The Bin–3/5/10

The Bin–3/5/10

Mar 05

Back in the day, we used to just like stuff every week. We still like stuff, but now we mix in links, videos and other random claptrap. We call it the Bin, and it will steal your heart away.

Stuff We Like This Week

Matt: I finally caught up with two flicks that had been on my “must see” list for a while. Inglorious Basterds was just a great movie; I loved that Tarantino took his gift for writing conversation and unleashed it on a World War II war flick. I was struck by how full of suspense those conversations were. Each separate sequence was its own tight-rope walk with characters trying to talk their ways into, out of, or around being discovered by the enemy. Each sequence built into one great final sequence with all the pieces set in motion, two forces set against this theater of Nazis, neither aware of what the other had planned, and only Colonel Hans Landa (brilliantly portrayed by Christoph Waltz) is on the trail of two capers that could if successful end the war. I love Tarantino, at least good Tarantino, and here he seems to fuse his tendency for long, circuitous dialogue sequences to a real powerful narrative drive.

The other flick was Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and it was…good? Okay? It’s so hard for me to tell; I love the books and so it’s hard to separate the film from the story, if that makes sense. I liked many parts of the film, but it didn’t hang together well for me as a whole. The climax seemed rushed. Overall it felt more like “man, this is a cool part of the book that I’m seeing on screen” than “this is a cool moment in a cool movie that stands on its own.”

Jeff: I’m basically in love with Watch Instantly all month.  Why? Because I’m doing a theme month on Jefferson Stolarship – 31 Days of Terror.  Each day, I’m delving into a horror flick that I either love or hate immensely, and where else can you find a bevy of readily available horror cinema?  Other than my DVD shelf, that is.

I finally got my hands on a copy of Joe the Barbarian #2 this week, too, and well, that’s an amazing comic book.

I’m still torn between being over Tim Burton and wanting to check out what he’s wrought with this new Alice. One of the most compelling reasons to go?  The trailer for Tron: Legacy, which will probably only serve to make the 9 month gap between now and the movie’s opening date even more maddening.

Oh, and HEY HEY HEY Ben Grimm is an Avenger! I’m geeking the hell out over here. Love the way Immonen draws him. I was going to pass on New Avengers, honestly, but now I am SOLD.

Chris: A friend recommended Pontypool, a Canadian film, based on a CBC radioplay, based on a book, about a radio station in rural Ontario, when a zombie-esque outbreak occurs – only it’s not a bio virus that’s spreading, it’s a word virus, specifically in English. The movie is at the same time the best and worst of Canadian cinema – it backs a lot of ideas into a small budget, and yet somehow manages to equate government funding as “I don’t have to make this one part make sense… it’s art.” Still, I recommend it. And it stars Stephen McHattie, whom most of you may recognize from X-files, or Watchmen, and directed by Bruce McDonald (Hard Core Logo.)

I spotted Milestone Forever #2 on the stands this week, and had to nab it and issue one, which I’d overlooked apparently. I loved Milestone – true, they came out closer to the end of the Fool The Suckers era of comics, which most of their first issues coming pre-bagged, with trading cards inside, but they were also something new and different. Static was the most popular character, who has already managed to find his way over into the DC cartoon continuity, but this two-parter served as a way to reconnect and in some ways retire or wrap-up characters, while at the same time merging them into the regular DC continuity. Which is, pardon, FUCKING AWESOME! I know I’m probably alone on this, but this is best thing DC has done with The Bleed since they first grabbed it and started humping.

Link Stew

Join the Ebert Club. Just do it. Five bucks a year to monetize a national treasure. Small price to pay.

A massive list on io9 of the 75 essential books for DC’s 75th anniversary. Crack open the checkbook, fanboys!

Common Methodologies of Monster Vanquishing – the only infographic you’ll ever need.

I’ve made two more shirts with nerds in mind! Three, if you’re a Professor Layton fan!

Etc.