Just a Guy

I am speaking of course of FBI agent Bill Maxwell once played by Robert Culp on The Greatest American Hero. I recently did an interview with Michael Pare who played Tony Villicana on the show. When I asked if him he would want the part he went ballistic about how much would love to play that part. Then he told me this story of his first day as an actor with Robert Culp that is just classic. You can read the interview here.

Anyway I am big fan of Michael Paré. I have seen a lot of his movies and I can say that not all of them were good but I can also say he was good in all of them. The Greatest American Hero was the first thing I ever saw him in. I loved the character he played and from then on anytime I saw his name on a movie I would give it a watch.

Really I think he would be brilliant in the part in fact I have started a petition here to get him that role.

Posted by Jccjr at 01:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Let me explain how this started. At the end of the second video Dr. Boll has out on YouTube in response to the Stop Uwe Boll petition he asked that if you were going to send hate mail to use your real name so he could come tear you apart. I instantly had the urge to send him an email. I waited a couple days and thought it over. I mean I can understand his anger over this if I look at it from his point of view.

I did send him an email and I ripped a couple of his movies and I even included my full name and my home address. Now I went an extra step because while I am an a**hole, I believe in giving people a chance to explain themselves and offered to have a discussion with Dr. Boll over his films leaving the door open for him to possibly change my mind and give his films a second chance.

This led to a few emails back and forth between me and Dr. Boll. He suggested watching 3 of his latest films including the upcoming release Postal which he says is his best work so far. As an act of good faith I pulled my Anti-Boll posts and will refrain from any Anti-Boll posts or comments until after May 23rd when Postal opens up. If Postal is good I will put an end to my Boll hating days and become Pro-Boll. Before you start I am The Movie Whore and every whore is just that - a whore. At this point he offered me a 5 question interview for the sites I write for.

Now when you consider that I started this whole thing by ripping the mans work I think it was really damn cool of him to offer the interview. Me being the whore I am, I jumped on this opportunity and was quite pleasantly surprised. After all of this my respect for the man has jumped up quite bit and I am looking forward to seeing Postal. So now on with the interview.

TMW: Why video game adaptations, I mean why put yourself in a niche with a built in hard to please audience?
UB: HOUSE OF THE DEAD came to me out of nowhere and it turned into a success with over $60 million theatrical and DVD gross worldwide. It only cost $7 million to make.
TMW: You know from a business standpoint you can't argue with those numbers.

TMW: What have you learned over the years that you have used to make Postal which in your words is your best work to date?
UB: With POSTAL and SEED I turned back to my roots as a filmmaker who also writes his movies. I lost that in all the action driven video game movies before.

TMW: For anyone that wants to try to make a video game adaptation, what is the best advice you would give them?
UB: It's hard to convince the fans. Don’t let the pressure get you.

TMW: If you could pick one of your movies to go back and do over again would you? If yes, which one and why?
UB: Alone in the Dark .... without Tara Reid

TMW: I am The Movie Whore and no interview would be complete without something whorish. Who would you whore out to The Movie Whore
for a future interview?
UB: Michael Paré

He even gave me his email address. So I will be contacting him here in the next couple days to see if I can set something up. For those unfamiliar with Michael Paré he has been in such movies as The Philadelphia Experiment, Eddie and the Cruisers (one of my favorites) and the TV show The Greatest American Hero. He also has been working with Uwe Boll on a few films including Postal and SEED. On a side note they are trying to make The Greatest American Hero into a movie. Yes I am twitching up a storm over that one as it is one of all time favorite TV shows.

Anyway to learn more about Michael Paré click his name. I will be seeing if I can get him to do an interview. I have always been of the guy and I am hoping he says yes. Until the next time kids, go watch some movies.

Posted by Jccjr at 09:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

These days I spend a lot of time writing movie type stuff. I write for www.rustylime.com and my own blogger blog. Because of my extensive movie knowledge and the way I view the medium and provide my feedback, I was recently invited to join a couple guys from the bay area to join forces with their small production company. I am really looking forward to it.

In the mean time I keep looking for work. Just got another kiss off letter in my email tonight and boy it was a kick in the chest. Apparently Enloe HR is too ignorant to realize that learning technical stuff is the easy part but finding some one that actually knows and understands advanced management theory is difficult to find. That's why so many people complain about their bosses. Their boss got there on technical knowledge but has no idea how to be a leader. Yes I realize that's no way to get a job but they all ready sent me the email telling me they didn't want me. I have run circles around technical people with my management style. I get more out of my people and they are happier. Technical knowlegde has little to do with being a manager. I have never had such a hard time finding a job. I have put out at least 100 resumes and I have had one call back and one interview. I am still waiting to hear back and that was over a week ago. If you think I am frustrated and ticked off then go with that.

