Blockbuster should be scared . . .

I’m not really a fan of endorsing products for free, but with all the movie talk flying around here lately, it strikes me that I should really let you all know about this thing if you don’t already.

Redbox is exactly that. A big red vending machine “box” full of DVDs. You can rent them at the box or rent them online and pick them up at the box later. They cost ONE DOLLAR a night. They are in many McDonalds locations as well as many major Supermarkets.

The movies are new releases and I’ve been using them for about 3 months now with great results. ONE DOLLAR I TELL YOU.

Go to their site to see if they have a machine near you and you can use this code to get a free rental: dvdonme

Top 10 Movie Challenge . . .

Krazy Ivan has challenged me to post my personal top 10 favorite movies of all time.

Here they are as well as WHY they are.

10.) Armageddon – Hear me out. This movie is made of popcorn. Seriously. Not a serious moment in the whole thing and yet it manages to be extremely moving in that it shamelessly strikes your emotion chords. This movie is a picture of the America we wish we lived in. Asteroid headed to kill us all? Screw it – get some oil rig guys, stick em on a couple of space shuttles and blow shit up. What the hell do we pay for NASA for if we can’t land on a damn asteroid and nuke it right? Bruce Willis, Ben Affleck, Steve Buscemi, Billy Bob Thorton – everyone knows why they are there, everyone knows their part and I’ll be damned if I don’t cry like a bitch everytime Liv Tyler’s Dad pushes Ben back into the space ship.

9.) Superman 2 – Superman the Movie was too long. It was great, but that whole first act went on F O R E V E R. By the time Clark Kent tears his first buisness suit open, I’m ready for a nap. Superman 2 is a much different story. Clark is Superman and from the very first moment we are on a serious Superhero ride. Is this a perfect movie? Not by any stretch of the imagination. The effects are LAME and Gene Hackman is phoning it in, but the scope of Supes taking on the Kryptonian 3, making a huge selfish mistake giving up his powers and then redeeming himself in the Fortress of Solitude to John Williams incredible score has stayed with me for about 20 years now. I have seen the alternate cut by Richard Donner and while the history behind this one is very interesting (to me – most people could care less – ask me about it if you’re interested) the original holds up. I just identify this one with being a suburban kid in the late seventies who really wished he could fly.

8.)Raiders of the Lost Ark – Again the John Williams score ropes me in from the word go. I think John Williams may be my favorite actor. This movie is not a franchise. It’s not a lame sequel where the directors try to hit all the same notes that worked the last time. This movie is a love letter TO the movies. Raiders of the Lost Ark is an homage to all those 1920 serials that played 3 for a nickel. Only it’s much better than all of them because it’s so spot on perfect in every way. Every moment of celluloid is carefully crafted to be iconic and stick in your mind like a comic book panel. Harrison Ford is amazing in this movie and as much of a Star Wars fanatic I am, this movie is better in every single way.

7.)Reservoir Dogs- Quentin Tarantino has never come close to this good since. This is an awesome, funny, horrifying tale of bad guys BEING bad guys. Steve Buscemi perfected his creepy scumbag persona in this one.

6.)Chasing Amy- I am a huge Kevin Smith fan but everyone in every other Kevin Smith movie sounds like Kevin Smith. Chasing Amy sounds like him too, but with less self awareness and a lot more honesty. There is a moment in this movie when Holden and Alyssa have a huge fight in an alley in the pouring rain. It hurts to watch because anyone who has ever been in love with the wrong person has been there and the scene captures it with so much realism that you feel it yourself all over again. Even better is the fact that this love story does not have a Hollywood ending and Jason Lee has never been funnier.

5.)Batman- I’ll tell you a secret – I love Superheroes. Seriously. Probably my favorite genre in fiction. In 1989 we hadn’t had a good superhero movie since Superman 2. Batman was a sixties tv joke to most of the country, but those of us spending time in dusty geek filled comic book stores were not remotely surprised when Tim Burton showed us what a superhero movie COULD be. Michael Keaton shut up all the naysayers from the first scene and made you believe that he was crazy enough to dress up like a bat and fight crime. Jack Nicholson was very Jack and at the time, that was perfect. The sequels got worse and worse, but the first one holds up, Prince music and all. Is it as good as Batman Begins? Nahh, but it’s not the same thing at all. Someday soon I’ll write a whole post disecting the Bat films one by one – but not today. Back to the countdown.

4.)The Cooler- William H. Macy may be the finest actor of modern film. This is one of those movies that sticks with you. Alec Baldwin is great in this one and Maria Bello is absolutely beautiful. Make no mistake, this is a sad hard movie to watch, but the acting is amazing and I’m better for having seen it.

