March Madness!

Lets cut right to the picks

1st round upsets: 14 Oral Roberts over 3 Washington St.

12 Long Beach State over 5 Tennessee

11 Stanford over 6 Louisville

13 Holy Cross over 4 Southern Illinois

12 Old Dominion Over 5 Butler

1st round upset special: 15 Texas A&M-CC over 2 Wisconsin

My picks starting with the sweet 16: 4 Texas Over 1 UNC

7 BC over 6 Vanderbilt

1 Ohio St. over 12 Long Beach St.

3 Texas A&M over 7 Nevada

1 Florida over 4 Maryland

7 UNLV over 3 Oregon

1 Kansas over 5 Va. Tech

2 UCLA over 3 Pitt.

Elite Eight: 4 Texas Over 7 BC

1 Ohio St. over 3 Texas A&M

1 Florida over 7 UNLV

1 Kansas over 2 UCLA

FINAL FOUR: 4 Texas over 1 Ohio St.

1 Florida over 1 Kansas

CHAMPIONSHIP: 1 Florida over 4 Texas

Troma Aroma

Quick. What's the worst movie you have ever seen??


...Keep thinking, you can do better than that...




Well regardless, I'm sure any bad film shares at least one thing in common; they were trying to be good.



But what about the other way around, what about a movie studio that had no care in the world how well its films were received, didn't care about oscar nominations, special effects or anything pretentious. What about a movie studio focused on making terrible films that made no sense.


Such a thing actually exists. Troma Studios.


As close as it will ever be at least, Troma Entertainment is a studio (not really, an office in NYC) that devotes itself to making low budget cheap thrill cult horror flicks. They are exploitation shock films showing off as much gore and nudity as possible. It's pretty much the epitome of the "B-Movie". It is the brainchild of Lloyd Kaufman, a Yale graduate who began a legitimate film career after college. Always a quirky guy and upset with people in the industry, Lloyd began making raunchy short films. His claim to fame was the movie, The Toxic Avenger, a comic book type cult film. From there, Troma was officially born and began its true independent glory. Such stars such as Samuel L. Jackson, Kevin Costner, Marisa Tomei, Billy Bob Thornton,Trey Parker & Matt Stone and writer/director James Gunn(Slither) have all began their careers in Troma movies. Films like Blood Sucking Freaks, Chopper Chicks in Zombietown, Cannibal! The Musical, Fat Guy Goes Nutzoid, Pterodactyl Woman From Beverly Hills and the soon to be released Poultrygeist! The Night Of The Chicken Dead are just some of what Troma has to offer.

You see, I first stumble upon Troma when I netflixed something called "Make Your Own Damn Movie" figuring I'd get some insightful advice. It turned out to be a big slap in the face of filmmaking made by Kaufman himself. It was poorly put together and the campy advice made you want Kaufman to eat a pile of toilet paper that you shat on, you know cause, he'd probably be into that sort of thing.


Then again, if anything it gets you thinking. What is filmmaking?, what should movies be? Art or Entertainment? Why should only a select few in Hollywood be monopolizing the business? With most professors, students, critics and the like claiming to talk of an "essence" of film, I mean, isn't all subjective really? So what do you think? What do you look for in your movies? Whats your take?

quiet on the set..take one...lights...camera...

I updated all the crap from my last years experimental class, so now all the class links are current.

Also, some things were said about my blog title which was simply "movies" which i was more than fine with really. But the origin of that came from last years class where we just needed to start a simple blog about 1 thing so everyone just had a bunch of simple titles explaining their place or thing (swimming pools, brooklyn, etc.). But now that we're doing more "serious" blogging, i might as well update it, besides i was getting bored with just "movies" myself and this way, a new title gives me an excuse to blog also about other things. So hopefully this blog will be a lot more bloggy. So here you have it, one mans take on movies and everything else. Action

This is the Zodiac speaking

Some quick things before I give my review of Zodiac:

-I got dragged into going to Hinsdale Greyhound Racetrack to play some Poker, yet a part of me was curious to see what this place was like. My friend and I entered $40 multi-table holdem tourney. The place was literally in the middle of nowhere in a woodsy rundown area of NH. Inside, everyone was the sketchiest sleazeball you've ever seen. Not one other remotely normal person in the house. All the it was missing was Teddy KGB. Brett, I'm sure you already know better, but never EVER go here. Here's a pic of some of the regulars...

still wanna be a poker slut?

