I just recently watched the series Band of Brothers not too long ago and am still recovering from the emotional roller coaster ride it has taken me on. Over 10 episodes, each lasting about an hour long, I’ve witnessed the true life stories of Easy Company’s journey from the Georgia Mountains to the front line in France to hills of Austria where Hitler lived. Each story diversely tells the tale of how the platoon survived, battles were fought, and their effects on a soldier’s psyche. Brilliantly made and full of gut wrenching moments, I highly recommend you watch this HBO series if you haven’t already.
This is not the story of one man, but a company that has dozens of soldiers. Spanning over 10 episodes, each one takes a different narrative and point of view ranging from a transfer soldier to a medic to a Major. In the beginning there are almost too many guys to remember anyone’s names, but as you progress, faces become familiar the more and more they interact with each other. One man in particular to pay attention to was Lieutenant Richard ‘Dick’ Winters who narrates 3 or 4 of the 10 episodes and his journey as a company leader to a battle field officer. But among him are a crew of interesting and memorable soldiers that carry their own personalities that you slowly come to appreciate and care for as they take on Germany.
Funny Or Die is a website created and partially maintained by Will Ferrell, Adam McKay and their production company. It serves as a site very similar to CollegeHumor, that serves as an entertainment website for its readers. On occasion CollegeHumor has featured celebrities that contribute to its already popular library. But the up that Funny Or Die has is that it even more frequently utilizes A-listers to make videos that are absolutely hysterical with the 1st class production value. So I’ve compiled some of my favorite videos from Funny or Die below. I’m sure long after this post is done, they will continue to pump out more and more videos. Most of these videos are un-embeddable, so most likely, you’ll have to jump over to Youtube to actually watch them. Rergardless, enjoy below.
As most of you should know, NBC has made the stupid decision to take Community out of its Midseason line up in favor for saving Whitney and making room for 30 Rock. I’m one of millions of enraged fans that can’t believe this nonsense. The internet has gone up in arms in campaigning for its return. And I admit that they’ve gotten pretty clever at it. Here’s one of three photos that are quite hilarious. The rest after the jump.
I’ve finally caught up with breaking bad after season 4 ended at the end of the summer and I have to say that this was probably my favorite season. I probably understand that not many of my readers are viewers of this show because it’s fairly under the radar. So to those who haven’t broken bad [a slang term to define those who have turned to making crystal meth to make money], this is a story about a genius high school chemistry teacher who has teamed up with a white trash punk to make methamphetamine to pay off his cancer bills. As similar to Weeds [a show I tried, but couldn’t finish watching], this tale is far more darker and all around badass. And as you could imagine after 4 seasons, shit has really hit the fan where our leads get mixed up with the DEA, Mexican Drug Cartel, and the biggest meth dealers in the southern United States. And as season 4 wrapped up, we’re finally given the closure we’ve been wanting [that is, until Breaking Bad’s fifth and final season comes out next year]. Read below for my take on season 4 as a whole. Major spoilers beware!
On a string of seeming misfires, SNL hosts have disappointed since the pinnacle of Melissa McCarthy’s debut host in the second episode. Charlie Day was misused and Emma Stone was game, but wasn’t provided enough material to make the best of it. Most people would throw in the towel, but I’m still gonna keep hoping they come up with a new winner. And Jason Segel’s first time hosting has potential, as Segel is a very funny guy. Once again, it’s up to the writer’s to come up with new sketches with new characters that fit their host. Not cookie cutter characters that anyone could step their feet in. Anyways, I look forward to it, and I can only hope Amy Adams drops by to help promote the Muppets movie. Because I love Amy Adams. A link to his promos below.
Inspector Gadget is another one of those characters that could be so much more badass had he not been restricted to a children’s television show. Everyone knows that. Especially artists. So let’s forget Matthew Broderick’s version for a while and escape to a more practical world for a cybernetic human. Here’s a gallery of what artists everywhere thought of when they hear the words “Go Go Gadget”
It’s difficult how to process this. This could easily be another fantastic Pixar hit. Or it could possibly be leaning on the lines of How to Train Your Dragon that was made by Dreamworks Animation a couple of years ago. It was almost too eerily similar. Just trade in scrawny figure for girl and it almost looks and sounds like the same movie. But Pixar usually doesn’t let us down and at least I can say the visuals look great.
