Postverbindungen: March 3, 2010

Some random links from recent internet travels:

• I can only hope that the Zoolander sequel lives up to the original, which still makes me laugh just thinking about it. No word yet on whether Owen Wilson will reprise his role as Hansel, but Jonah Hill is reportedly in talks to play the villain. Justin Theroux (who played the break-dance-fighting "Evil DJ" in the first film) will write the screenplay (his other writing credits include Tropic Thunder and the upcoming Iron Man 2).
• From what my friends tell me about the after-work life of the South Korean salaryman, it's no wonder that scientists in that country are at the forefront of hangover reduction research. Stay thirsty, my scientist friends, or you might find yourself trailing the Japanese, when they begin studying the vodka-snorting phenomenon mentioned by the first commenter on the linked article.
• Meant to post this a while back, but here's a crazy video from the security cameras of a bus whose driver fell asleep and wreaked havoc on a Taiwanese freeway.
• John Gruber pretty much sums up what I have to say about the Apple-HTC Patent Thing. In short, I don't believe that software patents are a bad idea in principle, but the current system is broken, and so it is unfortunate but understandable that companies would stockpile patents for defensive purposes. It's when companies use them offensively (pun intended) that a bad taste is left in everyone's mouths. A friend of the site, Joz, was lamenting recently that Steve Jobs — and, by extension, Apple — would be looked upon much more fondly if he rested on his laurels of good design and constant innovation, rather than always picking fights with or making snide remarks about people/companies/technologies. Unfortunately, life is rarely so simple, and we have to take the bad with the good.

Finally, I'm a sucker for a good Rube Goldberg machine, so I'm happy that OK Go and Synn Labs put in the effort to make this one (available in HD):

Update: Forgot about this video, which may be of some interest to the Japanophiles and yo-yo-o-philes among the Hydrans:

The Late Shift II: The Rolling Thunder of Revenge

For those of you looking for a summary of NBC's Late Night fracas, look no further than this animated recap from Taiwan:



(For real clips that you might have missed from all the Late Night shows, see Gawker TV or Vulture.)

[Post title courtesy Mr. Quentin Tarantino]

Conan does anime voiceovers

Hilarious!


Via Japanator.

Couple o' Trailers

First up, Duncan Jones' Moon — starring Sam Rockwell and the voice of Kevin Spacey — an indie sci-fi picture that has echoes of 2001, Silent Running, Alien, Solaris, and more:

The score is by Clint Mansell, and the poster is worth a look as well.

Secondly, Idiocracy's Mike Judge returns to the office space (har har) for his next film, Extract, starring Michael BluthJason Bateman, Ben Affleck, Mila Kunis, and J.K. Simmons:

"She's a tramp!?"

Everything is Amazing Right Now, and Nobody's Happy

The "funny because it's true" factor on this clip of Louis C.K. on Conan was so high for me that by the end of it, my eyes were red, my cheeks were stained with tears, and my jaw and neck were sore — and that's so true it's not even funny.

Update 2009/03/04: Replaced the original YouTube embed with a higher-quality (and more legal) Hulu embed.

Update 2009/03/18: Time interviews Louis about the clip.

Mr. Show: The Audition

[via Cyn-C]

Anything Can Be Funny

Roger Ebert, in his Step Brothers review:

Is this funny? Anything can be funny. Let me provide an example. I am thinking of a particular anatomical act. It is described in explicit detail in two 2008 movies, "Step Brothers" and the forthcoming "Tropic Thunder." In "Step Brothers," it sounds dirty and disgusting. In "Tropic Thunder," described by Jack Black while he is tied to a tree and undergoing heroin withdrawal, it's funny.

Same act, similar descriptions. What's the difference? It involves the mechanism of comedy, I think. The Jack Black character is desperately motivated. He will offer to do anything to be released. In "Step Brothers," the language is simply showing off by talking dirty. It serves no comic function, and just sort of sits there in the air, making me cringe.

[...]

I'm sure I've seen movies with more extreme language than "Step Brothers," but here it seems to serve no purpose other than simply to exist.

This is exactly the way I feel about a few of the Apatow productions I've seen. It's like when you go hang out with a group of people you don't know very well, and they're all joking around and laughing, but you can only manage a smile because you're just not one of them. Maybe the idea is to make so many movies with Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill, and the rest of the gang, that they do start to feel like friends and you can start laughing at their everyday conversations.

(BTW, I need to lower my expectations for Tropic Thunder if I still want to enjoy it. Even Roger Ebert is getting me pumped up for that movie!)

The Japanese Office

Ricky Gervais: "It's funny ... 'cause it's racist."

Mr. Show: The Fairsley Difference

It's about time for me to post another Mr. Show video. Enjoy!



[via Waxy]

Hot Rod

I've seen some amazing and critically-acclaimed films recently, like No Country For Old Men and There Will Be Blood, as well as some not-as-amazing but still critically-acclaimed films like Juno and American Gangster. But the film I'm going to bless with a review on this blog is ... Hot Rod. Why Hot Rod? Because it's the film you are least likely to have seen. My review might not change that.

I had put Hot Rod on my Netflix queue, and it hit the top spot recently, so I gave it a chance to make me find it funny (a chance all comedies deserve). What I got was like a series of high-production-value Lonely Island videos played back-to-back, but not all ones that I like. It has the same quirky, 1980s-meets-internet-age vibe as Napoleon Dynamite, and many other similarities too, but I can see why Napoleon found more of an audience, before people became tired of quirk in general.

Of course, there are parts that I found funny — when Rod introduces his "crew" to the girl-next-door (literally), and they don't quite understand how to say a few words about themselves; the first jump, on the non-reinforced ramp; Will Arnett. Other things just didn't do it for me — Rod's enthusiastic fan, who loves to dance (it's funny because he's Asian!); Rod's "2 Legit 2 Quit" speech and subsequent crosswalk accident; the behind-the-scenes DVD extra that kind of made me want to punch people in the face. Many gags were so unrelated to the plot or tried to wring humor out of being so drawn out — Rod falling down a hill; an impromptu "cool beans" musical number; Ebenezer Scrooge. Family Guy has really played that out already.

As an example of where this film went wrong, for me, consider a scene in which Rod is telling someone about his biological father's death. Rod describes a series of gruesome injuries that his dad incurs during his last attempted stunt and ends with: "he died instantly". That's already funny, because it's comically redundant after what we hear the bike did to its rider, right? No. Too highbrow, apparently; Rod has to add: "... the next day". I un-laughed. The line that I found so disappointing is now listed as a "favorite quote" on many a MySpace page, though, so what do I really know about comedy?

I'm not surprised that they had to test-screen the movie to death, or that the same scene would be listed as both an audience's favorite and least favorite. Every joke is hit-or-miss. I watched all of the deleted scenes and outtakes, and I think I could edit together a version of the film that I would find at least 10x funnier (especially using some of Danny R. McBride's ad-libs or some of Will Arnett's alternate dialogue). The problem is that your funnier version might need different discarded clips, or clips from another movie.

Mr. Show: Pre-Taped Call-In Show

"Don't call to talk about it; it's too late! Instead, call about cooking, which is next week's topic ..."