MamaPop™

The Day the Earth Stood "Whoa!" : A DVD Review (sort of)

My Brother and I started doing "Zombie Movie Wednesdays" over the winter because we are both statistically unemployed and really we had nothing better to do and what? I'm not being defensive! You're being defensive, so shut up!. 

The trouble is, we ran out of zombie movies fast because there are really only so many, and already we were watching things like "Serpent and the Rainbow" which is only vaguely zombie-ish, and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" which has no zombies at all but does star Luke Perry, so Score! .We had to expand our criteria a little and what we came up with was it had to be a) A zombie movie, or b) Something Really Awful (Think anything recent with Jason Statham...) or c) It had to star Keanu Reeves because we both feel he is the most talented non-actor working in show business today, (Although you could make a strong case for Nic Cage.) 

This brings us to "The Day the Earth Stood Still".

For Her Sins on Big Love, Rhonda Is Forced into the Most Ridiculous Movie Ever

Here's a time when the various worlds in my pop culture universe collide and splash down into a bowl of fail, stirred with a spoon of shame, and seasoned with a heaping tablespoon of you've-got-to-be-fucking-kidding-me.

7 Things That Made Me Nothing But Happy In 2008

Yeah, I know it's not my normal "beat" but hey, everyone else around here is doing it.

And I may be a lawyer but I'm also as much as pop culture junkie as the next MamaPop writer.  So, after the jump, my picks for the things I loved in 2008.  And I will warn you, quite a few of these are very puffy pink heart girlie fluffy.  I work in child abuse, and sometimes, I just need some things in my life that do nothing but make me smile.

Non-Specific Top However-Many-Items-I-Can-Think-of List for 2008

Being asked to compile a best-of list always makes me happy that I have a blog, because I can never remember anything, not even pop culture that I've enjoyed in a 12-month period. But I have a "plop culture" category that I spent a few minutes perusing this morning and I said a lot of things like, "Oh, YEAH, that WAS awesome!"

Thomas Kincade's "The Christmas Cottage" & The Manifesto Of Suckitude

So you may have been operating under the comfortable assumption that Thomas Kinkade -- who is now officially America's most collected living artist, god help us all -- and his cheesetastic awfulness were neatly confined to the static world of painting. A fair presumption, but sadly you are faaaaar too optimistic, my friend. Indeed, it pains me to report that the "Painter of Light" [insert hideous retching sounds here] is no longer content to keep his trademark cornball snowy gingerbread house at dusk aesthetic in its place, where it can only hurt those shallow and insipid enough to consider Precious Moments figurines "art." Now Kinkade has moved into the realm of feature film, and yes, those were my screams of torment and anguish that you just heard.

My Netflix Queue Just Got Bigger (heehee)

I had one of those days this past weekend where I had some time to myself and a lot of un-fun tasks to avoid, so I started one of those wild journeys down the rabbit hole that is the internets.

Fellow Nerds Rejoice! It's the MST3K 20th Anniversary!

Y'all hold on to your butts, because I am about to nerd out on you HARDCORE.

Picture it. Minneapolis, 1988. Some guys who love bad movies make a bunch of puppets, sit down in silouette, and create what will be one of the greatest pop culture phenomenons of the last two decades.

I am speaking, of course, of Mystery Science Theater 3000, and put your letters to Santa away, because all your gift giving (and receiving) needs will be taken care of with the 4-disc 20th Anniversary Edition of MST3K.

Let's hop on the Satellite of Love and take a trip down memory lane, shall we?

Scary Movie Guide, Part I: The Beginning

As Halloween draws closer, the husband and I have been gorging ourselves on scary movies every weekend. I did a Scary Movie Guide last year and had so much fun with it, that I decided to revive it this year. See what horror awaits you....

I Praise You: Frisky Dingo

But you signed off on the proofs!

True story: I found season one of Frisky Dingo on DVD hanging out in my mailbox.

People love me.

You know people love you when they give you Frisky Dingo on DVD because Frisky Dingo on DVD is love. Especially if you don't have cable, and you're not in the 18-to-24 demo, and all you know of Cartoon Network or Adult Swim or what have you is their obnoxious marketing and how your kid watched Ed, Edd, n Eddy while on vacation in Port Aransas and subsequently lost some of his fine motor skills. You're not the target. Serendipitous mailbox delivery is probably your best hope.

That's why I'm here today to pass on the love. If I can get one MamaPop reader to watch this snarky little show about a musclebound supervillain trying to make it big, my life will have found its meaning. At least partially.

