3/16 is Michael Keaton Day!

I want everyone to know that this coming Saturday is now Michael Keaton Day (I've decided).

You know what this means! Go out and get ice cream with nuts on Saturday, March 16th to celebrate the first annual Michael Keaton Day! No one throws an ice cream party like a Michael Keaton Party! Rocky Road! Peanut Butter Parfait! Vanilla Ice Cream with Peanuts Sprinkled on Top! Let's make this a memorable one!

Take a picture of you and your ice cream and hashtag it with #michaelkeatonday

Happy ice cream eating!

Oz the Great and Powerful: A Review

I watched Oz the Great and Powerful last week, and while I wouldn't call the movie terrible, I'm certainly not going to call it good. I wouldn't even recommend it for someone who's bored. It's definitely a movie, and there are some good bits, but mostly there are bits where James Franco is just James Franco.

Let's take a look.

The things I liked: I thought Zach Braff did a good job. Even though the monkey effects weren't amazing, I thought the character was interesting. He is a driving force in changing Oz's ways from being a selfish son of a bitch to the kind-hearted fraud (a supposed good thing). He's got heart and humor, and then mysteriously disappears from any key moments as soon as Glinda is introduced. I was disappointed because the slave/master-friend/friend dynamic was a lot more interesting than the "I think this girl is pretty and I hope I can impress her" one.

As far as effects go, they were shitty. But the porcelain girl looked great. There was a nice tactile quality to the character and Joey King was a fantastic voice actor, bringing the character full circle. We need to get this thirteen-year-old more work! She destroyed Franco in the acting realm! (Not that it's hard). Monkey and Porcelain Girl were the two best parts of this movie, and without them the entire thing would have been a complete bust (even with Rachel Wiesz, but more on this later).

Every twenty minutes or so we'd get a little taste of the Raimi charm. He'd toss in a signature shot with a skewed filter on the lens, or a quick camera movement to disorient the audience. Every strange shot he was able to put in made me yell, "Raimi!" I just wish Disney would have let him put more of himself into this movie.

The black and white 4X3 segment at the beginning was well done. I liked the way they used this to move us into the story and mythology of Oz. It was a highlight, getting my hopes up for the inevitable  letdown of a movie that followed.

 (Interesting note: Warner Bros. actually owns most of the iconic elements from the 1939 picture, which made tying this film in with the other story a bit more difficult. They were not able to use the ruby red slippers or the specific green for the Wicked Witch.)

Now, what I didn't like: James Franco, of course. I'd like to make something clear, though. I don't think Franco is a terrible actor (even if he can be at times). I liked him in 127 Hours and Pineapple Express. What I think Franco is terrible at is being a human being. He's arrogant, fake, and unprofessional. Sadly, shitty qualities like these can bleed onto the screen when he's trying to act. When you watch a movie like Oz you can understand why his professor gave him a D. There's no disputing the fairness of this grade when you have evidence like Oz the Great and Powerful. We don't have Franco in Milk here, rather we have another Rise of the Planet of the Apes (AKA: the worst). It's unfortunate considering there are two extremely talented actresses. Rachel Wiesz and Michelle Williams do what they do best: act the shit out of their roles. The problem is because of the good job they're doing, we can see how bad of a job Franco and Mila Kunis are doing. The conflict in quality leads each scene to be weighted unevenly, thus making it obvious to the audience that we are just watching a movie. There isn't any magic to pull us in emotionally, and in the end, this is the major flaw to the picture.

I give this movie a C-

The Hangover: Part III Trailer

Let's check it out:

I don't know what happened, but it seemed like everyone has turned on this trilogy. When you hear The Hangover come up in conversation it's usually for people to say, "The first one was pretty funny, but the second one was just dumb. So I'm not excited for the third."

I'll go ahead and say that the first one was very funny, the second was reached a second tier of funny with being somewhat meta. I mean, they did a remake of the first movie with a near scene-by-scene, beat-for-beat flick. And because they recycled the first movie, I was rolling with laughter. I knew that movie was going to make millions more than the first, and all the people were paying for something they'd already seen.

Now, the third one is different. I'm not sure the direction they taken this one, but I can tell you that one of the destinations is FunnyTown. I think that was John Goodman? Playing the bad guy? Can anyone confirm this? I'm too lazy to go to IMDB right now (note: it is him. I decided to go to IMDB). People also seem to be getting tired of Melissa McCarthy, but again, I'm not. I think she's hysterical and even the small roles she gets (see: This is 40) she seems to kill it. 

Even if you hate these movies, you have to admit that they were great for Zach Galifinakis's career. Without the first Hangover, who knows how much of these joyous man we would get. And also, it's a movie about the day after binge drinking, so you know, you can't be too harsh. Just enjoy it. 

Leo DiCaprio's Jack Nicholson Face

I know it's only Thursday. We still have an entire day before we hit the weekend. But more importantly is the great Jack Nicholson face Leonardo DiCaprio can do.

I think we should all take a moment from our day, and spend it appreciating the great feat that has been reached today. The world is now a better place. Thank you, Jack. Thank you, Leo.

James Franco's Cure for AIDS

As the cure for AIDS spreads across the globe the praise for James Franco skyrockets. Franco (of the Spider-Man trilogy [the ones with Tobey Maguire]) has lent his doctorate degrees in microbiology and chemistry to helping the less fortunate around him. He has broken the equation that held the cure for the AIDS virus.

Franco, who was self-diagnosed in the spring of 2015, said it just felt like the right thing to do. He struggled with the disease for a year while he completed his post-graduate degrees. During that time he said he became an amateur medical doctor, claiming that since he didn’t put the time into the school he didn’t want to over-emphasize all the home studying he did. “No degree equals no professional title,” he joked.

He contracted the disease while participating in an unsimulated sex scene for Get Sexy, a deep and painful story of a sex addict trying to have sexual encounters in every country on earth. The film ends with the protagonist succumbing to the AIDS virus. Franco—who wrote, directed, produced, acted, and scored the film—wanted an actor that actually had the AIDS virus for realism purposes. He admits that it was a risk he didn’t fully come to realize until it was too late, but lucky for the thirty-five million people suffering from the virus, they finally got Franco to help them out.

“You see guys like Steve McQueen and Von Trier putting out movies like Shame and Nymphomaniac. I saw these movies and was so under whelmed by them. You know? I asked myself, ‘how would Kerouac re-imagine this story? And then I wrote Get Sexy.”

It was soon after shooting wrapped that Franco felt that deep pit in his stomach. During one of his two hour meditations he came to the realization that he was ill. He did the tests at home in his state of the art laboratory, and when his suspicions were correct he set himself to work. He was accepted into Yale University almost immediately, tearing his way through the curriculum because of his now looming deadline.

He didn’t let the load of schoolwork get in the way of his professional life. He was able to release a book of short stories, One Broken Cement Stair at a Time, along with a gripping novel, Horizon, (a finalist for the National Book Award, but failed to take home the prize against the likes of Jonathan Safran Foer). His ego didn’t need to worry, the Academy Awards still called his name over and over for Get Sexy. He took home the statues for producing, acting, and directing.

“It was a bittersweet year, that’s for sure. But I’m proud to say this will be an even better year. I mean, being accepted as part of this artist community that I’ve admired so much over the years is a dream come true. But being able to pass on the gift of life to millions of people is even more rewarding. I didn’t think anything would be more awarding than winning an Oscar, but I think I found it.”