The CineManiac

CSI Season 9 - New Downloadable Content

2009-11-08T21:37:00.001-06:00

There are a lot of things I love about Blu-ray, the great sound, the incredible picture, but I think possibly my favorite thing about it is it's ability to connect to the internet, thus enabling the studios, creators, etc to give us more and more features. While this feature has been used in the past to some extent, it seems that studios are putting more and more thought into the content released online. And I really feel that we've just seen the tip of the iceberg as far as what can be done with this.

One new release that's really using this feature to the fullest is the new CSI: Season 9 set. By connecting to BD-Live via your Blu-ray player you can now access some really amazing sounding content. Currently using the BD disc you can gain access to exclusive footage from two recent forensic conferences, a chance to see CSI through the lens of real professionals. The footage includes crime scene re-enactments, CSI gear demonstrations, and investigator interviews. Personally I think it's great that we can dive deeper into what real CSI's are doing in their day to day careers, and learn what really goes on during a crime scene investigation.

I haven't had a chance to explore these features, but I'm hoping to have that chance soon, and if I do get to check them out, I will be sure to let you know what I think about it. For now you can check out the full press release below:

CSI: CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION - Season 9

Now Available on Blu-ray

Gives Fans Exclusive Forensic Conference Coverage Via BD-Live

Fans taken to CSI conferences for exclusive insights from forensic pros

Owners of CSI: CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION Season 9 on Blu-ray are now able to access exclusive video coverage from two forensic conferences directly from the disc's BD-Live portal.

Following its well received BD-Live coverage of Comic-Con and Star Trek conventions in Germany and Las Vegas for the recently released Star Trek: The Original Series Blu-ray sets, CBS Home Entertainment had teams onsite at the CSI: Regis University Conference in Denver, Colorado and the annual conference of the American College of Forensic Examiners in Las Vegas, Nevada, filming crime

scene re-enactments, CSI gear demonstrations, investigator interviews and more which is now available for direct download for CSI: CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION Season 9 Blu-ray owners.

These forensic conventions, featuring appearances by noted criminologists, are attended by hundreds of professionals and students of criminology eager to learn the latest developments in criminal forensics. CSI: CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION Season 9 Blu-ray owners are taken there in the comfort of their living rooms exclusively via BD-Live.

The pivotal ninth season of CSI: CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION on Blu-ray, released on September 1st from CBS Home Entertainment, features a dynamic 16:9 widescreen transfer and DTS-HD Master

Audio 7.1 surround sound.

Note: M80 contacted me on behalf of Paramount Home Video in order to let you know about these great features.

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JENNIFER'S BODY - On Blu-ray Disc and DVD December 29

2009-11-08T21:27:00.001-06:00

This past August there was one movie I was really excited to see, but that I just didn't have a chance to see before it left theaters. That movie, you might be able to guess from the title of this blog post, was Jennifer's Body. I had actually been anticipating this movie for over a year having gotten my hands on a copy of the script, besides it was written by Diablo Cody. Cody, you may remember, was the mind behind Juno, and the thought of her writing a horror-comedy mad me giddy with anticipation. And I'd be lying if I wasn't a fan of the cast, yes Megan Fox is in it, and yes she's beautiful, but I was really excited about Amanda Seyfried, Johnny Simmons, and Adam Brody.

I've been a fan of Seyfried since her days on Veronica Mars and Mean Girls, and I think she's proven over the last few years that she's an amazing actress. Add in Johnny Simmons, who is the cousin of a good friend of mine, and one of the nicest guys you'll meet, and Adam Brody, the guy who made geeks cool on The O.C, and you've got one killer cast. And the story, about a girl whose possessed by a demon and start hunting the boys in her high school, sounds like it turns the conventional horror story on it's head a bit. Plus I've been a fan of horror comedies since the days of Scream.

But, as I said, I never got the chance to see the film, mainly because I just haven't had the time or money to do so. But luckily the DVD is coming out relatively quickly hitting shelves just 4ish months after premiering in theaters. The Blu-Ray looks like it will be packed full of some great special features as well as two versions of the film, with the extended version being "too sexy and gruesome for theaters!" Even though the movie didn't get the best reviews or have a huge box office presence, I still think it looks like one that will be fun to sit and watch in the comfort and safety of your own home, just make sure there's no cheerleaders around!

You can see the full press release below:

SHE’S EVIL… AND NOT JUST HIGH SCHOOL EVIL…
MEGAN FOX STARS AS A KILLER CHEERLEADER IN

JENNIFER’S BODY

Written By Academy Award® Winner* Diablo Cody, The Wickedly Sexy Horror Arrives On Blu-ray Disc And DVD December 29

Featuring An All-New Unrated Extended Cut Too Sexy and Gruesome For Theaters

LOS ANGELES, CA – (November 6, 2009) In every school there’s one girl, every girl wants to be friends with…and every guy would die for. Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment presents a “student body” with a ferocious bite when Jennifer’s Body arrives on unrated Blu-ray Disc (BD) and DVD December 29. Sexy temptress Megan Fox (Transformers) is hotter than hell as Jennifer, a gorgeous, seductive cheerleader who takes evil to a whole new level after she’s possessed by a sinister demon. Steamy action and gore galore ensue as the male student body succumbs to Jennifer’s insatiable appetite for human flesh. Now it’s up to her best friend (Amanda Seyfried; Mamma Mia!) to stop the demonic diva’s reign of terror before it’s too late!

Fueled by the satiric wit of Oscar^®-winning writer Diablo Cody (Juno), the sexy horror directed by Karyn Kusama (Aeon Flux) features a strong supporting cast of young Hollywood stars including Adam Brody (“The O.C.”), Johnny Simmons (Hotel For Dogs) and Chris Pratt (Bride Wars) as well as J.K. Simmons (Juno) and Amy Sedaris (“Strangers With Candy”). Killer bonus features include an unrated extended cut packed with more sex and terror in addition to writer and director commentary, deleted scenes, gag reel, video diaries, a Megan Fox PSA and much more. Jennifer’s Body will be available on Blu-ray (BD) as a two-disc release featuring a Digital Copy version of the extended cut for the suggested retail price of $39.99 U.S. / $49.99 Canada and available on standard DVD for $29.98 U.S. / $43.48 Canada. Prebook is December 2.

Blu-ray (BD) Features: (Catalog # 2263164)
Disc One
● Theatrical Widescreen Feature Film
○ Audio Commentary with Director Karyn Kusama and Writer Diablo Cody
● Extended Widescreen Version
○ Audio Commentary with Director Karyn Kusama
● Deleted Scenes

   ○ Dead Boys
   ○ Jennifer Check Is Gross
   ○ Needy Confronts Jennifer

   ○ Who’s Cindy Crawford?
   ○ Needy Faces The Band
   ○ Ass, Gas or Grass…

● Gag Reel
● Jennifer’s Body: The Dead Pool
● Video Diaries

○ Megan Fox and Johnny Simmons
○ Amanda Seyfried

○ Diablo Cody
○ Dan Dubiecki

● Megan Fox Is HOT
● Megan Fox “Peer Pressure” PSA
● Fox Movie Channel Presents ‘Life After Film School’ With Writer Diablo Cody
Disc Two
● Digital Copy of Jennifer’s Body (Extended Version)

Standard DVD Features: (Catalog #2263151)
● Theatrical Widescreen Feature Film
○ Audio Commentary with Director Karyn Kusama and Writer Diablo Cody
● Extended Widescreen Version
○ Audio Commentary with Director Karyn Kusama

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Owen and Santa

2009-11-07T18:34:00.001-06:00

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USA's New Character Arcade

2009-11-05T19:58:00.001-06:00

You may have noticed the new banner towards the top of the page, or maybe the new column on the right hand side which says "USA's Game of the Week" both of which should take you to the USA Network's redesigned and reintroduced Character Arcade. There's a slue of new games, most of which I haven't even had time to check out. But there's also some great new features that help to incorporate your friends and make it all a more social experience. What are those features you ask? Well I'm glad you did ask, because there listed right below:

Character Arcade now features:

-Facebook Connect Integration; sign in with your Facebook account & challenge friends

-Game of the Week promotion featuring weekly prize give-aways

-Point System to buy accessories and upgrade avatars [redeemable for physical rewards coming soon]

-New virtual trophy case

-New Games including MMO and downloadable PC Games

-A new gaming blog: http://theclik.characterarcade.com/

-A new Twitter feed: http://twitter.com/CharacterArcade

One of the few games I had time to check out was the Psych Food Fight, featuring Little Shaun and Gus. The game reminds me of the game a few years ago where you see how far you can throw the cat and it hits bombs and other explosives to make it go further, that one was a favorite of mine in Law School. Here instead of a cat you fling food across the cafeteria hitting other kids and their lunches, seeing how far you can fling it. It's a blast!

Overall I really like the new look and feel of the Character Arcade and will be spending some time exploring it in the near future. In fact I'm hoping to run a new column every week or so spotlighting a new game or two, so look for that. Overall I think the new features really add something to it and make it more of a community experience. I for one can't wait to spend some more time there.

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"Say Anything," "I Love You, Beth Cooper"

2009-11-03T23:00:00.001-06:00

This week sees the release of two very different romances on blu-ray. One is a classic 80s romance that is beloved by many and features one of the most iconic film images of the 80s. The other is a new comedy that is packed full of laughs, despite the unceremonious way it was dumped into theaters with hardly any publicity. Both are great flicks that should be on your list to at least rent, if not to own.

