Crazy Man Blog

Belfast Did you know that The Troubles were bad? Shocking, right ? Kenneth Branagh reaches back into his childhood to make a movie that you only anyone would had glanced at an article about growing up in Belfast during the late 60s could have made. This isn’t a bad movie, and from a technical standpoint it’s fairly competent, but it isn’t very original. My big problem is the use of black-and-white photography; i t doesn’t seem necessary. I’m not at all against modern filmmakers using black-and-white photography, but there needs to be some sort of reason beyond “it was the past.” You can light things so beautifully and really bring out the full range of values in a composition , but it seems like presenting this in color would’ve resulted in something with nearly the exact same feel. I’m also not sure sure why this movie opens and closes with skyline shots of modern Belfast. Is it to show that it was all worth it? Or just to clarify that tit wasn’t happening in modern day? Ther...

The Chronicles of Riddick My big memory of this was going to see it in theaters and being confused the entire time. My brother and one of his friends had come with me and they had both seen Pitch Black before this one (I hadn’t) so I thought they might have a better grasp on what was going on. They didn’t. This movie is far from perfect, but I can’t help but applaud a movie that decides to go in such a radically different direction than it’s establishing work . It’s like how Aliens was an action movie when Alien was just a horror movie. No wait, it’s like if Aliens was epic science fantasy detailing the world that the characters lived in with only passing references to the original movie sprinkled in (with the titular aliens never showing up) while Ripley fights off an intergalactic evil empire. I have to give credit where it’s due; the world that David Twohy ha s created is compelling and original, even if it doesn’t always stick the landing. It’s honestly disappointing...

  John Mulaney: Baby J This is probably John Mulaney’s best special, but I don’t think that’s saying much. It’s not that I don’t think John M ulaney isn’t a talented stand-up comedian, I just don’t think his work is for me. This is, by far, his most human-seeming out of all of his specials, but, again, that’s not really saying anything. It’s fine, even if there are a bit too many namedrops and a sub-par Al Pacino impression. It also doesn’t help that it has a theme song by David Byrne, who I hate. Todd Barry: Spicy Honey Todd Barry has been extremely good for forever, and this is no different. It also features one of the strangest crowdwork interactions I think I’ve ever seen. If I ever meet him, I’ll try to give him some free stuff. Pitch Black I watched this because The Chronicles of Riddick is on Netflix and I had to make sure I wouldn’t miss anything. Of course, the extent to which Pitch Black is related to Chronicles is nearly non-existent, so that’s not muc...

Ink Master Season 1 I don’t enjoy the fact that deep down in my core I love reality television. Ten tattoo artists compete for $100,000, the cover of something called Inked magazine, and the extremely dubious title of “Ink Master.” This is bestowed by two well-respected tattoo artists (one of which who was fired for extreme blackface (look up the pictures, it’s even more egregious than most of these instances are)) and Dave Navarro, who’s main qualification is that he has a lot of tattoos. No, seriously. A lot of people are invested in something that seems somewhat silly to me and they fight about it constantly. It’s what makes it so fun! That and the truly awful tattoos that are given out. Paul W.S. Anderson’s Resident Evil film series After playing 2 (two) Resident Evil game(s), I decided to jump headlong into the Resident Evil film franchise starring Milla Jovovich. I’d heard mixed things over the years. From some people, they are legendarily bad movies, and for others t...