This Week in Movies

The new trailer for Post Grad features a two-second clip of Alexis Bledel running into this building for an interview at a publishing company. As seen here:

It's not a publishing company, however, it's the CAA building. For the midwest inclined, that's the Creative Artists Agency, the top agency in LA (perhaps until a recent merger) where yours truly had an interview that ended in the interviewer telling the interviewee that he had done it only as a favor to a colleague. At least I got a taste of some primo valet parking.

In the background, however, you'll see a building where I did find work. The 9th and 11th floors of the tower on the right contains the headquarters for Lifetime Television, where I did a week of temp work. So, that nearly settles it. I'm famous.

But now I work in Hollywood, I don't have to wear a suit, and I make a ton more money doing the same shit work (but for way cooler people than your average agent).

P.S. I'd just like to take this chance to give out a kind and gentle "f you" to the executive who eight months ago said, "What are we going to do with this recession?...Hey, get me that script about that girl who can't find a job!" and then went home to his mansion.

This Week in Movies

One of the first huge differences I noticed between LA and OK is the amount of movie advertisements. Of course, advertising in general is much bigger in LA than cities like OKC, Dallas, or New Orleans, but the percentage of advertisements used to promote movies is incredible. I'm going to go ahead and make up some figures here. I'd say that in any of those cities, the amount of all advertising alloted for movies is between 7-20%. In LA, I'd say it's closer to 60-80%.

"So what?" you might ask. Well, considering that I drive from Westwood to Hollywood and back six times a week, plus 1-3 runs a day within Hollywood and West Hollywood, I'd say I see this poster at least 15 times every day.

And that's not okay with me. You can get sick of some good posters (Gran Torino), and some you don't mind seeing over and over (The Dark Knight), but a poster like this, or 17 Again, or You Don't Mess with the Zohan (featuring Adam Sandler's photoshop-enhanced bulge) can be sickening.

This poster's design isn't completely bad. It's simplistic, and I find the blue background to be quite soothing. But it does have its problems. 

First of all, Matthew McConaughey is on it. Secondly, this particular shot of the prince of Austin makes him look like a demon. One point for honest portrayal, negative one point for scaring me. I don't know whose decision it was to go with the head-on angle, but it's quite terrifying, if not Jokeresque. Third, what at first seems to be a necktie is actually a giant red scarf. Why? I would bet it has something to do with the length of a necktie and that the poster is likely a photoshop of each star's individual shot, with the scarf inserted digitally. Anyway, it pisses me off. (If you're skeptical, take a look at the many versions of the Get Smart poster or the obvious Four Christmases. If they can do it with hair, a tie, hair the other way, or a ribbon, they can do it with a scarf.) 

The last thing I hate about this poster is that it's for a movie that is probably a huge piece of garbage. Can we be done with the ghost genre already? You would have thought it died with Ghost Dad, but not that long ago we had Ghost Town, with some respectable and semirespectable actors. And now this. While we're at it, let's toss out the body-switching genre. But of course, it won't happen. (17 Again at #1? I know there's not much on right now, but wouldn't you rather just not see a movie?)

If you don't believe me about the demon thing, here's a close-up. It also appears that they've used a different poster for the LA area, which apparently happens a lot. In this case, I actually like the LA version better. The "past girlfriends coming out of oddly posed photos" version is distracts from the focal point (the demon). 

I would also like to suggest changing the tagline,  "You can't always run from your past," to the more accurate, "Does it really matter?"

This Week In Movies

I saw Adventureland last weekend at an early screening. It didn't thrill me. The trailer was fantastic, and the movie failed to live up to it, probably because they squeezed into it every scene with Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig there was. It also set the story up to be something that it wasn't. "It was the worst job they ever imagined... and the best time of their lives," goes the tagline. Actually, their summer was quite depressing.

In the movie, there's a character named Frigo who punches people in the nuts. I spent the whole movie and the subsequent days trying to figure out where I had seen him. I'll go ahead and solve the mystery for you. It's the kid from the AT&T rollover commercials.

This Week in Movies

A little trivia for you. Which recently Oscar-nominated director was responsible for this gem?

On a side note, anyone who thinks fedoras are cool should pay close attention to Isaac and Zac.