wall-e and vh1

i saw wall-e last night and loved it. it was adorable. it's another eco-film, but much more effective than m.night's the happening. also, the little short they show before the film is one of pixar's best shorts. i love the idea of short film as a medium. i wish more people did stuff in that realm.

the movie is very well paced, and manages to keep your attention despite the fact that there's very little dialog. it's a simple love story with lots of social undercurrents. somehow coming from pixar, none of it ever feels preachy. just cute.

the only thing i maybe didn't love was the use of real actors in the 'propaganda' footage. fred willard is in it, though, which is pretty rockin. i understand what they were going for by using real people for the old footage, and animated people for the future world. but it took me out of the world for a bit. felt inconsistent.

oh, in other news, i'm on vh1's 'i love the new millennium'. woohoo! so far, i only know for sure that i'm in the 2002 episode. but i'm hoping to pop up in more. who knows. lemme know if you see me =)

-pete

short nmk vegas video podcast

hello everyone.
this is just a quick video podcast i put together from some footage eric shot of us in vegas.
sorry it got all compressy. not sure why.
-pete


http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=37121391

tweaking

we just finished putting all the finishing touches on everything. so now everything is officially recorded, and the next step is to mix it all. neil’s going to come down to nashville monday to start that. i’m so excited; it’s so close to being done!

bgvs

sadly, i was on the road touring while neil recorded the background vocals. but i just got to hear them and they sound fantastic! we got this amazing singer, brooks ritter, to sing on a few tracks. and of course neil sang on most of the stuff too. everything has a great michael jackson vibe. i’m loving it! sounds great with headphones on.

what’s the buzz, tell me whatsa-Happening

hmm.. ok. so we're in vegas for a few days, and what do i do? i go see a bunch of movies.
the first one was m.night's 'the happening', which i had super high hopes for. i loved the trailers; the imagery was spookycool. it seemed like a darker direction for our old buddy.

let me interject here to say i hated 'the lady in the water', which i also had super high hopes for.


so, i've realized that m.night cannot direct humans. he suffers from lucas-disease methinks. he has great vision, super ideas, and great sense of building interesting, dynamic characters... but, he can't direct humans. i guess. in some cases, outstanding actors are able to bring it without his help. and in 'the happening' i think john leguizamo did just that.


now i love zooey deschanel and mark wahlberg. i really do. and this is why i must blame m.night. the script was awkward at points, which may account for some of the clumsy interactions. the overall premise is a bit of a letdown. not quite 'indianna jones 4' letdown. but still a heavy sigh.
all in all, this film seemed like m.night wanted to show these horrific scenes of people killing themselves, and decided to scribble a story to string them on. i give it a 55. it needs to repeat the semester. and bring in a signed note from mom.

in other news, 'hulk' was incredible (pun intended). seriously. a wonderful film. full review tomorrow.
-pete

i'd love to hear what you all think. maybe i'm just an cranky old man =)

resident wii-vil and the zohan

the past three nights in a row i've been up until 3am playing resident evil 4 on the wii. sooo awesome and creepy! i played it on the ps2 a while ago, but it's always so hard to aim and shoot when multiple zombie-people are trying to get you. but now, it's so much more fun! i feel like milla jovovich! (if i looked like her, i would make out with myself).

zohan: funny. not super funny, but funny. there are many moments where i was laughing out loud. embarassingly loud. and there were huge gaps in laughter. i think a lot of these formula-comedies have the same problem. they try to emulate the structure of a normal film. that is to say, they have a love relationship that misses and then finally gets it together. they have some sort of feel-good ending. some sort of character arc where our hero learns something. all the stuff that we expect from a real movie. but with a silly action-comedy like this, we don't need it. i think it actually gets in the way. i don't really care if zohan gets the girl. because he's not a real person to me. so i'd rather see more gags and moments.
napoleon dynomite works particularly well because it doesn't go for those moments. or if it does, it's in a severely downplayed way. it's more about funny/dysfunctional characters in situations, saying and doing funny things. sort of like my life.
-pete

thank you new hampshire!!!

ahhh! what a blast! we had a great time at the sky show 17 in new hampshire this weekend. rock 101 kicks booty! everyone from the station was super nice! and despite our band name, they treated us like kings. special thanks to the mosh pit. doc, laura, greg, roadkill, and scorch: i love you all and miss you already!
kim, thanks for taking us to the yummy tiny diner. it was a little awkward eating with a row of hungry people behind us waiting for our chairs =)
the fireworks were fantastic! they had their own soundtrack. i want my own soundtrack.
my parents were there. they had a lot of fun, and it was great to be able to hang out with them.

so i can't wait for sky show 18! (cut to: one year later, pete waits by the mail, where no invitation comes.)

we're in pittsburg tonight. sleeping. on our two day trek back to nashville. if you see us on the road, honk.
-pete

indiana jones and the temple of scientology

sooo the continuation of the saga that we've been waiting 20 years for is finally here. and i gotta say, i was a bit sad. i won't go into too much until all yall have seen it, but i thought i'd give some general impressions:

1. premise - what??! the indy movies have always had fun curses and supernatural baddies, but this one goes a little too far.
2. action - the action sequences and stunts were a lot of fun. typical indy wackiness: swinging from rafters with the whip, racing against collapsing bridges, jumping from moving jeeps. most of these moments were perfect, but some were over-the-top even for indy. it reminded me of peter jackson's king kong in spots. i could almost hear the boardroom meeting. "hey, can we make it bigger?"

overall i give it a C-

in related news, i bought a wii the other night. so our extensive time in hotel rooms are a little more enjoyable now.

played a show in newport, rhode island the other night. it was awesome to see my family and some friends i haven't seen in years. tomorrow we play in new hampshire, at an awesome outdoor festival. i'm told there will be thousands of people there. that's a lot of people methinks. too many for me to buy gummi bears for.

anyway, let me know what you think of indy when you guys see it. misery loves company.
-pete

horn tracking

we just finished tracking horns at this beautiful studio in lincoln, tn; about an hour outside of nashville. the studio is called darkhorse, and it’s basically a bunch of log cabins stretched out over these beautiful, soft rolling hills. each cabins is connected by cool wooden bridges.
max and his gang played fantastically. everything sounds so good! we had a lot of fun.

[video clip]

go go speed racer

hi kids.
i saw speed racer the other day in wichita, in between shows. wow. umm. i think it was a pinata of flourescent cg candy. some of it is still in my eye. there's some really cool stuff, some great moments. but all in all, a pretty stinky film. i'm probably 25 years past their demographic though. the effects were on par with a sega dreamcast game, and the compositing looked like it was done in the trial version of after effects. but jack, from lost, is in it. and he was cool. and he did kungfu.

on a similar note, i saw 'redbelt' last night, and it was really good. slow, and not a lot of fighting (for a movie named after the highest butt-kicking accessory). but chewatel (the bad guy from 'serenity'), was fantastic. he's a great, honorable, likable character, but maintains a calculated calmness that implies tremendous confidence. the confidence of a jiu-jitsu mastah! in any case, if it's in town near you, go see it. tell me what you think. maybe me and billy zabka will remake it =)
-pete