Tag Archives: GrabBag

Apr 18 2014
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GrabBag – A 3 Minute Film History Lesson, plus Clint Eastwood takes on the “Jersey Boys”

ANNOUNCEMENT: For those paying attention, GrabBag has been a regular Friday feature here at The Screen Life. While it’s not going away, it’s going to be a little less regular for a bit. I could tell you that this is because news has been a little slower recently, but truth is actually more personal. With a number of major life-changing events happening over the next few months (wedding, moving, career change, etc.), the demands on your humble author have skyrocketed.

Don’t worry I won’t abandon this blog! I’m just cutting back on the number of GrabBags. That said, I do have a limited one for you today: a montage and two trailers…

  • The entire history of film in under 3 minutes.
  • If you were to list probable directors to helm the film version Broadway musical smash hit Jersey Boys, about Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, I doubt Clint Eastwood would be near the top of that list. Nevertheless, with his name adding an established pedigree to such a popular material, this is probably one to keep in mind, come awards season.
  • The Rover will star a very rough-looking Guy Pearce and Robert Pattinson in the Australian outback. Directed by David Michod, who directed Jackie Weaver to an unexpected Oscar nomination a few years ago in Animal Kingdom.
  • The film’s marketing team also released a couple stills and posters…

TheRover_Gun _ROV7508.nef TheRover_Pearce TheRover_Pattinson

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Apr 11 2014
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GrabBag – Game of Thrones and Animal Interpretations

It’s Friday, Friday!! I’ll spare you the Rebecca Black song. Instead here’s another GrabBag full of internet goodies.

  • This budgie has learned to speak R2D2-ese.
  • I wish I had a Mario Cat.
  • Speaking of Game of Thrones (no spoilers), last Sunday’s Season 4 premier has inspired a couple of awesome mashups. Here’s one with Kick-Ass…

GoT Kick-Ass

…and with the new Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

 

winters-coming-detail_47202_cached_thumb_-928107ac47da4bc345a3edd84ac43cf3

 

  • And of course, I know I already posted it – in fact it was the ONLY thing I posted during a slow week – but I can’t post all this Game of Thrones stuff without revisiting Game of Goats.

 

  • Finally (and moving on from GoT), the New York Film Academy has created another infographic, this time on black inequality in film. (AwardsDaily)

african-american-inforgraphic9ffont-nick

 

That was a long one! Well, that’s all for today. Thanks for reading, and check back next Friday for another GrabBag!

 

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Mar 21 2014
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GrabBag – The Positive Effect of YouTube; also… Game of Thrones Movies?

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Yet another Friday, yet another GrabBag…

  • …And yet another “Let It Go” cover, this one with impressions of various Disney and Pixar characters…
  • Every now and again, it’s nice to be reminded that YouTube can be a very useful and valuable resource for people who actually really need it. This street musician was filmed by a YouTuber, who made ad revenue from the video. In return, he not only gave the revenue back to the musician, but helped him set up and use his own account so he can continue to make revenue.
  • The Cleveland Cavaliers take some technology from the Sochi Olympics ceremony and turns their court into a screen with some pretty impressive graphics.
  • And finally, well… there’s really nothing that needs to be said about this one. Just bask in the glory…
avengers cats

Source: Imgur

That’s all for today. Have a great weekend!

(GrabBag is a weekly column published every Friday.)

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Mar 14 2014
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GrabBag – Marvel, DC Nab Same Release Date; also, Potential Star Wars Casting

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Another week, another GrabBag full of screen-related flotsam. Let’s get right to it, shall we?

  • Famous People in Fiction is a 2-part series of pictures comparing historical figures to their more well-known movie incarnations. Something about that title doesn’t seem exactly right to me, but no matter. It’s fun to see all various actors that played the same roles lined up side-by-side. Part 1. Part 2.
  • It’s a long way off but apparently DC and Marvel are battling over my 35th birthday (May 6, 2016) for major tent-pole film releases. Marvel has held that date for a while for an as-yet-unnamed film (probably Captain America 3). Meanwhile DC just pushed the new Superman/Batman back to that very same date. There’s still plenty of time for one of the studios to back down, but if neither does it may be an interesting experiment to challenge the old standard “one movie per demographic per weekend” model. That, and I’m likely to have an awesome birthday weekend!
  • Speaking of tent-pole blockbusters, Variety gets a look at some of the actors being considered for the new Star Wars movie.
  • The theater projection instructions for Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel are a fun read. (Click the image to see a full-screen version. Sorry about the blurry quality.)