3.)Spiderman 2- Like Superman 2, when Spiderman 2 starts we all know who the players are and no time is wasted getting the action started. If your interests are such that you find yourself reading THIS blog, then I imagine you have seen this one, so I’m not going to go into plot synopsis. The team that made the first Spidey movie are back and they all give it a hundred and twenty percent. Peter Parker’s life is hard and every time you’re sure he can’t take anymore, it gets worse. But he goes on. The scene when he collapses afer saving the train and all the commuters protect him is well done and not as cheesy as it might have been in another director’s hands. The best line in the movie comes in this scene as one of the people he’s just rescued states what we’re known all along – “He’s just a kid…” Start to finish, this is the best comic book movie ever made. In my opinion.

2.)Glen Gary, Glen Ross- If you like movies, please see this one. This is not an action movie at all. This is a movie about Real Estate swindlers and the entire thing takes place in their office after some “hot sales leads” have been stolen. Sounds incredibly exciting doesn’t it? Alec Baldwin, Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon and Kevin Spacey are amazing. This movie is a modern day masterpiece of fine art. It gets better every time you see it and everytime you notice something you didn’t see before. Just amazing.

1.)Can’t do it- I can’t choose ONE favorite movie of all time. There are too many others that I love for many other reasons, but I can’t pick just ONE of them to be the Top. The Godfather, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Mallrats, The Fifth Element, Die Hard, Real Genius, Pulp Fiction, The Adventures of Baron Von Munchausen, Saving Private Ryan, Night of the Living Dead, Terminator 2 . . . My taste is too eclectic and I am unwilling to filter it any further. Please fill the comments section with your own top 10 and spend some time seeing something you haven’t seen yet.

As a side note to those who actually know me personally- Isn’t it interesting that there is not ONE Star Wars Movie on this list? As it turns out, I guess I like the idea of Star Wars better than the actual Star Wars films themselves.

Hmm.

Learn something new every day.

Thanks for the challenge Ivan – It was fun (And Spiderman 3 still sucks)

‘Tis about Time Mateys. ‘Tis about time.

Arghh, just in time fer Pirate thursday the good people at Sony have released a new character fer the PAIN PS3 game.

He’s a scurvy little bastard and you can launch him off yer slingshot fer a mere 99 cents.

If ya have yerself a PS3, go download him, cause he’s available now and PAIN is just about the only damn thing werth playin on the console besides Blu Ray Discs.

Arggh.

Sam Raimi hates you.

A couple of posts ago I alluded to the fact that Spiderman 3 was a terrible movie.

I have decided to use this lull in new post ideas as an oppurtunity to back up that statement.

My friend Krazy Ivan actually enjoyed the film greatly and so I want to challenge him to write a rebuttal view on his blog. (you can get to it on my list of Like Minded Outpatients on the main page of CALMIXX.WORDPRESS.COM) In essence this will be kind of like a “Dance off” in Breakin’ 2 Electric Boogaloo. But not as timely.

Okay, here we go.

Spiderman 3 was terrible.

There.

That was easier than i expected it to be.

LOL – Ok, ok, seriously.

And now a list of all of the reasons Spiderman 3 was terrible and Sam Raimi hates you.

1. The opening credits did not have any Alex Ross art. Alex Ross art makes everything better.
2.You only see Venom for 2 minutes and 13 seconds. (literally – time it)
3. Peter Parker cries. Alot! Seriously. Every 12 minutes he breaks down like he’s in a scene from freaking Terms of Endearment.
4. Gwen Stacey was supposed to die on the 59th street bridge at the hands of the Green Goblin in the first Spiderman movie. Since she did not and instead was replaced with Mary Jane in that movie, she should not have even BEEN in this movie to remind us that she should have already been dead.
5. Gwen Stacy is much more interesting than Mary Jane Watson. Period. No contest. When Mary Jane and Peter break up I shouldn’t feel like it’s a good thing.
6. Peter Parker should never under any circumstances be in a dance number. The scene in the jazz club reminds me of the dance number in Return of the Jedi except the dance number in Return of the Jedi had hot dancing alien girls and that almost sorta makes me forget all the muppets. The dance number in Spiderman 3 sent me LOOKING for muppets.
7. The Sandman killed Uncle Ben, Darth Vader built C3P0 and Anakin and Greedo had a fist fight on Tattoonie 40 years before Han Solo shot him in self defense. The whole Hollywood universe is 3 and a half blocks long.
8. Harry’s butler has known for 2 years that Spiderman did not kill his father. He just neglected to bring it up until it was needed as a plot device. Furthermore, the reason he knows this is because the wounds appeared to have been caused by the Goblin’s glider. Why is this dude a butler? Apparently he has mad CSI skills that are just going to waste while he serves tea and crumpets to his imbecile employer.
9. Harry hits his head and forgets that he knows Peter’s secret and hates him. This made more sense when it happened on Gilligan’s Island.
10. When Spiderman finally catches up with the Sandman, he takes off his mask, cries some more, and lets him go. The crowd in my theatre was on their feet cheering the assistance that Spidey gave the justice system. Hey news flash folks – When Batman finds the bad guy – the bad guy GOES TO JAIL. Spiderman shouldn’t get to give the guy a pardon. He did more than kill YOUR uncle Spiderman! What about Aunt May? Does SHE get any choice about this? Do you think Uncle Ben is HAPPY NOW? Go deliver some more pizzas with your powers you crybaby emo lookin’ punk.

