Archive for the 'Movies' Category

Interpellation and Identity through Mechanical Production and Synthetic Being in Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner by matthew

According to Wikipedia, Blade Runner, came out 24 years ago this June 27th. To mark the occasion, I asked our dear friend, Matthew, to write a brief review. Enjoy - Dan

As one of the various mediums through which cultural theories are posited, the cinema is saturated with nuanced expressions of humans as the locus for a confluence of formative social ideologies. Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner exhibits a multitude of cultural propositions which serve to delicately raise questions about the manner in which humans define themselves within society, and the mechanism through which meaning is assigned to social interaction. The primary means employed by the film to illuminate some of the fallacies of human social systems is the production of replicants as a physical manifestation of the mechanical nature of humans within a commercially-driven environment. I propose that the replicants function as a mirror that allows humans to glimpse their own modes of production and identity formation by displacing erroneous human behavior onto synthetic creatures. In this way, Blade Runner—especially through Deckard’s interrogation of Rachael and the proceeding exchange between Deckard and Tyrell—elucidates several aspects of Louis Althusser’s contentions on the topics of reproduction of the conditions of production and the interpellation of the subject under the umbrella of Ideological State Apparatuses.

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posted on 4:07 pm 05/10/2006
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Lady in the Water Trailer by amit

“I’m Cleveland Heep, welcome to The Cove…I hear splashing some nights.” Those are the opening two lines to the much unanticipated M. Night Shyamalan movie Lady in the Water. Today Yahoo debuted the full trailer to the fantasy based flick starring Paul Giamatti (Duets) and Bryce Dallas Howard (The Village). The trailer depicts a lonely apartment superintendent (Giamatti) who discovers a gateway between his world and “The Blue Word” thanks to a skinny pale sea nymph (Howard). Coincidentally, the nymph wasn’t sent to remind the superintendent he’s bald and old, oh no, she came to save all of humanity. On top of all that responsibility, the two must save themselves from a giant hyena-wolf-beast (see Brotherhood of the Wolf). One big change from the teaser trailer was the tagline, “A Bedtime Story”, turns up missing. C&V speculates it’s due to the fact that previous M. Night taglines have caused quite a stir. For example, the tagline to Signs was “Aliens Invade…Your Landscaping” and the equally non-P.C. tagline for Unbreakable, “The Bad Guy is a Disabled Black Man.” Lady opens July 21st. View the trailer here.

The part he was born to play.

Bryce showers then cries about the twist in The Village.

M. Night Sham watches his career escape.

posted on 6:47 pm 05/09/2006
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“Knight Rider” Car Gets Movie, Hasselhoff Gets Shaft by amit

Reuters just texted me some interesting movie news. K.I.T.T., the talking car from the 1980’s series, “Knight Rider”, will star in its own upcoming movie based on the popular crime fighting show. The genius behind “Rider”, Glen A. Larson, isn’t certain whether David Hasselhoff will appear in the movie after learning of David’s recent music video, wife beating, and Pepsi advertisements, and told David, “don’t hold your breath.” Larson hopes the revival will be a dark, PG-13 flick with “more gallows, foxhole humor” in hopes of maintaining a level of seriousness aside from the notion of a talking effeminate car. C&V talked with Lindsay Lohan, star of another car-centric remake film, Herbie Fully Loaded (RT 42%), about her thoughts on the K.I.T.T. movie. She replied, “Is that the guy with the coke?”

“I’m surrounded by morons” - K.I.T.T.

posted on 1:49 am 05/09/2006
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Tom Cruise, I Envy You Not by richard

Here we see Tom Cruise sporting some wonderful women’s shades and is the only white guy around. I just can’t stand this guy. L. Ron would be turning in his grave. That’s about all I can stand to write on this video.

posted on 5:30 pm 05/08/2006
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Disney Purges Happy Meal by amit

After 10 long Calorie filled years, Disney is emptying their tray of their exclusive toy agreement with fast food conglomerate McDonald’s. Their joint venture was a cinema-meets-sandwich symbioses promoting new Disney animated movies through toy tie-ins inside America’s first form of child anti-depressant, the Happy Meal. Over the years the companies were like cheese on a Big Mac , ketchup on fries, or plaque build-up on an artery. But today, that’s all over. According to the LA Times, “family friendly” Disney wants to remove itself from the image that McDonald’s is making obese kids morbidly obese. No more Disney toys. No more special Disney toys for children 3 and under (with helmets). Those classic toys for kids made by kids will be missed. Rumor has it McDonald’s will soon be teaming up with Dreamworks Animation for the upcoming release of Shrek 3. Finally a toy growing kids can relate to (i.e. a fat green slob).

Sex-offender Ronald waves bye to Disney.

posted on 5:00 pm 05/08/2006
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