Classic Ten - Hottest Bond Girls

The New York Times Link

2009-07-10T18:59:37Z

Hi all,
For some reason, the link to the Times' Mad Men marketing story did not post. Here it is:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/10/business/media/10adco.html

From the NYT: Marketers are Going "Mad"

2009-07-10T18:46:48Z

Hi Maddicts,
Yesterday's New York Times featured a story: on the promotion blitz for Season Three. Companies such as Banana Republic, Clorox and the magazines Vanity Fair and Variety are partnering on some fun-sounding campaigns. My August Vanity Fair contains an insert featuring the cast of MM. Store visitors can receive a MM Style Guide (like we don't know it already!) and can enter a drawing to be a walk-on. Check it out!

While we're on the subject, what other marketers would you recommend to join the MM promotion bandwagon, and why? Let's steer clear of the obvious (alcohol, cigarettes, firearms, apparel, cosmetics, etc.) and get creative. How about a campaign for Trojans, with the slogan "One Pete is enough."

Next?

Talk Forum and Comments - What You're Saying

2009-07-10T16:09:28Z

AMCtv.com awards the Talk-forum commenters quoted in our weekly "What You're Saying" post with prizes like a Breaking Bad poster or Breaking Bad T-shirt (limit one per person).

Predictions for Season 3, a scenario where Jesse would kill Walt and a debate over whether Walt should keep teaching all had Breaking Bad's fans talking this week.

• "My predictions for possible scenarios for season three:
-Gus has Walt Jr. (aka Flynn) kidnapped...
-Part of the airplane wreckage lands on Skyler as she is driving, plunging Walt into further despair and making him even more ruthless and coldblooded
-Jesse undergoes some sort of spiritual awakening while in rehab and turns his back on Walt
-Walt starts getting high on his own supply and becomes a stone cold killer. Hank is first to go because Walt is paranoid & thinks that Hank must be on to him. Next is Jesse. Skyler, Flynn, and the baby are killed on the last episode after Walt, who has been awake for two weeks, finally loses his marbles." -- jl32175

]]>

• "I don't think Jesse will ever be killed off the show, he is too big a part of the storyline. It may be more the other way round, Walt would never be killed off the show either, but Jesse will definitely try when he finds out about Walt watching Jane die." -- mikedee

• "I hope Walt quits his teaching job because there's nothing for him there anymore now that his wife wants him out. The fact that he's a teacher, teaching boring classes has been well and truly established and the writers no longer need to slow down the show's pace by filming in the classroom which is painful to watch. Maybe he'll even sweet talk his way into a job with Gretchen & her husband and then sneakily ruin them." -- Brett

• "I've always liked the idea of him [Walt] continuing to teach high school while doing his drug deals at the same time. I think that's a core aspect of the show's premise that highlights the extreme dichotomy between Walt's old life and his new Heisenberg persona. Basically, if he stopped being a teacher then he would just be a drug dealer, and thus (potentially) not quite as interesting. Especially if he's not going to be around his family as much in the next season, then there won't be anything left to keep that aspect of the show alive, assuming that the old Walt is to continue existing at all." -- stormsiren609

Log onto the Talk forum to join in any of these conversations or start a Breaking Bad topic of your own.

The house again.....

2009-07-10T17:05:48Z

Today, kathiemarie posted something way back there about the house, and I realized it's been bugging me, and I'd like to bring it up just one more time before the new season.

Short and Tweet - Brief Reviews for Movies Released July 10

2009-07-10T15:00:00Z

• Soul Power
Documentary about the Zaire '74 concert, no talking heads at all. Fascinating, cool, and true.
For the full review, click here.

• Humpday
Awkwardness aplenty as two straight men attempt to make a porn flick. Funny but, um, really awkward.
For the full review, click here.

• Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
All about one of TV's earliest sitcoms, here to remind us of our long-buried history.
For the full review, click here.

