First off, once again we are safe and back at home. The fires got pretty close to our apartments, but didn't reach them. Some of campus got pretty burned, but no buildings were destroyed, save for a small structure which housed pool equipment. you can see some photos of campus here.

Jeri's work did burn down completely (as seen above) but they have already found a location to have the pre-school temporarily. So they should be back up and running in about 2 weeks. And thanks to amazing Insurance they may be able to get portables on the old site and return there in the close future.

In other good news, the Amazing Pushing Daises has been picked up for a full season! This is the best new show of the season, and continues to be both strangely beautiful and amazingly quirky. thank goodness people are watching!

Also in Great News the horrendous Viva Laughlin was canceled. I watched the pilot and this show had some of the worst acting, writing, singing, pretty much everything I'd seen in a long time. It was worse than words can describe. I was a bit sad, because I love Hugh Jackman, but man it needed to go.
The worst part may be that the title of "Musical" placed on the show was completely false. There were only 4 songs in the hour long pilot, and it was just characters singing over established songs, such as Elvis's Viva Las Vegas, the lead sang with Elvis in the background. And in Hugh Jackman's one song, I could barely hear him over the voice of the original singer.
To sum up, the show was horrible, the singing was bizarre and not well done, the acting was crap, and the writing wasn't even off-off-off-broadway one-man show quality.
Here's how fast this show went:
Thursday: Pilot Airs
Sunday: 2nd Episode Airs in it's regular time slot
Monday: The show was yanked and will be replaced with reruns of CSI until The Amazing Race Returns.
Hows that for being tossed to the curb, gone in less than 5 days. Amazing.

That's all for now, keep praying they will get the fires completely under control, and that no one else will be hurt or killed.

Labels: fires, safe, TV

Updated: Malibu Pres has burned, so we don't know what will happen with Jeri's job and the pre-school. There was a guinea pig in the church that we think didn't get out, but the rabbit was gone, and a few of the people who worked for the church did get in and get all of the important documents for the church and the pre-school, so thank goodness for that.

There is also a castle that looks over Malibu, which is a complete loss, it was someone's home. There are a few other buildings burning, but it's all away from us, so we are good. Just keep praying for all the people losing their homes and that everyone continues to be safe.

Original Post:
There is a fire in Malibu all around Pepperdine. We were evacuated, we got some of our stuff and are safe at our friend Allison's house. There are currently no flames on campus, and they keep all the buildings wet if the fire starts to come, so our stuff should be fine, although a little smoky.

It appears that Malibu Presbyterian Church has completely burned down, so we don't know where they will move the Pre-School, but as far as we know no one was at the church. It doesn't seem that anyone has been injured, so just pray that no one gets hurt or killed, and that no other buildings burn.

Again, we are safe and will try to keep you posted.

Just got home from seeing 30 Days of Night. It's was everything I want in a horror movie, fun, scary, scenes that make you jump, and just enough gore without moving into that dreaded "torture porn" genre.
More later, now I'm going to sleep.

Labels: 30 Days of Night, Review

Here at The CineManiac we are going through some much needed renovations. As you can see we've got a new look and a new logo. (Thanks to my good friend Jonathan Grubbs for making the Super Sweet Logo!)
And just so you don't get confused, we've moved the "Comments" button to just below the title, instead of the bottom of the post.

There will also be some content changes as I'm hoping to get some exclusive interviews in the near future for all your media enjoyment.

Let me know what you think of the new look and the new logo.

Labels: Logo, Renovations

As I said last time, watching the movie House turned me off from scary things for quite some time. But not too long, for a little over a year later another, far scary work would come along and scar me for life.

