RIP John Hughes, An '80s Icon

Movie director, John Hughes, passed away on Thursday from a heart attack. He wrote and directed such teen classics as "The Breakfast Club" and "Sixteen Candles." He also wrote and produced "Home Alone" which was one of the top grossing comedies of all time.

Hughes is from my hometown of Northbrook, IL and was an alum of my high school, Glenbrook North. My freshman year he filmed "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" at our school and I remember them filming the scene when Matthew Broderick picked up Mia Sara from school while pretending to be her father. It was very cool to watch as a young teenager.

His films were upbeat and fun, and many were the favorites from my youth. Rest in peace, John Hughes.

Natalie Portman's MakingOf, Hollywood's Behind-The-Scenes Site

HatTip to Christine. Natalie Portman recently co-founded MakingOf which seeks to bring a behind-the-scenes look into the various creative processes in movie making. Christine Aylward is her Co-Founder and CEO. More from their site:

"MakingOf is a behind-the-scenes Web destination, founded by Natalie Portman and Christine Aylward, that provides an intimate, fresh look into the process of creating entertainment by the insiders themselves. Our mission is to champion the art and craft of entertainment creation. We started MakingOf because we realized that so much of what goes into entertainment creation is unavailable to the people who love and consume it the most. We wanted to give fans a way to experience that creation and learn from the insiders and thus MakingOf was born. When you visit MakingOf you will experience behind-the-scenes content, exclusive access to industry insiders, and an interactive, entertainment-focused community forum. It is your all-access pass to learn from and interact with actors, directors, producers, writers, and more. Film school for everyone! And film is just the start. Stay posted as we add additional features."

Here's a clip from the site, "Directing 201 with Shawn Levy, NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM: BATTLE OF THE SMITHSONIAN | ON-SET"

"The Trouble With Romance" Release

Our friend's movie is being release on pay-per-view or on-demand on February 1st. It's theatrical release will be on February 27th at New York's Quad Cinema theaters. Check local listings in NYC for showtimes or visit their website here.

It's cool that Warner Bros picked it up for distribution, but it is a low budget independent movie so Gene and his colleagues don't have the marketing muscle behind it. Hopefully some buzz will occur if there is strong widespread acceptance.

Also Mayor Gavin Newsom's new wife has a prominent role in the movie, so for you SFers check it out :)



San Francisco Chronicle Film Review:

'HIGHLY RECOMMENDED'

"An extraordinarily engaging, well-written and creatively filmed romantic comedy comprised of four stories set in hotel rooms on the same floor... Rhee's feature debut is in some ways a textbook for how to make a great low-budget feature: Start with a really good, tightly written script, hire some terrific, trained, hungry actors and shoot it economically on small interiors. For an audience, it's a winning combination."

"Why 'Tropic Thunder' Shouldn't Be Seen"

Good op-ed by Timothy Shriver, chairman of Special Olympics and co-producer of "Amistad." I still plan to see "Tropic Thunder" since I'm fans of Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Robert Downey Jr., and Nick Nolte.

Why 'Tropic Thunder' shouldn't be seen

I am so proud of everyone who turned out to Monday's premiere of the film "Tropic Thunder" to protest its unfortunate and humiliating portrayal of people with intellectual disabilities.

Prior to the premiere, I joined a large coalition of individuals and organizations to engage in discussions with DreamWorks Studios CEO Stacey Snider and others from the studio to express our concern over the film's "Simple Jack" subplot and the slogans, "Once upon a time there was a retard," and "Never go full retard."