If you’re into foreign films, then you’ve probably stumbled upon a plethora of Chinese movies that are essential for calling yourself a movie buff. But if you’re not into foreign films then you’ve probably never have heard of any of the movies that are on this list. When you saw ‘Chinese Movies’ in the title, you likely probably thought, Jackie Chan, Kung Fu, and subtitles. As stereotypical as it is, most of the movies on this list are memorable for those things. But instead of ignorantly typecasting these movies as “foreign blubbering, sword chucking, Jackie Chan flicks”, think of these movies as films with their own heart, story, and characters. You’ll be pleasantly surprised and will even consider some of these flicks better than some of the crap Hollywood produces today.
Wes Anderson is known for his quirky movies with quirky characters that do quirky things. So how does he make it you ask? Well iTunes has a free [hopefully still by the time this post is published] that explains his methodology in film in response to the 10 year anniversary of his film The Royal Tenenbaums. I highly recommend it. Link below.
Even while writing this article, I became confused in whether this would focus on war speeches or just characters talking for a long time. Then I decided that I could instead do both. I’ll have an article right now for great monologues, which is defined a speech from one character speaking their thoughts aloud, and I’ll have a separate one for great wartime speeches for another day. So in the movies you’ll see below, you won’t find the empowering words of William Wallace or Theoden, King of Rohan, but the long speeches that are particularly mesmerizing in their substance and delivery. This is a very broad topic, so I’d imagine the choices I made could be considered lousy, and that there are more suitable ones. That’s your job, to find them and prove me wrong.
This is neither directly movie or TV related. But more than often TV and movies enforce these stereotypes, and especially reminds me of Mean Girls where they have a map of the drama in the high school cafeteria [clip below]. Hell if you don’t buy that lame excuse for a ‘bridge’, the third element in BananaFeeds Mission Statement is ‘Entertainment’. So these images are layouts of the types of people in cafeterias at ALL ages. Be entertained.
Martin Scorsese is widely regarded as one of the best directors in the industry today. You don’t need to be a film buff to enjoy most of his work, but if you are, you can appreciate it all the more. He has a large resume of impressive movies ranging from Goodfellas to Gangs of New York. He’s directed some of the most mesmerizing performances from Robert DeNiro and Leonardo DiCaprio. The last Director Filmography Ranked I did was for Christopher Nolan, and like him, it’s incredibly difficult to place one movie in front of another. So I eventually had to base it more off of what I’d rewatch over and over again. Hit the jump for the [very flawed and biased] ranking of the 8 Martin Scorsese movies I’ve seen so far. Be sure to recommend to me any ones I missed. I’ve particularly heard Casino is very good.
Cracked.com continues to be one of the best satirical writers out there on the vast web today. Once again they’ve come up with a sensible list of obscure movie details that wows its readers with its thought-out and flawless logic. This time, they’ve taken 6 seemingly happy endings to 6 different movies and laid out how, in all-reality, bodes illness for the future. Hit the link for the extremely satisfying breakdown. Spoilers beware.
Charming/adorable, they’re all pretty much the same word and they sum up the outlook of every character on this list. By using the word ‘infectiously charming’ I mean that they’re actions/philosophy in life can only bring smiles on our faces, regardless of how naive or misguided they may be. On this list, you’ll find 5 characters who represent the pinnacle of adorableness.
ABC and NBC currently have a rivalry in the adult fairy tale with Once Upon a Time and Grimm, respectively. And now there are two live action Snow Whites currently in production. Now I’m not currently watching either of these shows nor do I plan to watch any of these movies, so if you guys have any opinions on the matter let me know. I stumbled [not through the web application, but actually came upon it on my own] across this list of fairy tales that have their target demographic as adults. So check out the list in the link I have below and let me know your thoughts.
If you’re like me, you’re having Game of Thrones withdrawals and you can’t wait until season 2 come Spring of 2012. Since it has first aired, Game of Thrones have drawn in a completely new demographic to the series, and like everything that is mainstreamed, parodies and satires have come out. I’ve tried to compile the internet’s best, so try and let me know if I missed anything. If you haven’t watched the series, MAJOR spoilers below, so tread lightly.
Last week, I expressed my excitement to having Charlie Day host SNL. While it wasn’t absolutely as atrocious as Anna Faris’s work, [Danny DeVito’s cameo was especially delicious] it wasn’t exactly what I hoped for. He was simply another cut and paste host that had no real memorable sketches [except maybe the Seinfeld one, that one was pleasantly surprising]. So here I am promoting this week’s host Emma Stone. When I saw her last year, she didn’t particularly wow me by any means, but maybe she can rally. She’s an extremely talented actress who has no qualms about taking a few jabs herself. My ultimate dream is that Jim Carrey cameos [and in the future hosts, his show was fairly decent] to talk about the whole, ‘I love Emma Stone’ deal. Below is Jim Carrey’s creepy message and a link Stone’s promos.
Banana Scoop 