Pop Culture Casserole

Jump On The Reading Railroad Because Monoply Is Going To Be A Trainwreck

2008-11-13T14:47:00.000-08:00

Ridley Scott, the man who brought such great movies as Alien, Blade Runner, and Gladiator, has been picked to helm the upcoming board-game-gone-movie Monopoly penned by Pamela Pettler of The Corpse Bride and Monster house. Nothing has been released about what this movie will be about or why it's being made but my guess is that they'll cast Ben Kingsley as Mr. Monopoly.
How is it that some movies get green lit? Are we so desperate for ideas that we're turning to the toy company Hasbro for help? Sure, Transformers was a success and a sequel is on the horizon but there was some actual basis for a story. According to Variety, Hasbro has plans to turn not only Monopoly into a movie but Ouija and Battleship as well. My hope is that eventually Hungry, Hungry Hippos will be heading to the big screen soon.
There is a small hope deep down that Ridley Scott knows what he's doing and is not committing career suicide by directing a movie based on a board game.

Burning Bright, or Let's Set the Box Office on Fire!

2008-10-23T12:13:00.000-07:00

While perusing through the internets I came across an upcoming movie called Burning Bright and, after reading the description, knew I had to share it with you. Here's the plot: The thriller Burning Bright stars Briana Evigan as a young woman who is trying to save her autistic little brother during a hurricane. The two are trapped inside a house with a ravenous tiger. Now, if you're like me your brain started to bleed a little when you read that. I'm all for trying something new...but really? Take out the autistic brother and the hurricane and it sounds like it would be a buddy comedy with Jerry O'Connell and Cuba Gooding Jr.

This brings me to the point of this post. If you happen to be reading this and you're a studio executive, up and coming director, screenwriter or in any way involved in the creation of movies listen closely. The more gimmicks that you try to shove into a movie, the more you try to complicate a situation, the more you load it with impossible situations the greater it will fail. There should be only one conflict in a movie and if there's more than one it should be a comedy because people like to laugh at the guy who keeps getting beaten down. If it was just the hurricane, just an autistic brother, or just a ravenous tiger? You might have something. But to pack all three into, hopefully, just a 90 minute movie? Disaster. How this got a theatrical release instead of sinking into obscurity in the direct to DVD bin I'll never know.

Apparently there playing this as a kind of suspense horror movie which we obviously need more of. I think if there wasn't a Friday the 13th remake, Saw V, and a whole slew of crap slasher films coming out I don't know what I would do.

This movie is just a testament to the amazing lack of creativity in Hollywood right now. Thank God for movies like Synecdoche NY and filmmakers like Charlie Kaufman and the Coen Brothers. It'd be a sad world if all the cinema offered were High School the Musical sequels and 70's slasher film remakes.

Sail Forth Into Uncharted Lands

2008-10-21T12:16:00.000-07:00

Welcome to what I hope is to be the first of many posts to come here at Pop Culture Casserole. A casserole is one of those dishes where there's a little bit of everything thrown in to make something really good...or really vile. I hope to provide you with the former and not the latter. I'm going to share thoughts about books, movies, videogames, television, and anything else that happens to catch my interest.

To start, I'll say I've been reading Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged and it's probably one of the greatest books I've read. It's an amazing call to arms for people to use their minds and understand that you can't have everything handed to you. It's very hard to describe exactly how the book makes me feel because it takes a while to digest. The ideas put forth are incredible and make me want to put this book in the hands of everyone just so they can get a taste of what this book is about.

The book follows Dagny Taggart, the Vice-President of Operations for Taggart Transcontinental Railroad and her struggle to keep the company afloat despite the obstacles put in front of her by the powers that be. Along the way we meet a handful of characters who's goal is to either lend Dagny a hand or try to knock her down a few pegs.

I'm leaving out so much but I want to say again that this is a book that everyone should read. If you've read it I'd love to hear your thoughts and what your take on the book is.