Barking Carnival

Mas cinema. This from SydneyCarton. - S.R.

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Hi!
Due to the continued dearth of off-season topical conversation, Sailor Ripley has entreated a few guest lecturers to contribute to The Barking Carnival. Fortunately for him, my unchecked hubris, proclivity towards wild exaggeration and generality, and immediate recognition that HenryJames is an unrepentant fairy should allow me [...]

As we continue our quest to turn this sports blog into Ain’t It Cool News, I give you another Guest Film Crit lecturer - our pal, Scagnetti.
- S.R.
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There seems to be no middle ground on here, albeit a ground that’s well-tread with expansive, intelligent discourse. Appears we either ham up the art or pick [...]

Chris Applewhite will likely be along shortly to add his excellent ‘Review for Nerds’ but I thought I’d post some quick thoughts in the interim. 
A buddy and I have a tradition of seeing most of these sci-fi/comic book/adventure films at their opening midnight showing as the people watching often surpasses the quality of the film [...]

Remember literature classes where some crazy allegory was pointed out in an otherwise interesting book (i.e. “The Nautilus represents Verne’s expressions of inadequacy as a man.”), and you thought, “Man, they are really making too much out of this.”? I’m about to do that with “Solaris”, the 1972 Russian film directed by Andrei Tarkovsky [...]

I was surprised by the amount of feedback on my post about “The Bad Lieutenant”.  Anyone up for more movie talk?  I like to use Ebert’s “Great Movie” list as a DVR guide, and maybe I could post some thoughts on various films.  I feel these kind of posts are worthless without strong opinions, so [...]

“Bad Lieutenant” was a low-budget 1992 movie, starring Harvey Keitel, that made several “Best Films of the ’90s” lists.  It turns out that Werner Herzog is directing a remake of it.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1095217/
The original film, directed by Abel Ferrara, was about a corrupt (in every sense) NYC cop, who somehow finds grace in the end.  Here’s Ebert’s [...]

Zach Snyder is who we thought he was.

I’m usually not too emotional when movie stars like Paul Newman pass away, but he was different.  At least to me anyway.  My grandmother is one of the most interesting people I know.  She’s a walking encyclopedia of Texas history, and specifically the Panhandle.  Her grandfather originally moved to the area in the 1880’s and [...]

Damn. Comedian Harvey Korman passed away yesterday at the age of 81. He took a part of my childhood with him.
Best known for his work in Blazing Saddles and the Carol Burnett Show, Korman was a gifted comedian who was equally adept at playing the straight man. His work with fellow comedian Tim Conway [...]

If you’re familiar with Mickey Rourke, you know him as the guy who has had a lot of plastic surgery and happened to steal the show with his performance in Sin City. But I’m telling you, Mickey Rourke was wrecking shit in the ’80s. The guy put together a string of performances that were exceptional [...]

How can you tell it’s not football season? We are talking about comic books. I have a feeling that the demographic for this is me and me alone but I’m doing this anyway because Ain’t It Cool News won’t post my reviews ever since I admitted that I liked the second Matrix movie better than [...]

The actor Richard Widmark passed away last Wednesday. You might remember him as the guy who played Jim Bowie in ‘The Alamo.’ But if you don’t know who he was, you’re the reason that Dane Cook gets movie roles. And the reason Austin High grads watch ‘Love Actually.’
Like all actors he had an up and [...]

Here are a four movies that you may have missed out on that you should add to your Netflix queue. You’ll thank me unless your tastes run primarily to Armageddon or Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever. If there’s one common thread to be found in the four varied movies below, it’s that each respects the [...]

Memorandum
To: Hollywood
From: Scip E.O. Tex, Internet Provocateur
CC: God Loving Free World
Date: This very instant
Re: You are destroying America, motherfuckers

Dear Hollywood,
You’ve gone and done it now. This is war. WAR!
At what point during your Hotel Bel-Air mid-wine flight post-synagogue movie pitch to Harvey Weinstein did you get the idea that Joe Willie [...]

Saw the latest in the Bourne trilogy at the Drafthouse last night.
Bourne is a cross between MacGyver and Jet Li with the face of a man with Down Syndrome. Take Damon’s character in Saving Private Ryan, send him to an assassin school where he learns to call Brendan Fraser a Jew and strangles Ben Affleck [...]