Seth Rogen's New Movie

Seth Rogen has become extremely successful over the last couple of years starring in and writing movies like Knocked Up, Superbad, Pineapple Express, and Zack and Miri Make a Porno. He also provided a voice for the upcoming animated film Monsters vs Aliens. Now he is going to star in an movie called Observe and Report. Rogen plays a bi-polar mall security cop who takes his job very seriously, ruling the mall with an iron fist. The movie is set for release in April, 2009. For more information check out the movie's homepage.

Oscar Recap

Last night at the 81st Academy Awards there were many surprises including the winners for Best Picture and Best Actor. For a full recap check out this site. “Slumdog Millionaire” a movie about the slums of Mumbai (India) won Best Picture and six other Oscars. “Slumdog” also won Best Director (Danny Boyle) and Best Adapted Screenplay. In a surprise victory, Sean Penn, won Best Actor in a Leading Role for his role in the film “Milk.” Kate Winslet won Best Actress in a Leading Role in the movie “The Reader.” In one of the more moving moments of the night was when Heath Ledger won, post posthumously, Best Actor in a Supporting Role. His family was there to receive the award in his honor. It was a dazzling display by everyone involved and was a great success.

Here is a video clip with Hugh Jackman the host of the Oscars doing a duet with Beyonce.

Kornheiser on Roids?

This is a really funny parody of Alex Rodriguez by ESPN writer Tony Kornheiser. This can be found on espn's website. It is nice to see somebody giving poking fun to such a serious issue. With ESPN spending so much time on this story its nice to see something funny. This is a very important story and baseball really needs the "steriods" to just go away. Not that Rodriguez should get off the hook completely but it would be better for MLB if this story were to be put on the back burner for a while.

Quinnipiac Film Society

Me: What is your name and major?

John: John Kelley. I’m a media studies major, marketing minor.

Me: How long have you been a member of Quinnipiac Film Society (QFS)?

John: Three years now, since it’s inception in December of 2006.

Me: What does QFS do?

John: QFS serves as a group that gets together people with different interests in film. This includes people who can direct, write, produce and do a number of other things. It brings everyone with these different talents together so that we can combine our efforts to make films.

Me: Do you make any screenplays? If so how many?

John: I write a lot in relation to screenplays. I started off by writing a television sitcom, similar to the style of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.” That lasted for about a year until people had issues filming it – filming a sitcom is extremely difficult, especially on a college campus. Thus, I switched to writing sketch comedy under the title “Good Times Sketch Comedy.” I wrote, acted, produced, and co-directed, but I really didn’t have the constant help I needed to finish it – it was too much for me. Myself and a few other QFS members were able to keep it afloat for about a year before we had to shut down.

Me: Have you ever made a movie screenplay?

John: Yes, I wrote a two-hour movie screenplay entitled Understanding Accidents. It’s about a young, college graduate slacker who owns a bar with his friends. Once his parents die in a car accident, he is forced to take custody of his detached, seven year old brother. Short on the money needed to support them both, he begins robbing banks to support them. It’s a comedy with a serious touch, in the form of Big Daddy mixed with Fun with Dick and Jane. I’m still trying to get attention to the screenplay, but that’s very difficult for someone unknown in the film industry.

Me: Are you working on anything right now?

John: Currently, I’m the script supervisor and a writer for Q30’s show “That’s So Sketchy Television.” The show should be up both on Q30 and online by the end of the semester.

Me: Would you recommend to students with similar interests to join either of these organizations?

John: I would recommend that anyone who is a media production major should join both QFS and Q30. Q30 is good for teaching people camera basics, while QFS is helpful in teaching different film tricks. If someone wants to go into news filming, Q30 would likely be best, however anyone interested in making movies would likely be better off in QFS.

Funny Comedian: John Pinette

This is comedian John Pinette and this is a really funny stand-up that he did a few years ago. He had a cameo in the season finale of Seinfeld. He played the guy who gets his car stolen while Jerry, Elaine, George, and Kramer get arrested for not helping him. Here is a link to his website.

Movie Releases February+March

Up coming movie releases in theaters nationwide (not including limited releases):

Friday, February 20th
-Fired Up
-Tyler Perry’s Madea Goes to Jail

Friday, February 27th
-Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li

Friday, March 6th
-Watchmen

Friday, March 13th
-The Last House on the Left
-Miss March
-Race to Witch Mountain

Friday, March 20th
-Duplicity
-I Love You, Man
-Knowing

Friday, March 27th
-12 Rounds
-Adventureland
-Monsters vs. Aliens
-The Janky Promoters
-The Haunting in Connecticut

For more movie releases please visit comingsoon.net
Also for High Definition trailers of these movies and others check out yahoo

How to save at the movie theaters

Here is a short movie giving options for college and high school students to save some money
in the Hamden, CT area.

Here are directions to three movie theaters in the Hamden area:

Criterion Cinemas

Showcase Cinemas

Holiday Stadium 10 Cinemas

Superman beat by Kryptonite

Last night during the NBA All-star weekend in Phoenix, Nate Robinson of the New York Knicks beat Dwight Howard of the Orlando Magic in the highly anticipated Slam Dunk Contest. Howard won the Slam Dunk contest last year by using a vast repertoire of amazing dunks and by wearing a Superman custom that won over the crowd. This year it was Robinson who was able to come up with unique dunks and get the crowd on his side. The last couple of years the fans vote on who wins the contest and it is important to get the crowd excited.

