film
grrlscientist | May 15, 2009tags: movies, film, Star Trek prequel, satire, humor, funny, The Onion, streaming video
I'm not sure I want to see the new Star Trek film. Based on this video report, long time fans of the Star Trek franchise say JJ Abrams' enjoyable, engaging prequal betrays what Star Trek is all about. [2:22]
bioephemera | May 13, 2009Well, not really. Artist Carel Brest van Kempen timelapsed stills of an acrylic painting to show his work process. It's remarkable how quickly the anole comes to life!
I especially enjoy watching the glazes go on and come off - each time he blots out part of the painting, I think, "oh NO!" But that's because I work in watercolor, which is pretty near irreversible. Acrylic is much more forgiving.
grrlscientist | May 12, 2009tags: film, movies, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, streaming video
This video shows the West Wales site where two Hollywood blockbusters will be filmed this summer. Harry Potter and Robin Hood will both be filmed in Freshwater West in Pembrokeshire. [2:05]
Filming for for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is already underway. Roads will be closed in Pembrokeshire, as building for Shell Cottage begins. Shell Cottage plays a prominent part in JK Rowling's final book. Originally located on a little cliff in Cornwall, Harry, Ron and Hermione take shelter in Shell Cottage whilst on the…
gregladen | May 4, 2009I just watched a movie that made me ROFLMAOOL about fifty times. Maybe a hundred times. You'll not want to miss this...
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There are a lot of reasons that I love my friend Ana, and I fully admit that one of them is that she give me things now and then that make me happy. Like cookies. And hysterically funny movies on DVD. And more cookies.
But enough with the cookies. Lets talk about the DVD.
On a recent religious holiday, Ana gave me a copy of "... and on the 7th day, God Rocked." Yesterday, I finally got around to watching it. It turns out that this film is a…
grrlscientist | April 23, 2009tags: The Soloist, homelessness, mental illness, movie trailer, film, true story, streaming video
Wow, now this is a movie that I must see! I heard an interview with the author of the book on which this film was based, LATimes reporter, Steve Lopez. He meets a mentally ill homeless man playing Beethoven on a violin with only two strings, and, recognizing his talent, writes a story about him. Lopez's readers send him musical instruments to give to this homeless man, who was a musical prodigy as a child. The resulting friendship transforms both men's lives in this inspirational true story [3:…
grrlscientist | April 21, 2009tags: Harry Potter news, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, film trailer, movies, streaming video
If you're like me, you have practically gnawed off all your fingers in anticipation of the often-delayed next installment in the Harry Potter film series; Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which will FINALLY be released on 15 July. Here's the official trailer to keep you satisfied for .. oh, roughly two minutes [2:26]
grrlscientist | April 13, 2009tags: film, trailer, Everyone Poops, humor, satire, streaming video
If you saw the trailer for Where the Wild Things Are, then you will recognize that this streaming video is a satire of that, providing us with a humorous look at the children's book, Everyone Poops [1:18]
gregladen | April 12, 2009... in the movie Observe and Report.
Go HERE to see the rest of the commentary as well as the R-rated trailer which shows part of the scene in question.
I've got no opinion on this one scene because there is not enough context or detail (having not seen the movie) but the FFFU seems reasonable. The movie as a whole seems to be stupid. And it seems to be just one more of the parade of stupid that serves so well to maintain our stupid culture. I don't think I'm being stupid when I say this. Am I?
sciencewoman | April 2, 2009
Today's free book is "Hollywood Science: Movies, Science, and the End of the World" by Sydney Perkowitz. (If you click over the Amazon page linked above, you'll see a review by scibling Brian Switek of Laelaps.)
Remember: To claim the book, be the first commenter to earnestly affirm that you will read and review the book in less than 6 months. Then send me your snail mail address via my science (dot) woman account on google's mail service.
grrlscientist | April 1, 2009tags: sand monsters, animation, children, streaming video
This streaming video presents a fascinating world of sand animation where a child fights monsters, dragons and ghosts with the power of his violin's sound, a melody that is able to make all these scary characters run away [4:45]
aardvarchaeology | March 11, 2009My wife and I watched the 2004 biopic Kinsey last night, about ground-breaking sexologist Alfred Kinsey. Good movie, good acting, interesting theme. And there's an added perk for fans of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. To the extent that the Kinsey movie has a villain, it's Alfred Kinsey's colleague, Thurman Rice. Professor Rice is an old-school sex-hostile sex educator who shows the class horrific slides of syphilis sufferers and preaches abstinence. And who plays this buffoonish prig of a character? Why, Frank N. Furter himself, the pansexual mad scientist from the planet Transsexual in the…
awild | February 3, 2009
Mark your calendar. The 26th annual Insect Fear Film Festival will be held February 28th at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. This year's theme is "Centipede Cinema".