On November 18, 1990 the television miniseries "It" began broadcasting. Since I was only 9 at the time my parents, wisely, forbade me from seeing it. But alas I found away to see some of it, at someone else's house. I didn't see too much, because it scared me so bad. But I remember seeing the very beginning with the clown down the storm drain that pulls the little boy to his death. And I remember a scene with an old crazy lady. I'm pretty sure I saw other bits and pieces over the nights it was aired, but all I really remember is that clown.
Played by Tim Curry, Pennywise the Clown took something fun, clowns, and turned them into a demonic nightmare. This seemingly normal clown would quickly turn into this monster. From it's frightening smile full of sharp teeth, to it's horrific eyes, it's an image that struck a cord in me, that mad me hate clowns for life.
I say Hate because I'm not really scared of clowns. Sure at first it made me scared of clowns, but more than that it made me just want to bunch them in the face, a feeling I still get to this day. I abhor clowns, and think they are a truly awful plight on the human race. (I do have to admit, this may also stem from the fact that around this same time Jams were hugely popular and my mother, sewed some for me, made of a material covered in clowns, and I'm pretty sure I had to wear these to school. (I still love you Mom!) But I think Pennywise was a big part of it too)
House and It were very significant in steering me away from horror for a while, at least as far as movies go. After these the next thing I remember is the first time I saw "A Nightmare on Elm Street." As I recall I was in middle school (around 12 or 13) and staying home alone for the night. As my parents left I told them of my plans to watch Nightmare, to which they responded "Are you sure?" and I of course being 12 or 13 said "Yeah, I'll be fine." And I was, at first.
I enjoyed the movie and thought it was pretty scary, but nothing too bad, nothing that I thought would disturb me after it ended. But then I went to bed, and that's when the trouble started. you see Freddy Kruger, the killer in the movie, invades your dreams and kills you. So unlike most killers, which you can climb into bed and get away from, getting into bed and going to sleep is what triggers Freddy. He comes in your dreams and kills you and terrorizes you in your sleep, and if you try not to sleep he confuses you by making you think you're awake when you're really sleeping. And that seemed to disturb me. So for a few nights I had some nightmares until i finally got over Freddy, but once again I kind of stayed away from Horror for awhile..

Coming Up: Part 3: "Here Comes The King!"

Labels: Halloween, Retrospect

As the cast of J.J Abrams' 2008 Star Trek Relaunch comes together I thought I list the newcomers and their original counterparts to see how they compare to each other.

Spock: The first parts cast, yes I said parts: plural, as both Zachary Quinto the original Spock, Leonard Nimoy will be playing the pointy-eared one.


Uhura: Center Stage's Zoe Saldana takes over the role originated by Nichelle Nichols, who can currently be seen on Heroes.



Chekov: The hugely talented, yet relatively unknown, Anton Yelchin will be channeling Walter Koenig.



Scotty: One of my favorite British Actors, Simon Pegg, (star of the hilarious films Hot Fuzz & Shaun of the Dead) is taking over the beloved part of Montgomery 'Scotty' Scott, originally played by the late James Doohan, who was actually Canadian!


Sulu: The Korean born John Cho will be taking over the role from California Native (Who knew?) George Takei, who can also currently be seen on Heroes, although from this point it will have to be in flashbacks.



McCoy: It's just been announced that Karl Urban of The Lord of the Rings Trilogy and The Bourne Supremacy has been cast in the late DeForest Kelley's old role. It's kind of a strange way to go as so far he's been in mostly action movies, so we'll see how he does playing the laid back doctor. (I'll add a picture of Urban in a bit since blogger is currently not letting me.)


UPDATED: Captain James T. Kirk: Chris Pine signed on for the coveted role that William Shatner brought to life. Also of note, apparently the Kirk role is a small one, and Pine dropped out of a major role in another movie, probably for the hopes that a small role in this movie will turn into a big role down the line.


What do you think about their casting choices? Are you excited for the movie or do you wish Trek would just all go away?

Labels: Casting, Star Trek

Oh October, how I love you so! You have my favorite Holiday of the year, and I don't mean Columbus Day. I'm speaking of course of Halloween. The holiday when the ghosts and ghouls come out of hiding and the scares happen all month long. The month when most studios release their horror movies and supernatural thrillers. The month when I curl up to watch things that will likely cause me to look over my shoulder constantly, and check every nook and cranny before going to bed.

I've loved the horror genre (which to me encompasses ghosts, monsters, supernatural thrillers, etc.) for as long as I can remember. As a kid I was enthralled by the books on all of the Universal Monsters, the My Teacher is an Alien series, and the Bruce Coville's Book of Monsters series.

Several of my favorite movies as a kid centered on the supernatural. At any moment I could have quoted to you my two favorite movies: GhostBusters and The Monster Squad! Ghostbusters was a perfect blend of humor and a few scenes that scared the bejeezus out of me, mainly with the demon dogs (or hell hounds), but it was enough to keep me on the edge of my seat, while having fun. Meanwhile, The Monster Squad was just some all around fun. It wasn't really scary but it had all of the Universal Monsters (even if they were slightly different to avoid copyright) and a band of kids teaming up to fight them (basically Goonies with monsters) and my friend Jesse and I would watch it all the time.

