Apocalyptolicious!

I finally saw Apocalypto. If you like Mel Gibson (director) and violent human sacrifices, this movie is for you!

Actually, it was pretty good.

As the Mayan kingdom faces its decline, the rulers insist the key to prosperity is to build more temples and offer human sacrifices. Jaguar Paw, a young man captured for sacrifice, flees to avoid his fate.



I also saw Waitress, starring Felicity. If you like romantic comedies and pie, this movie is for you!

It was actually better than I expected, especially if you like pie. Heather gives it an 8 out of 10. I give it something slightly lower than that.

Jenna is a pregnant, unhappily married waitress in the deep south. She meets a newcomer to her town and falls into an unlikely relationship as a last attempt at happiness.

Eastern Promises & Futurama

Two more movie recommendations from this week:

Eastern Promises
The film follows the mysterious and ruthless Nikolai (Viggo Mortensen), who is tied to one of London's most notorious organized crime families. His carefully maintained existence is jarred when he crosses paths with Anna (Naomi Watts), an innocent midwife trying to right a wrong, who accidentally uncovers potential evidence against the family. Now Nikolai must put into motion a harrowing chain of murder, deceit, and retribution.

I could tell this was going to be a pretty violent movie just by reading the plot keywords from IMDB for this film: Stabbed In The Eye, Nude Fight Scene, Frozen Corpse, Severed Finger. Surprisingly, there are 39 movies listed as having nude fight scenes, and most of them I haven't seen yet. I guess I have some catching up to do.

If you enjoyed A History of Violence, you'll enjoy this film, especially because it's from the same director (David Cronenberg) and again stars Viggo Mortensen. The story is fairly simple and told in an unusually straightforward manner, but the characters are complex and interesting, and they're the focus of the movie.


Futurama: Bender's Big Score!
Planet Express sees a hostile takeover and Bender falls into the hands of criminals where he is used to fulfill their schemes.

I've been excitedly anticipating this direct-to-DVD movie since I read about it this summer. It's a very satisfying movie for Futurama fans as they address the show's cancellation from FOX two years ago and tie up other loose ends.

All your favorite Futurama characters are back, including Robot Santa, KwanzaBot, Chanukah Zombie, and Al Gore.

They are planning to release 3 more DVD movies and then they will chop them all up into 16 episodes to air on Comedy Central along with new episodes.


I also watched a bad movie called I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry which I assume is offensive to gay people everywhere. It's also offensive to straight people everywhere, since the story is so stupid. I don't think it contains a single joke that you haven't heard elsewhere, like every gay joke you heard in 6th grade.

Jessica Biel is pretty though.

Tom Petty documentary

A four hour documentary movie called Runnin' Down A Dream: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers will be released in October .

The film, by Peter Bogdanovich, features interviews with Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, and the circle of musicians, friends, and collaborators who came into the band's orbit over the years.

I looked on imdb.com and the movie is titled slightly different there: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: Running Down a Dream (notice the runnin' vs running). But Best Buy's picture of the box clearly shows it written as in the first paragraph above.

There's a lot of stars in the film, apparently taking parts in interviews: Kevin Costner, Brittany Murphy, Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, Ringo Starr, Stevie Nicks, Roy Orbison, Rick Rubin, Jeff Lynne, and more.

Here's the trailer:


On October 16, a 4-disc box set of the film will be released for sale only at Best Buy, which includes the the 2-DVD, 4 hour Bogdanovich film. It also includes a DVD of the 2006 Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers 30th Anniversary Concert in Gainesville, FL and a soundtrack CD of rarities and previously unreleased tracks from the film.



Here's the tracklist, from Bestbuy.com:

Disc 1:

Gainesville 2006
Elvis
What's In A Name
Mike
Benmont
B.Y.O.F (Build Your Own Festival)
Fast Forward
Deals
A Broken Bond
Ron & Stan
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
Third
Fuel
Howie
Poet

Disc 2:

Bob Dylan
Strange Coincidences
Scott
The Bottom Line
Steve
John
Round Trip
Rock & Roll Heaven
Runnin' Down a Dream (End credits)
One 30th Anniversary Concert

Disc 3:

Listen To Her Heart
Mary Jane's Last Dance
I Won't Back Down
Free Fallin'
Saving Grace
I'm A Man
Oh Well
Handle With Care
Stop Draggin' My Heart Around (with Stevie Nicks)
I Need To Know (with Stevie Nicks)
It's Good To Be King
Down South
Southern Accents
Insider (with Stevie Nicks)
Learning To Fly
Don't Come Around Here No More
Runnin' Down A Dream
You Wreck Me
Mystic Eyes
American Girl

Bonus Soundtrack CD

Disc 4:

Breakdown
Anything That's Rock and Roll
Fooled Again (I Don't Like It)
American Girl
Shadow of A Doubt (A Complex Kid)
Stories We Could Tell
Keeping Me Alive
Honey Bee
Lost Highway

Bob Dylan action this fall

There are a lot of Bob Dylan projects coming this fall. This is mostly compiled from USAToday:

On the road: A 25-date U.S. fall tour of mostly colleges and universities starts September 16. Elvis Costello will open most shows. There aren't any Wisconsin dates listed yet. Elvis Costello does a fantastic live show. I saw him at the Riverside Theater in Milwaukee two years ago.

On CD: On October 2, a three disc CD set named Dylan will be released, a retrospective spanning four decades of studio recordings, many selected as a result of fan lobbying at Dylan's label website. Two other versions also will be available: a single-disc 18-track sampler and a deluxe cloth-bound limited edition with an extended booklet, rare photos, vintage packaging and 10 postcards.

