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Stolen from Celebhijad.com

The catchiest tune you'll hear all day, and the lyrics are right out of the pop culture shows that we here at Cuppacafe embrace and cherish

Here's The Golden Age of Video by Ricardo Autobahn

[YouTube]

via Neatorama

Click to see the lyrics »

History enjoys repeating itself. When helped along by industry types, news media shows will go down faster than Lindsey Lohan on a cocaine covered mirror:

31 years ago, in 1978, the television program 60 Minutes put on an episode about the awful threat of "video piracy" to the movie industry. Featuring the MPAA's Jack Valenti, the episode focused on how the VCR was going to destroy the movie business because anyone could copy and watch a movie in the privacy of their own home.

I wonder how that VCR piracy allegations and... er, stuff... worked out for the movie industry. Oh yeah. I remember now. They came out okay. Ah, good times. It sometimes takes a while for the silliness of dire predictions to be shown to be mostly worthless, but hey, they have commercials to show you, and they have to fill the time with hard hitting journalistic... crap.

Not learning their lesson, 60 Minutes went out and did it again.

If you missed last Sunday's 60 Minutes episode about video piracy, it was a hoot.

Apparently, if you don't go to the movie theater, you're supporting the Mexican drug cartel. And here I was thinking I was supporting the Midwest Popcorn Cartel. Silly me...

There's a nice piece at Techdirt pointing out the funny falsehoods that are peddled and while you should read the whole thing at the link, here's a tidbit:

The report opens with the claim that counterfeit movies is where organized crime is making its money these days. Fascinating. Except they don't show any proof whatsoever that organized crime has anything to do with movie piracy at all. They just claim it, talk about Mexican gangs, and then assume it must be true. But, of course, most of the report actually focuses on the internet and file sharing of movies -- which completely goes against the claim that organized crime is "making its money" off of video piracy. After all, reports have shown that online file sharing has actually been putting DVD counterfeiters out of business. You would think that the "journalists" at 60 Minutes might have noticed this contradiction.

But I like this one the best, from famous director Steven Soderbergh:

Most of the rest of the program is Soderbergh making a bunch of totally unsubstantiated statements, such as saying that no one would make The Matrix today. Why? No explanation. It's just that Sodergbergh says.

Yeah. You pretty much have to watch the show episode to do a true "WTF?" when that part spews forth.

Just a reminder that Netflix and Redbox might be forced to delay getting newly released movies so the movie folks can sell more DVDs for those not wanting to wait the (30? days?) of the delay forced on them by the movie studios.

Yeah, good luck stopping that piracy thing.

Tip of the hat to Monday's XKCD comic that charts the character groupings of 5 movies.

The first one is inspired.

The second is cute.

The third is funny.

The fourth and fifth are droll.
But that's okay, because before you get that far, you've already shaken your head in appreciation for the work on the first three.

It's a 2 Meg image, and it's got a lot of pixels. Which means it takes up more room than you can fit on one monitor. Deal.
The small version won't do it justice. Below's a link just to the large version of this.
Yes, it's a visual, no I'm not going to tell you. That's why I'm giving you the link, silly.

XKCD.com/657/large

What movies would you like diagrammed in this fashion?

John Hughes, here's a little "Teenage Wasteland" and a few inspired edits of your movies to see you off this mortal coil

YouTube link

From the graphic novel, here's the trailer for SURROGATES

SURROGATES trailer in HD

Terminating the Terminator

Do you remember how you felt after watching the last of the Indiana Jones' movies? Like they raped the characters just to make a buck, leaving you with a movie that you didn't care about?

Most of the reviews coming in from early screens of Terminator Salvation are panning the flick, saying that (here's one of the kinder reviews

The Terminator franchise was built on thrills, imagination, narrative, emotion, believability, character development and watchability. Terminator Salvation has plenty of thrills.

Tarantino's Inglorius Basterds reviewed after premiering at Cannes. Folks, this one is a pass.

[...The] film lacks not only tension but those juicy sequences where
 actors deliver lines loaded with subtext and characters drip menace with icy
 wit. Tarantino never finds a way to introduce his vivid sense of pulp 
fiction within the context of a war movie. He is not kidding B-movies as he
 was with "Grindhouse" nor riffing on cinema as with "Pulp Fiction" and the
 "Kill Bill" films.


Tarantino has been quoted as saying of "Inglourious Basterds," "This ain't
your daddy's World War II movie." In fact, it pretty much is. His
 scalp-hunters are any Dirty Dozen on a mission, the bread and butter of war
 movies. The Hollywood Reporter

Every so often a little movie makes a huge splash.

Unfortunately, this is not one of those movies.

This movie trailer looks like it's promoting an after school special -- until the bit about the drugs and the guns and the dog urine comes pouring out.

This is one of those "What would happen if we rebooted Encyclopedia Brown and crossed it with Napoleon Dynomite?"

NSFW trailer (language) after the break

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There's a movie about a special cat.

The movie is apparently the darling of the Cannes film festival.

Here's a preview:

No, there isn’t anything that weird (or unsafe) about this post. It is just my coy way of telling you all that I’ve been to the movies again and I want to wax eloquent about it here in this space.

This time out we are going to talk about Hancock and Wall*E. So if you are up for spending a couple of hours in the dark, then you’ll want to spend some time watching both of these films. The first is an adult (stereocomic) take on superheroes while the second is the latest outing from the folks at Pixar (the folks who gave us The Incredibles).

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Years and Years ago, I wrote a film column for a local publication. The column was titled From the Shadow of the 14th Row (which, by-the-by) is the title of a song by Styx). While I still write a film column (that shows up in both print, as well as a couple of places on the Web) I no longer use that title. Anywho, I saw a couple of films last night with my son, and here is what I thought of them. (If you wait a couple of days and visit my column, Suspension of Belief, you’ll be sure to find them there — one day eventually, I’ll probably wind up having all my web content posted in one place, but for now it is where it is).

Continue on for mini reviews of You Don’t Mess with the Zohan and Wanted:

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