Next came two Disney Sunday Night Movies: Mr. Boogedy and it's sequel The Bride of Boogedy The movies centered on a family who move into a haunted house, and hilarity and creepiness ensue. It was slightly scary to my 6 and 7 year old self and I loved it.. In fact my Aunt and Uncle had recorded it on video and for years I would watch it every time I went to their house. (In fact I know have a copy on DVD which looks like it was transfered from a video from the original airings in the mid-80s, I still love it!)

But then I turned 8 and something happened that turned me off of horror for a while. My brother and I are 4 years apart, but our birthdays are 2 days apart. For my brother's 12th birthday he had a bunch of friends stay the night and they watched House. For those of you who don't know House starred the Greatest American Hero himself, William Katt, as an author who moves into a new house, which is haunted. I could give you the synopsis of IMDB, but instead I'll tell you what I remember. William moves into the new house and it starts to scare the living pants off of me! One of the ghosts was played by Richard Moll, I think he had something to do with Vietnam flashbacks, but honestly don't remember, and something comes out of the closet which I'm pretty sure made me cry.
All in all I couldn't sleep in my bed that night, and I had to check my closet before I went to bed everynight and then I had to sleep with the closet open and the lights on. I know this went on for several months before I could finally close the closet door. I'll be honest I haven't seen the movie since then, I've seen bits and pieces, but I always turned it off because part of me is scared of even seeing it. (Strange Fact I just found out: House's story was written by the writer/director of The Monster Squad!) (I did however see House II, several times in fact. My Aunt and Uncle also owned House and House II. Whereas House scared the bejeezus out of me, House II was a hilarious romp, with no scares in sight. I mean it had a caterpuppy for crying out loud! (That's a half caterpillar half dog thing.))
Because of House it would be a while before I watched anything remotely scary.

Next Up: Clowns. Why Did It Have To Be Clowns?

Labels: Halloween, Retrospect

And not just here. My recent review of Forgetting Sarah Marshall is also up Here at Aint It Cool News.

So unless you're here for the first time you might know that I think Kristen Bell is one of the best actors of my generation. Last night I was lucky enough to catch a very early sneak preview of her upcoming film Forgetting Sarah Marshall. And by very early, I mean it's not coming out until next May. Which means it could be a fairly different movie by the time it comes out, but since I say Knocked Up about this long before the movie released, and with the exception of a few small snippets of dialogue it was the same film.

I've been excited about seeing this film for some time because not only am I a fan of Kristen Bell, but it was produced by Judd Apatow, the creator of both Knocked Up and The Forty Year-Old Virgin, two of the funniest movies of the last few years. While both are full of raunch they are also full of heart, so I was anticipating another film that fits in that category.
But possibly the most exciting part of the movie is that it was written by and stars Jason Segel, who has been in two of the most loved series in the CineManiac household, Freaks & Geeks and How I Met Your Mother. So it was with this anticipation that I went into the movie last night.

Jason Segel plays Peter Bretter, a struggling musician who creates the music for the hit TV show, Crime Scene: Scene of the Crime. Peter's girlfriend the titular Sarah Marshall is the shows star, and her star is rising because of it. The movie starts with "The Break-up Scene" as Sarah dumps Peter, telling him there's another guy. The scene plays out in a way that I don't think has been attempted before, so I don't want to ruin it, I'll just say it's funny. Devastated Peter tries to go on with his life, but quickly spirals into a depression he can't get out of. So on the insistence of his Step-Brother, Brian (Bill Hader) Peter decides to take a trip to get away from it all.

Peter winds up at an amazing resort in Hawaii, only to discover that his Ex, Sarah, is there with her new boyfriend/other guy, Brit Rocker Aldous Snow (Russell Brand). It quickly becomes clear that getting over Sarah is going to be much harder than he thought. As both decide to stay at the resort, they keep running into each other, At dinner Peter, seated alone, is given "the best table in the house" because it's facing Aldous and Sarah, the next morning non-flexible Peter runs into the duo at a Yoga class, where he tries to keep up, and being an island they can't get away from each other.

