Spout About is a daily look at what people are discussing related to the films currently in theaters and the classics we’re still talking about. Have another topic worth addressing? Let us know.
Today is Geek Pride Day, which is a celebration of geekdom focused mainly on the properties of “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” “Star Wars” and Terry Pratchett’s “Discworld.” But as much as I’d like to show my Douglas Adams love by carrying a towel around, I probably won’t even leave the house today, unless I hear the bulldozers outside waiting to plow my building and suddenly next thing I know I’m on a Vogon spaceship and Earth has been destroyed (sorry Rapture prophets). I’m curious though: can Geek Pride Day encompass all sorts of geekiness? Can, say, my geekish devotion to documentary loop me in, too? How about if I go around the neighborhood with my life-size “Time Bandits” map looking for a hole in spacetime? Can Daniel’s geekish obsession with short films and Canadians fit? Is today when all the world admits to being a geek, a la the crowd of nerds and nerd-lovers at the end of “Revenge of the Nerds”? Are hot women pandering to geeks welcome?
I guess I don’t completely understand, especially now that it’s considered a compliment by most Americans to be called a geek. And geek culture is no longer thought of as just sci-fi, fantasy, comics, cosplay, RPG, computers and other traditional ideas behind the term anymore than it’s still definably about a type of carny. Still, I may use today as another opportunity to try and get my fiancee to read “THHGTTG” and I’ll be sure to eat lots of junk food, as is the galactic hitchhiker’s way. By the way, isn’t Disney’s “Hitchhiker’s Guide” somehow both the most underrated and most disappointing adaptation of all time?
How will you be celebrating the geek holiday? And if those three geek franchises aren’t your thing, what are you geekiest about?
More notes, links and things up for discussion after the jump.
– It’s a trap! Don’t they know the “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise is now in “Indiana Jones” territory? Anyway, the blog draw2d2 has a load of paintings mashing up “POTC” with “Star Wars,” including a great piece by Andres Rivera depicting R2D2 as Capt. Jack. The one above, from artist Justin LaRocca Hansen, seems like a reasonable historical event for the Mon Calamari. [via Popped Culture]
– Speaking of mash-ups, here’s a trailer mixing “Green Lantern” audio with “The Lord of the Rings” visuals:
– Ryan Lambie at Den of Geek lists “The Top 10 Coolest Weapons in Sci-Fi Cinema” and for some reason he’s into one of the most ridiculous and likely overpriced vehicle/weapons of all time: the AT-AT from “The Empire Strikes Back.” Sure, watching them go down is pretty awesome, but how did the Empire’s engineers not realize how impractical they are? I guess for the same reason they made the Death Star so easily destroyed. These things are only cool if you’re in Oakland and daily see their inspiration by the bay. Anyway, some defense:
Before I saw The Empire Strikes Back, I spent much of my spare time as a youngster waving a plastic tube around and pretending I was Luke Skywalker. But when, at the age of about five or six, I first saw the Empire’s four-legged attack vehicles trudging across the icy wastes of Hoth, it was love at first sight.
From that moment on, I no longer wanted to be a stick-waving Jedi, but a tin hat-wearing cog in the Empire’s machine. I immediately wanted to take the helm of one of these gigantic monsters myself, and clank around in the snow blowing stuff up.
– Pajiba has compiled a list of “The 10 Greatest Movie Threats of All Time,” including favorites from “The Big Lebowski” and “Anchorman.” Their intro, which leads me to comply and say it’s the best list ever:
They are definitive. Inarguable. You can disagree and you can posit your own, but then we’ll “rip your fucking balls off, stuff them up your ass so that the next time you shit, you’ll shit all over your balls, got it?”
– We’re still on the “Sucker Punch” debate, I guess? Responding to a month-old discussion on violent females at the New York Times, Alison Willmore hits A.V. Club for “The Last Action Heroine: Why Tough Actions Don’t Always Equal Strong Women.” Mostly it’s about how women write badass women best. An excerpt that touches on classic psychoanalytic and feminist considerations of female transvestism in cinema:
It’d be easier to attach more significance to the increase in destructive dames if more of them seemed like they were written as women. But for the most part, these characters are engaged in a complicated act of ventriloquism. Keeping up with the boys remains pretty much the only game in town—a tough chick is, by the laws of the multiplex, one who acts just like a tough guy, regardless of how fab she might look in a mini. Sometimes this ventriloquism is built into the narrative of the film. The fearsome adolescents in Kick-Ass and Hanna are by design vessels for the revenge plots of their father figures, kept in different kinds of isolation and relentlessly trained to carry out a mission they never seem to have had a chance to question. (This also provides an out for any bloodthirstiness: They aren’t bad, they were just raised that way.)
– New Line is making a body swap movie with a dog and a cat called “Furry Friday”? That gag was just fine when it occupied about 10 seconds of screen time in “Like Father Like Son.” Of course, your two-year-old hasn’t yet discovered the classics of Kirk Cameron yet, so I guess it’s fine. Also, based on my old list it could just be the least cliche body swap movie ever. I’m sure there will be some equivalent of the spending montage, though.
– The notion that Wes Anderson’s “The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou” is meant to seem written and directed by Max Fischer, the main character from Wes Anderson’s “Rushmore,” is not a new one. But now there’s a Tumblr blog completely devoted to the idea. Here’s the latest point:
Max is an incredibly perceptive kid, and his friendship with Blume gives him a unique perspective on a singular man; one which would be the base of Steve Zissou in The LIfe Aquatic. Zissou’s obsession with the Jaguar Shark is inspired by Herman Blume’s dissatisfaction with his own life; a life that, in all likelyhood, must have seemed incredibly promising and brilliant: at some point Mrs. Blume was young and beautiful, his sons were adorable toddlers, and his business was flourishing. Somewhere along the line something changed, and his life devoured that dream, leaving Blume feeling as powerless as Zissou in the face of his 50 foot shark.
– I could make some joke about parking this video here, but that seems rather lame. I’m no Mel Brooks, that’s for sure. So just watch Oliver Noble’s “Supercut” montage of people saying “you can’t park here” in movies, a video he compiled for FilmDrunk. Some of the diverse films included are “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” “Toy Story 2,” “Bringing Up Baby,” “Spaceballs” and “Blazing Saddles.”
– SEQUEL NEWS: Vin Diesel has to work for scale to do a sequel to “The Chronicles of Riddick.” Ben Stiller is still pushing at Paramount for a greenlight for “Zoolander 2.” At first I groaned at the “Forrest Gump”-y idea for the follow-up to “X-Men: First Class” opening with the JFK assassination, but having the magic bullet explained through the powers of Magneto is actually quite ingenious. I know it’s Matthew Vaughn’s idea, but can Oliver Stone direct it?
– REMAKE NEWS: Another adaptation of Stephen King’s “Carrie” is in the works, so Movies.com’s Alison Nastasi considers who to cast as the titular telekinetic teen:
Someone like The Lovely Bones’ Saoirse Ronan could be the most intriguing incarnation of all. The gifted, young actress has a measured style, and can deliver the emotional heft that saved De Palma’s Carrie from being complete B-horror cheese. Whether MGM can pay respect to the source material without making a further mockery of the fragile teenager remains to be seen, however. The studio also risks casting the not-hot-but-really-hot girl – which speculation surrounding Megan Fox clearly suggests is a possibility.
Have a tip or link? Email us at Spouttips (at) gmail.
Follow Spout on Twitter (@Spout) and be a fan on Facebook
Follow Christopher Campbell on Twitter (@thefilmcynic)
Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.