The first movie is, Say Anything, the directorial debut of Cameron Crowe and featured John Cusack in what is arguably the most memorable performance of his career. The movie also features great performances from Jeremy Piven, Eric Stoltz, John Mahoney, Lili Taylor, and Ione Skye. The movie's plot is one we've all seen a thousand times, boy falls for girl from afar and ends up winning her over, but here the unique characters really help the film rise above what could have been a typical romantic comedy. Cusack's Lloyd Dobler is far from the typical male lead, he's a bit off, and speaks in a way that few people, or characters do, yet he still feels so real that you'll swear you knew him in high school. Skye does a magnificent job as Diane Court, she's a girl who upon meeting Lloyd, suddenly realizes she's let high school pass her by while she did all she could to gain accolades and scholarships. And it's the journey these two take as they get to know each other, and themselves, that really makes this something special.

The movie also has some great (and quotable) lines and as I said one of the most iconic images of 80s film. One of these lines, featured on the box, is one I love so much that my AIM screenname is derived from it: "I gave her my heart, she gave me a pen." And if anyone doesn't immediately recognize the image of Cusack holding the boombox over his head, then they probably weren't alive in 1989. That scene alone, with Dobler professing his love for Diane, by allowing Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes" to say everything he can't is worth the purchase of this movie.

I highly recommend you get out there and grab yourself a copy of the film. Although I will say if you already own the previous DVD release, it's probably not worth double-dipping, as this one has all the old features, with the only new addition being the inclusion of a retrospective of the film.

I Love You, Beth Cooper couldn't be further apart from Say Anything, it's slapstick and whimsy as opposed to emotional and romantic, but it's still a good film. In fact I'd say it's one of the most overlooked films of 2009. The movie was unfairly dumped into theaters with hardly any promotion, do you remember seeing ads for it, and barely had a chance at the box office, despite decent reviews. While the movie is not as good as the excellent book by Larry Doyle, it is still quite funny, and just plain fun.

Paul Rust (Inglorious Basterds) stars as Denis Cooverman, a nerdy, nervous sweaty senior who uses his valedictorian speech to profess his love for the head cheerleader, Beth Cooper, who barely knows who he is. What follows is a typical "one night in the life" of a bunch of partying high schoolers. As the night goes on the extremely nerdy Denis actually gets to know the real Beth Cooper and discovers that she's not who he thought she was, and although she's not what he expected, she's actually better, she's a full-fledged person. The movie really touches on some great issues that comes with graduating high school, and might even take you back to your own high school days. It's definitely worth renting.

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Owen in the car

2009-11-03T14:15:00.001-06:00

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Owen at the pumpkin patch.

2009-11-01T17:22:00.001-06:00

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Halloween '09: My Name is Bruce

2009-10-31T10:00:00.000-05:00

So you may remember over the past couple of years mentioning a movie called My Name is Bruce. The movie stars and was directed by Bruce Campbell, the King of B Movie Actors. Well the movie has finally, quietly been released. Starting this past Sunday Campbell kicked off a 20 city tour of the movie, which will be released on DVD in the next couple of months.

(This review originally appeared on November 25, 2008)

The movie premiered on Sunday, October 26th here in Austin at a screening which sold-out in 2 minutes. (the fastest a movie has sold-out since 1999 when tickets to an Evil Dead Marathon with Campbell in attendance.) Luckily I was able to get one of these coveted tickets and it is with much glee that I tell you I not only got to see My Name is Bruce, I got to see the man himself as he introduced the film and did a Q&A afterwards.

The film will be well received by fans of Campbell, and should get some love from anyone who loves B movies, and cheesy horror flicks in general (Although it you love either of these and aren't a fan of Campbell I don't think you really love B movies or Cheesy horror as he's the king of both.) But I'll give a fair warning to those who don't really know Campbell you won't enjoy it near as much as us fans as there are a ton of inside jokes, mostly poking fun at Bruce and his storied career.

The movie opens with a couple of small town folks singing a song about Guan-Di, the Chinese god of Vengenance and Bean Curd (yes it's absurd). When a teen boy, and Bruce's self-proclaimed number 1 fan unwittingly unleashes Guan-Di on a small town in Oregon his master plan is to kidnap Bruce and have him fight off the monster. Because as we all know actors can totally do everything that the characters they play can.

The movie's Bruce is a bit of a prick, he's loud, crude, and treats everyone around him like crap. His wife's left him and he spends the nights alone with his dog drinking lots and lots of Shemp whiskey. Now while Bruce is playing himself, it's much like NPH's version of himself in the Harold & Kumar movies, in that it's over the top and a very fictional version of the real man. But man is it fun to watch. Bruce is clearly having a great time playing himself and it shows.

Now once he's kidnapped it's clear the town hasn't completely thought this through. First Bruce thinks it's an actual movie shot guerrilla style. Second it's quite clear he's an incompetent oaf who couldn't plan out how to kill a fly let alone a big, bad monster. But the town doesn't seem to notice this until there first attempt at killing the monster ends in several deaths (some from Bruce who just fires his Boom-Stick in every direction without looking). And as Bruce runs away to live another day, he breaks the heart of our teen fan and his mother (who happens to be Bruce's love interest)

I don't want to give it all away, but know there is a surprise ending or two. Campbell not only starred in the film, but he also directed it as well. The script comes from Mark Verheiden of BSG fame, and came about from an old book in which I believe Errol Flynn was kidnapped and forced to fight real pirates. They sent it to Campbell who says he loved that they wanted him to direct a movie making fun of himself.

The movie is just about as perfect as a B movie can get. First it star Campbell, who as I said is basically the king of B movies, and owns that fact beautifully. Second it's got a horrible cheesy villian, bad effects, and some amazingly awful dialogue. If you're looking for a wonderful art house indie go somewhere else. But if you're looking for some sweet Bruce Campbell action, or a cheesy waste of 90 minutes, you can't go wrong with My Name is Bruce.

Halloween '09: Let The Right One In

2009-10-31T08:30:00.000-05:00

(This review originally ran in The Exception Mag on December 03, 2008)

It seems like everywhere you look these days there’s Vampires. In the book stores and multiplexes there’s the Twilight Series. The books are doing so well that one independent bookstore that was sold out of the 3rd book told me the Publisher was out of the first three books all together. And at the box office the adaptation of the first book blew everyone away when it made nearly $20 million more than expected opening weekend, and crossed the $100 million mark in 8 days. And TV is even seeing a Vampire resurgence, after a few years off when Buffy and Angel ended there runs. SciFi recently announced it had picked up last seasons canceled before it’s time, Moonlight, and HBO’s Tru Blood, based on yet another series of books, just wrapped it’s first season with a second set to air this summer.

But there is one little gem that may get missed by most in this vampire frenzy, the independent Swedish film, Let the Right One In. The fact that’s it’s both independent and has subtitles will probably deter many people, but those that look past this will find a really great little film. Let the Right One In (LTROI) is essentially the anti-Twilight. Whereas Twilight is the sweet, romantic fairy tale of a girl and her vampire, LTROI is the darkly realistic tale of a boy and his vampire.

We are quickly introduced to Oskar (Kåre Hedebrant) a homely 12 year old boy who lives with his mother in a large apartment complex. Oskar spends his days being picked on by his peers, taking their torment without saying a word. But it’s quickly clear that Oskar is not your typical kid, he collects newspaper clippings of murders and other violent crimes and at night he dreams of getting his revenge on his tormentors with the help of his hunting knife. During one of his nightly “fights” Oskar meets Eli (Lina Leandersson), his new neighbor, whose arrival, with an older man, Håkan, coincides with that of a series of ghastly murders. It reveals nothing to tell you that it is Håkan that is committing these murders (although he is horrible at it) in order to feed Eli, who is of course a vampire.

The main focus of the movie is the relationship between Oskar & Eli. It is fascinating to see the changes that having a friend, especially a unique on like Eli has on Oskar, and it’s not long before the bullies see the change in him as well. Hedebrant and Leandersson do a wonderful job portraying their relationship and Leandersson especially does a fantastic job portraying Eli as creepy, yet sweet. But be forewarned this movie is not all darkly, sweet romance; there is also quite a bit of blood and gore.

All in all, LTROI, is an excellent film with a weirdly sweet, yet bloody romance at its center. If you’re a fan of the horror genre its essential viewing, and don’t let the subtitles keep you from seeing this film. Although if you absolutely can’t do subtitles, you can always wait until the American version coming soon from Cloverfield director Matt Reeves. (But it probably won’t be near as good as this near perfect gem.)

Halloween '09: The Strangers

2009-10-30T14:00:00.000-05:00

(This post originally ran on October 28, 2008)

Holy Crap! That's about all I could say when I finished The Strangers last night. But I'll get there eventually.

First off I have to say I was already scared as I sat down to watch the movie. I'd been waiting quite a while to see this one and I'd worked it up in my head as just about the scariest thing ever. Well it may not have been the scariest thing ever it did have me on the edge of my seat, yelling at the screen, and jumping at ever noise in the house. (All houses make noise but why, oh why did mine have to pop right by the front door just as someone banged on the front door in the movie?!?!)

And I have to admit it apparently shook me up more than I'd realized as I slept horribly last night, tossing and turning and constantly looking up to see if there were any masked faces in my bedroom. Clearly the movie had the desired effect: it scared me, a lot.

The movie begins with an ominous warning that it is inspired by actually events (something I'll get to later) and begins by showing us the aftermath of the evening, a bloody knife, blood on a wall, cars with large holes in the window, and lets us know that the exact nature of what went on is still unknown. Then we cut back to the previous evening.

