Great marketing - James Bond style

Story. What it is, and why we care.

Ken Burns is a great story teller. And at some level we are all writing, telling, plotting out our own story. There are great thoughts about story that Ken reveals here:


Link from Echo hub

School by the movies....

Be especially careful of the gate keeper....

No wonder it is hard to take media experts seriously....

Think you have seen that movie poster before?

You probably have.....   or at least something that is very like that. This is a great post that breaks down the common cliches in movie posters. Like 'between legs', 'big text on faces'.

Check them all out here.

So that is what that means....

With the Oscars just past us, the interest in movies is still running high. And if you bother to watch the credits of movies scroll by, maybe like me, you have wondered - just what is a Gaffer? Here is a great list of movie roles and what they do.

Movie I am looking forward to

This movie, about the person who went on to create Elmo and what his life is like, looks really awesome!



I saw this on Collide

Living in a movie

This has been out for awhile, but a home builder in Utah has taken the house that was in the movie 'Up' and built a replica of it in a new housing development. You can learn more about it and see more pictures here.

I love the idea, both because the movie was really cool and the house looks amazing. My only thing is that I wish they would have posted more pictures of what the inside looks like.

Image from the movie:

The real house:

If you were to live an an actual dwelling that was based on a movie what would you choose? 

Cars 2

I loved loved loved the first Cars movie. While I know that sequels often don't live up to the billing of the first movie, this is Pixar that we are talking about and the Toy Story run has been amazing. So I am totally jacked up to see Cars 2, which is coming soon. I am not the only one. In fact here is a recreation of the trailer done in Lego....




link from Gizmodo

You know who you are...

Who are are going to actually wish this was real.....

Movie review: The King's Speech

There are people who reach for greatness and then others who have greatness pushed on them. This is a story about the later. Prince Albert is someone who has never wanted to spotlight, but because of circumstances beyond his control and the shifting power in the world he is forced to face his greatest weakness and use that to help steady and hold together a nation.

This is the true story of a king with a stutter. A king who must speak to his people. And a strange friendship that helps him to overcome that weakness.

This is a movie that grabs you without special effects, without gore, without sex. This is a movie about raw human feelings. And the way that it is shot with close ups on the actors forces them to step up and embody these people, and they do. This is the sort of movie that you know how the end will be, but in watching it you hold your breath and hope on hope that everything will work out.

This is a movie that you should go see. It won't wow you visually, but it will move you. It will inspire you.

Review: Diary of a wimpy kid

I really have enjoyed the book series with it's mix of humor and yet showing how lame the middle school years are. Ethan has also really gotten into this series, so we were pretty excited to watch the movie. I have to say it is a pretty close take on the first book of the series. Everything was how I had 'seen it' in my head while reading it.

The movie is funny, and yet I also realize that it is kind of how middle school is. It is a tough time in a person's life and so many of the things that you think are important really are pretty shallow and small when you look back on that period of life with a few years to seperate it.

Why do things that are right in front of us seem so big, and yet when they have passed by, seem so small?

Review: Alice in Wonderland

It has been out for awhile, but given schedules, we finally got around to watching Tim Burton's take on Alice in Wonderland. This is a slightly disturbing movie - think again if you have a young child that wants to watch this. But this movie is really an interesting take on this story as well as absolutely visually stunning! It is really an amazing trip through Wonderland.

Find success by starting off knowing what you are not

This is a great post that contains thoughts on the movie 'It might get loud' in which each of the guitar players in this movie - Jimmy Page, The Edge and Jack White - each got started by knowing what they were not going to be and therefore were able to focus on what they became.

So who or what is your enemy? What are you not?

Movie Review: Disney's Christmas Carol

We took the kids to see this movie this weekend. This is the same director who brought the Polar Express to life - which while a great movie, there was a little bit of creepiness about the characters faces (at least for me). But you can tell that the technology has really improved! The visuals are amazing, even down to the hairs on the end of Scrooge's nose!

About the movie itself, this is such a classic story that you think of it as a children's tale. But is actually is pretty scary. This movie is about the same. While the visuals were amazing there were a few 'cover your eyes' moments where Adline got pretty scared.

Also there were a couple of sequences that were put in just to show off the technology and didn't really add a lot to the story. But all of that being said, it is a stunning movie. And as the kids get older, I can see this being a movie that we add to the holiday mix.

Movie Review: Cloudy with a chance of meatballs

I actually really liked this book as a kid, but when we went to it - I was thinking this was going to be a cheese-fest and hoped that there would be enough laughs to keep the kids entertained.

In reality this movie is deeper then most mad-cap children's movie. It has some heart and explores some topics such as finding your place in the world and acceptance and even taking responsibility for your actions more them most movies do.

It was still a crazy movie but it even got a couple of laughs out of me.

Good movie.

Great mashup

Movie Review: The Wrestler

This movie won some awards and really had some good buzz about it. It is a somewhat classic story about the washed-up guy giving it one more fling. But the movie is really more then that - it is a gritty and somewhat 'real' look at a person who literally sacrifices his body for the few cheers.

In the same way there is a parallel story about a stripper who the wrestler befriends who also 'sacrifices' her body in a different sense.

While the overall story premise isn't new, this story was gripping and very moving.

I would emphasize that this movie is heavy on the 'gritty' and earns and then some it's 'R' rating. That being said, this is a really powerful film that is really great!

Movie Review: Watchmen

I was pretty excited to finally see this movie, but after watching it - while the speical effects were pretty cool, it really seemed like I was missing something. Maybe I am just not enough of a geek or something, but there just seemed to be a piece that I just didn't get.

So this movie gets a slight shrug from me.

Movie Review: Doubt

I know I might be one of the last people in the country to see the movie Doubt - which makes me hesitate to even post anything about this movie. It is hard sometimes to see a movie that has so much good press and wins a ton of awards because you come to it with expectations that probably won't be met.

This movie is an adaptation from a play and you can get that vibe while you watch it. One of the things that I found interesting as I watched riveted to the screen was that there wasn't any sex, language or explosions on the screen, just great dialogue and acting.

The key to this movie is an examination of faith and doubt. And one of the most brilliant things this movie does is that it leaves the story hanging - there isn't a 'bow wrapped' ending.

So if you haven't watched this movie yet, and you want to be challenged and have a movie that makes you think and examine your feelings on faith and doubt - watch this movie!