Lake Tahoe
Poignant, observational comedy abounds in this tale of lazy, lonesome days in rural Mexico.
For the full review, click here.

• Brüno
Sacha Baron Cohen's stagey "Borat" follow-up tries to hard to shock, fails to be very funny.
For the full review, click here.

Exclusive Video - Production Designer Shows Off His Sketches of The Village's Retro Props

2009-07-10T14:30:00Z

A flip through production designer Michael Pickwoad's sketch book reveals early designs for a café with German-Dutch architectural touches, a retro-looking taxi, and a portly desktop computer. Could that be a map of The Village in the background?

Flashback Five - There's a Hilarious History Behind Bruno's Vulgarities

2009-07-10T14:00:00Z

Vulgar. Provocative. Outrageous. Those are just three of the buzz words being thrown about to help market Sacha Baron Cohen's documentary-satire, Bruno. And though Sacha Baron Cohen has turned limit-pushing into an artform, comedies have been shocking audiences into laughter for decades. Here's a look back at some of the movies that paved the way.

1. Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006)
Maybe a little too on the nose, but Borat propelled Baron Cohen to stardom, using his "hilarious foreign man" character to expose racism, sexism, and other isms in the USA. From getting a rodeo crowd to cheer the phrase, "We support your war of terror!" to stuffing Pamela Anderson in a bag, there's no shortage of envelope pushing scenes. But the one most seared in our minds is the completely naked fight Borat and his producer have throughout a Los Angeles hotel. Never before has anything so horrifyingly hairy been seen on screen.

2. The Aristocrats (2005)
A documentary about the most offensive joke ever told is asking for controversy. Though this movie actually got little of it, even with every comedian in the stratosphere mentioning every single vile, disgusting act -- both sexual and otherwise -- that you can possibly imagine. Perhaps its most lasting impact was taking a backstage practice (telling your version of "The Aristocrats"), and bringing it to the forefront of American culture. Even grandmothers in Peoria know if they hear, "A family walks into an agent's office, say, have we got an act for you..." it's time to run for the hills.

]]> 3. South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut (1999)
Songs about uncle molestation. Gay Hitler pulling out severed penises and throwing them at his lover, Satan, in Hell. A giant clitoris that stops a war between Canada and America. Any of these scenes in the big screen adaptation of Trey Parker and Matt Stone's seminal series could have been lightning rods for the press. Instead, the central conceit, that the South Park kids buy tickets for an R-rated cartoon movie, sending their parents into a tizzy, became presciently self-reflexive when the movie itself became the center of a nation-wide debate on the ratings process that continues to this day.

4. Porky's (1992)
Before American Pie, before Van Wilder, there was Porky's, which most critics consider the original outrageous teen comedy. The tropes of teen comedies were set here by a group of mismatched high schoolers trying to lose their virginity, including copious nudity and swearing, and lots and lots of pranks. The most famous scene has the group of guys drilling a hole in the wall of the girl's shower room in their school gym, which inspired the movie's iconic poster.

5. Pink Flamingos (1972)
You can't talk about shocking and outrageous without, in the same breathe, mentioning John Waters. The Baltimore based filmmaker has been pushing the envelope for years. And though modern audiences may know Waters for the cheery musical version of his most earnest movie, Hairspray, they might throw up just a little bit if they knew the mother from Hairspray (no, not John Travolta; Divine, from the original) once ate actual human feces in Pink Flamingos. And that might possibly be the cleanest part of the movie.

Honorable Mentions:

1. Jackass: The Movie (2002): The Jackass TV gang took their dangerous shenanigans to the screen, and created a sublimely hilarious movie. And unlike other prank movies, the gang only hurt themselves.

2. Dogma (1999): Kevin Smith has courted outrage his whole career, but it took him until 1999 to find the world's best lightning rod: Mixing religion with George Carlin, and a CGI monster made out a substance only fit for Divine (see above) to eat.

3. There's Something About Mary (1998): ...And an entire nation never looked at hair gel or Cameron Diaz's head the same way again.