James (Scott Speedman) and Kristen (Liv Tyler giving an award winning performance*) are returning to his families summer home from a wedding and a disastrous proposal attempt. As the couple tries to figure out how to act around each other following their fight we get a sense of the house and the open area around it. Writer/Director Bryan Bertino gives us plenty of time to get to know James and Kristen as we ratchets up the suspense and it works wonderfully making you care for the characters, unlike most horror movies. Once the couple answer a knock at the door the movie becomes a study in suspense and terror that does not relent.

Normally I'd go into lots of details about the movie, but to be honest its one that needs to be entered into without much information. Most of what you need to know can be found elsewhere on this blog or in the trailers but I'll do a quick recap. Before long James and Kristen are terrorized by three strangers, a man and two women, wearing masks that are honestly creepy as hell. The girls wear porcelain masks that look like dolls, while the man, clearly the leader wears only a burlap sack with eye holes in it.

I will say that the most terrifying moment in the film can be glimpsed in the trailer it's the moment, seen above in the poster, when the man enters the house while Kristen is there alone. For what seems like forever, but was probably less than 2 or 3 minutes we see him simply standing in the back staring at Kristen with her not having a clue that he's there, or that anything is wrong. It is a truly unnerving scene and left me curled up on the couch.

Included on the DVD is a short making of and I liked what one of the crew said. He described the movie not as a horror film but as a terror film. It's job is not to scare you with clever jump scenes, but instead to terrify you throughout the entire film. In this sense I felt it succeeded.

Now I would be remiss if I did not mention the fantastic score and sound editing for this film. These guys should win an Academy Award, not be nominated but win. Without the score and all of the sound this movie would not be a tenth as scary as it is. But the movie makes great use of the sound to play with your feelings, scare you, and keep you on edge. The numerous sound people did not miss a single beat in this film and the movie is seriously rewarded because of it. If you do not leave the movie haunted by the sound then something is seriously wrong with you.

Now about this "Inspired by True Events" warning: Some feel it's placed there to scare people more, and maybe it is. But, Bertino wrote the movie because of an incident in his life. Now nothing like what happened in the movie actually happened, but Bertino says that one night when he was younger he was home alone and someone knocked on the door asking for a person who didn't live there. The next morning he found out his neighbors house had been broken into. From there it seems he spun off this terrifying tale. And that's the extent of the "True Events"

I'd recommend this one to anyone who likes to be scared, but you might not want to watch it alone.

*She won the Spike Scream Award for best Actress in a Horror Movie

Halloween '09: Flashback Friday: Ch-Ch-Ch-Changeling

2009-10-30T12:00:00.000-05:00

The Changeling is a 1980 movie starring George C. Scott that’s as much of a murder mystery as it is a haunted house film. It is one of the best “horror” films I have ever seen and it’s one I keep coming back to year after year. I first saw the film on Halloween of 1999. The town I went to college in has an old, restored theater called The Paramount that shows classic films as well as some new ones, but every Halloween for years and years they showed The Changeling on Halloween. The film has some very iconic scenes including one with a wheelchair chasing Scott through the house and one with a red ball. But these scenes take on a whole new feel in the packed Halloween screenings at The Paramount. In the scene with the red ball there are always red balls thrown down from the balcony and usually a wheelchair can be seen going down the aisle in the pivotal scene of the movie. It’s definitely a place to go for the experience as much for the movie, as most people there have seen the movie several times over.

You can read the rest of the article on DVD Snapshot.

Halloween '09: Flashback Friday: Wolfman's Got Nards

2009-10-30T10:00:00.003-05:00

When I was in 4th grade I had a friend named Jesse. Jesse and I used to spend the night at each other's houses all the time. Now, I remember playing cops and robbers (mainly because one time I had my hands handcuffed behind my back and fell and busted my face since I couldn't use my hands to stop me), but more than any of the games we played I remember the movies we watched, specifically the one movie we watched every time we stayed over together, The Monster Squad.

If you're not in the know, Monster Squad is basically The Goonies with the Universal Monsters. Except the producers couldn't get the rights to the Universal Monsters and had to make slight changes to make them just different enough to not be copyright infringement. So it's basically a rip-off of The Goonies and a rip-off of the classic Universal Monsters. And it's also amazing!

You can read the rest of the article over at DVD Snapshot.

Halloween '09: Are You Afraid of the Dark?

2009-10-30T09:30:00.002-05:00

Halloween is tomorrow and between being sick and getting ready to move and being out of town I haven't had a lot of time to do Halloween Blogs, so today and tomorrow I'll be posting a plethora of blogs from yesteryear starting with this one on Are You Afraid of the Dark? one of my favorite Nickelodeon series from my childhood, originally posted on April 10, 2008.

If you're roughly my age there's a good chance you spent the saturday nights of your middle school years sitting in front of the TV watching SNICK AKA Saturday Night Nickelodeon. SNICK was a 2 hour block of programing which ran from 8pm/7pm central to 10pm/9pm central. Over the years the shows featured on SNICK changed but for my tour of duty the last show of the night was always, my personal favorite, Are You Afraid of the Dark?

AYAOTD? was an anthology series that featured "The Midnight Society," a secret society who met at their secret location deep in the woods to take turns telling Ghost Stories. Each episode would open with The Midnight Society (Left) arriving at the site, usually with something funny happening that would lead into that weeks member beginning to tell their story by throwing some "birch bark powder" into the fire, producing heightened flames while saying "Submitted for the approval of the Midnight Society, I call this story "The Tale of..."

Each weeks the stories varied between subject matter. One week might be about a murderous ghost clown, the next might be about a group of kids playing hide and seek in the cemetery where there may or may not be a killer lurking, or it might be an adaptation of a fairy tale or urban legend. Whatever the tale it always involved a group of teens and something supernatural. Most of the time the story was just scary enough to make you look behind you during it, but not so scary as to give you nightmares. (Although "The Tale of Laughing in the Dark" featuring a clown, still frightens me today) And usually the tale ended with a happy ending. After the tale was told someone would dump a red bucket of water on the fire and the group would all leave.

Most episodes were stand alone, although there were a couple of multi-episode stories. Also there were a couple of recurring characters Sardo (No Mister, accent on the "Do!") owner of Sardo's Magic Mansion, who often appeared in Gary's tales and Mr. Vink ("Vink. With a Va-Va-Va") a mad scientist/magician type who would appear in Frank's stories. Both characters appeared in two-parter "The Tale of Cutter's Treasure" told by both Frank and Gary.

The show, based in Canada, was a revolving door of young Canadian actors, many of whom were either on other Nickelodeon series or have since gone on to have decent careers. Among those that appeared on the series over it's Seven Seasons were: Mia Kirshner (The L Word), Melissa Joan Hart (Sabrina), Eddie Kaye Thomas ('Til Death), Tatyana Ali (The Fresh Prince), Neve Campbell (Right, The Scream series), Will Friedle (Boy Meets World), Jewel Staite (Firefly), Ryan Gosling (The Notebook), Tia & Tamera Mowry (Sisters, Sister), Emmanuelle Chriqui (The upcoming Don't Mess with the Zohan), Elisha Cuthbert (24), Hayden Christensen (Jumper), and more I'm sure I've missed. I think it was a job you had to have in order to be a young Canadian actor.

The first Six Seasons are out on Region 1 with season 7 hitting on April 29. Although if you look on Amazon.com you can't find any of them new and will pay a hefty price for them used. (My I got my Complete Series on eBay a few years ago) But if you've never seen the show or can't afford to purchse the DVDs, there's good news. Apparently the show will be airing on The N starting on May 14th.

As for me I'm going to turn the lights down low, curl up in the chair in the corner (so nothing can sneak up from behind) and watch a few old episodes.

Halloween '09: Ghostbusters Theme Performered by One Strange, Strange Man!

2009-10-24T22:19:00.001-05:00

So in honor of Halloween I thought I'd post quite possibly the weirdest video I've seen in a long time. It's one man, Matt Mullholland, performing the Ghostbusters Theme on multiple tracks, all added together to perfectly capture the theme acapella. It's very strange and for some reason one portion of the song is sung shirtless with a monkey stuffed animal. But overall it's pretty impressive. Enjoy!

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"GLEE" SEASON 1: ROAD TO SECTIONALS - On DVD December 29

2009-10-22T20:25:00.002-05:00

If there's one new show this season that has captured my attention it's Fox's Glee. The show is an almost perfect blend of comedy, drama, and of course, music. It's a pretty good depiction of high school hierarchy, not just for the teens, but for the teachers and activities as well, even if it borders on absurd sometimes. Every week I look forward to Wednesday night and the Glee it brings, both the show and the emotion that I get from watching it.

The show has included some amazing renditions of classic songs including "Bust A Move" and an amazing mash-up of "Halo" and "Walking on Sunshine" among many others. But one of the best things about Glee is the amazing cast which includes newcomers Lea Michele, Cory Montieth, and Chris Colfer. It also includes the amazing Matthew Morrison as the teacher who sets out to make Glee club cool again, and get enough members to even go to competition. But the scene stealer here is definitely the brilliant Jane Lynch as the coach of the "Cheer-ioes" the schools cheer squad, who despises Glee club because it takes away from her accomplishments. Lynch does what she does in everything she's in and swipes the show in every scene she is in.

