Random Fun

On July 28th, I was lucky enough to be invited to participate in a conference call with Monk's Tony Shalhoub. Below is the transcript of that interview. I'll be posting the audio portion of my question shortly:

Final Transcript

That’s right, gentle reader, it’s fast approaching Christmas. Charles Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol in 1843, and today it is the single most filmed Holiday story ever. There are over 12 film versions, of one sort or another. There have also been literally hundreds of adaptations for various television shows over the decades. My favorite was always the Sanford and Son episode where grumpy Fred meets with the Christmas Spirits, who bear a striking resemblance to a certain “Big Dummy”. Fred soon learns the true meaning of Christmas, a secret that most of us have, hopefully, known for years. For me, the best film version of the tale is the 1951 version with Alistair Sim as ol’ Scrooge. No other beats it for atmosphere.

I've seen thousands of movies in my time and today I'm sharing the ten most important things to learn from action flicks. Jump to check it out.

• Always make sure your old buddy actually died back on that dangerous mission in the 50’s-70’s(especially if they had fancy accents). If he did somehow manage to survive he’s going to be pissed and a bit knife happy. So be sure to go back a couple days later and either give him a nice bottle of wine or just put two in his head to be sure. Also, if you have some long lost sibling you think may have died in a mysterious way, ALWAYS watch your back. Those little turds have a knack for ambushing you.

Okay, title got your attention? Good. Now the disclaimer. I was thinking of calling this piece “Ten Horrors From the Path Less Travelled,” but that would have been a bit precious. I’m not going to pretend that the serious horror fans out there are unfamiliar with these titles. Nor is this list meant really and truly as a “Top Ten” (see, two lies already in my title). But consider this a reminder that there’s something other than the umpteenth rental of The Exorcist or latest iteration of Saw out there for your Halloween pleasure. So here, chronological order, are ten fine films for the season.

The Seventh Victim (1943)

Scott Adams, author of Dilbert, made an interesting observation about R vs. G rated movies in a recent post:

"A study done in 2005 showed that G-rated movies are 11 times more profitable than R-rated movies, yet the industry cranks out 12-times more R-rated movies." [from Scott Adams]

Found via digg, another funny feature on Cracked: the 10 Best Animated Films for (Traumatizing) Kids.

Number One: Pom Poko, distributed by Walt Disney.

Here's an edit of the movie Fargo (read the review here!), cut to include only dialog with the word "yeah." A funny take on a fantastic film, found via digg.