Members of the Coalition of National Disability Organizations -- disabled advocates and family members of people with intellectual disabilities -- have seen the movie and reported shock and disgust. Their reactions have resonated with many of us who take their cause and their voice with the utmost seriousness... (full op-ed)


CNN has provided a counter viewpoint to Timothy Shirver by Neil Miller, "Critics of 'Tropic Thunder' are missing the point"

"The Dark Knight" Review

This past weekend I saw "The Dark Knight" and walked away thoroughly impressed. Rarely would I rate a movie four stars and rarely do I enjoy comic book adaptations since I grew up as a fanatic. I collected comic books and sadly read thousands of them during my youth :) My favorite was Frank Miller's limited series, "The Dark Knight Returns." It displayed a gritty, darker world and Batman through art, words and a storyline that was burned into your cortex.

Christopher Nolan captured Miller's Batman in "Batman Begins" and brings the actual "The Dark Knight Returns" comic to the movie screen in "The Dark Knight." It was simply one of the best movies I have seen in years. From beginning to end, the movie kept you in its parallel universe and of the dark Gotham City. The high quality of the storyline, action scenes, humorous moments, and intensity was woven into the fabric of the whole movie.

Heath Ledger was incredible. The whole cast was solid, but Ledger made the movie believable. It wasn't a comic book story to him. It was a real world that he, Nolan, Bale and others brought to life on the screen for us to ponder upon.



Also if you didn't know, Frank Miller's comics were the direct basis for the movies "Sin City" and "300."

"Crossing"... Los Angeles Screening

There will be a special screening of a Korean movie, Crossing, in LA on Thursday, June 19 at 7:00 pm.

This is presented by LiNK, KoreAm Journal, and ImaginAsian Entertainment. I serve on LiNK's advisory board, but would promote this anyway since this is simply a great cause. More info:

Production quietly began on this film in 2004, and today we have the first feature film touching upon the North Korean human rights and refugee crisis. It is slated for theatrical release in South Korea on June 26. This film may very well be our movement's "Hotel Rwanda" or "Schindler's List." We are excited to be able to present this film here in the US for special advance screening.

Location: ImaginAsian Center, 251 South Main Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012
Presented by: LiNK, KoreAm Journal, and ImaginAsian Entertainment.
RSVP with name, affiliation, and reference. Affiliation and reference required: rsvp[at]linkglobal.org.
*Seating is limited and RSVP's will be on a first-come, first-serve basis.

"Drama focuses on horror of re-education camps
Depicts perils of N. Korean defector" The Washington Times

Planet B-Boy!

Planet B-boy came out last week in LA and NYC. Our friend, Woody Pak, did the original score for this movie. It's a very cool movie on the break dancing movement across the globe.

Anyway, it's playing tomorrow in SF at the Landmark Lumiere, or check out the other locations across the U.S. Go!

Cool clip


Official Trailer

Hulu Beta

I finally got around to testing out Hulu's private beta, which is big media's race horse against YouTube. I like it. It's high quality video with good content from most of the major TV networks and two major movie studios. More from their press release:

"full episodes and clips from current hit shows, including Heroes, 24, House, My Name Is Earl, Saturday Night Live, Friday Night Lights, The Riches, 30 Rock, The Simpsons, The Tonight Show, Prison Break, Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader and Top Chef, plus hits from the studios’ vast television libraries, will be available free, on an ad-supported basis, within a rich consumer experience featuring personalized video playlists, mashups, online communities and video search."



So you don't get the random junk clips like on YouTube, but it doesn't compare with the volume of content on YouTube yet. The video and content quality is compelling enough for me to make them my preferred online video source after they get enough content up.

Old coverage from TechCrunch here and here.

2008 TECH PREDICTIONS FOLLOW UP... NETFLIX PARTNERS WITH LG

I will admit predictions can be lame, but fun to write and can provide some entertainment value. Also an ego rub if they remotely come true, so I have to post about today's news of Netflix partnering with LG Electronics to send movies straight to the TV. No box, just what's inside the TV, which is what I stated where consumer electronics companies will go in 2008 :)

This will be a battle ground between TV manufacturers and cable & satellite TV providers. Anyway, here are some details on this news:

"Netflix Partners with LG to Bring Movies Straight to TV" NYTimes

"Netflix Goes TVflix; Ties Up With LG for Direct-To-TV Movie Box; Kills Own Branded Box" paidContent.org

"Five Questions About LG's Netflix Movie Devices" Silicon Alley Insider

SHADINESS OF SILICON VALLEY... A WEST COAST THING?