So being a Chico resident that actually grew up here I really have reached a point with the anti-Wal Mart crowd that has me questioning their intelligence. You want to know why people go to Wal Mart to get jobs and shop. Because local businesses can't compete in either market. Local businesses offer part time employment with no benefits. They hire college kids who don't need the job but are the only ones that can afford to work for such pathetic wages and no benefits. I have a family. I would love to support you but try supporting the rest of the community too. Quit your whining and and put your money where your mouth is.

I heard a rumor that Enloe wants to buy up the blocks of residences behind them. Tear it all down and expand the hospital. Like I said it was a rumor I heard and I don't know if it's true. If it is there goes a great neighborhood and in comes more cookie cutter substandard housing that tries to cram as much as they can into the space available.

Now for politics. Hillary Clinton in office is an idea that makes me want to leave the country and here is why. She has no moral ground to stand on. He husband cheated on her several times and I am willing to bet the only reason she stayed with him was to ride his coat tails to the oval office. She's worse than all of them. McCain has no interest in you whatsoever. He is a fat cat politician all the way. Don't know enough about Obama or he would be under fire here as well. The best chance we had was Dr. Ron Paul anyone that can not see that needs to pull their head out of the sand and take a look around.

So I am a little upset and taking all my shots at once. Sometimes you need to. I hold back quite a bit out of concern over being seen as offensive but some times the world needs to be offended just to see if they are actually paying attention. So many spend way too much time worrying about what they say that it gets so sanitized that they never actually say anything. I am angry and you should be too. If you want to be angry at me go ahead, I can take it. What you should be angry about is the way this country is being taken from us more and more every day. They are coming after our freedom. They want you with your head in the sand not paying attention to what is going on. They want you subservient buying into whatever they are selling this week.

You think a tax incentive check is going to solve anything or cutting interest rates, not bloody likely. What would help is if they imposed fines on companies that ship jobs over seas. We need more jobs. People with out jobs can't spend money they don't have. Tens of thousands of jobs are being shipped out every year til we hit a depression and then the government is going to offer something that we would not except unless we are that desperate. Seriously people wake up and start demanding our government work for us the people not the corporations.

I have worked for Fortune 100 companies and for Fortune 500 companies and I have watched them ship jobs over seas. I have worked for companies that were offering a severance package to people after sending their jobs some where else. They had to stay for a few months to get the severance and I was instructed to see how many I could fire or encourage to quit so the company would not have to pay anything out. Yes that was here in Chico. To avoid problems I am not going to name the company.

Like I said I write 2 other blogs one has had over 700,00 hits world wide since the beginning of the year and because of my writing there I have been offered to join a movie production company and have been asked to review the future films of a second company. One is my one free blog where my language is quite profane. I write here. I guess I may have let something slip and some one took notice. My apologies. I understand that is not allowed here and I have no problem with that. But the next person that tells me I am small town guy that does not know what he is talking about is going to get an earful.

I served 4 honorable years in the Air Force where I have seen things that would blow your mind. I have been all over the country and to a few other countries. I have seen and done things in my 33 years that a lot of people don't do in 50. Yes I take a great amount of offense to people who think they know where I am coming from with out knowing me. I know people that died in terrorist acts. I have watched people die. I have seen some of the poorest people in the world and lived with them. I have no compassion for the whining over Wal Mart. Wal Mart at least provides employment. When you have been out of work for a few months and can't find anything then we will talk about how evil Wal Mart is. It's called capitalism and that's the way it works. Wal Mart does better business than you so either get with the competition or quit taking up space.

This is what a real rant looks like. I do feel much better thank you. If you think I am being irrational look up the word rant before you comment.

Posted by Jccjr at 09:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I have been thinking about this the last couple days or actually ever since I knew what a movie was. What is it that makes a movie good?