Now Fox has announced that the hit show is coming to DVD much sooner than I think anyone expected releasing the first 13 episodes as Volume 1 on December 29. With this move I think Fox is hoping to get the show out there and get more people watching, while also making money from the already large fanbase who will likely flock to stores to purchase it. I for one can't wait to get a copy so I can clear up some space on my DVR, as I've yet to delete an episode. The set comes with a load of Special Features including the director's cut of the pilot and cast auditions. You can check out all of the details in the press release below.

Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment Debuts
TV’s #1 Smash Hit Musical Comedy Series

Your All-Access Hall Pass to Everything “Glee”
Arrives Exclusively On DVD December 29

“One of the best shows of the fall season.”
- Los Angeles Times

LOS ANGELES, CA – (October 21, 2009) – Give a cheer for TV’s hottest, funniest and most talked-about new series when “Glee” Season 1: Road To Sectionals debuts on DVD December 29 from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment. Filled with beloved characters and sensational musical numbers, “Glee” Season 1: Road To Sectionals is an electrifying, pitch-perfect winner. William McKinley High School once had a champion glee club, but now they are floundering. That is when an idealistic Spanish teacher (Matthew Morrison, Music & Lyrics) takes up their cause, vowing to transform the rag-tag group of singers and dancers into champions.

From Ryan Murphy, the creator of “Nip/Tuck,” “Glee” also stars Jane Lynch (The 40 Year Old Virgin), Jessalyn Gilsig (“Nip/Tuck”) and a slew of talented newcomers including Lea Michele, Cory Monteith and Chris Colfer. Featuring the first 13 episodes, “Glee” Season 1: Road To Sectionals DVD will also include the Director’s cut of the pilot episode; exclusive behind-the-scenes featurettes; audition videos from the talented cast and the hit music topping the charts at iTunes such as cast versions of Queen’s “Somebody To Love,” Heart’s “Alone,” Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’,” Céline Dion’s “Taking Chances,” Rihanna’s “Take A Bow,” Carrie Underwood’s “Last Name,” Jazmine Sullivan’s “Bust Your Windows,” Kanye West’s “Gold Digger” and REO Speedwagon’s “Can’t Fight This Feeling.”. “Glee” Season 1: Road To Sectionals will be available on DVD for the suggested retail price of $39.98 U.S/$49.98 Canada. Prebook date is December 2.

DVD Content: (Catalog #2264367)

Disc One

●

Episodes

○	Pilot – Director’s Cut
○	Showmance
○	Acafellas
○	Preggers

Disc Two

●

Episodes

○	The Rhodes not Taken
○	Vitamin D
○	Smackdown!
○	Mash-Up

Disc Three

●

Episodes

○	Wheels
○	Ballads
○	Hairography

Disc Four

●

Episodes

○	Once Upon a Mattress
○	Sectionals
○	Special Features

About Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment A recognized global industry leader, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment LLC (TCFHE) is the worldwide marketing, sales and distribution company for all Fox film and television programming on DVD, Blu-ray Disc (BD) and Digital Copy as well as acquisitions and original productions. The company also releases all products around the globe for MGM Home Entertainment. Each year TCFHE introduces hundreds of new and newly enhanced products, which it services to retail outlets -- from mass merchants and warehouse clubs to specialty stores and e-commerce - throughout the world. Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment LLC is a subsidiary of Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, a News Corporation company.

500 DAYS OF SUMMER - On Blu-ray Disc and DVD December 22

2009-10-21T16:45:00.001-05:00

If there's one movie this summer that I'm completely bummed that I missed it's (500) Days of Summer. The movie looked amazing, and stars two of my favorite actors, Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. These two have been in some of the best movies of the past ten years including Elf, Brick, The Lookout, and many more. With all that was going in the CineManiac household I just never got the chance to see it. (although I had tickets to a preview screening by the time I got there it was already full) So I can't wait to check it out when it hits stores on December 22.

And if the movie wasn't enough the Blu-Ray is packed with extra goodies including deleted scenes, featurettes, commentary, and much, much more. You can read all about it in the full press release below.

THIS IS NOT A LOVE STORY. IT’S A STORY ABOUT LOVE.

(500) DAYS OF SUMMER

Get More Summer Days On Blu-ray Disc And DVD December 22

Blu-Ray Disc Includes Lost Days of Summer: Deleted and Extended Scenes,
A Music Video, Audition Tapes and Much More

“Smart, sexy and seriously funny!”
- Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

LOS ANGELES, CA. – (Oct. 15, 2009) – Boy meets girl. Boy falls in love. Girl doesn’t. Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment presents the critically acclaimed, offbeat romance that proves when it comes to love some people know nothing at all as (500) Days of Summer arrives on Blu-ray Disc (BD) and DVD December 22. Zooey Deschanel (Yes Man) and Joseph Gordon-Levitt (G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra) star in this quirky romantic comedy about love and fate, as a young greeting card writer (Gordon-Levitt) who is hopelessly, helplessly searching for the girl of his dreams... and his new co-worker, Summer Finn (Deschanel), may just be “the one.” But the 500 days of their offbeat relationship reveal (in no particular order) that the road to happiness can be unpredictable, uncontrollable — and unbelievably funny! From first time feature film director Marc Webb (Jesse McCartney: Up Close), the hilarious true-to-life film also stars Matthew Gray Gubler (Alvin and the Chipmunks) and Clark Gregg (“The New Adventures of Old Christine”) in a unique dissection of the uncertain and whimsical year-and-a-half of one young man’s no-holds-barred love affair, where he learns that love can be difficult, but it’s also by far the best thing life has to offer.

The (500) Days of Summer two-disc BD with Digital Copy^* includes cast and crew commentary, deleted and extended scenes, a “making-of” featurette, Summer storyboards, audition tapes, music videos and much more, and will be available for the gift-giving price of $39.99 U.S. / $49.99 Canada. The (500) Days of Summer standard DVD features the cast and crew commentary, deleted and extended scenes, and will be available for the suggested retail price of $29.98 U.S. / $43.48 Canada. Prebook is November 25.

Blu-ray Disc Special Features: (Catalog # 2263473)

Disc One

●

Feature commentary with Director Marc Webb, Writer Michael Weber, Co-Writer Scott Neustadter and Actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt

●

Lost Days of Summer: Deleted and Extended Scenes With Optional Commentary by Director Marc Webb, Writer Michael Weber, Co-Writer Scott Neustadter and Actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt

○	“Love Testimonials”
○	“I Think We Should Stop Seeing Each Other”
○	“Family Dinner” (Day 11)
○	“Paul Meets Summer”
○	“Tom and Summer Argue”
○	“Tom in the Movie Theatre” (Day 286)
○	“The Worst Morning Ever”
○	“Tom Sees Summer Everywhere” (Day 306)
○	“Date With Allison” (Day 345)

●

Not A Love Story – Making (500) Days of Summer

●

Summer At Sundance

●

Two Audition Tapes With Optional Commentary By Director Marc Webb

○	Geoffrey Arend (“McKenzie”)
○	Matthew Gray Gubler (“Paul”)

●

Summer Storyboards

●

Bank Dance Directed By Marc Webb

●

Mean’s Cinemash: “Sid and Nancy/(500) Days of Summer”

●

Music Video: “Sweet Disposition” By Temper Trap

●

Six Conversations With Zooey and Joseph

●

Filmmaking Specials

Disc Two

●

Digital Copy of (500) Days of Summer

DVD Special Features: (Catalog # 2263462)

●

Feature commentary with Director Marc Webb, Writer Michael Weber, Co-Writer Scott Neustadter and Actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt

●

Lost Days of Summer: Deleted and Extended Scenes With Optional Commentary by Director Marc Webb, Writer Michael Weber, Co-Writer Scott Neustadter and Actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt (see list above)

About Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment
A recognized global industry leader, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment LLC (TCFHE) is the worldwide marketing, sales and distribution company for all Fox film and television programming on DVD, Blu-ray Disc (BD) and Digital Copy as well as acquisitions and original productions. The company also releases all products around the globe for MGM Home Entertainment. Each year TCFHE introduces hundreds of new and newly enhanced products, which it services to retail outlets -- from mass merchants and warehouse clubs to specialty stores and e-commerce - throughout the world. Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment LLC is a subsidiary of Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, a News Corporation company.

# # #

Press materials available at www.foxpressroom.com

Follow Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment on Twitter @FoxHomeEnt

*(500) DAYS OF SUMMER*
Street Date:	December 22, 2009
Prebook Date:	November 25, 2009
Screen Format:	Widescreen - 2.40:1 (All)
Audio:	English 5.1 DTS HD Master Audio/5.1 Dolby Digital in Spanish/Portuguese/French (BD)
	English 5.1 Dolby Surround, Spanish/French Dolby Surround (Standard)
Subtitles	English and Spanish (All)
U.S. Rating:	PG-13
Total Run Time:	95 minutes
Closed Captioned:	Yes

^*A Digital Copy of the film can be transferred to any portable media device

Posted via email from the_cinemaniac's posterous

White Collar LIVE NYC EVENT Thurs & Fri

2009-10-20T21:37:00.001-05:00

Every once in a while I get an email that makes me wish I had some extra money to travel, or lived in a different city. Today USA sent me one such e-mail. To promote their newest show, White Collar, they've teamed up with Thomas Pink to give out custom-fitted white collar shirts. This Thursday and Friday at Rockefeller Center in NYC you can get your own custom fit white collar shirt as well as a free shoeshine and complementary coffee. And if you can make it Friday morning you'll also get to hang out with series stars, Matt Bomer, Tim DeKay, and Tiffani Thiessen. This times for the event is Thursday from 10am to 6pm and Friday from 8am to 6pm.

