Movie Journal Quick Takes 11/22/05

Heights (11/7) – Nice little character drama about people waiting to start or accept their lives. Great performance by Glenn Close and others make this a must see if you’re a fan of character-driven stories.

Sanjuro (11/8) – The sequel of sorts to Yojimbo and another in my on again, off again Kurosawa movie education. Funny and stirring, it’s a fantastc movie, as are all by Kurosawa.

The Hulk (11/9) – Do I love this one or hate it? I can never tell and my opinion changes seven or eight times within the course of the movie. There are parts of it that are great (most of the scenes with Nick Nolte) and parts that are awful (Hulk dogs) but I think most of it is pretty good. That being said it’s very much a paycheck job for director Ang Lee. There’s nothing of the director’s vision in this movie, sorry. The comic panel presentation is pretty cool, though.

Charlie & The Chocolate Factory (11/10) – This was really good. I expected to at least be somewhat disappointed in it, seeing as how I didn’t know how anyone could play Willy Wonka after Gene Wilder basically made the part his for all eternity in the original film. Johnny Depp, though, took the underlying misanthropy of Wilder’s incarnation and made it overt with a sense of glee. It’s not even that he’s so much misanthropic, it’s that he has no discernable social skills and so dislikes being around people. That’s what makes his revelation at the end all that much more moving. Very good outing for director Tim Burton as well. Nice to see him back on his game.

Ghostbusters (11/11) – “I’ve seen shit that will turn you WHITE!”

Real Genius (11/14) – One of the movies whose quotes pretty much got me through high school. Still a favorite. Also stop number two on my unofficial William Atherton movie marathon.

Ghostbusters 2 (11/16) – Not as good as the original (how could it be?) but still pretty good.

Intolerable Cruelty (11/16) – Very funny entry from the Coen Brothers. Not their strongest but plenty solid.

Constantine (11/17) – Not quite as awful as I thought it was going to be. The main problem is that Keanu Reeves is not a good enough actor to pull off “world-weary.” Instead it just comes off as “borderline comatose.” Never read the source comic but from what I’ve heard it’s quite a departure in terms of style and substance.

Dr. Strangelove (11/17) – “But he’ll see the big board.”

High & Low (11/19) – Excellent noir-ish entry by Kurosawa. Extremely moving.

The Idiot (11/22) – Probably the Kurosawa film that worked the least for me but still plenty worth seeing.

List mania

I love so many things about this new PR list, moderated and organized by Constantin Basturea.  Not only does it allow me to point people to one place when they ask me “where do I find a list of good PR blogs” but there’s also an OPML file to download of the entire list.  Fantastic work.  If you want to read some background on this, Constantin wrote about it on his blog.

TypePad gets PR right

I’m a bit late in talking about this, but TypePad really has done a great job of confronting the recent illwill generated by constant outages and slowness.  As Katherine Stone of Decent Marketing notes, the blogging company contacted its users about free extension to their contract and let the user decide how much was appropriate.  “Do you feel you deserve 15, 30,45 or no free days of service” was the gist of the response.  They probably got off pretty ease since most people who aren’t power users weren’t that affected and so opted for a lower payback.  Even those that might have been inconvenienced probably felt bad picking a higher amount and so went with 15 or 30 days.  Most of all, it played into the whole idea of empowering the user base and not making them accept a dictate from on high.  Well done.

Google Publication Ads launches

Over at AdJab I, thanks to a heads-up from Tom Biro, start exploring just what Google Publication Ads might be. The service, which has launched in beta (big whoop) marks Google’s official entry into the print-ad buying and reselling market. Stay tuned because we’ll definitely be following this.

