The LAMBs in the Director's Chair #9... Sidney Lumet

May you rest in peace, Sidney Lumet. He is a classic movie director that will be remembered by a large number of movie lovers. April 9, 2011, he passed away at the age of 86 due to complications associated with lymphoma. As a tribute to his work I have included an installment of The LAMBs in the Director's Chair that focused upon his career as a director. For those who are unfamiliar with the Director's Chair series, I offer the following description. For those who are already familiar with the series may skip ahead to the linked articles.

What is The Director's Chair feature, exactly? It is a collaborative effort of material that concentrates upon a single film director. The material is released on a loosely structured timetable, with the content of each installment written by a group of movie adoring blog writers. The mission statement for the series requests every participating writer to submit an article, or a collection of articles and movie reviews, containing a direct correlation to the career of a movie director. Each individual installment has a predetermined candidate as the center point for the writers to produce and submit their material. The ongoing series is referred to as The LAMBs in the Director’s Chair. The desired intention is to release a new installment of the series every six weeks. As previously stated, the timetable for the publication of every installment is loosely structured. Therefore, the gap in between the appearance of every chapter can range between three weeks and two months. The variance depends upon a wide range of influences, including the consideration of major holidays such as Christmas, Kwanzaa, and Hanukkah that would slow down the submissions process. It would be a shame to have everyone work through the holidays.

The original publication of every installment is divided up into three parts and published on the website for The Large Association of Movie Blogs (the acronym would be The LAMBs) over the course of a three-day window. Upon the publication of the third and final section there will be a posting on Matte Havoc that will include the entire list of written material which has been contributed for the installment. Think of it as an Index or Table of Contents, of sorts, for each installment. For quick reference of the material that is currently available on this site just follow the keyword link: Directors Chair. Listed below is one of the recent installments of the series with all three days worth of material included in a single page.

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The Director's Chair #9... Sidney Lumet

Review of Q and A (1990)
Radiator Heaven

Review of Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007)
John Likes Movies

Review of Running on Empty (1988)
Radiator Heaven

Review of Murder on the Orient Express (1974)
John Likes Movies

Overview of Sidney Lumet's Career
Dave's Movie Reviews

One film review that is published on Dave’s Movie Reviews that was not directly linked in the overview page is Equus (1977). Here is a link to the wandering movie review.

Review for Equus (1977)
Dave's Movie Reviews

In case you are not satisfied with all of the horsing around (pun intended) there is another review of the film available over at the Film Forager website.

Review for Equus (1977)
Film Forager

After covering the film yesterday it may be worthwhile for a second visit to the movie Before the Devil Knows You're Dead.

Review for Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007)
Blog Cabins

Just as I had promised to everyone at the end of the article yesterday, I would direct your attention to a review for a film that will make you “mad as hell.”

Review for Network (1976)
Le Mot du Cinephiliaque

What did you say? I bet that review did not make you mad as hell. How about sitting in a room with twelve angry men as a substitute?

Review for 12 Angry Men (1957)
Cinema Sights

Review for Serpico (1973)
Foolish Blatherings
Forget the Popcorn

Review for The Wiz (1978)
Foolish Blatherings

Review for Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
Cinema Sights

EDITORIAL: Lumet is good, but not great.
Big Thoughts from a Small Mind

Did you say there is a comic book price cap?

Nothing would proclaim my lack of attentiveness by admitting that I am four months overdue with an entertainment news article. Like the title of the article suggests, I discovered this morning there is price cap on comic books that has been instated in January of 2011 by comic book publishing power house DC Comics. Here is the press release directly from their website:

Beginning January 2011, DC Comics will implement a line-wide pricing adjustment, lowering the prices of all standard length 32-page ongoing comic book titles currently priced at $3.99 to $2.99. "This announcement reaffirms DC Comics' commitment to both our core fans and to comic book store retailers," said Jim Lee, DC Comics Co-Publisher. "For the long term health of the industry, we are willing to take a financial risk so that readers who love our medium do not abandon the art form."

"As Co-Publishers, we listened to our fans and to our partners in the retail community who told us that a $3.99 price point for 32 pages was too expensive. Fans were becoming increasingly reluctant to sample new titles and long term fans were beginning to abandon titles and characters that they'd collected for years," said Dan DiDio, DC Comics Co-Publisher. "We needed a progressive pricing strategy that supports our existing business model and, more importantly, allows this creative industry to thrive for years to come. With the exceptions of oversized comic books, like annuals and specials, we are committed to a $2.99 price point."

