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Confessions of a Superhero website screenshot

A big thanks to Matt for leaving a comment on my previous post about Confessions of a Superhero. Somehow I missed the website for the film (therealsuperhero.com). Besides being incredibly well done, it’s got a good bit of content. Just enough that you want to read it all, but not so much that it puts you off. Check out a few extra video clips and photos. Definitely worth a visit if you were at all interested in the movie.

So here’s another post hoping that the film winds up playing sometime in the Nashville area.

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SlashFilm has posted a great article on 55 Must See Movies of 2008. There’s a lot of good films on there. So many and I know I’ll never watch half of them and likely only see half of that in the theaters. I do know I’ll see Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and The Dark Knight next year. With Carter, I’m sure Wall-E, Where the Wild Things Are and Horton Hears a Who will be sure bets. From what I hear, the Wachowski Brothers Speed Racer film will be G rated, so we’ll definitely be there for that one.

Fanboys, Be Kind Rewind, Fanboys, The Changeling, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button all sound interesting, but will probably have to wait for cable/DVD.

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Zombies in the Mall

George Romero satirized American’s as a mindless, Zombie nation in his 1969 Night of the Living Dead and 1978 Dawn of the Living Dead films. I remember watching these films for the first time in a “serious” context in college and the message hitting me like a pile of bricks.

The more I think about it, the more it seems right. Just read the linked Vanity Fair article for a humorous look at the short-cut we are willing to take to make our life easier.

America’s Can-Do-But-Why-Bother spirit has produced a wave of gadgets that take the effort out of almost everything: vacuuming rugs, parking cars, walking dogs. In fact, why wear out those tongue muscles when a virtual assistant can order you a Motorized Ice Cream Cone?

I’m not saying I’m any better than the rest. We buy yogurt in a tube for Carter’s lunch and use any number of pointless gadgets and concoctions that will supposedly make our life easier. More and more, I’ve been thinking about how much things have changed since I was a kid. As I see more of myself reflected in Carter and as he develops his personality, I find myself thinking of when I was a kid and realizing that maybe things were better back then. Now, I’m really starting to sound like a parent…I remember walking to school (true) in the snow (not true) barefoot (not true).

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Confessions of a Superhero looks like a fascinating documentary. Here’s the summary from the movie’s myspace page:

CONFESSIONS OF A SUPERHERO is a feature length documentary chronicling the lives of four mortal men and women who work as characters on the sidewalks of Hollywood Boulevard. This deeply personal view into their daily routine reveals the hardships, and triumphs, that these characters endure in pursuit of becoming famous. The Hulk sold his supernintendo for a bus ticket to LA, Wonder Woman was the homecoming queen, Batman struggles with his anger, and Superman is consumed with the character he portrays. The Walk of Fame may be right beneath their feet, but their path to Stardom is a long, hard climb. Explore the fascination, obsession, and allure of fame, through the eyes of some very unique people struggling to make it in Tinseltown.

Documentaries are such a mixed bag. They require a good balance between an interesting subject and quirky characters. If you veer too far off one path, you risk losing the audience. Seeing this trailer reminded how much I like the work of documentary duo Bruce Sinofsky and Joe Berlinger. Hoping to find a new film I had not heard about, it seems the pair have not made a documentary film since 2004’s Metallica: Some Kind of Monster. The Paradise Lost films are the ones that introduced them to a wide audience, but for a great look into another person’s life, I’d highly recommend Brother’s Keeper.

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Evidently, a German film company has been working on a film version of The Red Baron. The story doesn’t sound all that promising (see below), but the effects look amazing. The above footage is a VFX compilation and it makes me want to see this thing on the big screen.

George Lucas has always stated that the inspiration for the space battles in the Star Wars films came from his memories of the bi-plane dogfights from the films he saw as a child. Watching the Red Baron footage, it looks like the influence has come full circle. It reminded me very much of the Star Wars space battles. The way the bi-planes are going every direction and once, the blimps looming larger than anything else in the sky. Again, very cool. Can’t wait to see how this turns out.

Baron Manfred von Richthofen (Schweighöfer) is the most feared and celebrated pilot of the German air force in World War I. To him and his companions, air combats are events of sporty nature, technical challenge and honorable acting, ignoring the terrible extent of war. But after falling in love with the nurse Käte (Headey), Manfred realizes he is only used for propaganda means. Caught between his disgust for the war, and the responsibility for his fighter wing, von Richthofen sets out to fly again.