It's been over three years since Christine and I moved to the Bay Area. We love it here. The wealth of outdoor activities, the weather, friends we've made, and the work that we do. We like how a fair amount of the people are unpretentious here. In NYC, the wealthy tend to flaunt their money. In Silicon Valley, you might never know a multi-millionaire by appearances.

Also the first question many people ask in NYC is, "What school did you go to?" Harvard? UPenn? This is to gauge your possible social status. In Hong Kong the first question is, "Where do you live?" Mid-levels? Discovery Bay? This is to gauge your wealth. Outside of conferences and tech seminars, I haven't experienced a common question that people ask to measure others by. But there is a shadiness in Silicon Valley that I have come to experience in my three short years here.

One interesting characteristic is how many people tend to overstate their relationships. This is a different experience from growing up in the Midwest where you generally state if someone is your friend or acquaintance. In Silicon Valley, everyone is good friends with everybody. So you might hear, "Mike Moritz? I'm friends with him. Great guy. Really great guy..." (met him once at a conference.)

"Ron Conway. Yeah, I got an email that his nephew is sick..." (random email forward about "a prominent angel investor's" nephew.)

"Larry and Sergey? I'm good friends with them. I knew Larry from Michigan..." (sat in an engineering course with Larry and 300 other students)

This characteristic also transfers into stated business relationships.

"Yeah, Cisco is our partner for an upcoming project. Huge deal for us..." (startup is a bronze sponsor of a trade show while Cisco is the platinum sponsor)

"Microsoft has just signed up to be our channel partner. Our sales team is very excited." (just signed up on Micrsoft's adCenter to advertise their startup's products)

I was speaking with one of my friends, who is a movie director, about some of these encounters I had.

He replied, "I bet it's nothing compared to the movie industry. You get this down in LA all the time. You don't know how many producers I've met who say they know this person or have an 'in' with this company... Then you find out that the person they 'knew so well' was only one email conversation.

As one of my mentors told me a while back, 'Hollywood is the one place where you mix Ivy Leaguers and the scum of the earth, but the music industry is where you get the scum of the earth and the scum of the earth.'"

I have wondered what drives people to tell such lies or exaggerations because the world is so small and you're bound to meet someone who is actually good friends with your "supposed" friends and knows that you are not. Or meeting a person who knows someone at the company and division you supposedly have a partnership with. I wonder if these people follow George Constanza's worldview where he tries to keep separate social circles but inevitably panics when his worlds collide!

Another common conversation I have encountered is this odd obsession with whether your startup is "venture-backed." It has gone beyond my ten toes and fingers the amount of times I've heard someone emphasize the words "venture-backed" to me.

"Yes, I was at so-and-so company, which was VENTURE-BACKED."

"I worked at this VENTURE-BACKED startup a few years ago..."

"So was your startup VENTURE-BACKED?"

Through my ten fingers and counting, I was bewildered by this obsession. It seemed to me that it was a bunch of peacocks showing their feathers to other peacocks. From my small world and experience, I assumed that if you're doing a startup that you would be backed by someone whether an angel or VC.

So in a typical conversation where I would explain my background, I would simply state, "Yeah, I was involved in a couple startups..."

A fair amount of times, this would be a calling for people to ask me, "Where these venture-backed?"

It was like the scene out of Austin Powers where Fred Savages's character's mole gave Austin an irresistible urge to say, "Mole. Bloody mole!..."

Try this some time. If you simply say "startup," I estimate that it would be a two in ten chance (if the person doesn't know you) that they will ask "VENTURE-BACKED?"