The film festival is legendary. I've heard about the event for years, and its lineup of bug flicks, live displays, and art contests have received widespread media coverage. Now that I live in Champaign I'll be able to attend my first one.
The announcement:
The Insect Fear Film Festival - scaring the general public with
horrific films and horrific filmmaking since 1984
The 26th…
grrlscientist | January 30, 2009tags: ornithology, claymation, film, black comedy, streaming video
People have always been conflicted about pursuing knowledge, and this short claymation film captures some of that emotion in this black comedy [4:41]
grrlscientist | January 28, 2009tags: film, iMax, marine life, nature, movie trailer, streaming video
Thanks to the wonder of the blogosphere, I have been invited to a screening of the new film, Under the Sea 3D on 4 February 2009 -- below the fold is an interesting interview with the filmmakers along with a teaser for you to enjoy .. By the way, do I have any NYC readers who would like to come along? It is at 7pm on 4 February and I am allowed one guest .. (creeps need not apply) [2:53]
Tell me more!
aardvarchaeology | January 23, 2009
A few years ago my friend David the Psychonaut gave me an mp3 file with the greatest song, "Jan Pehechan-Ho" by Mohammed Rafi. And now another friend, Tanya the Cosmopolite, links to the song's over-the top Bollywood dance number, straight from the 1965 film Gumnaam. Awesome! (As per standard Bollywood procedure, Rafi himself isn't in the film.)
grrlscientist | January 18, 2009tags: nature, oceanography, marine life, sardines, South Africa, streaming video
I watched this film a couple days ago when I visited the AMNH, and then a reader and friend found this video on youtube -- so of course, I had to share it with you! [3:33]
While Wild Ocean explores the causes and effects of man's impact, it an inspirational film looking toward a bright future, taking audiences to a rare unspoiled marine wilderness to glimpse what the oceans of the world once looked like. The film champions the creation of marine reserves necessary to bring our oceans back to life. South Africa…
aardvarchaeology | January 14, 2009When I was offered a review copy of the new documentary film 10 Yards Fantasy Football, I replied, "No use sending that to a guy with no interest either in real nor imaginary football. But please do send me your award-winning 2006 Segway documentary road movie, 10 MPH Seattle to Boston!". Film makers Hunter Weeks and Josh Caldwell kindly decided to send me both films, and it turned out I was right. I liked 10 MPH with its beautiful landscape footage and charming roadside interviews. It has my recommendation, for what that's worth to a movie that's already won the award for best documentary at…
aardvarchaeology | January 5, 2009Back in July I panned the History Channel's documentary on the peopling of North America, Journey to 10,000 BC. Their publicist then sent me a recent re-issue of a 2005 film about adventurous archaeologists, The Real Tomb Hunters -- Snakes, Curses and Booby Traps. Here are my impressions of that picture.
Real Tomb Hunters, though not a very good documentary, is far better than Journey to 10,000 BC. This is because a) it doesn't rely on cheezy computer animation, b) it aims much lower, intending only to be exciting, not to present any research results or debates. We get to follow a number of…
aardvarchaeology | December 28, 2008John Ajvide Lindqvist's 2004 debut novel Låt den rätte komma in came as a pleasant surprise. From a stand-up comedian of respectable but unremarkable standing, suddenly we had this excellent vampire novel set in a staid Stockholm suburb in 1982 -- a time and a place I personally know quite well.
The novel is about adolescent friendship set against a thematic backdrop of forbidden thirst: the young vampire Eli craves blood, his paedophile handyman lusts for children, and the worn drunks upon whom they prey convene around their thirst for alcohol -- and friendship. There are a few scenes of…
dmunger | November 12, 2008When Jim and Nora were toddlers, they were huge fans of everything Disney. Here they're wearing their Disney pajamas as they play next to their Seven Dwarves figurines, underneath their TV, which was frequently used to watch Disney videos. We even took them to Disney World, where they had an absolute blast, but turned out to be afraid of life-sized Disney characters (but that's a story for another day).
While we didn't let them watch Disney movies whenever they wanted, we did allow it once or twice a week, and even built up a large collection of videos, which we still use to entertain younger…