Craig's MovieBlog

Nobody Panic. The Deal is Done

Matthew Weiner and Lionsgate have signed an agreement for Seasons 3 and 4 of Mad Men.

Thank goodness.  No one wants another “West Wing-without-Sorkin” situation.

My Head Just Exploded From All the Goodness

In this one single blog posting, there is:

• a picture of Jon Hamm
• a picture of David Cross (note – they are together!)
• a Tina Fey quote reference
• an Arrested Development quote

I want to go to there too!!!

Getting Old

There are times when I think about films that shaped my cinematic perspective, and then I realize when they were released, and it makes me feel freaking old.  For example:

• The Untouchables was released in 1987 – 21 freaking years ago.
• Reservoir Dogs, a film that changed movies forever, was released in 1992 – 16 years ago.
• The Usual Suspects came out in 1995, 13 years ago.  Someone who was born when this movie was released just had their Bar Mitzvah.
• Ghostbusters - 1984 – 24 years ago… way over half my life.  Don’t even ask about Caddyshack.

But my slow feeble mind always stopped there.  Jason Kottke, however, made the brilliant move of comparing these past films to what would have been similar comparisons back when we watched the film originally.  I know… hard to explain, but here’s an example:

Watching Star Wars today is like watching It's a Wonderful Life (1946) in 1977.

Watching Back to the Future today is like watching To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) in 1985.

My favorite one, however, is when he brings music into the equation:

Radiohead, OK Computer (1997) --> Bon Jovi, Slippery When Wet (1986)

And slightly related:

Blogging Drought and Mad Men

I’m not sure why I haven’t been posting here.  Sure... busy at work, but whatever.  I think it just comes down to the fact that I have been inspired by absolutely nothing in the movie business lately.  Nothing.  Okay, yeah... I want to see the new Bond flick, but I'm hearing mixed things (especially from David Poland) but I just can't seem to get excited by anything that's coming our way.  Can't tell if the problem is me or them - I guess that's the tricky part.

The other issue is that when I'm writing about movies, I feel like I'm cheating on my new love: Mad Men.  So, in honor of my deep deep love affair with that show, here are a bunch of Mad Men links that I've been saving up:

• The Simpsons spoof the Mad Men title sequence
• Truthful TV title cards - check out the one for Mad Men.  Heroes is funny too.
• Mad Men Fan Fiction - weird, but... No, just plain weird.
• Great interview with creator Matthew Weiner
• How to discuss Mad Men properly
• How to get Don Draper hair

Thanks to Fimoculous.com and kottke.org for these links, and for just plain being absolutely awesome.