Anyway, by the time this repeated conversation reached my toes, I realized that not all startups have funding from venture capitalists. Similar to the Hollywood scene where so many people have a movie script or "working on a cool TV project," there are people with a business plan or product without smart money backing them or even zero money. So my bewilderment died and I had to taper my amusement, but I still wondered about this drive for people to overstate relationships and trying to separate themselves from the "chaff."

From these encounters and the comparisons with Hollywood, I began to wonder if these characteristics were industry related or a general West Coast thing? Of course I am not stating that this is reflected by a majority of the people, but enough to recognize that these traits are more prevalent in Silicon Valley and Hollywood than in other regions.

The Passion of The Christ... Saw It and Did Not Meet Expectations

I finally saw "The Passion of The Christ" after my various posts and reading all the debates about it. It was okay. It wasn't even a good movie to me since it seemed more like a documentary. I think all the hype and excitement raised the bar too high for me. My good Christian friend told me that it was awesome and how he was sobbing throughout the movie. He's not that emotional, so I was getting ready to shed some tears and preparing to be awestruck. I did not shed a tear, and it didn't stir any particular emotion in me.

The movie wasn't as gruesome as various critics proclaimed. If they saw "Kill Bill Vol.1" and still proclaim it's one of the most grotesquely violent movies in recent memory (from a comment a read a while back) then they are lying and just trying to slander the movie. "Kill Bill" is far worse in terms of graphic violence and blood shed.

It was confirmed for me that the movie was not anti-Semitic. I was more disturbed by the brutality of the Roman soldiers, but that is what I pictured from my readings of the Roman Empire. The Jews that were against Jesus were threatened and fighting for their faith, holding on to their power, or whatever other motivation that led them demand his death. It happens and those qualities are not solely Jewish traits, but of all of mankind. A great symbolic message related to this topic from Mel Gibson is his only cameo appearance. His hand was one of the hands that held Jesus down while He was being nailed to the cross. So the message is that we all nailed Christ to the cross. We all crucified Him for our sins.

It was a good reminder for me what kind of sacrifice Jesus Christ did for humankind. In our society, especially Western society where His name is a curse that people use daily, Jesus Christ has become too marginalized and commercialized (e.g. Christmas, which is suppose to be a celebration of His birth). Our minds are desensitized to the point that we tend to picture Jesus Christ as some distant character in a children's Bible, some person in ancient history, or a name that has been so commonly used it rolls off our tongues like the words crap, f*@k, or sh#t. In the remote parts of the world, modern day missionaries talk about how His name amazingly brings people to their knees. On rare occasions, they don't need sermons or discussions about the Bible, but by simply saying the name "Jesus Christ" people are transformed.

Anyway, I still am amazed by the impact Mel Gibson's movie has had financially and spiritually today. If you are a Christian reader of this blog and saw "The Passion of The Christ," you can consider donating to a project my close friend emailed me about a few days ago:

Dear friends,

Campus Crusade in Russia is mobilizing a special effort to enable interested Russian students to see the film, "The Passion of The Christ", which has had a world-wide impact on people and their interest in Jesus Christ. Please consider taking part in this unique outreach effort.

In His Grace,
Sam & Hanna Won
Ekaterinburg, Russia
--------------------------
From the Russia Campus Ministry:
Send a Russian college student to see "The Passion of the Christ" for $3.50 per ticket

Thousands of students in America have been greatly impacted by this film. The Buzz about the film has reached Russian students... they want to see it!

The film opens in Moscow on April 8 and will be shown in theaters all over Russia during the month of April.

Your gift will be used in several ways depending on the city:
- Christian students will take a friend to see the movie... this is the most effective approach!
- Special showings will be held.
- Related materials will be distributed at the theatres and on campus.
- Follow up discussion groups will be held.