You will like it. Read on for why.

I Praise You: Darkon

Hail Laconia! Hail Tharros, betches!

I write to you in praise of Darkon, which I rented and returned overdue in my ongoing attempt to watch random movies at sporadic intervals and inform the public.

I remembered Darkon from South by Southwest 2006, when it won the audience award, probably because it has lots of artsy tilted verité battle sequences and broad-spectrum nerd appeal: it's not ironic, but it's detached enough from its milieu to be safe for indie kids; meanwhile, it's sincere enough to be meaningful to medieval fantasy wargamers, who are after all its topic. So of course I couldn't get over to see it, and I had to rent it last week, which puts me about two years behind everybody else as usual.

After the jump: Clash of the Nerds! Enchanted broccoli!

I Praise You: Steve Wiebe

I don't know how many of y'all betches are arcade game dorks*, but if you are, you've probably seen The King of Kong, and you know exactly what I'm going to say. Maybe you'll say it with me.

I love Steve Wiebe. Because of who he is, because of what he accomplishes, and because he's a totally perfect palate-cleanser for your blackhearted election-year, celeb-gossip cynicism. Netflix his movie, like, yesterday.

The Book Club with No Books: Dexter

 

So, Dexter.

Did you watch it?

I got so into it that other people have offered me their houses and their cable so I can stay current on this season. Other people’s cable is awesome! It gets me out of the house and gives me Showtime, and I don’t have to bend over for Time-Warner or suffer the bowdlerization of CBS.

But first we catch up. Shall we discuss, after the jump?

What We Watch

Watch me, betches.

Yesterday at MamaPop Command Central, we were passing the bonbons and cocktail shaker when the topic turned from Matthew McConaughey's hair to our favorite TV shows on DVD.

The consensus: We all like to skip the broadcast middleman and tuck into a series on DVD. The reasons are myriad.

• No commercials.
• The #(&@^ network cancelled the show.
• The writers are on strike. (Please, pay the writers for the DVDs.)
• I for one have no cable.
• We have no self-control and like to binge.
• We are special-features sluts.
• We got them for presents, and we like presents.

Team MamaPop DVD picks after the jump, organized alphabetically by betch for your indexing (and Netflixing, renting, or library-borrowing) pleasure. Let us know in comments if we're missing anything, or share your thoughts in the forums (your preference).

Obviously my robber(s) have no taste

Otherwise why would they clear me out of Spongebob Squarepants but leave two seasons of The Wire, three of Arrested Development, and Donnie Darko?

Not to mention my Canon S12 and my bass?

And my Ambien?

Mediocre Movies of 2007: A Field Guide

Remember this captivating moment from the $70 million "Next", starring Nicolas Cage as a Vegas magician (pardon, illusionist) who can see two minutes into the future? And he gets it on with Jessica Biel, eighteen years his junior and far less wrinkled?

I didn't think so.

Or "Shooter", with my man Mark Wahlberg in dramatic slow-motion walking scenes as a reclusive Marine sniper set up for a murder rap by a phlegmy Danny Glover?

No?

Neither is unabatedly horrible--"Next" has Julianne Moore and Peter Falk, "Shooter" has Rade Serbedzija as Dr. Strangelove and Ned Beatty as the president--but they were typical of the 33 movies I reviewed this year as a third-string crap critic: strenuously mediocre.

A retrospective, after the jump.

 

I Praise You: Birdman

Now that I have scooped People and Salon on sexy-men lists, I bring forth to you a different sort of man: Birdman.

Who?

Birdman. Doesn't anybody remember Birdman? I asked around at kindergarten pickup, which draws a pretty broad demo, and no one remembered Hanna-Barbera's caterwauling bird guy with powers from the sun or something, except some of the geekier elements recalled Harvey Birdman, Attorney-at-Law. Always in Space Ghost's shadow, Birdman is worth revisiting now for two reasons:

• We desperately need superhero variety. Two or three franchises are controlling the entire of middle childhood. And I just can't get much of the character from today's CGI villains. I can do hours of Morto the Marauder. I can't do much Venom.
• He's awesome, and thanks to the miracle of DVD, it's Saturday morning once more.

Two More Days Til Halloween! Halloween! Halloween! Silver Shamrock!

It's the most wonderful time of the year! It's almost Halloween! Now that the weather in this part of the world has finally started acting appropriately, it's much easier to get excited about the upcoming holiday, all things pumpkin (ie, pie, cookies, lattes), candy, costumes, fake blood, cider, and best of all...scary movies!