Movie Journal Quick Takes: 11/7/05

• Funny Ha Ha (10/17) – Good movie with a wonderful sense of humor. The production values aren’t great but that’s to be expected with an independent film like this. The story of a rudderless young woman and her circle of friends is touching and funny and ultimately a tad heartbreaking as you realize her life will never be the mix of money and fun that she – and the rest of us – think it will be.
• X-Men (10/19), X2: X-Men United (10/20), Spider-Man (10/21) and Spider-Man 2 (10/22) – I wrote a post on Cinematical recounting my trip through what could argueably be the four finest films to come from Marvel characters.
• Curb Your Enthusiasm: Season 4 (10/24) – You might think the season isn’t as strong as previous ones but that’s only because they were so very strong. Compare it to everything (other than Arrested Development) on TV and you’ll realize just how good it is. Plus, if there’s a funnier episode of television programming than the final episode of this season I don’t know what it is. Makes the entire season make sense. Trust me.
• Throne of Blood (10/25) – This reworking of Macbeth is so good it’s almost scary. The Spider’s Web Forest becomes a character in and of itself.
• Fantastic Four (10/25) – Seeing this was unexpected since it was the movie on a flight I was on from Chicago to San Francisco. I’m not going to go into detail on it. Let’s just suffice it to say I’m really sorry I wasn’t taking notes for a Movies on the Brain installment. It was that corny. On the plus side, Jessica Alba has very nice breasts.
• Batman Begins (10/26) – Fantastic. Everyone with the exception of Katie Holmes, who’s about 300 pounds out of her weight class here, is great. It’s the definitive Batman movie and this is coming from a guy who absolutely loves Batman Returns.
• High Fidelity (10/26) – The fantasy sequence where John Cusack imagines all sorts of ass-kicking of Tim Robbins never fails to kill me. Say what you will about Jack Black, this is Cusack’s movie from start to finish.
• Melinda & Melinda (10/27) – If only Will Ferrell hadn’t been doing a (bad) Woody Allen impersonation the entire time this might have moved from very good to great. I love the conceit of the movie, that any story contains elements of tradedy and humor and that it just depends on your perspective.
• Grosse Pointe Blank (10/28) – Great movie. Where is this John Cusack now? Does anybody know?
• The Lower Depths (11/1) – More fantastic work from Kurosawa. This time focusing on a dysfuctional make-shift family of poor outcasts living together in a shanty.
• Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith (11/3) – I’m so Lucas’ bitch. Even so, this is the best of the prequels.
• The Man Who Copied (11/4) – I was expecting more of a comedy. Instead, this is very much a drama that turns downright dark at times but does end on an encouraging – but not overly false – note.

Life After the 30-Second Spot

For anyone who might be interested my review of Joseph Jaffe’s book “Life After the 30-Second Spot” is up at AdJab. It’s a must read if you’re in any segment of communications.

Making yourself heard

If any of you aren’t already reading the excellent Dilbert Blog by Dilbert creator Scott Adams you really need to start. Deserts aren’t as dry as Adams’ delivery. In a recent post he make the following statement following a mea culpa on how he deleted 500 comments awaiting moderation:

“At least you can take comfort in knowing that one person actually thought about your opinion before deleting it. And that’s probably better than you’ll do at work today.”

Bloggers are smart

There’s a cautionary tale for any marketers considering “buzz” or “viral” tactics that are sneaky and covert that I posted on AdJab.  Check it out.

So what!

AdAge is running a poll asking if employers should allow their workers to read blogs at work.  As Joseph Jaffe rightly says, “I’m astounded by the nerve of MSM to even ask the question.”

Does AdAge – do employers for that matter – even realize how much of that reading is relevant to the industry they operate in?  If anything I would think that employers should encourage their employees to read blogs as a way to expand their knowledge and toolset.  Granted, there’s going to be some times that people will slip in a search for the teaser trailer to Superman Returns.  That’s not that much different than the time spent around the fabled watercooler in the grand old days, though.  Instead of attaching a stigma of doing something “wrong” to blog reading let’s educate both employees and customers on how they can use them as a knowledge base.

If you’re going to ban blogs than you need to make it a uniform policy for all media.  If you can’t read a blog than the company should also confiscate copies of US Weekly, Time Magazine and the newspaper at the door to make sure there is no outside media being consumed during the work day.  That includes copies of Advertising Age.  All knowledge must come from corporately approved sources.  When they’re willing to take that step then they discuss banning blogs.

Meet the new influencers

Regarding press coverage of yesterday’s announcement by Microsoft of their Live online software portal, Michael Gartenberg at Jupiter Research has this to say:

Interesting anecdote, several vendors have told me recently that they’re not overly concerned with what Walt Mossberg says about them anymore. They’re concerned about what Peter Rojas is saying about them on Engadget and what he’s telling his audience both online and offline. (Link added by me.)

Couldn’t have put it better myself.  Despite what Forbes magazine writers might say the citizen media has taken off in a way that’s powerful and unique.  It’s the whole concept of Rojas and his kindred spirits not being higher beings that are secreted away with exclusive access to new toys and gadgets.  They are the people on the street who are going to be making the decision whether or not to pull out their wallet for a product and service. 

Influencing consumers is no longer about the word coming down from the mountaintop in stone tablets or, in this case, newsprint.  It’s about customers turning to someone whom they trust because they feel a connection to them based on knowing you’re all in the same situation. 

[Standard disclosure: I write for a number of blogs owned by Weblogs, Inc, which also owns Engadget.]