Luckily for Peter, he meets a girl, Rachel, the resort's Customer Service lady played wonderfully by That 70s Show's Mila Kunis. What starts as a simple flirtation quickly (very quickly) turns into a relationship over Peter's 4 days at the Resort. While somewhat fast based, the relationship does seem fairly realistic.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the fantastic supporting cast. Jonah Hill plays a resort employee whose clearly obsessed with Aldous Snow, to the extent of baking him a cake. Paul Rudd is fantastic, as always, as the local Surfing Instructor with an awful memory. SNL's Kristen Wiig steals the show in her small scene as a Yoga instructor, who fawns over Aldous and Sarah and gives Peter a hard time.
But possibly the best of the supporting cast is 30 Rock's Jack McBrayer as one half of a Mormon newlywed couple, who's having trouble in the bedroom. McBrayer's scenes are hilarious and he constantly made me laugh.

If there was any disclaimers about the movie it's the amount of sex. There are several sex scenes, each of which are played for laughs, which could turn some people off. The scenes are done in a way that there's no actual nudity, but instead implied nudity.

The cut we saw, while having some raunchy material, is definitely the cleanest of the Apatow movies so far. The other difference is that this film does not throw out a joke a second. This doesn't mean it's not funny, to the contrary I laughed as much in these as I did at Super Bad or Knocked Up. It's just a different beast altogether, and I don't think it should be compared to those, although I'm sure it will be.

Labels: Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Jason Segel, Kristen Bell, sneak peek

Who says the Western is Dead? Cause I'm here to tell you, they're wrong, it was just taking a break for a while. This past month saw the release of two hotly anticipated Westerns, one I've seen, the other I can't wait to see. This first is '3:10 to Yuma', the second is the long windedly titled 'The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford' While I haven't seen the second one yet, my friend Jon has and he's written a review to accompany my review of 3:10.

3:10 to Yuma
I'll be the first to admit, I haven't always been a fan of Westerns. In fact other than 'Tombstone', I was never really a fan. But earlier this year I sat down to watch 'The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly' and 'The Magnificent Seven' and I was hooked. I also recently watched most of 'The Searchers' with a friend and realized it was a really great film. So it was with baited breath that I anticipated the release of '3:10 to Yuma' a remake of the 1957 film starring Glenn Ford. The film appealed to me for a number of reasons.
First, it stars one of the greatest actors around today, Christian Bale. Second, it was the first real Western I've been aware of since I fell for the genre. Add in Russel Crowe (a fine actor, even if he is a louse in real life), Alan Tudyk (A wonderful character actor), and Ben Foster (Another actor that I'm convinced is one of the best around) and you had the makings of a fine looking film.
Happily I can report I was not disappointed. 3:10 to Yuma is one of the best films I've seen all year. (And if you look in the column to the left you'll see that's quite a feat) Director James Mangold (Walk the Line) does a wonderful job bringing the feel of the old west to the big screen. The shots of various terrain, untouched by the modern world, are beautiful and it's in sharp contract to the violence that play out on screen.
The film opens on Dan Evans (Bale) a down on his luck farm hand, injured in the civil war, as his barn is burned down because he owes money on the land. His son clearly loathes him for his apparent weakness, and for not going after then men who have set the barn on fire. The next morning Dan and his sons head to town and on their way run into the ruthless outlaw, Ben Wade (Crowe) who's just robbed the Armored Stage Coast carrying the railroad's payroll. Wade allows Evans and his sons to go on their way, after taking their horses to make sure they can't follow him.
By the time Evans makes it to town Wade's men have left, but Wade is busy being 'entertained' by the local female, barkeep. Once it's obvious Wade is in town, the Sheriff and his men surround the hotel and as Evans distracts him, arrest Wade.
Now the movie heads into the meat of the film. Wade and his gang half stolen several hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Railroad and the railroad means to see him hang.
So the railroad offers to pay any man who will help transport Wade to Bisbee, Arizona to catch the 3:10 train to Yuma, where he will be tried and hung. (As a lawyer I must say it's funny that he'll be tried and hung, since that makes it seem like the trial is a mockery, but I digress) Evans needs the money so he quickly volunteers to go along.
Quickly Wade's gang realizes he's been captured and make it a point to try and free him. The scenes with the gang are amazing, thanks mostly to the aforementioned Foster, as Charlie Prince, Wade's somewhat psychotic right hand man, who will stop at nothing to get back his boss.
Evans, Wade, and the others who are transporting Wade make a stop back at Evans farm in order to trick Wade's gang into following a stage with another man in it. While waiting to leave from Evan's Wade makes advances on Evans wife, which seem to be somewhat excepted, as all of his family seems to have accepted that he's lame, not only because of his leg, but as a man. Evan's eldest son, William (Logan Lerman), takes a liking to Wade and sees him as more of a man than his father, and someone to look up to. Because of this William wants to accompany the men on their transportation, but Evans tell him no.
The group, consisting of McElroy, the only living guard of the robbed stagecoach, Tucker, the deputy, and Doc Potter (Tudyk), the town's veterinarian, takes off to Bisbee. Following close behind is William who leaves his home in the middle of the night in order to follow Wade. Quickly things go bad, as Wade throws McElroy over a cliff and turns the guns on the men forcing them to surrender, before William shows up to save the day.
It would be a shame to tell all of what happens over the course of their journey, but there are several fights and Evans and Wade slowly forge a bond.
The movie all builds until they get to Bisbee, and Evans must get Wade across town to the train station, without being killed by Wade's men who have infiltrated the town, and bought the sway of some of the townsfolk. Evan's is now alone except for his son, for several reasons, and realizes that he's the only one left who can do what's right. The mad dash from one end of town to the other is amazingly shot, and is one of the best action sequences I've seen in quite some time.
The movie really comes down to the love between a father and his son, and making sure to teach them to do the right thing, even if it's the hardest thing you have to do. The ending comes as a bit of a shock, and I would be lying if I said I immediately understood what was happening, but upon reflection it's a great ending.
All in all it's not only a great Western, but a magnificent film which receives my Highest Recommendation. Gosee it now, while it's still in theaters and can be seen the way it was meant to be.