So those of you lucky enough to be in NYC go have fun for me, and if you can send me a pic! You can see more info about the event below.

USA NETWORK PRESENTS THE “WHITE COLLAR SHIRT BAR”

OFFERING VISITORS FREE CUSTOM-FITTED SHIRTS COURTESY OF THOMAS PINK

Stars of new original series WHITE COLLAR Matt Bomer, TimDeKay and Tiffani Thiessen

to attend first-of-its-kind luxury shirt bar at Rockefeller Center in celebration of show’s premiere

Adding excitement leading up to the premiere of new original series WHITE COLLAR, USA Network proudly presents the “WHITE COLLAR Shirt Bar,” a pop-up experience offering men and women complimentary custom fitted shirts courtesy of Thomas Pink, open to the public Thursday, October 22 from 10 AM to 6 PM and Friday, October 23 from 8 AM to 6 PM. In addition to custom shirt fittings, the “WHITE COLLAR Shirt Bar” will also feature lounges, free shoeshine and complimentary coffee stations.

On the morning of Friday, October 23, join stars from the cast of WHITE COLLAR – Matt Bomer, Tim DeKay and Tiffani Thiessen – to celebrate the launch of USA’s new series at this extraordinary activity.

Posted via email from the_cinemaniac's posterous

It's a Steal!!! Win Big in the White Collar Give-Away

2009-10-19T22:41:00.002-05:00

To solve the hardest crimes, hire the smartest criminal! USA NETWORK’s new series, White Collar, premieres Friday, October 23 at 10pm/9c. WHITE COLLAR, stars Matt Bomer (“Chuck,” “Tru Calling”), Tim DeKay (“Tell Me You Love Me,” “Carnivàle”), Tiffani Thiessen (“What About Brian,” “Fastlane”) and Willie Garson (“Sex and the City,” “John from Cincinnati”). WHITE COLLAR is about the most unlikely of partnerships between a con artist and an FBI agent. The story unfolds after charming criminal mastermind Neal Caffrey (Bomer) is caught by his nemesis, G-Man extraordinaire Peter Burke (DeKay). Rather than returning to jail for this daring getaway, Neal suggests an alternate plan - providing his expertise to assist the Feds in putting away infamous and elusive criminals in return for his freedom. Join us online: Official Site, Facebook Fan Page, and Twitter.

I can honestly tell you that White Collar is one of the best new series of the season. And in the great tradition of USA and it's moto "Character's Welcome" this show has some great characters and lets them drive the action, something USA's done a great job of ever since they brought us Monk. I think it's this determination to bring us great characters and not just good premises that USA consistently brings us some of the best shows not just on cable, but on television period. This Friday is your chance to check out the newest series, White Collar, and for the next 4 weeks you have the chance to win a White Collar Gift Bag. I have two bags to give away. All you have to do is send an e-mail telling me what you'd steal if you could steal anything, no limits! (You might get bonus points for telling me how you'd steal it!) You have until midnight on November 13th! Open only to U.S. residents, 18 yrs of age or older.

Enter to win a White Collar Gift Bag!

– Six-in-One Game Set

– The Modern Gentleman

– Neal’s Little Black Book

– White Collar T-Shirt

Posted via email from the_cinemaniac's posterous

Psych! An Interview with Steve Franks and Dule Hill

2009-10-16T18:34:00.001-05:00

Hey kids! It's been a busy week and I'm out of town but I wanted to remind you that tonight is the Fall Finale of Psych! According to creator Steve Franks it's the most intense episode of the show to date. Personally I can't wait (in fact I've commandeered my parents DVR so I can catch it tonight!) Since I'm so busy I don't have time to give you the best parts of the interview I took part in with Franks and Dule Hill, so I'm just posting the entire transcript. There's some great info in here about tonight's episode, the future of Gus' love life, the amazing theme song, and James Roday's off season beard. So enjoy and remeber to tune in tonight on USA at 10/9c.

F. Germay My first question is to Steve. It is what advice would you give to aspiring writers in the business?

S. Franks I can’t believe I got the first question with Dule Hill on the line. Don’t you guys know that there is a television star on this line? I’m very excited. Thank you very much for that. For me, my advice is to write and to keep writing if you want to be a writer because if you want to be an actor writing doesn’t really help you that much. For me, I was working at Disneyland and working in college and I wrote five scripts before I ever went out with one because the first three were terrible and then the fourth one was less terrible. The fifth one I thought was pretty good. The fifth one I set up and sold. For me, I didn’t know anybody in the business. I didn’t have any relatives in the business. I just knew I always wanted to do it. I knew from the time I was in fifth grade. I was writing scripts in fifth grade, so I just knew that I was going to be in it for the long haul and I had to just keep working at it. For me it was trial and error, trial and error, and trial and error.

The interesting thing about being a writer is so many of my friends were like, “Yes, I want to write. That’s cool.” I always encourage them to keep writing and you find out who really wants to be a writer by who’s still around two years later.

F. Germay Thank you.

S. Franks You’re welcome.

Moderator Thank you. We have a question from Joshua Maloni from Niagra Frontier Publications. Please go ahead.

J. Maloni I’m enjoying another stellar season of Psych. Steve, let me ask you: what can you tell us about the fall finale and where we’re going when the show comes back?

S. Franks The fall finale is really, really fun and really intense. The idea came about after we had the Mr. Yang episode that ended last year. We thought how fun was it to really have a fun, suspenseful, intense episode. Bonnie Hammer, the head of pretty much half of the world and our NBC/USA world really loved that episode and wanted to see us do something like that, so we decided, “You know what? Let’s do something great and exciting.” We actually shot this episode third and when we got it back we were like, “Wow! This is really intense and is really big and really has this unbelievable finale. It has so many things. This is clearly not the light season kickoff. It’s like this is a season finale,” so we actually shot this episode months and months ago and we realized we’ve already done our season finale, so we went on to the lighter, funnier, goofier stuff that you’ve been seeing in the last few weeks.

It’s really exciting and we like to do one or two of these every half season where we do something that’s a little more intense and more exciting. In the spring we’re doing another one or in the winter. I guess it would be officially called the winter. I call it the spring even though we don’t have a date yet for next year, but for us it’s always about building off of the core and what we can get away with in Psych. Since we were able to get away with something more intense with ... we sort of pushed it a little bit more in this episode with all of the signature fun comedy that we also get throughout this episode. Expect this to be probably our most intense episode, a lot of fun, a slam-bang finale and we’ll follow that up in the spring with something equally as crazy.

J. Maloni Can you give us any kind of hints as to what we’ll see in the second half of the season?

S. Franks Oh, my gosh. Of course I can. We’re actually shooting it right now. I finally realize my dream to do a Jaws episode, so we’re doing an episode with a shark attack. We’re doing an Outbreak episode. We’ve always wanted to do something fun with that. Of course, what’s more fun than a deadly virus on the loose? What are we doing? In the spring, I call it, the winter, we’re starting off doing a military episode and we’ve landed our dream guest star. That’s John Cena from the World Wrestling. We’ve been trying to do that since season one. We actually had a wrestling idea. We’re really excited. For me it’s always been each episode is a little movie, a little summer movie and we’re continuing that. Each episode probably couldn’t be more different than the last one and that’s the way we like it until we run out of worlds.

Moderator We’ll go to the line of Rosa Cordero from Accidental Sexiness. Please go ahead.

R. Cordero Dule, I love you and I think you need a girlfriend on the show and I want to try out. The second part of my question is for Steve. I loved Big Daddy. I want to know if you’ll do any more writing for movies.

S. Franks I love that question. Thank you. Ever since we started the show I thought, “Gosh, I want to get back into features. I want to get back into features.” Then, just like now when we’re at the end of the season, the end of the season comes and I go home and collapse into my bed. I really would like to. My goal this year is to get back. I actually have a feature script that I’ve been working on the last two seasons and I’m finally going to finish it this year. I would love to get back in the movies. After the end of this show, after 12 seasons, that’s probably where I will return to.

To answer your first question, Dule Hill having a girlfriend on the show, there may be a little bit of that in the winter, but somebody can ask Dule about that.

Thank you for that question. I would love to get back in the movies. It’s my goal and plan. To me it was so fun being a feature writer because it’s like, “Do I write today? I should. Maybe. I’m not inspired.” When you’re doing a seven-day schedule of a television show it’s pretty much, “Oh, my God. Oh, my God. There’s another one coming up after this,” so the pressure and the level of intensity, they couldn’t be more different. You don’t have time to obsess over anything. You don’t have time to obsess over things the way you can in a feature. You just have to do it and trust your instincts. For me, I think I become a way better writer from working in TV because there is no excuse. You can never slow down. You can’t be blocked. It’s a really different experience.

Moderator Thank you. We’ll go to the line of Laura Tucker from Small Screen Monthly. Please go ahead.

L. Tucker My first question is for Steve. I am absolutely addicted to the theme song. I know your band, The Friendly Indians, recorded it. It’s literally stuck in my head every Saturday morning. Now, why is it not available on iTunes, but other Friendly Indians tracks are? Is it like a copyright thing or what?

S. Franks No. What happened is we played around. The Friendly Indians have been around for ten years. By the way, The Friendly Indians are back and rehearsing and we’re going to do some shows in the off season, but it was one of those things where we went in to record the theme song before and we got this great studio where Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder had recorded. We had great producers. It was really super professional and cool. We only had enough studio time to record the one-minute version of the song, so we were like, “Okay. We’ll come back and record the full-length version,” and there just has not been any time to go back and do it. Now that we have this really great version of the one-minute song we can’t sort of half-way do it. We have to go lock into a studio and get all of those elements back together.