How many students would you like to sponsor?
By April 15, please send your gift to:

Give ONLINE

Send a check payable to
"Campus Crusade for Christ"
PO Box 628222
Orlando, FL, 32862-9841
"Russia Campus Minsitry" account #2580598

The Passion of The Christ... Following Up

Following up from my Feb. 20th entry, The Passion of The Christ came out yesterday under a storm of controversy and protest. Thomas Lifson from The American Thinker wrote a great review and commentary on the movie.

A "peace-maker" review by Dennis Prager... "It is crucial for Jews and Christians to try to understand what version of 'The Passion' the other is watching and reacting to."

Going negative, My Stupid Dog wrote: "Overkill: Gibson's Passion of the Christ, Exploitation Cinema and Robert Bresson."

Christian view by Rev. Dr. Mark D. Roberts. Pretty Good.

The Passion of The Christ Misunderstood

"The Passion of the Christ" is opening in theatres on February 25th in the U.S. with a stir of controversy. Mel Gibson's movie initially brought out some strong criticism and reaction from various Jewish leaders and organizations that it was anti-Semitic and would create some hatred towards Jews.

Without seeing the movie (and knowing Billy Graham "okay" it), if it simply follows the story of the New Testament, I don't understand how it can be anti-Semitic. Yes, the Jewish religious leaders called for Jesus Christ's death because he claimed what was outrageous and blasphemous to many of them... that he was the Messiah and also inferred that he and God are one.

In Judaism, it is prophesied that the Messiah ("Christ" is Greek for Messiah) will come to restore Israel and establish his kingdom. Christians believe Jesus is the Messiah and the Jews who believed this during that time (the initial group of Christians) saw the difference in how that prophecy was to be fulfilled. "Kingdom" as many Jews hoped for was a physical kingdom on earth established by their Messiah. While "kingdom" for those initial believers in Jesus Christ was a spiritual kingdom, which even his disciples did not realize until he was crucified. Jesus was a Messiah that most Jews never would have expected during those tumultuous times. He was a meek, humble carpenter not a strong, warrior or ruler who would save them from Rome.

Anyway, this conflict between Jesus and the Pharisees led to his death, but does anyone who believes in Christ and his teaching hold hatred for Jews? It might be an excuse for the really ignorant or really, really stupid, but to simply hate Jews because they "killed Christ" would not make sense and goes against everything within the Christian doctrine and the words that Jesus spoke.

If Christians were to hate all Jews than they should also hate Jesus and all the disciples since they were Jewish. Hence they wouldn't be Christians, just haters... and not political conversatives, just haters. Simple but truthful rebuttal. More convincing is that "hate" should not be within the minds and hearts of Christians. Anyway you slice it, whether today's Jewish leaders or liberal Christian-hating people or supposed-Christians who hate Jews for "killing Christ", those that say the Bible's New Testament encourages or promotes anti-Semitism are idiots. This site gives a more direct and lengthy answer to whether "The Passion of The Christ" is anti-Semitic or not.


On a related note, Gibson's father might be anti-Semitic: Gibson Father: Holocaust Mostly 'Fiction' .

Hutton Gibson follows a tiny wing of traditionalist Catholicism that views the modernizing reforms of the Second Vatican Council as a conspiracy between Jews and Masons to take over the church.

He reminds me of Montana Freemen or people I use to talk to once in a while when I lived in Springfield, IL (truly Middle America). Some of them really believe in the black helicopters of the U.N., seven gnomes of Switzerland ruling the world (Jewish bankers), or how U.S. insurance companies controlled many presidential administrations. Of course, his views and recent public statements don't put people that really are concerned about an anti-Semitic message in the movie at ease.

Sort of timely too since I'm reading The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. Conspiracy cracks must have loved this book. It's been a good read, but I hit some bumps in the road that made me lose my initial excitement. I'm back on track and will soon finish this entertaining book to blog about it. Definitely amusing since it has many historical stretches, logical flaws, poor assumptions about human nature, and the twisting of facts... of course, it's a fiction book so what did I expect, right?

Anyway, I do recommend the book and I'm excited about seeing the movie, "The Passion of The Christ."