Just a downright awful poker experience, the dealers were terrible and incredibly unprofessional, poor payouts and just shitty players in all. I got sucked out on my pocket 9's, oh well. My friend finished in the money and took home 3rd as I sat as far away from anyone and watched TV in a little personal area. Godfather 2 was on so that wasn't so bad. In general, the place is beyond dreadful and I never even want to step foot in NH for as long as I live. I really should have listened to my gut.

But the poker banter doesn't end there. He may or may not write about it yet, but check out Brett's blog for part 2 of his February Tournament he hosted at umass. I played in it and had success. I'm sure I'll get ripped apart by the future cardplayer magazine expert writer himself but what can you do. I admit I'm no expert or anything. I'm trying not to think about poker, and I'm def trying to forget that the A-10 Basketball tourney is in Atlantic City next weekend. You can read about how much I rule/suck here.

-I saw The Prestige on DVD. I like Christopher Nolan but this was just aight I thought. Mainly because I thought it was predictable and knew everything that would happen about 40 minutes in. I don't think I've ever fully enjoyed a twist ending movie in my lifetime.

-I also saw La Battaglia di Algeri, a netflix movie that was collecting dust in my queue for far too long. It was outstanding, it gets the seldom used 5-star rating. The cinematography and editing feels very modern and the issues brought up in the film about war, terrorism and discrimination hold up on point for today. You should really check it out if you have not already. Here's the trailer. It's pretty freakin badass. Oh and take a wild guess who did the music...

Alright on to the review on Zodiac which opened in theaters this past weekend. I was personally amped up about because it was directed by David Fincher (Se7en, Panic Room and of course Fight Club; why aren't more Palahniuk books made into films?) . The film is about the real life event starting in the late 60's surrounding a series of murders in the California bay area by a self proclaimed "Zodiac Killer". It focuses mainly on the employees of the San Francisco Chronicle and the Inspectors in the San Francisco police department. Jake Gyllenhaal plays socially awkward unimportant cartoonist Robert Graysmith at the Chronicle. When the murder of a couple happens, the killer sends a letter to the Chronicle containing a cypher of cryptic codes and written response admitting to the murder. He writes that he will kill again if they don't post his cypher on the front page and leaves himself the moniker "The Zodiac Killer". Chain smoking alcoholic journalist Paul Avery played by Robert Downey Jr. starts writing exclusive columns on the case. Graysmith (Gyllenhaal) slowly becomes obsessed with deciphering the clues and finding the killer himself. The real cops on the case, played by Mark Ruffalo & Anthony Edwards follow the leads as the murders and letters continue. Ultimately it becomes a story of obsession as each man loses grasp of their life trying to find the killer that is outsmarting and patronizing them with clever codes and letters. Here's a cool site that shows those letters.

The film features good performances for its actors all around. I enjoyed Robert Downey Jr., even if he did play himself as a coke sniffing alcoholic. Although not as slick as previous films, the cinematography still does have that Fincheresque quality to it. A few cool shots hover directly over moving vehicles in a Grand Theft Auto type fashion. The film does a good job of exemplifying how hard it is on the cops to find the killer. In a city of panic where everyone believes their neighbor is the the killer, the inspectors have to struggle with sorting out and sharing all the proper information. Clocking in at 2 hours and 40 minutes, the movie is quite long. Too much for some film goers, this wasn't exactly a lord of the rings type movie. My only reasoning is that perhaps Fincher felt it necessary as the film spans over 20 years of long struggle that was the zodiac killer investigation. If your a fan of suspense or horror, the murder scenes serve all sorts of gratuitous violence. In a real life story that is shrouded in mystery, the film does its best at tying all the important aspects of it together while maintaining an entertaining story. If you already know the full story of the Zodiac Killer I'd still recommend it if you liked movies such as Silence of the Lambs or Se7en. If your into real life stories about crazy people then you just might find it fascinating and will make you want to wikipedia the story afterwards and can get you thinking. In fact....I'm pretty sure I ran into that sketchy asshole at Hinsdale. Fuck New Hampshire.