CHANGES...

If you frequent my site at all, you'll notice that I haven't been updating it as often as I used to. This is mostly to do with my hectic schedule and not having much time to devote to it. I've decided to change to focus of my blog to deal mostly with my comedy act instead of movie news and other things. I may do the occasional review here and there if it seems pertinent. I just feel that many other sites do the exact same thing anyways and I don't have much to add to it anymore.

So now I'll be doing less frequent updates and when I do, they'll likely be ideas I'm tossing around for my comedy routine or videos from my shows. Mostly more of my perspective on things, hence the name forstperspective! Please offer any suggestions you may have as the change begins to take form.

Dane

The National

Thought I'd share some videos from one of my new favorite bands, The National. If you haven't already heard them I suggest getting their new album "Boxer" out now.




The National "Mistaken For Strangers"


The National "Apartment Story"

More Wolverine Stuff!

Here are a few new pics from Empire magazine of Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, and as expected, they're awesome! See them larger here and here.





An addition, there has been some more casting news since my last post about this movie.

Apparently Dominic Monaghan (LOST, Lord of the Rings) will be playing a character named Beak who looks like a human-bird hybrid. I'm not too familiar with the character, but we'll see how he fits within the story.


Also, news is that Kevin Durand (3:10 To Yuma, Smokin' Aces) is slated to play the Blob. And while he's nowhere near fat, he is very tall, which I can see as working well to make him look massive in a fat suit. Sounds like a great idea to me.

New Iron Man Trailer!

Do yourself a favor and download the new Iron Man trailer, you'll be glad you did. This movie looks awesome!! Get it here.

Viral Videos...

I found this and thought it was funny. Kinda sums up the whole youtube phenomenon I guess.

Oscar Winners

The Oscars aired last night and for once I actually watched it in it's entirety. I was pleased also with almost every winner this time. I am still angry over Crash winning two years ago for Best Picture. A few of the winners that I was happy to see:

BEST ORIGINAL SONG:
Falling Slowly for the film ONCE by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova



I was glad to see this win over the three(?!) songs nominated from Enchanted. This movie was fantastic and if you haven't seen it I highly recommend you do. It was one of my favorite movies from last year and the soundtrack is great as well.


BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR:
Javier Bardem in NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN



I was hoping for Bardem to win along with most everyone else who's seen him in what I felt was the best movie of last year. Though I would have liked to see Josh Brolin get nominated, he was outstanding in this movie as well.


Strangely enough, after the Oscars, I was able to finally watch The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. If it weren't for Bardem's nomination, I would have been pulling for Casey Affleck to win. He was quite remarkable in that film and definitely out-acted Brad Pitt every step of the way. I wasn't even that impressed by Affleck at all before this, even in Gone Baby Gone. But now I'm curious what else he can do.

BEST ACTOR:
Daniel Day Lewis in THERE WILL BE BLOOD



This award couldn't have and shouldn't have gone to anyone else. Daniel Day Lewis turned in such a memorable performance and had I seen this movie last year, it would have made runner-up for my movies of the year.

BEST DIRECTOR/BEST MOVIE OF THE YEAR:
The Coen Brothers/NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN



I was confident that this would win and I'm very glad that it did. This is the first movie that made me actually believe all the praise that the Coen Brothers seem to receive. While I enjoyed movies like Fargo and Raising Arizona, they've never really knocked my socks off in quite the same way they did with No Country. I'm hoping they do more films like this in the future.

Overall, it was actually a pretty good ceremony. I enjoyed Jon Stewart as the host again, as he seems somewhat disconnected from the typical Hollywood machine unlike past hosts. I was particularly impressed when he called back out Best Song winner Marketa Irglova after she was unfairly cut off before she could give any acceptance speech. In a way defying the limit winners are given to talk before they're cued to exit the stage. It was a great moment in a normally mundane ceremony. For a complete list of winners click here.

GRINDHOUSE: bunnies!

If you've seen Grindhouse, you'll enjoy this little short. It stars cute animated bunnies acting out both Planet Terror and Death Proof in less than 2 minutes. Click here to check it out.

Wolverine Casting!!

News on the X-Men spin-off had been incredibly scarce until just recently and this past week has seen some very interesting updates particularly in casting news. There's a lot to cover so I decided I'll just list things off as I go...

First off, an AWESOME first picture of Hugh Jackman as Wolverine surfaced last week. Click here for a hi-res version. My thoughts? Jackman should be the one testifying in front of Congress, not Roger Clemens. Just a thought.


It's also been announced that Liev Schreiber (Scream, The Painted Veil) isn't playing a young Colonel William Stryker, like reported before, he's playing Victor Creed a.k.a., Sabretooth!! I'll admit it's a strange fit, but I like it. If they pull it off, I'll love it.


So what about the young Stryker you ask? He's now being played by Danny Huston (30 Days of Night, The Proposition). Sounds good to me. Though I was very excited when there were talks of Michael C. Hall (Dexter) playing the role.


There had been a lot of speculation about the love interest, Silver Fox, and who would play her. Apparently, this girl is it. Here name is Lynn Collins and she was recently in The Number 23 and Bug. Maggie Q and Michelle Monaghan were both rumored for the role. So much for rumors.


Then there's the cameos. There was mention of some various mutants who would pop up in the official synopsis, and now there is some word on who that is...

The Blob: Otherwise known as Fred Dukes in the comics, is basically the mutant who is very fat. (insert crappy Rosie O'Donnell joke here). There is no word yet who will play him but they have been testing fat suits and producers apparently want him to look around 1200 lbs. I say yes.


