Seven Psychopaths: The Review I Didn't Write (But Totally Agree With)

Ever have one of those films that everyone you know seems to love up and down, and so you finally get around to checking it out and you're left thinking, "I mean, it was all right...?" One of those films for me was In Bruges. Maybe I just need to watch it again sans the hype and I'll enjoy it from a less anticipatory perspective. But to quote a co-worker of mine: "No you won't."

Which brings us to Seven Psychopaths. I kind of assumed that since the film was from Martin McDonagh, the writer/director of In Bruges, it would probably be a similar experience. Fortunately, I was able to attend a screening of Psychopaths this week and I'm glad I did because as it turns out, I enjoyed the heck out of it.

It's the story of a frustrated screenwriter who can't think of the story to back up his already predetermined title: Seven Psychopaths. What follows is a dark, occasionally gruesome, surprisingly touching at times, shaggy dog story within a shaggy dog story as we encounter the psychopaths our hero meets who foster his imagination, as well as the ones he conjures up for his own screenplay - which we get to see brought to life.  

I toyed with writing a review of the film but I soon read TK's write up over at Pajiba and felt he said almost exactly what it is I would have tried to put into words. So if you're interested, check out his review here. 

How The Simpsons Should End

First things first, this inspired take on how to end one of the longest running television shows in history was not my idea. I was browsing Reddit one sunny afternoon when I stumbled across a post written by LittleMonkey69 (ah, the internet.) He was responding to the question "How Would You Properly End The Simpsons?" What I read was a rough but poignant premise for what I agree would be a satisfying farewell to this monumental fictional family - who have been continuously serving up brand new adventures for over 23 years and counting.

Here is the original (unedited) text:

The show begins with the family watching Itchy and Scratchy. They announce that the show is coming to an end and the entire family gasps in horror. They then announce that the last episode will be aired in a years time, and until then, a contest will be running; this contest will offer the winner the chance to write what will happen in the finale. The entire Simpson family applies.

Krusty is in charge of choosing the winner. He falls in love with one of the Simpson's idea and puts it in [the] winners box. He makes a mistake though, he puts all five of their ideas in the box by accident. He goes on his show to announce the winner and pulls out five cards out of the box. Stumped, he reads all five names out, "Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie." 

Flash forward a year later and Bart is in class describing his take on the Itchy and Scratchy finale to Milhouse, while showing us Itchy and Scratchy with Bart's voice-over. He finishes and the class is silent, Edna Krabappel is staring at him and says, "After-school detention." The scene then cuts to the power plant and Homer is describing his finale to Lenny and Carl. He finishes, a bell rings and he gets in a radiation suit. The scene cuts to a supermarket and Marge is describing her take to Helen Lovejoy, she finishes and strolls Maggie in the trolley to another aisle. Here, Maggie sees the unibrow baby and starts describing her take via waving and motioning. She finishes and the scene cuts to Lisa, she begins describing her take to Sherri and Terri. She finishes and picks up her saxophone to go to music practice. She walks in the music room sits down and then sees the time. She realises the show is going to be on in ten minutes. She plays the Itchy and Scratchy melody on her sax and bolts out. It cuts to Bart, he's writing on the black board: "I will not talk in class ever again" he hears a bell, realises the time and runs out. Cut to Homer holding some plutonium at a conveyor belt when a bell rings at the plant and he too realises the time and runs off, dropping some plutonium. Cut to the supermarket and we see Marge and Maggie checking out and running through the exit doors. Cut to a birds eye view of their home and we see everyone rushing to take a seat in the couch. They look at each other, they smile, the Itchy and Scratchy music plays, and it cuts to credits.

It would be pretty difficult to try and top crafting a story around reaching that final moment, am I right? You can find the original post here.  

MovieFilm Podcast: Episode 6 - Looper and Time Travel Movies We Love

Believe it or not, here we are at Episode 6 of the MovieFilm podcast. This week we answer viewer mail, discuss everything from ALF to Taken 2 to the Die Hard 5 and The Lone Ranger trailers. Then, following a brief discussion on the new time travel head-trip Looper, Zaki, Sean and I discuss our personal favorite time travel movies. (I'll give you a heads up, one of mine is Flight of the Navigator.)

 

You can download the episode here and please feel free to drop us a note at MovieFilmPodcast@gmail.com.

Spielberg and Williams: Movie Magic In The Making

My love of movie maestro John Williams' work is a long and storied one. It began with me seeing The Empire Strikes Back as a wee one, then having my mom continually take me to the Wheaton Public Library so I could check out all of Williams' soundtrack LPs.

Eventually, like any of my favorite Beatles songs, I could similarly recognize most of Williams' work from just a few random notes. Case in point, I was just at Hollywood's Magic Castle this past weekend and was taken out of a show for a moment when I realized they were using an obscure portion of score from Jurassic Park.

With that in mind, it goes without saying that the clip embedded below brought me a lot of joy this morning. In it we see Steven Spielberg and Williams working out the now classic, but at the point this was recorded yet-to-exist, score to Spielberg's masterpiece E.T.

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