4. The Producers (1968): It's been made into a Broadway musical, and then a movie again based on that but nothing will ever beat the priceless audience reactions in Mel Brooks' "Springtime for Hitler."

5. The Great Dictator (1940): And speaking of the leader of the Third Reich, Charlie Chaplin pioneered the offensive comedy, scathingly satirizing Hitler and the Nazi regime at a time when the U.S. was still, technically, at peace with Germany.

Betty's Confession

2009-07-10T13:32:39Z

I just rewatched Episode 13 S2 last night and realized that Betty really wanted to throw her infidelity in Don's face when she turned from the sink and told him she needed to talk to him. He turns off the radio, gives her, his full attention, they sit at the kitchen table, and Betty says there's something she needs to tell him. She chickened out (no pun intended) and reverted back to being Don's wife right then and there. She relenquished control of the marriage which she had been enjoying for several weeks with that lump in her throat and a resigned, "I'm pregnant." Betty fans do not despair, however, she's had a taste of power, and she likes it. Betty may become Don in Weiner's world of change!

Who the heck is Mitch?

2009-07-10T12:33:52Z

I was watching some S1 episodes last night and all the guys were talking about Mitch's wife and how good looking she is. Then I remembered a number of times that Mitch was mentioned in other episodes, most notably when Harry gets his position as head of television he mentions something about Mitch not being happy. Does anyone know who the heck Mitch is??? There was a guy in episode 1 who never seemed to return... I wonder if that was Mitch. Thoughts???

Dennis Quaid Gives The Rookie Perfect Pitch

2009-07-10T04:01:00Z

The newly-released trailers for the upcoming G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra make at least one thing clear -- that Dennis Quaid has now entered a profitable, if predictable, stage in his career where he can show up to lend grit and goodness to a huge action-blockbuster by his mere presence as "General Hawk." And it's hard to argue with that too much: If anyone deserves to sell out/buy in, it's Quaid -- he's definitely paid his dues. And true Quaid fans will be endlessly rewarded by a look at the back catalogue that earned him his near-iconic status -- like, say, The Rookie, 2002's unexpectedly charming sports drama in which Quaid stars as Jim Morris, a small-town Texas baseball coach who gets offered a late-in-life chance of a lifetime.

Let's be honest:The Rookie is loaded with clichés, but the mitigating factor is that it's based on a true story. Quaid plays Jimmy Morris, a coach who spent some time in the minors years ago; he's older now, with a family, and his dreams of baseball glory are sublimated onto the kids on his team, whom he loves unabashedly. It turns out Jimmy's still got an arm, though, and when he pitches for the kids when a scout comes to town, his fastball clocks in at 98 miles per hour. As the scout (a perfectly-cast Blue Deckert) says, "Now, if I call the office and tell 'em I got a guy here almost twice these kids' age, I'm gonna get laughed at. But, if I don't call in a 98-mile-an-hour fastball, I'm gonna get fired!"

]]> Alas, Jimmy doesn't have daydreams; he has a day job. But the kids on his team make a deal with him -- namely, that if they can make it to the playoffs, he has to commit to open tryouts for the big leagues. Of course they do, and of course he does. But Hancock doesn't make this material easy. In fact, with its tone of dreams deferred, denied and diligently worked for in the wide-open spaces of Texas, The Rookie would make a great companion piece for the excellent Friday Night Lights.

Still, there's no mistaking that The Rookie is Quaid's show. His work as Morris isn't just broad; it's deep. Quaid captures the complexities of real marriage here, and real family life, even among all the pitching-at-sunset and weary-armed post-practice montages. Yes, Quaid makes use of that rakish smile of his in The Rookie -- quite a bit, actually -- but he also shows you how it's not just the smile of a man trying to charm others, but also trying to convince himself.