It can be good news for comic book fans who love reading every issue they can grab, but the high prices can be difficult on everyone’s wallet when the issues are printed and distributed in monthly increments like a magazine subscription. For those non-comic book readers out there I would ask if you would be willing to pay more than $2.99 for every monthly issue of your favorite magazine if they kept the issue length at 32-pages instead of a hundred or so pages. It can add up rather quickly. Let me do the math out loud here. A comic book series is traditionally published with one issue per month leaving us with twelve issues a year. At the price of $2.99 per issue that would add up to $35.88 per year. If the series ran for a long period of time like the Detective Comics have been running than you will be astounded at the new price tag.

The most current issue of Detective Comics would be issue #876. It is set to be released to the public later this month on April 27th. There are several more issues in the series that are slated for publication and public release over the next few months, so do not expect it to stop anytime soon. Imagine buying 876 issues at the price tag of $2.99 each. The total comes to $2,619.24 in chump change. Try slapping that price tag down on the counter with your piggy bank money!

Review of the science-fiction comedy film 'Paul' (2011)

Let me begin with a checklist of the basics in building a modern day science-fiction comedy film. If it becomes a cult classic among geeks and nerds alike then success has been obtained. To place at the top of the list would be a protagonist geek (or maybe a pair of geeky friends) who can be completely associative with all the nerds and geeks who are in the audience. Immediately following the first place spot of an ideal, yet socially inept, geek hero would be to place him (or her) and the best friend in a road trip that would lead the characters from one geek haven to another in order to form a traditional arch of narrative storytelling. This will allow the geeky audience to vicariously live their unique nerd style fantasies through the fictional characters.

In order to connect the dots from one elemental pit stop to another within the story there must be several comedic references to a variety of the pop-culture variety, but a deep rooted foundation in the sub-genre of the science-fiction and comic book entertainment This will open up a door of acceptance for the geeks to willingly connect with the characters as if there is a bond that is being created between them. The group is sharing a moment of friendship with each other with the use of comedic relations commonly referred to as the Inside Joke. It would not be the same experience for everyone if the average 2011 comedy film had omitted all forms of vulgarity from its final cut, therefore blocking the opportunity of any non-geek or nerd from enjoy the movie. It would be downright rude to shun any jock, cheerleader, or theater diva from attending a screen of the film. Therefore, there are vulgar jokes included in the film as many members of the younger generation enjoy a good dirty joke.

The science-fiction comedy film Paul (2011) includes everything that I have mentioned already. Two thirty-something year old best friends head out to the San Diego Comic Con to keep in touch with their inner geek and comic nerd identity. Once the convention is over the pair head out for a road trip throughout the American west to visit as many terrestrial landmarks as they possibly could visit. What they were not expecting was to meet an actual extra terrestrial being named Paul.

The vast majority of the dirty jokes are derived in a conversation involving Paul and it is no surprise he is voiced by actor Seth Rogen who has appeared in several vulgar comedies of recent years. Nothing against him as a person or as an actor, but he does have a string of R-rated comedy films in his wake.

Aside from the vulgarity and the numerous amounts of pop culture geekiness, the story is entertaining for a contemporary road trip film. Personally, I enjoyed the (not always subtle) references to other iconic films such as Alien, Raiders of the Lost Ark, E.T., and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The cameo appearances by Steven Spielberg (voice only) and Sigourney Weaver served their purpose for the film, but not the best cameo appearance that I have ever seen in recent movies. Ahem, refer to my review for Zombieland, if necessary. It was almost painfully obvious that Spielberg’s voice cameo was nothing more than a tool from the director and writer to help the audience connect the dots from one movie reference joke to another in the briefest amount of time. His conversation with alien life form is about the storyline for E.T. as Paul (the alien) is sitting in a large warehouse filled with an endless supply of wooden crates that strongly resembles the closing scene for Raiders of the Lost Ark will help the audience draw a connection between multiple Spielberg films.

After leaving the movie theater when the film was over I began thinking about the worthwhile value of paying for the viewing of the film. Is it worth paying for the cost of a movie theater ticket or waiting until it is released on DVD so that I can rent the movie for a cheaper price? My conclusion would be to rent the movie when it is released for home viewing.