It's a difficult question to answer. Whether or not a movie is good is totally subjective. Let's take for instance one of my new favorite movies, Southland Tales. I wrote a review of this movie and called it brilliant. Well tonight I went to see Mike and Spikes Sick and Twisted Cartoon Festival (Not as good as last years). The buddies I went with found Southland Tales to be "retarded." The Wookie actually said that. If you ever saw him you would understand why the hairy guy has the nick names. Then Jeff Solo, the Wookies room mate agreed with him. So I called Statutory Steve (Yes it is a joke nick name his girlfriend is actually older than him.) because I was in a state of disbelief over the fact that Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum thought that Southland Tales sucked. Statty reminded me where these comments were coming from. The inhabitants of the Falcon are known for their bad taste and loving the most intellectually devoid crap.

Now don't get me wrong I love these guys like brothers but I really question their taste, frequently. Granted Statty and I are arrogant elitists but we have worked hard to become so. Statty is actually the one that gave me the title of Movie Whore as he is more of a critic than I am. The man just does not appreciate the value of a good B-Movie. I found myself becoming a critic and when I realized this was happening I decided the best way to regain my all out fandom was to immerse myself in crappy movies. This explains why I even know what Zombie Nation is.

Anyway back on topic. What makes a good movie I believe is what I am rambling about today. Here a few key points that I find makes a movie good to me.

* Entertainment Value: Did I want to shut the movie off. Even as much of a whore as I am I have shut some movies off for being that bad. Not many but a few. The best way to judge for yourself is after the movie do you feel like they stole time from your life you will never get back, if the answer is yes then it was a bad movie. Alone in the Dark was so bad I actually forgot I had seen it and watched it again.
* Dialog: Lame dialog makes for a lame movie. Good dialog makes for a possibly good movie. Great dialog makes a movie. Clerks looks like crap but it is the dialog that made it such a great movie.
* Plot: The more plausible and easy to follow the better generally speaking. There are some hard to follow movies out there that are pretty damn good. Think Donnie Darko and films that you may have to watch twice to get. Once you get it you love it.
* Pace: While important, can be forgiven for story and acting. Does the director move the movie along or are you stuck with pointless scenes that never lead to anything. Poor pacing can kill a potentially good movie in 5 minutes or less. Notable exception to this rule is The Good Shepherd. Matt Damon was incredible in this telling of a man that lived a life with little to no emotion. The slow pace emphasized his character.
* Acting: Bad acting can sometimes be a pleasure to watch if it is intended to be that kind of movie. Sometimes it could even make a movie better. I really think that Moulin Rouge would have been better with bad actors. The music stuff was fun but you had great actors pulling off emotional scenes that clashed with the fun ride this movie could have been. No one can deny that great acting can be crucial to how good a movie is. Hugh Jackman was amazing in The Fountain and carried that movie on his shoulders. I loved that movie.
* Loopholes: So many movies leave with you with questions. They never tell the complete story. A great movie that told a complete story and answered all your questions was The Departed. No some movies are made to leave you asking questions and that is their draw. They make you think and use your imagination to fill in the intentionally left holes. The original anime movie A Ghost In the Shell had my brain spinning for hours after I watched it. I own this movie.
* Special Effects: Bad effects can kill an other wise good movie. I am Legend is the best example of this. Will Smith really is a good actor. His performance was strong but the creatures in this move were so bad that I can't see myself ever watching the movie again.
* Less is more: Think about the original Alien. One of the things that set the mood and made this movie so good was the distinct absence of sound and background music. Silence can be a powerful thing. The Descent also used this technique and I was impressed with how many times I jumped out of my seat during this flick.
* Believability: Offenders of this rule include nearly every time travel movie ever made. They give you their science then abandon their own rules. Bullets go through walls. There is a big difference between cover and concealment. Cover stops bullets, concealment does not. Most action movies screw this one up. It really is the little things that viewers can key in on. If you don't believe me check out any movie forum. You will find nit picking all over the place with no mention as to whether or not the movie is good.
* Continuity: If you are going to make a sequel you better have your story straight. In my mind Lucas totally abandon this with Episodes 1-3. He threw off the continuity of Episodes 4-6. Kevin Smith of all people I think understands continuity better than any director I have ever seen. The references he makes in his films to past movies showing that he understands movie goers are not stupid and builds in an automatic need to see the rest of his flicks to get the jokes in later movies.

I think that is going to do it for this edition. If I have left something out let me know. In closing "Do I look like a cat to you boy? Am I jumpin' around all nimbly bimbly from tree to tree? Am I drinking milk from a saucer? DO YOU SEE ME EATING MICE?"

Posted by Jccjr at 02:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)