The reason it’s not available is there is no full-length version of it. We fully intend, every off season, to do that, but as I mentioned earlier, at the end of every season I usually curl up into a ball and sleep for the two months we have off until we start writing again. So, I hear you. I’m going to pull the guys together now that we’re back rehearsing. I think it’s inevitable that we’ll actually do a great recording of it and get it on iTunes. Actually, we’re hoping we’re going to have enough material to go in and record a third album.

Moderator Thank you. We have a question from Lauren Becker from Shooting Stars Magazine. Please go ahead.

L. Becker Thank you, guys, for talking to us.

S. Franks Thank you, guys, for coming out. By the way, I have to say I love all of the questions so far. No pressure on you.

L. Becker My first question is for either of you, quite honestly. I was wondering about the The Mentalist; it’s so similar to Psych just on a more serious level. What was your initial reaction to that?

S. Franks Well, I think we can both probably comment on that. For me, I guess it’s the sincerest form of flattery, you know. There’s not really anything you can do about it, but we like to take every opportunity we can to sort of play with it and have fun with it. There will be a Mentalist reference in this Friday’s episode and probably a lot more in the winter season. Dule?

D. Hill I would agree with Steve. I mean it’s not like that show is taking away from our audience or we’ve taken away from their audience. There’s room for both of us on the air. I think it’s great there are actors out there who have work to do. There is more television that’s being made that’s not a late night talk show. I think it’s a great thing. I mean on our show we like to have a lot of fun anyway, so as long as they can take us ribbing them every once in a while I think it’s all good.

L. Becker Fair enough. My second question is from the beginning idea of Psych how has it changed to what we, as the viewers, see? Were there a lot of things that you had to change round character wise or anything or is it pretty similar to the main idea?

S. Franks For me, because I came from features, you write a 110-page script and in that story the characters sort of go along their arc, as they say. They go through their journey and make the changes as the situations sort of change them. In a TV show I sort of think of it as it’s maybe a 110-episode arc, so you take each episode is another minute of the movie. The characters start in a certain place and then you expand upon that world. We started our guys exactly where we wanted them to. Gus had a life and Shawn had drifted a little bit out of his world. Shawn had is life. They were sort of both looking for something. Gus’ world was too structured, his full-time job. Shawn’s life had no structure whatsoever and this opportunity came about for these two guys to sort of rekindle their childhood and have this great sort of fun adventure together. They’ve been affecting each other every week and making each other more complete and enriching their lives and developing and growing up. Now it’s been four years that they’ve been doing it and they’ve undergone these great changes.

Important for us is we’ve expanded. Every week we drive our network crazy because we never want to repeat what we’ve done. We want to just expand and go a little bit further, a little bit further so when we do a very intense episode, like the one that comes Friday, we also want to do a crazy episode a little bit crazier, just like the Spanish Telenovela episode and the Hollywood episode.

I’m very happy with where we started. It’s fun for us; Dule, I’m sure, will talk much more eloquently about this; to just keep expanding upon what we’ve done and building on what we’ve done and stretching the rules just a little bit more. Our goal is that people on Friday go, “Holy crap. Did you see what they did on Psych Friday and they got away with it?” That’s our goal. Dule?

D. Hill I think you sell yourself short, Steve. I think you’ve explained it very well. I mean it’s a journey. As I said, I’m only going to be repeating what Steve said. I think he nailed it. I mean, as the show goes on you’re kind of slowly, but surely, going over this arc hopefully by the end of the series the characters would have still maintained some of the elements of who they were from the beginning, but they still have grown. They’re not the exact same person because nobody stays the same. Actually, that’s what keeps audiences interested. As I said, Steve, you nailed it anyway.

Moderator We’ll go to the line of Stefan Blitz from ForcesofGeek.com. Please go ahead.

S. Blitz I have a question, actually, for both of you. Steve and Dule, how has both the series and the character of Gus unexpectedly changed since the series began?

D. Hill Can you repeat the question one more time?

S. Blitz Sure. How have both, the series and your character, unexpectedly changed for you since the series began?

S. Franks Dule, before we start I can tell you that one of the great things about Dule, as we talked about the Gus/girlfriend thing earlier, is every once in a while Dule is really great about calling up in the best way and saying, “All right, Steve Franks, what are you doing? Don’t you think that Gus’s character should…?”

It’s always in a very collaborative way and in such a way that I’m like, “You know what? You’re right. We haven’t explored that part of Gus. We haven’t done that. Gus has done this a little too much.”

At the beginning of the season Dule called and said, “Hey, when is Gus going to get a girlfriend coming in?” So we sort of use that as a springboard to a really fun episode that happens in the winter. I think for me it’s like I have the entire world to think about and it’s always good for me to check in with Dule or James or Maggie to sort of see what are you looking for. They’ve been such a great collaborator in terms of how we can push the character in a little further direction.

Okay, Dule. Take it.

D. Hill I mean there haven’t been too many things that have been unexpected necessarily. It’s weird when you use the word unexpected because you’re in the character so long that it’s always a collaborative effort when you’re trying to figure out what new places to go. I guess for myself the one thing would be having a girlfriend coming on this year. It wasn’t necessarily unexpected because we spoke to Steve about it earlier in the season. Also, the fact that Gus and Shawn can sing so well and sing so much, I think that would be something from the get-go of the show I never saw happening on the show so much.

I don’t really know. It’s a hard question to answer so say what is unexpected with the character. It’s been a great journey. I’ve enjoyed each episode and seeing where the character goes next in the different things that come up. That’s it.

S. Franks There’s also something fun. We have this great built-in device that Gus has these unbelievably odd interests that somehow dovetail into the cases, so he has expertise in areas that are always really fun, so Dule is always surprised to find out that he happens to be an expert in a certain area. I remember the first season when we did the Comic-Con episode and Dule was like, “Gus is a comic book geek?”

I’m like, “Absolutely he is.”

He’s like, “Okay. I didn’t see that coming.”

D. Hill ... we’re four years in and being that Gus does have these random interests, things don’t really surprise me. They’re not really as unexpected anymore, because Gus can be interested in anything. He can be a connoisseur of anything. It doesn’t surprise me anymore. I mean, it can be anything random, the fact that he may know some random thing that Gus may know, something about space or something about - in the last episode that aired he’s a member of the largest on-line community to abolish the practice of - what was that thing, Steve, taxidermy?

S. Franks Yes.

D. Hill I mean it doesn’t really surprise me anymore, but to me it’s what keeps the show funny. It’s what keeps the character interesting and lets it be an enjoyable thing to do.

S. Franks We always think of Gus as a student of the world. He wants to learn. He wants to learn and understand everything.

D. Hill He’s actually a very corny renaissance man.

S. Franks Exactly.

D. Hill A cornball renaissance man.

Moderator We’ll go to the line of Travis Tidmore from Cinemaniac. Please go ahead.

T. Tidmore Steve, first of all, I want to thank you guys for the theme song. My 20-month-old loves it and won’t stop watching it. It’s non-stop in our house.

S.Franks That’s awesome. We love to tweak the theme song as much as possible. That’s one of our favorite things. Quite honestly, one of the great things that’s happened on this show was the opportunity to have Boys II Men sing my theme song. It was unbelievable. I love the theme song too. Congratulations on your 20-month-old. You’re going to be sleeping a lot more very soon.

T. Tidmore Yes. I’m looking forward to that. You guys have talked a lot about Dule’s character having a girlfriend this season. This last episode featured Larisa Oleynik, who was my first TV crush. I just wondered if there’s any chance that she’s going to come back in any capacity.

S. Franks That’s a good idea. Definitely not in the winter, because we’ve actually written all of the episodes as of yesterday, but there’s always a possibility. In fact, one of the big things going forward to season five, we already have ideas. We’ve got nine ideas for season five. We’re really interested in bringing some characters back. We’ve got a whole slew of them that we’re working on bringing back. We’ll definitely add her to the list. I have a board in the office. It always hovers around 50 ideas, but it’s sort of 50 worlds and usually they’re one-word descriptions, but many of them would relate to characters we’ve already seen in the past and loved, and a lot of them from this season.

D. Hill Larisa was great on the show. She came up and she had a good time and we enjoyed having her. Who knows? Maybe we’ll get a chance to see her back some time soon.

Moderator We’ll go to the line of Elliott Slament from Spoiler TV. Please go ahead.

E. Slament I have a question for Steve. Abigail hasn’t really been present very much as Shawn’s girlfriend. Does this represent Shawn’s lack of interest and ultimate attraction to Juliet or is it something else?

S. Franks Who hasn’t? I’m sorry. What was the beginning of that question? It was cutting out.

E. Slament I was saying that Abigail hasn’t been very present as Shawn’s girlfriend.

S Franks Yes. Actually, we sort of had the idea that she’s been there, but we have her for only a certain number of episodes and we wanted to keep her for a certain amount of time, so we sort of spread it out over the season. It’s one of those things also, when you’re on a cable budget, your guest star budget is only so large, so we can only see her so many times. It’s one of the challenges we have making our show on the sort of price range we do for all of the sort of big ideas that we try to get. For us, our idea was that Shawn is very invested in Abigail and he’s trying to take this big leap to sort of do a relationship, but production wise we had to figure out a way to sort of keep her alive by talking about her or seeing her and I think Shawn is doing his best to make things work for he and Abigail. We will see her again.

