this one's actually about cloverfield

when i go to see a movie, i try to go in knowing as little about it as possible. there was a lot of mystery around cloverfield, but basically all i knew going into it was that it's a monster movie about a weird monster that attacks new york.

so that's why i didn't know it was all handheld footage.

and that's my only real complaint. it made me pretty nauseous watching an hour and a half of shaky handheld footage. on the imdb people respond to those complaints saying "well if you paid attention to the trailers..." or "you are weak!" whatever man. i'd think they would've learned from the mistakes of the blair witch project.

other than the seasickness, the movie was well executed and pretty awesome in general. for a popcorn flick, it was innovative in its technique. the imdb also has a list of plot holes and such, but whatever. action movies always have plot holes.

anyway, i've been reading about the viral marketing and stuff and it looks like the big story, stuff beyond what was shown in the movie's limited scope, is pretty blatantly anti-big-oil...so take my last post with a grain of salt. jj abrams is probably not in bed with the republicans after all.

peace out.

thank you 3 doors down

I went to see Cloverfield today.  More on that later.  But when we went into the theater I saw/heard Matt Walsh.  And there up on the screen was the Upright Citizens Brigade (minus Amy Poehler)!  Now, I have not yet seen season 3, so I don't know if this was from that or if it's the gang getting back together to shoot weird random things to play at movie theaters.  That in itself was supercool.  

However, you take the bad with the good. Another pre-show item that played in the theater was a music video by 3 Doors Down.  This in itself was painful, but not my main source of annoyance.  The music video was a promotional tool of the US National Guard.  And apparently you can get the song for free at the National Guard website, so if you're into 3 Doors Down, you should totally join the National Guard.  Or at least go to the website.  I'm not gonna look it up or link to it, because I don't want to help them out.

During the music video slogans flashed on the screen.  Now, I associate the National Guard with the rest of the US military, so the irony was more about other facets of the military, but some of the slogans were "Never Give Up," "Never Admit Defeat," and the best one was "Never Leave...A Comrade" (the first part came up, followed by the second part).  I guess the editor of the piece couldn't sneak in "Never Learn From Your Mistakes" without being too obvious.

Now that I think about it, I wonder how deep this influence goes.  How many movies does this video play at?  Because when I think about it, the movie Cloverfield paints the National Guard in a (fairly) favorable light.  I'm not saying there was an influence on the movie (at least I hope not!), I'm just wondering if there's an endorsement and if there's a shady reason that propaganda played before the movie.

Plus, 3 Doors Down sucks.

Ted Leo & The Pharmacists - Army Bound

Buy Living With The Living at the Touch & Go Digital store!  (Or get the vinyl, of course.  Probably comes with a free digital download that way.)