job to do. You don’t have a lot of time to be standing around in awe. But they (the directors) all bring out the best in you. I’m very interested in them as artists, not just as a fan. I love all their movies, but I also understood you’re in a very important process with someone who needs to get done what they need to get done. These are only the first three films that I’ve made and it’s a crazy thing to realise who I’ve worked with. I was a stage actor for most of my life and maybe that’s why all of this came later.

MM: Do you understand how amazing that sounds? No wonder geeks worship you!

DR: Geeks are some of the best people around and those are my people, you know? I don’t look like this all the time; I’m a raging dork. I play board games and I love all that stuff too. I think part of that worship too is to do with James, Sam and Chris. They’re the kind of people who embrace their audience and their audience embraces them back. These particular films embrace the intellect and heart both. Raimi built films from hand, Cameron worked for Roger Corman and Chris, well, he makes them with such love. MM: Right. Well, I was doing some reading on you before this interview and read New York magazine called you the “Indian Will Smith”. How do you respond to something like that?

DR: That is absurd. It’s just not true. It’s flattering that anyone can put me in the same breath as Will Smith who has such an amazing career and has made so many movies. But I think I’m just me – I’m not anyone anyone. No one should be identified by their ethnicity, I’m proud to be Indian, but it’s like calling Tom Hanks the new Jimmy Stewart. Whereas it’s ridiculous to call me the new Will Smith because he’s been in so many movies and gigantic films. He’s one of THE only genuine movie stars in the world where he can open a movie everywhere and people will see it. I’m not that person.

MM: Now Chris Nolan has a tendency to work with actors again, please tell me he’s found a role for you in The Dark Knight Rises?

DR: I don’t know about that, but you never know what’s going to happen. I’ll leave that Chris, Chris knows best.

MM: So there won’t be any Indian chemists or psychics? Damn.

DR: (Laughs) Maybe, maybe not.

MM: Well, thanks so much for chatting with me. It’s been a real pleasure. And you know, I hope you enjoy Australia when you come here.

DR: Thanks a lot. Bye.

For dets on Supernova and to buy tickets to see Rao, click here.

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Oscar Spotlight: Christopher Nolan

You know that kid in high school who was ridiculously talented but a little too genius to be able to fit in with the cool kids? British director Christopher Nolan is the film industry equivalent of that kid.

Nolanites will remember only too clearly when his incredible superhero allegory The Dark Knight failed to be nominated for a best picture or best director Oscar in 2009, despite being nominated in eight major categories. Fans created such an outcry over this injustice that the Academy were forced to open up the best picture category to 10 nominees the following year in what is now known as `The Dark Knight effect’. It seemed with the resounding critical and commercial success of Nolan’s mind-bending Inception this year, there was simply no way he or the film could be overlooked.

Well, the Academy got it half right. Although Inception has received the best picture nomination it rightly deserves, as well as nods in seven other categories, Nolan has again been snubbed from the best director list. How is it then, that someone who wrote, produced and directed the most original film of the season, can be utterly and completely ignored in the director category? That’s a good question. Iconic director Stanley Kubrick, with whom Nolan’s work has been closely compared to, never won an Oscar for best director or best picture despite being behind classics such as 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange and Full Metal Jacket. The reality is the Academy isn’t able to handle the conceptually and intellectually challenging genius of a film such as Inception and a mastermind such as Nolan.

I think the best way to end this rant, is in the words of the wise God Damn Batman; "Oscar Nominations and NO nods for Dark Knight Rises?? I DON'T CARE IF IT DOESN'T COME OUT FOR ANOTHER YEAR. I'll remember this, Academy." Amen.

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Movie Mazzupial's best movie posters of 2010

I’m quite the movie poster fiend, as discussed previously on this blog with my best and worst all time lists of movie posters. And although I may regret some of the choices I made on those, the best movie posters of 2010 list is a little more carefully considered. Unfortunately some of these films haven’t yet been released in Australia, but since their posters are out I feel it’s fair to include them. Here’s the eye candy:

Hesher
This falls into the category of films us Aussies are hungrily waiting for, even more so when you consider this grabbing piece of poster art. And that's what it is - art. It's an image so arresting it couldn't fit more perfectly into David Michod's tale about an anarchist.Kick-Ass
Posters for action blockbusters so often fall into the lazy category (hello there Unstoppable), but Kick-Ass is the exception. With the block black background and yellow lettering, the creators leave all the awesomeness to the film's characters literally jumping off the wall at you. The neon paint splashes are also a clever way to substitute more graphic blood splatters AND throwback to its comic book origins.You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger
I'm a stickler for simplicity and Woody Allen's latest film led the way for several other movie posters that rely on simple, bold graphics. Less is, as they say, more.The Loved Ones
From the Pretty In Pink lighting to dishevelled torture victim, this poster for The Loved Ones sums up the movie perfectly - stylish and sinister.Machete
This is just one of a series of posters promoting the film, most of which relied on using images of the A-List cast. However, the direct 2D graphical style of this had me sharpening all sorts of artistic kudos.Blue Valentine
Dark and romantic is Blue Valentine, and this single image of the love enamoured leads gets all of that across and more. The hand-written style font is also a nice touch, along with love heart V.The Social Network
From the clever border to lone image of Jesse Eisenberg as the Zuker, The Social Network poster did much to intrigue people. But for me, the element that drove it home is arguably the best tagline of the year. It's so good in fact; the makers blew it up to cover the entire poster. Like.The Virginity Hit
Again, simplicity triumphs!Scott Pilgrim Vs The World
The studio thought a collage poster featuring the film’s stars was more marketable, which stands to reason. However, it was Bryan Lee O'Malley’s fully drawn character poster that ticked all my boxes. Its appeal is almost strictly for fans of the graphic novel, which is fine by me.Let Me In
In a similar lone image vein to Blue Valentine, this succeeds due to the conflicting colours and themes. Although I still think the artists version at Fantastic Fest is superior.Winnebago Man
Oh-so perfect in every feasible way. Simply super simple.The Runaways
The tag is catchy, but for a film starring two of the hottest up and comers as the female demi-God's of rock n roll, it’s a pretty ballsy move NOT to picture them in the poster (this one at least). It’s the right move I think, as this grimey graphic alludes to The Runaways biggest hit - Cherry Bomb.And the best . . . Black Swan
The poster being flashed up in the theatres is of course the lone headshot of Natalie Portman looking quite, well, evil. However, the superior ones are the series of posters released in the lead up to the film’s premiere. Don't be fooled by the simple, block shapes - the artwork is deceptively complex and has an almost M.C. Escher-like quality. Notably, they are also draw-droppingly beautiful.

In other poster related goodness, for Tyler Stout’s take on popular movie posters click here, for Killers shizzle here, The Dark Knight Rises wannabe posters here, Lego posters here, Jossing around goodness here.

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