E. Slament Speaking about relationships, might we see anything for Lassiter in the future?

S. Franks We have not done anything in the winter, but it’s at the very top or very near the top of my list for season five, should the season five happen, just assuming that season five happens, because you never know in this business. But yes, I think Lassiter with a girlfriend has endless possibilities.

Moderator We’ll go to the line of Joel Humel from Pop Culture Madness. Please go ahead.

J. Humel Thank you for taking our calls today, both of you guys.

S. Franks Thank you a lot. I’m really excited. I got the list of all of these sites and I’m going to visit each and every one of them in the next week.

J. Humel Cool.

S. Franks I sit there and when I actually can get on my computer to just play I realize all I do is go to MLB.com. I’m excited to have new sites to look at.

J. Humel Okay. Well, I hope this doesn’t count as a question, but who are you rooting for?

S. Franks I’m rooting for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. They’re my team. I was at both games this week. This has been one of the greatest weeks of baseball ever for me.

J. Humel I’m a Phillies guy. They’re right next door to me practically.

S. Franks Boy, what a game last night.

J. Humel Yes.

S. Franks That was just amazing.

J. Humel Anyway, here’s my question: What were you doing or what inspired you when you came up with the premise of Psych?

S. Franks At the very core of it I just found TV depressing, especially the procedural. I grew up with what they called the light hours, the shows that were fun: Magnum PI. When I was really little it was Rockford Files and Moonlighting and all of those shows that were just fun to watch. I found myself looking at TV and it was always about murder and dismemberment and looking under a microscope at bones and flesh wounds. For me, and I think this is also to go back to the very first question, the best advice I could give is I wrote the show for me. I wrote a show that I wanted to see. I’d never done a one-hour show. I’d had a few half-hour, multi-camera live pilots, but I’d never even attempted to write the hour-long drama or cop show. My dad was a cop, so I’m like, “Maybe now is the time to do a cop show.” I wanted to do something that was fun and funny and revolved around characters that also can take you into a little mystery each week, but that you really got yourself wrapped up and loved the characters and to create a really fun world each week that does something that you don’t see on other shows.

I’m locked in that nobody else is doing a murdered sea lion episode and nobody else is doing an acapella group gets involved in a drug sting. I feel really good about what we’ve accomplished, but I basically wrote the show that I’ve always wanted to see or that I missed from my childhood.

J. Humel Okay. Thank you. Dule, I guess my second question is a little bit related. What did you bring into the character of Gus as opposed to what was playing when you first heard about him?

D. Hill It’s always hard for me to go through and talk about, I guess, the thought process of a character, the process of creating a character, but I can make my best attempt. I think the main thing that I brought to the character was the idea that he wasn’t just a nerd. I thought that when I first came Gus was the reluctant sidekick. I think the main thing I brought was the idea that he actually had a very rational thought process for why he did certain things. Everything he did he did under the belief that made it very cool and made him very slick. When you really look at him and look at his actions, he’s not cool at all and he’s not slick. I mean the thing I always ... the character that he’s a cool nerd. That’s the thing. He’s a nerd who thinks he’s cool or he’s someone who thinks he’s cool and he’s a nerd. That’s the main thing. He’s a conflict of both; of him trying to be cool, but really being a nerd instead of him just ... the fact that he’s a nerd. If you ask Gus if he’s a nerd he’s going to tell you no. He’s going to say, “Women love what I do.” He’s going to say, “It’s a proven fact.” Even in the acapella episode is it a sign ... signing the name on the back of a card, but that’s a very corny thing to do. Do you know what I mean?

I would say that would be the main thing that I brought to the character, but as I said, I’m realizing as I get older the more and more I do interviews on ... process I don’t really enjoy talking about the process of the character because it’s more of an organic thing. It just happens through the actions. It happens as you’re living the character out. As you go along through the seasons you just create it. You don’t really necessarily put it into words or put specific pinpoints into; at least I don’t anyway; the development of the character. That would be my answer.

J. Humel Plus it’s such genius writing that you don’t have to, right?

D. Hill Overall. I mean the show is a hit show anyway. I know when me and Steve first met, when we first sat down that was the only thing I could really remember is I didn’t want to be playing a straight nerd for five years or six years on television. I always thought that we’d seen – (recording cuts out)

S. Franks We must have lost Dule. I can actually take a little bit more. Dule says the word nerd or geek or whatever. We don’t ever think of that as a bad term. We sort of think of this as a more fully realized human being, as a person who understands it and wants to understand the world. What Dule says is the most true is everything that Gus does is so much thought out that it’s too thought out. He analyzes everything in his life to the point of his own demise. I think it’s a fun, fun character to write.

We’ve been so lucky this year to really be able to write for all of the characters on the show. It’s not just we have to figure out another Shawn episode. I’m doing an episode in the spring called “A Very Juliet” episode and it was just so great to spend an entire episode just thinking about Maggie’s character and bringing a really, really fun case right into the middle of the episode.

Moderator We’ll go to the line of Lena Lamoray with LeenaLamore.com. Please go ahead.

L. Lamoray In casting Psych what was the one thing that James and Dule did that made you realize they were your Shawn and Gus?

S. Franks I hope Dule gets on by the end of this. We looked at so many people for Shawn. We cast Shawn first. James came in and it was funny when James came in. James is really funny because he grows a beard in the off season. He’s really shy and really quiet. This guy came in all really super quiet with this kind of thickish beard. We’re like, “Who is this guy?” Then he starts talking and it was like, “Oh, my gosh. That might be him.” Then James came in a second time. We had a certain number of people we called back and James came in the second time and it was like, “Oh, my God. That is him.”

James is such a good guy that he came in when we were bringing in all of the Guses. I don’t know a ton about this business because, like I said, this is the first TV show I’ve done, but I don’t think that the lead of a show ever does that. He was there for casting for all of the Guses and would read with every single person who came in to read for the part. Dule came in for a meeting and it was like, “Wow. This is kind of exactly what we were looking for.” They had like an instant chemistry. They were kind of friends right from the start.

The only thing I knew going into the show is that you hear horror stories about actors who are difficult and stay in their trailer all day or won’t come out until the other actor comes out. The only thing I knew coming in was I wanted everybody on our set to be there, to really want to be there and to be cool. We have a no a-hole policy on our show. James and Dule were really good people right from the start. I liked them and I said, “You know what? I can spend five to eight years hanging out with these guys.” So the chemistry was first and foremost before those guys ever read a word together; in fact, the first time Dule came in it was just for a meeting at the end of the day. We ended up just running the scenes right then and it was great. There is a whole casting process where you have to bring the people into the network to read; well, we sort of tipped the scales a little bit. We had Dule and James read together at Dule’s house. James drove to Dule’s house and they sort of were more practiced than the others. It was just great from the start. Those guys were friends from the start.

It was just really lucky. I can’t stress enough how much of a miracle it is that a TV show ever gets made, ever becomes good, ever stays good and ever stays fresh. All of those things happening and for us to be coming here to the end of our fourth season, we’ve been incredibly lucky and we’ve had so much fun along the way. The fact that we went to Comic-Con this year and we filled a room with 4,200 seats and the fans were insanely great and for us to have that kind of following this far in it’s been magical and great. We just feel so fortunate and lucky to be part of i

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Psych!

2009-10-13T19:45:00.002-05:00

This afternoon I, along with a few other bloggers, got a chance to talk to Steve Franks, the creator of USA's Psych. He brought along Dule Hill and it was a great time, although Dule got dropped from the call and a few minutes later my phone dropped out as well. But during the excellent interview I got to talk to Franks about the excellent Theme Song. While I'll have more from that interview later this week I wanted to repost the video of my son, Owen, dancing to the theme song when he was about 11 months old. So I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Soon I'll try to post a video of Owen saying "Psych" and "I know, I know" which he does whenever he sees the Psych DVDs.

Halloween '09: Oh, The Horror: Clowns. Why Did It Have To Be Clowns?

2009-10-13T06:00:00.000-05:00

In continuing with our Halloween theme this October I'm publishing the first two installments of a look back at my love of horror, and will hopefully be following it up with more installments later this week. This installment was originally published on October 17, 2007.

Part 2 of a Series examining my love of the Horror genre.

As I said last time, watching the movie House turned me off from scary things for quite some time. But not too long, for a little over a year later another, far scary work would come along and scar me for life.

On November 18, 1990 the television miniseries "It" began broadcasting. Since I was only 9 at the time my parents, wisely, forbade me from seeing it. But alas I found away to see some of it, at someone else's house. I didn't see too much, because it scared me so bad. But I remember seeing the very beginning with the clown down the storm drain that pulls the little boy to his death. And I remember a scene with an old crazy lady. I'm pretty sure I saw other bits and pieces over the nights it was aired, but all I really remember is that clown.

Played by Tim Curry, Pennywise the Clown took something fun, clowns, and turned them into a demonic nightmare. This seemingly normal clown would quickly turn into this monster. From it's frightening smile full of sharp teeth, to it's horrific eyes, it's an image that struck a cord in me, that mad me hate clowns for life.

I say Hate because I'm not really scared of clowns. Sure at first it made me scared of clowns, but more than that it made me just want to bunch them in the face, a feeling I still get to this day. I abhor clowns, and think they are a truly awful plight on the human race. (I do have to admit, this may also stem from the fact that around this same time Jams were hugely popular and my mother, sewed some for me, made of a material covered in clowns, and I'm pretty sure I had to wear these to school. (I still love you Mom!) But I think Pennywise was a big part of it too)
House and It were very significant in steering me away from horror for a while, at least as far as movies go.