Robinson did just that by being the Kryptonite to Howard’s Superman. Both men moved on to the final round by using some impressive but not amazing dunks. However they were able to win over the judges and were able to beat Rudy Fernandez from Portland and J.R. Smith from Denver. Robinson came out for the final round dressed in a green Knicks jersey, green socks and shoes, and wearing a wrist band that had kryptonite on it. The most impressive dunk of the night was when Robinson (5’8”) dunked over Howard (6’10”).

Robinson won by receiving 52% of the fan votes but he should have won by a lot more. Howard was only able to come up with one unique dunk that got the crowd into it. His other dunks were very similar to the dunks he made last year. This was too much of a popularity contest and it was good the Robinson won because he had the better dunks. The big news after the contest was that next year Cleveland’s Lebron James will be in the dunk contest. Here is a link to the story and video on ESPN.

Favre is retiring?

Brett Favre is retiring from football, again. Around this same time last year this whole scenario played out and ESPN beat to death, this story. They constantly brought in experts and ex-players to talk about Favre’s retiring. Then after a few short months Favre announced that he wanted to come back and play again. This caused all kinds of controversy and he was traded by the Green Bay Packers and to the New York Jets.
Now the whole process is starting over again. Favre is one of the greatest quarterbacks in the history of the NFL. He owns almost all of the passing records including; most wins by a quarterback, and most games played consecutively. Favre is addicted to the limelight and just when people stopped talking about football and consequently him, he decides to come out and say that he is retiring. His career is not over and whether its next year or the year after, Favre will return to the NFL.
Favre is 39 years old and has played 18 seasons after being drafted out of Southern Mississippi. Favre grew up in Mississippi and returns there every offseason. However if this is the last time Favre retires then he will end his career in green. It is not the green and yellow of the Packers but the green and white of the Jets. Here is a link to a highlight video of Brett Favre's career.

Movie Sequels

Throughout the history of film, movies that do extremely well at the box office, producers and directors feel the need to make sequels. Sometimes a movie needs a sequel like Lord of the Rings, the Harry Potter series, and Star Wars. However many times a sequel is unnecessary and the movie studios are banking on making money on the name of the movie. Most of the time movie sequels do not do as well as the original. Here is a list ranking the 25 worst sequels made.
It is very uncommon for a sequel to do better then the original. Movies like Dark Night, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and Terminator 2 did better then their originals but they are the exception. Most of the time the sequels ruin the integrity of the original. There are a couple sequels that are coming out this year including: Transformers 2, Night at the Museum 2, and Angles and Demons.

Movies on T.V.

One of the best ways to watch movies for free is by watching them on the television, especially on the weekend. Many channels like TBS, USA, Comedy Central, TNT, Lifetime, and AMC all have movies playing at different times throughout the week. This is a great way to watch movies that you would not necessarily pay to watch. The viewer has a wide range of movie options because there are numerous channels playing movies. Each channel has its own genre of movies that they will typically show:

TBS and Comedy Central both show comedies.
TNT and Lifetime both show lots of dramas.
USA shows action adventure movies.
AMC plays older movies especially westerns.
Sci-Fi show lots of made for T.V. movies as well as science fiction movies.

Whatever taste in movies that you might have, there is probably a channel that will show similar movies. Here is a link to movie lists, to help show you all the movies playing at that particular time. Most channels play movies repeatedly over a couple of days so that if you miss one showing, there will probably be another. Some channels like TBS and USA will play a couple movies throughout the weekend so there is a good chance to watch it.

However, there are a couple problems with watching movies on television. One, the movies are cut down to allow for commercials and to fit the allocated time frame. Two, the movies have to edited for content, so any dirty language is replaced and some scenes are alerted. Third, the movies will be interrupted by multiple commercial breaks throughout the movie. Lastly, the viewer can only watch the movie when it is listed and can not pause or rewind, unless the viewer has TiVo or a DVR.

Super Bowl Commercials

Every year the Super Bowl is one of the most watched sporting events in the United States and companies spend massive amounts of money on commercials. This year a commercial during the Super Bowl costs $3 million for 30 seconds of air time or about $100,000 per second. The networks can get away with charging so much per commercial because so many people tune in to watch the game. Audiences are not tuning in just for the game anymore. Many people are watching just for the commercials.
This should be a major concern with people in the business world because right now the economy is tanking. Thousands of people are losing their jobs and many people have lost a lot of money in the stock market. Yet, these companies are spending more for 30 seconds than most people earn in a lifetime. These costs do not include the cost of making the commercials which would add even more to the price for just one commercial for the Super Bowl.
Some companies like PepsiCo and Anheuser-Budweiser had more then one commercial and spent millions on commercials. These two companies spent $33 million and $27 million respectively. It is not a waste of money by any means because these companies make billions annually. However these companies should understand the economy and think about whether or not it is ethical to spend that kind of money on commercials.
One group of commercials that did extremely well was the movie trailers, showing upcoming releases. Nine movies had trailers during the Super Bowl and due to the fact that the trailers were so short (30 seconds) audiences were left wanting more. This was a great marketing ploy to get movie goers back into the theaters.
Some of these releases are big blockbuster movies that hope to do extremely well. Like “Transformers 2,” a sequel that hopes to follow in Dark Nights footsteps and make huge money at the box office. Will Ferrell has a new movie out called “Land of the Lost,” and “Star Trek” a remake of an extremely successful franchise. Also “GI Joe: Rise of the Cobra” also had a trailer during the game. While the Super Bowl draws millions of fans to watch the championship game, it has progressed into more than that. Audiences now tune in to watch not only the game but also the pre-game show, the commercials, and the halftime show. However some of these advertising companies need to realize that the economy is in trouble and it would be beneficial to more people if they would reduce the amount they spend on advertising.