More on CD: Producer Mark Ronson's dance retooling of Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I'll Go Mine) will be released Oct. 1 only in the U.K. as a bonus disc with the 18-track Dylan. It's also available at iTunes in the U.K. It marks the first time Dylan has permitted a remix. The song and video can be seen at dylan07.com.

In museums: The Drawn Blank Series, the first museum exhibit of Dylan's visual artwork, starts its three-month run Oct. 28 at Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz in Chemnitz, Germany. More than 200 photo-lithographs, reworked in watercolor and gouache, are collected from his 1994 book of drawings, Drawn Blank.

On the air: Launching with the topic "Hello," Dylan hosts the second season of XM Radio's Theme Time Radio Hour on September 19. Future shows themes are "Young & Old," "California," "Dreams," "Fruit," "Something," "Nothing," "Streets," "Parties" and "Mail," with guests to include Luke Wilson, Amy Sedaris, Jack White and John Cusack. The satellite radio program draws nearly 2 million listeners weekly. These shows are generally available for download from torrent sites and newsgroups. I've heard a few from the first season and they are very good.

On screen: I'm Not There, Todd Haynes' biopic interpreting Dylan's life through such actors as Cate Blanchett, Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, and Richard Gere, opens November 21.

A two-disc, 34-song soundtrack is out October 30 with new covers by various artists. It also features Dylan's previously unreleased 1967 outtake of I'm Not There.

The soundtrack looks interesting - lots of good bands here. Here's a list of songs as reported on Vinyl Fever:

All Along The Watchtower --Eddie Vedder & The Million Dollar Bashers
As I Went Out One Morning--Mira Billotte
Ballad Of A Thin Man--Stephen Malkmus & The Million Dollar Bashers
Billy--Los Lobos
Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window--The Hold Steady (this is a great band)
Can't Leave Her Behind--Stephen Malkmus & Lee Ranaldo
Cold Irons Bound--Tom Verlaine & The Million Dollar Bashers
Dark Eyes--Iron & Wine & Calexico
Fourth Time Around--Yo La Tengo
Goin' To Acapulco--Jim James & Calexico
Highway 61 Revisited--Karen O & The Million Dollar Bashers
I Wanna Be Your Lover--Yo La Tengo
I'm Not There--Bob Dylan
I'm Not There--Sonic Youth
Just Like A Woman--Charlotte Gainsbourg & Calexico
Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues--Ramblin' Jack Elliot
Knockin' On Heaven's Door--Antony & The Johnsons
The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll--Mason Jennings
Maggie's Farm--Stephen Malkmus & The Million Dollar Bashers
Mama You've Been On My Mind--Jack Johnson
The Man In The Long Black Coat--Mark Lanegan
Moonshiner--Bob Forrest
One More Cup Of Coffee--Roger McGuinn & Calexico
Pressing On--John Doe
Ring Them Bells--Sufjan Stevens (a great artist from Detroit)
Señor (Tales Of Yankee Power)--Willie Nelson & Calexico
Simple Twist Of Fate--Jeff Tweedy
Stuck Inside Of Mobile With Memphis Blues Again--Cat Power
The Times They Are A Changin'--Mason Jennings
Tombstone Blues--Richie Havens
When The Ship Comes In--Marcus Carl Franklin
Wicked Messenger--The Black Keys
You Ain't Goin 'Nowhere--Glen Hansard & Markéta Irglová

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer and Bob Dylan

I recently watched the DVD of "Perfume: The Story of a Murderer."

Users on The Internet Movie Database give it a 7.6 out of 10 rating and I agree that it's a great film. I thought this was truly a story that I hadn't heard before, and movies like that don't come along very often.

The movie was based on the novel Perfume by Patrick Süskind. The book was the source of inspiration for the Nirvana song "Scentless Apprentice." Kurt Cobain claimed to carry the book in his pocket and said he identified with the lead character's alienation.

Here is the movie's plot outline from imdb: Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, born in the stench of eighteenth century Paris, develops a superior olfactory sense, which he uses to create the world's finest perfumes. His work, however, takes a dark turn as he tries to preserve scents in the search for the ultimate perfume.

The film has received mixed reviews by critics. Reuters described the movie as "visually lush, fast-moving story," stating as well that the director "has a sure sense of spectacle, and despite its faults the movie maintains its queasy grip."

Rottentomatoes.com gave it a 56% freshness rating and wrote, "A visual feast with an antihero that's impossible to feel sympathy for." I disagree with this statement - I found it easy to feel compassion for Grenouille despite his actions.

More from Wikipedia: The movie was an incredible success in Europe making over $100 million worldwide. It was deemed unmarketable for American audience and released in very limited number of theaters in North America where it took a modest $2,208,939.

There was a lot of violence and nudity in the film, although I read that the novel was much more graphic. It's rated R for aberrant behavior involving nudity, violence, sexuality, and disturbing images. Rent it today!

Actors appearing in this film include Dustin Hoffman and Alan Rickman (from the Harry Potter movies and many others).

The movie's lead actor is Ben Whishaw, who's appeared in nothing I've seen before. He'll be in the upcoming movie about Bob Dylan called I'm Not There, which I'm really looking forward to.

In that movie six performers play Dylan, including Cate Blanchett, Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, and Richard Gere. "I'm Not There" is the first dramatic portrayal of his life Dylan had ever approved.

Good news, everyone! Futurama returns November 27th

Futurama will return on November 27th as a full-length movie being released on DVD. The initial release will be followed by 3 more DVD movies.

After all 4 DVD movies have been released, they’ll be chopped up into 16 episodes which will air on Comedy Central along with new episodes created for Comedy Central.