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
By Jonathan Grubbs

Some films pepper your mind with flying bullets, numbing action, and crudely drawn characters that have little more appeal than burnt grilled cheese. Some films, however, stay with you and chew on the cogs of your mind for a good while after the lights come up.

I've always hated Westerns. Strike that; hated is too harsh. I've been disinterested in Westerns until very recently. I've tried many of them, starting with classics to make sure I wouldn't be let down. I watched The Searchers, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Unforgiven, and many of the Eastwood-Morricone laden spaghetti westerns, but none seemed to resonate with me. This always bothered me. How could something so quintessentially American and loved by boys since before the baby boom not appeal to me? My distaste for the Western world began to change with the arrival of Deadwood. Here was a western that showed you how truly hard and awful life in the Frontier years must have been. Dirty, angry, and vice-filled.

The Assassination Of Jesse James By the Coward Robert Ford (TAOJJBTCRF), cut from the same mold but wholly its own beast, has now cemented me a lover of the new Western that focuses on character interaction more than gun slinging do-gooders with a score to settle. TAOJJBTCRF works so well partly because it is based in fact so the actors bring a sort of holy reverence to the source material of both real life events and the novel by Ron Hansen. In fact, whole swaths of the novel are used as narration for the film, and it works because of the sheer poetry of Hansen's prose. I was also amazed at how expertly director Andrew Dominik was able to draw extreme suspense in long take scenes that in any other film would seem tedious and overbearing. But Dominik lets the action happen as is, and the film is all the stronger for it. One of my favorite shots of the film is a long one-take sequence of a troubadour traipsing through a saloon singing a song about the cowardly act of killing Jesse James. At the end of the shot the camera rests on a tortured Robert Ford drinking at the bar while having to listen while his reputation is besmirched. It's gorgeously composed and shows the power of well-composed and well-timed shots in cinema. Watch also for an amazingly tense sequence involving gunplay in the confines of a small bedroom in a Missouri farm house that shows just how terrible six-guns are at close range.

The dramatic irony of the title is also what makes the film work so well. Because you know the end is coming for James, you pay close attention to the details in the disintegration of the James Gang, Robert Ford's strange sycophancy and Jesse James slow descent into paranoia. Everyone is cast brilliantly, but most especially Casey Affleck who proves his acting talent is the full course meal to his older brother's chunk of ham. While 3:10 to Yuma is the more commercial of the two Westerns out now, TAOJJBTCRF is by far the better experience for the power of film.

Throw in gorgeous natural light and squished lens cinematography by Roger Deakins, and a haunting score by Nick Cave, and you've got a wonderful film tinged with hints of Malick standing on its own as an elegy for and admonition of the outlaw life.

Labels: 3:10 to Yuma, Guest Review, reviews, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford