Thanks to Barack Obama, you’ve possibly had enough inspirational speeches for one year. But if not, go see Milk, and also watch this video, which splices together bits from 40 films including obvious choices like Independence Day, Patton, Braveheart, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and Animal House, as well as surprise additions like Newsies, Swingers and Galaxy Quest. The montage had me at the 7 second mark due to an appearance from Fozzie and friends (from The Great Muppet Caper), but it goes on longer than 2 minutes.
This is not just some compilation of cinema’s greatest inspirational speeches, though; it’s a well-edited stitching of words that come together as one long speech, the most perfect inspirational speech ever. Even Obama could learn a thing from this video from YouTube genius Matthew Belinkie (he also gave us “The Dark Bailout”), especially if the president-elect finds himself at the center of an alien invasion, a war with England or in a roomful of Muppets at the Happiness Hotel.
Check out “40 Inspirational Speeches in 2 Minutes” after the jump.
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Now that we know, courtesy of Stu at Defamer, that Werner Herzog’s remake of Abel Ferrara’s Bad Lieutenant is not so much a remake as it is like a new entry into a franchise, a la the James Bond movies, we at SpoutBlog wonder what other ’90s indie favorites could be continued with similar yet “completely different” installments.
I remember back in the day thinking that Clerks should be a franchise, each film focusing on a different crappy job experience, but now that Clerks II has come and gone, that idea will likely never be realized. Of course, the concept of sequels unrelated to the original aren’t new — just look at any sequel title substituting the number 2 (or II) with the word Too. But nevertheless, here’s a few suggestions for other crazy foreign auteurs to take into consideration:
- Kids - Looking back, Larry Clark’s then-shocking debut is pretty tame. Nowadays you see teens doing worse things on commercial television. So, how about someone makes another Kids movie every decade or so to expose us to the latest generation of teenagers and how appallingly different they are from the previous generation. It would be like Apted’s Up documentaries, except it wouldn’t follow the same people.
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I have been making the case for Doug Liman for years now. I’d even recently given up the claim that I completely despise Swingers (it’s mostly the neo-swing soundtrack I hate). I constantly argued that his The Bourne Identity was better than Greengrass’ The Bourne Supremacy — in the end Greengrass’ The Bourne Ultimatum turned out ultimately the best — and still continue promoting the genius of Mr. and Mrs. Smith (I watched it with a newbie just the other night, and that person was convinced). But now, I am on the fence about Jumper, which I haven’t yet seen and which arrived in theaters today. I can’t decide whether to bother seeing it.
The movie certainly looks stupid. I’ll admit it. Yet this is where my Liman defending came about in the past year, especially recently, as its release got closer. Every time the trailer or TV ad came on the screen, someone would turn to me and say it looks really stupid. Or I would overhear a similar statement coming from the mouths of strangers. Oh, it has to be better than it looks, I would say. It’s Doug Liman, a great action director who tackles seemingly stupid movies. But now the reviews are out. It has an 18% critical rating on Rotten Tomatoes. I can’t find one trustworthy critic who offers good enough reason to see it.
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Alison at the IFC Blog points to the 50th and apparently final episode of Dinner For Five, which premieres on IFC Friday night, but which you can watch online via Brightcove now. According to this press release, it’s basically a promo for a soon-to-be-released film documenting Vince Vaughn’s Wild West Comedy Show, but in practice, it doesn’t feel that shilly.
The show has always had a boy’s club romanticism to it that can either be fantastic or unbearable, depending on the assortment of guests, but this last episode is interesting if only because it draws attention to the entire series as a work of Jon Favreau/Vince Vaughn autobiography.
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