Thursday, July 31, 2008

Earworms, M&Ms, and Faces of Death - Part 3 of the what I do Series

This is the third and final installment of the what I do series. In this installment rational thinking has been replaced with talk of pop culture, with an emphasis on movies. I am not sure much can be gained from reading this though you might find out about some pretty mediocre movies.

Subject: RE: is it doubt our just dumbness 
 
Yes, I actually clicked the link for Mondo Films.  I was looking at that yesterday. Not 'earthworms', dude, 'earworms'.  There was a story on Slate about this new commercial for Subway with a repetitive jingle and he called it an earworm. Faces of Death sounds totally bogus for the most part.  I remember watching it as a teenager and thinking it could be real, but some of it was very doubtful.  That's why I want to see it again: I want to apply my adult reasoning abilities to what I am seeing.
 
Amazon has a box set of Faces of Death Vol I-IV

 
Some of the review comments give you and idea of what you’ll be seeing if you watch it.
 
Erik

Subject: RE: is it doubt our just dumbness
 
i am going to have remember to start using the term earthworm for a song stuck in you head.  that was really good link even if the article was not very in depth.  how did you stumble across that one?  I read the wiki page on the faces of death and i am not really sure what to make of it.  they refer to it as a documentary, but it seems like a mocumentary and that it is faked.  i am guessing that they take what they can of real footage and then make there own to fill in the gaps.  there is also link to mondo films which you might find interesting.  they are basically documentaries about sensational topics. They seem like fore runners to todays reality tv.
 
JIM
 
Subject: RE: is it doubt our just dumbness
 
M&M's have a new promotional "Mint Wafer" flavor as their tie-in to the Movie.  Um, yeah, that makes sense. King of Kong?  Or just plain old King Kong?  I liked the scene in King Kong where the dude gets eaten by the giant swamp tube plants.  that's just sick.  We watched Eastern Promises.  That ruled.  I will buy that one eventually. Oh, we went to the movies to see The Ruins.  It was decent, but  it would have been better if I hadn't paid $18 for it.  Pretty gross,  anyway. Some nasty scenes that rival Saw IV. Yes, Alicia had never heard of Faces of Death, so I decided to put it on our list and show it to her.  I was stoked when I saw that it now comes with a real documentary DVD explaining how fake the first one was.  I think the creator himself put it together.  Anyway, read the Wiki link
 
Faces of Death
 
it's a gas.
 
Subject: RE: is it doubt our just dumbness
 
you might want to check out the book for no country i hear is incredibly violent and gives a little better insite of why the movies just ends, which i personally liked, though i would have just ended it when chugar walks away after the car crash.  history of violence is pretty good and if you liked it you should also check out "eastern promises".  I can not believe you are getting the faces of death DVD i have actually been talking about it recently and no one has ever heard of it let alone seen it.  i just want to know if the monkey killing scene is real.  i still think that scene is hardest core scene i have ever seen in a movie and i would be kind of disappointed to find out it was faked.  I have not seen into the wild though i read the outside story that led to the book so i am not sure if i want to see it.  it seems to be getting mixed kind of reviews.  Interesting that you liked jesus camp most things i have seen people have not liked it and actually thought that it was extremely biased.  i still kind of want to see it and king of kong which i hear is great. life aquatic i thought it was a little better than ok, then again it is a wes anderson movie, you might want to check out The Darjeeling Limited the movie is not as good as life aquatic put the short at the begging is really really good.  as for the rest of his movies, Rusmore - great, royal Tannenbaum-great, and bottle rocker-terrible though i know tons of people who love it.
 
JIM
 
Subject: RE: is it doubt our just dumbness
 
We watched No Country for Old Men.  Yeah, I agree that was really good. The end was a little disappointing, just because it was so abrupt. Sheriff Tommy Lee Jones just decided not to go after Crazy Assassin Guy?  I guess.  Good movie, though. We watched A History of Violence last week, forgot to mention that one. Yeah, that was decent.  I won't be buying it or anything, but had some cool depictions of ass-kicking.  the next couple of movies we have on the Netflix queue are Faces of Death (which now comes with a companion DVD explaining which scenes are real and which are fake), Mallrats, Chasing Amy (got to get my Ben Affleck fix), and the Dead Zone.  I've actually seen all of these movies, but I want to get them so Alicia can see them.  The movies on my list that I still have not seen include Talladega Nights, Into the Wild, Reign Over Me, Lost in Translation, Manhunter, Being John Malkovich, Brazil, 9.5 Weeks.  Oh yeah, we watched Jesus Camp a few weeks ago.  That was so unbiased it was amazing.  I'm so used to Michael Moore and Morgan Spurlock that I started to forget what a documentary was.  Those people are warping their children's minds.  Finally, I saw The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.  I wish someone would have told me not to drink before I watched it, but no matter.  I think it would have let me down had I been completely sober.  It was a serious underachiever after all of the nice things I had heard about it. It was witty, yes, but not funny.  A shame, really.
 
Erik

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