John Wraith/Krestel: I'll admit, I have no idea who this character is except he is in the same Weapon X program as Wolverine. Bad news is he's apparently being played by Will.I.Am from the Black Eyed Peas. Which scares me. But I won't let that little snag slow me down.. oh no....



Gambit: I shit my pants over this one. Yes, finally we have the incredibly popular Cajun X-Man in a movie, only it doesn't make much sense. In the comics, he's much younger than Wolverine and therefore this doesn't work unless he's like 12 years old. I'm sure they've found a fantastic loophole and I don't care what that is as long as he's there. He's being played by Friday Night Lights actor Taylor Kitsch. I think he's too young looking really, but he at least kinda looks the part. Josh Halloway from LOST was offered the part for X3, but turned it down.




Deadpool: I shit my pants again. It was confirmed today that Ryan Reynolds (Van Wilder, Blade Trinity) has been cast as the "Merc with a mouth". He's been rumored to play Deadpool for years now, I just never really thought it would happen. I still don't. It's too perfect of casting. I'm a fan of Ryan Reynolds, and anyone who doesn't think this is awesome needs to go straight to hell. Period. Deadpool is one of those incredibly popular side characters that wound up getting his own title eventually and fans can't get enough of. He's a smart-ass just like Reynolds and I can't wait to see how this one works out.





X-Men Origins: Wolverine is now filming for a Summer 2009 release directed by Gavin Hood (Rendition, Tsotsi)

Arrested Development: The Movie?

Apparently, former Arrested Development star Jeffery Tambor has confirmed rumors of a big-screen return of Fox's short-lived TV show. The series was canceled after only 3 seasons due to poor ratings, despite being a hit with fans and critics alike. This is a strangely familiar scenario that happened with the Fox series Firefly that was canceled and then subsequently brought back with the theatrical movie Serenity. This isn't set in stone just yet but they had better get to it. I happened to really enjoy the show after recently catching it on DVD. For more on this story, visit filmjunk.com.

Mass Effect

This is the first time I've ever commented on anything video game related, but I thought this was pretty interesting and touches somewhat on the issue of censorship. There is apparently some "controversy" over a RPG video game titled Mass Effect, in which there is a moment in the game where the player can choose to engage in a sex act with what appears to be the blue chick from The Fifth Element. Below you'll see both a segment on Fox News where the reporter and a supposed expert try to make an issue out of nothing. It's interesting to see how some people view what they consider to be questionable material and how it should be dealt with. My opinion is to PAY ATTENTION TO YOUR OWN F***ING CHILDREN.




There is footage of the "sex scene" on YouTube currently, and I've seen steamier scenes in a Dunkin' Donuts commercial. There is also a pretty funny mock version of the same Fox News segment done by a couple of dweebs that's pretty spot-on. Check it out...

Juno Review

There's no doubt that by this time you've already heard plenty about this flick, it's already grossed almost 100 million and become one of 2007's biggest successes. So the question remains, "is it really as good as everyone says?" I guess that would depend on who you ask. While praise has been all over the place for Juno, there has also been a noticeable backlash against the movie. Most of the negative talk is in regards to the dialogue, which is drenched in pop-culture references aimed mostly at the indie-art crowd.

The movie is basically the story of 16 year old Juno played by Ellen Page (Hard Candy, X-Men: The Last Stand) who gets pregnant by a shy, awkward boy named Paulie Bleeker (Micheal Cera) and how she deals with the unplanned pregnancy. She winds up finding a couple to possibly adopt the baby in the Penny Saver classifieds of all places. The couple, played by Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman, are desperate to have a family and Juno is only more than happy to give them her baby.

I had an unusual experience in seeing Juno in the theater since the power went out about 30 minutes into the movie and we had to leave. Though the part I had seen was pretty funny and enjoyable. We returned the following night to see the movie again from the beginning. At that point, my opinion shifted somewhat towards the movie. At second viewing, the jokes weren't anywhere near as clever and became somewhat annoying. The feeling continued somewhat throughout the rest of the movie. I also found the inappropriate relationship between Bateman and Page to be incredibly uncomfortable to watch. This is also where some of Juno's charm started to wear off. The girl who is witty enough to lob insults and reference people I've never heard of should be smart enough to see what's going on and she clearly isn't. It doesn't completely ruin the movie, but it does make it hard to really care about or believe in her character.

What is good about the movie is its great supporting cast. In particular, Micheal Cera's (Arrested Development, Superbad) charcter and Juno's father, played by J.K. Simmons (Spider-Man, OZ) who both provide the movies' best characters and performances. Cera's "deer caught in headlights" look he often uses is absolutely hilarious.

Overall, the movie had me divided on whether or not I liked it as much as I was wanting to. I couldn't help but feel old and uncool watching someone who had seemingly unlimited amounts of cool at their disposal. Though, I guess it wouldn't be as interesting movie without it.

Heath Ledger 1979-2008

Very shocking and sad news today as Academy Award nominated actor Heath Ledger was found dead in his New York apartment at the age of 28. It's not entirely clear as to the cause of death at this time.


Ledger has most recently co-starred in "I'm Not There", along with a handful of other actors/actresses portraying Bob Dylan in different stages of his life.




I had been very excited to see Heath Ledger's portrayal of the Joker in this summer's "The Dark Knight". Judging from the trailer, it looks to be an outstanding performance. Most of the film has been finished with only some post production remaining, though it's hard to tell how this will affect the movie if any re-shoots are required.

Ledger was also filming a new movie with director Terry Gilliam and it's unknown at this point how that film will be affected.


For more detailed information on this story, read the New York Times article here. My condolences go out to his friends and family.