After these the next thing I remember is the first time I saw "A Nightmare on Elm Street." As I recall I was in middle school (around 12 or 13) and staying home alone for the night. As my parents left I told them of my plans to watch Nightmare, to which they responded "Are you sure?" and I of course being 12 or 13 said "Yeah, I'll be fine." And I was, at first.

I enjoyed the movie and thought it was pretty scary, but nothing too bad, nothing that I thought would disturb me after it ended. But then I went to bed, and that's when the trouble started. you see Freddy Kruger, the killer in the movie, invades your dreams and kills you. So unlike most killers, which you can climb into bed and get away from, getting into bed and going to sleep is what triggers Freddy. He comes in your dreams and kills you and terrorizes you in your sleep, and if you try not to sleep he confuses you by making you think you're awake when you're really sleeping. And that seemed to disturb me. So for a few nights I had some nightmares until i finally got over Freddy, but once again I kind of stayed away from Horror for awhile..

Coming Up: Part 3: "Here Comes The King!"

Halloween '09: Things I'm Watching This Halloween

2009-10-12T05:55:00.000-05:00

Each year I sit down to watch a few movies for Halloween, because for me Halloween is a time for scary/spooky movies. So here's a list of what I'm watching this Halloween, feel free to add your own in the comments section. After each one you'll see how long this has been a tradition in my house to watch at Halloween.

1. The Changeling
This is the 6th year I'll have watched this for Halloween, with a 4 year absence from 2004 to 2008.

2. HIMYM - "The Slutty Pumpkin"
This will be the 5th year I've watched this for Halloween, every year since the show debuted. And I will by having an alcoholic tootsie roll when I watch it.

3. It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown
Last year was our first year to watch this.

4. Hocus Pocus
Jeri and I have watched this every year for the past 4 years.

5. Ghost Hunters Live!
This will be year 3 for us, and we can't wait!

6. Trick'R'Treat
This is the first year I've watched this, but I guarantee it will be here for years to come.

7. Scream
This is the first time I've watched this movie in the last 6 years, but I look forward to making it a Halloween staple.

8. The Monster Squad
Again, this will be the first time I watch this for Halloween, but it's a classic that I plan to share with my kids one day soon.

Halloween '09: Oh, The Horror! Part 1: The Beginning

2009-10-10T12:11:00.001-05:00

Back in 2007 I started a column on my love of horror, but while writing what would have been the third installments a fire in Malibu, where I was living at the time, kept me a bit too busy to finish the series. My hope is to finish it now, 2 years later. So enjoy Oh, The Horror! Part 1, originally published on October 12, 2007.

Oh October, how I love you so! You have my favorite Holiday of the year, and I don't mean Columbus Day. I'm speaking of course of Halloween. The holiday when the ghosts and ghouls come out of hiding and the scares happen all month long. The month when most studios release their horror movies and supernatural thrillers. The month when I curl up to watch things that will likely cause me to look over my shoulder constantly, and check every nook and cranny before going to bed.

I've loved the horror genre (which to me encompasses ghosts, monsters, supernatural thrillers, etc.) for as long as I can remember. As a kid I was enthralled by the books on all of the Universal Monsters, the My Teacher is an Alien series, and the Bruce Coville's Book of Monsters series.

Several of my favorite movies as a kid centered on the supernatural. At any moment I could have quoted to you my two favorite movies: GhostBusters and The Monster Squad! Ghostbusters was a perfect blend of humor and a few scenes that scared the bejeezus out of me, mainly with the demon dogs (or hell hounds), but it was enough to keep me on the edge of my seat, while having fun. Meanwhile, The Monster Squad was just some all around fun. It wasn't really scary but it had all of the Universal Monsters (even if they were slightly different to avoid copyright) and a band of kids teaming up to fight them (basically Goonies with monsters) and my friend Jesse and I would watch it all the time.

Next came two Disney Sunday Night Movies: Mr. Boogedy and it's sequel The Bride of Boogedy The movies centered on a family who move into a haunted house, and hilarity and creepiness ensue. It was slightly scary to my 6 and 7 year old self and I loved it.. In fact my Aunt and Uncle had recorded it on video and for years I would watch it every time I went to their house. (In fact I know have a copy on DVD which looks like it was transfered from a video from the original airings in the mid-80s, I still love it!)

But then I turned 8 and something happened that turned me off of horror for a while. My brother and I are 4 years apart, but our birthdays are 2 days apart. For my brother's 12th birthday he had a bunch of friends stay the night and they watched House. For those of you who don't know House starred the Greatest American Hero himself, William Katt, as an author who moves into a new house, which is haunted. I could give you the synopsis of IMDB, but instead I'll tell you what I remember. William moves into the new house and it starts to scare the living pants off of me! One of the ghosts was played by Richard Moll, I think he had something to do with Vietnam flashbacks, but honestly don't remember, and something comes out of the closet which I'm pretty sure made me cry.

All in all I couldn't sleep in my bed that night, and I had to check my closet before I went to bed everynight and then I had to sleep with the closet open and the lights on. I know this went on for several months before I could finally close the closet door. I'll be honest I haven't seen the movie since then, I've seen bits and pieces, but I always turned it off because part of me is scared of even seeing it. (Strange Fact I just found out: House's story was written by the writer/director of The Monster Squad!) (I did however see House II, several times in fact. My Aunt and Uncle also owned House and House II. Whereas House scared the bejeezus out of me, House II was a hilarious romp, with no scares in sight. I mean it had a caterpuppy for crying out loud! (That's a half caterpillar half dog thing.))

Because of House it would be a while before I watched anything remotely scary.

Next Up: Clowns. Why Did It Have To Be Clowns?

Halloween '09: Cloverfield

2009-10-09T15:00:00.000-05:00

This review originally appeared on January 19, 2008

Wow! That's about all I can say after seeing Cloverfield.
I've been looking forward to seeing this for about 6 months now, ever since I first read that J.J. Abrams was producing some new movie no one had heard anything about and that it had a preview before Transformers.

All anyone knew was that it was going under the codename "Cloverfield" likely because that's the street Bad Robots production offices are on. Then the trailer came out and it was breathtaking, and yet I still knew nothing about it. But the internets were abuzz with this new movie that was coming out of left field. Was it called Cloverfield, was it called 1-18-08 or was that simply the release date? Was it a new Godzilla movie? What does Slusho have to do with it? And so on and so forth.

And after months of hype it's here, and does it live up to that hype? For me the answer is a resounding YES! The movie was fantastic. Running at only 1 hour and 25 minutes because it's so intense it feels so much longer (but in a good way). The movie starts off slow and then goes all out at break neck speed with little time to breath. I noticed several times during the movie that my hands were curled into balls and sweating and had to make my self open them and dry them off. It was just a natural reaction to the movie.

I don't want to tell you much about the movie, as it's worth seeing without knowing anything, but basically it's about a small group of friends whose lives are thrown upside down when something attacks New York City. What follows is their struggle to survive the night all captured on a digital camera by one of them.

For the last few weeks I've been trying to avoid the tv ads which seem to be showing more and more, and I stayed away from all the reviews, because I didn't want to know anything before hand. And I'm glad I did. It's rare that you can go into a movie knowing almost nothing about it in these spoilerific days, but I'm glad I was able to as I think I was better off for it.

As I said it's best going in not knowing anything. In fact if you want to see this, stop reading reviews, stop seeing the commercials, just go. And go now, go see it with a packed house, who may or may not scream things like "Run, B****, Run" when something scary happens. It's best seen on the big screen with a big crowd.

I can't say everyone will love it, in fact I think it's one of those movies where some people will love it and some will hate it. The crowd I was with tonight had some of the haters in it, but I have my doubts about how much they "hated" it. Mainly because for the intense hour or so when things are going crazy, the theater was silent, everyone was so involved in the movie and wondering what would happen next that there was no real whispering, no murmurs from the people around you, just a silent enthralled crowd (in fact at one point I badly needed to cough, but refrained because what was going on onscreen was very quiet and in the theater you could have heard a pin drop).

I think because the movie doesn't end how some people had hoped or thought that it would that they decided they hated the entire thing. Something I think happens a lot, people love a movie, but once it ends in a way they don't like they decide the entire movie was bad.

One thing I should mention are the amazing special effects. This movie was made for tens of millions, which in today's age is considered low budget as more and more movies jump the 100 million mark, but the effects don't reflect the cost. They are wonderful and as my friend pointed out, all the more amazing because of the jerkiness of the hand held camera, which means they had to spend much more time making sure all the effects line up and track correctly.

If you have even an inkling of wanting to see this, go do it now. You really want to see this with a big crowd on the big screen.

Halloween '09: Flashback Friday: Exposing the Ghost Face Killer

2009-10-09T12:04:00.002-05:00

In today's Flashback Friday over at DVD Snapshot I take a look back at Scream.

Scream was the first horror movie I ever saw in the theaters (unless you count Howard the Duck!), which might explain why I became enthralled and mildly obsessed with it. It was 1996 and the internet was still relatively new to middle class America. Scream was the first movie I can recall that really used the internet for movie promotion. The website was set up like you were looking into a real investigation with case files on all the suspects and information which could possibly help you figure out who the killer was. At the age of 15 I quickly became obsessed with the movie after seeing ads and spending hours on the website.

You can read the rest of the column here.