Hey, James Franco really wasn’t too bad in this movie as Harry.
The first 20 minutes are actually pretty good. But then we get a moment when Stan Lee says “I guess one man can make a difference”.

Go rent Spiderman 3 and see if you don’t agree that from this EXACT POINT, the movie sucks.

In my opinion, that is because Sam Raimi did not want to make a movie with Venom. He was forced to by SONY. That’s why Venom is hardly even in the the flick and when he is, he is used the same way BANE was in the Batman and Robin movie. He’s just there for more toy fodder. So Mr. Raimi gave us 20 minutes of the movie he WANTED to make and then phoned the rest in. To screw SONY. And us.

For the record, Venom LOOKS great and the SAND effects were very well done. But that has little to do with Sam Raimi. I’m sure the artists working in the effects houses were THRILLED to work on Venom and Sandman.

But the first 2 Spiderman movies were not sucesses because they had great special effects. Spiderman 2 is probably the best comic book movie ever made, because of the STORY and the actors. This same team just totally MISSED it in Spiderman 3.

So come on, Krazy Ivan – how are you going to argue with THAT?

Crickets.

This is another one of those posts where I really have nothing to say.

No new Calmixx until this weekend most likely. I have a few ideas, but nothing’s done yet.

I’m working on my first big audio remix so that pretty much seals my fate as a total and complete self absorbed internet geek.

Hopefully I’ll have it ready to go soon.

Thanks for stopping by.

No blog today . . .

I will not Blah blah blog today.

I will not blog at all – no way.

I shall not comment on the news.

not about the sick folks on some cruise. . .  

I will not ask if it was the food . . .

I’m simply just not in the mood.

So screw it.

See ya’ll tommorow. 

Because we’ve all been getting F*d by Ben Affleck for a while now . . .

If you live under a rock then you probably have not seen Sarah Silverman’s video from the Jimmy Kimmel show – you know what ?

What the hell are you reading this for? Jimmy has made a video answer to her -

Watch it -

Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man Game

This game is great.

There I said it.

I don’t like Sports games and I don’t care for Massive Multiplayer Experiences. I don’t like flight simulators and I am not a HUGE fan of driving games (Though I do really enjoy Need for Speed Most Wanted) I tend to play mostly games like Halo and Gears of War. I also like the occasional puzzle game (Tetris, Zuma, etc.)

Spiderman – Friend or Foe is not any of those things. It is a side (sorta) scroller Fighting game, the likes of which the Super Nintendo used to have by the dozen.

I see alot of reviews online dissing it for this very reason. I LOVED Super Nintendo and so I have not the slightest issue with this game reminding me of it.

As a matter of fact, I have missed games like this lately. The Lego Star Wars games come close, but this really feels like an “old fashioned” (if the 80’s can be considered old fashioned) video game with updated graphics.

You know, not EVERY game has to be photo realistic with blood pouring from every corner to be GOOD.

This one is loads of fun and sometimes that’s all I need. (Especially for $30 bucks used!!!)

It has a multiplayer co-op mode that lets the second player drop in and out at will. This is just like the Lego Star Wars set up and is great if you are playing with a little kid ( or for that matter a big one) who can’t get past a certain obstacle.

Just a ridiculous amount of fun for 30 bucks and MUCH better than the Spiderman 3 game. 
Or for that matter the Spiderman 3 movie.  But THAT is a story for a different day . . . 

Big Brother Star Wars #4

FREE INDIANA JONES LEGO GAME YOU CAN PLAY RIGHT NOW …

In honor of the upcoming “Indiana Jones and the search for those Damn Kids who keep Walking on my Lawn”, the good people at Lego have offered to assist this little production company called Lucasfilm in finding a way to get word to the public that this little movie is on it’s way.

They have produced several LEGO sets based on the Adventures of Indiana Jones (much the same way the did with Star Wars) The sets are showing up in Target stores now and are actually pretty cool if you are into that sort of thing.

In related and much more interesting news – a company called Three Melons has created an online video game based on the toys based on the movies and you can play it right now by clicking HERE.