GBH projection inst

  • And finally, T Bone Burnett’s music for True Detective was truly inspired. Listen to the song from the end of the finale …

That’s all for this week. Tune in next Friday for a new GrabBag!

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Mar 07 2014
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GrabBag – The Twitter Conference Call

The Oscars are over. They’ve been analyzed, re-analyzed, interpreted, and meme-ified. It’s time for a final wave goodbye in our rearview mirror. Today’s GrabBag has just a few last Oscar-related videos, and then moves on. What will we do with our time now?

  • The Impression Guys’ Academy Awards Special. Damn these guys are good!
  • Here’s a montage of every Academy Award Best Picture winner since Wings.
  • Apparently Captain Phillips’ Barkhad Abdi is broke. Here’s hoping his Oscar nomination (and BAFTA win) means more amazing roles to change that.
  • And of course, it seems I can’t have a GrabBag lately without another version of “Let It Go.” This time Idina Menzel joins Jimmy Fallon and The Roots on kids’ classroom instruments for a seriously awesome rendition.

Dane DeHaan as James Dean

  • Nicole Kidman plays actress-turned-Princess Grace Kelly in the new trailer for Grace of Monaco.
  • I’ll be the first to admit, I’m not very active on Twitter. I just haven’t found a lot of uses for it, personally, aside from sharing my blog posts. But it does have its purposes…

twitter conference call 1

twitter conference call 2

twitter conference call 3

  • Finally… It’s not at all “screen” related, but my beautiful fiancé defends her PhD dissertation this afternoon, and by tonight it’ll be official. Everybody wish her luck!!!

zoidberg - rich doctor

That’s it for today. Remember to join us every Friday for more GrabBag goodness!

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Feb 07 2014
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GrabBag – MacBeth Fassbender’d, Leto Heckled, and Philip Seymour Hoffman Remembered.

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It’s Friday once again, and that means it’s time for another GrabBag! – our weekly mishmash of links and videos to get you through the weekend.

  • There’s a new clip from Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel. Reviews have just started coming out from its premier in Berlin, and needless to say, I’m even more excited.

… and screenwriter John Ridley talks to Bill Maher.

  • Gender inequality in the film industry summed up in this fantastic infographic. (New York Film Academy actually published this several months ago, but it’s still and always relevant.)

That’s all for this week’s GrabBag. Enjoy your weekend and try to stay warm!

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Jan 31 2014
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GrabBag – What if ‘Her’ were ‘Him’? also, Famous Film Locations and a Printable Oscar Ballot

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Another week, another bagful of random stuff. Time to open this week’s GrabBag…

  • The folks over at HitFix have built an excellent printable Oscar ballot. (I may try to make my own before the big day.)
  • Don’t think you know enough about this year’s Oscars to hold a conversation? Well hopefully The Screen Life will fix that, but just in case you still feel the need to cram for a party, Vulture offers this cheat sheet to “fake your way through.” I’m not sure I agree with everything they say (there’s no way Amy Adams has a chance at stealing best actress from Cate Blanchett), but at least it can make you look like you know what you’re talking about to others who don’t know what they’re talking about.
  • Phillip Glass talks about Visitors, his new collaboration with cinematographer Godfrey Reggio. Their previous work together, The Qatsi Trilogy, is a breathtaking masterpiece.
  • A documentarian close to Woody Allen counters the criminal allegations against him. It’s a complex issue. We will probably never know the whole truth. But his private life aside, Allen remains one of the greatest directors of all time.
  • Funny videos! There appears to be a wealth of YouTube parodies re-imagining Her as Him. Though never quite as good as you want them to be, they’re still pretty fun. But none of them hold a candle to comedian Peter Handelman’s spot-on impression of Matthew McConaughey in Dallas Buyers Club.

Fair warning: the Seth Rogan impersonator in this one starts out as impressive, but quickly gets annoying…

If you’ve seen Dallas Buyers Club, this will be hilarious. Not sure how well it plays if you haven’t, but either way it’s a fantastic impersonation…

Alright, another week’s bag is emptied. If you have any suggestions for future editions of GrabBag, please email me or post them in the comments. And once again, here’s my plea for any designer willing to donate their skills to help create an original GrabBag logo. It doesn’t need to be all that professional or anything. Just something simple. Anybody?

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