The old line that you can tell a great actor by how much they improve a good movie applies to The Rookie. Some of its more sentimental moments would be numbingly saccharine if Quaid weren't always there to remind us that Jimmy's caught between the lunacy of trying to get back into a young man's game and the madness of having regrets that haunt him. You know how The Rookie's going to end -- what makes the film work is Quaid, who makes you contemplate the effort it takes to be a decent man, and understand what it feels like to be torn between one's dreams and one's doubts.

Watch The Rookie on AMC Sat., July 11 at 8PM | 7C.

Mary Robinette Kowal - Off With Her Head? Why Fantasy Hates Good Queens

2009-07-10T04:00:29Z

A few weeks ago we had a ball discussing the Top Ten Evil Queens of fantasy. But something occurred to me as I was doing my research: While I had no trouble finding evil queens, the only ones I could find that were depicted as being "good" were physically compromised in some way. (And I'm not talking about princesses here -- I mean women in real seats of power.) The question this raises for me is, does power corrupt or are powerful women seen as dangerous in fantasy? Let's take a look at the way good queens are hobbled to find out.

Small Queens
I've lumped two types together here: Child queens and little people. By the latter, I mean queens like Cherlindrea in Willow. Granted she's the same size as the people she rules, but she's also small enough to be physically dominated. That ability to control a queen physically might explain why lots of good queens are kids: Lucy and Susan in The Chronicles of Narnia are 8 and 12 in the first movie. By the second, when Susan is old enough to be considered a woman, she's sent back to our world and no longer allowed to be a queen. At least Susan's in good company: Many of the older good queens I could find were teens like Empress Savina in Dungeons and Dragons. After that, they all turned evil. Heck, even when you move over to space fantasy like Star Wars: Episode I, Padmé is only 14 when she's in charge.

]]> Ailing Queens
There is a way a queen can remain good as she comes into adulthood: She just needs to get sick. MirrorMask is an excellent example of this. There are two queens: One good, one evil. The evil queen is a vibrant, strong woman at the height of her power. She's ambitious and seemingly capable of anything. The good queen? She's in a coma. And this is a pattern you'll see repeated in other movies. The Childlike Empress from The Neverending Story, who is already diminished by her very name, is also dying. She needs a boy from our world to save her. Typical male fantasy.

Married Queens
OK, so you really want to be a good queen. You want to survive your teenage years in good health and rule as a healthy adult. No problem. It's just that you'll have to get married. Galadriel in The Lord of the Rings rules with her husband. Guinevere rules with her husband. Even the mother in The Lion King rules with her husband -- that is, until he's deposed. Then what happens? She loses power to her brother-in-law. Sure, we're talking about lions, but it's so consistent with what happens with other queens that it's hard to shake off. The fact is, marriage is another way a queen's power is usurped -- because when Guinevere is "ruling" with King Arthur, who's really ruling? That's what I thought.

Having said all that, it might surprise you to learn that there's one character I stumbled upon who's actually a mature, healthy woman in power: Glinda the Good Witch from The Wizard of Oz. If you want a role model on how to be a good queen in fantasy, your one choice dresses like a doll and rules over little people. I don't really have complaints about her wardrobe choice, because she also kicks some serious ass while wearing the world's largest skirt. But you don't have to be a queen to rule over little people -- just ask your local kindergarten teacher.

So the question remains: Does power corrupt or are powerful women dangerous? Personally, I think it's the latter. There are examples of good queens in real life, but somehow the only thing that stirs our imagination when it comes to women is either the gender's capacity for evil or helplessness.

Tell me why I'm wrong in the comments.

Mary Robinette Kowal is the winner of the 2008 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer and a professional puppeteer. Her first novel Shades of Milk and Honey is being published by Tor in 2010.

Daily Scan for 07.10.09 - Tennant May Join Who Movie; Superman Cameo in Green Lantern?

2009-07-10T04:00:16Z

• Rumor has it David Tennant just might announce his participation in a Doctor Who movie.

• Star Wars: The Old Republic -- Lucasarts and Bioware's upcoming MMO -- the low-down on Boba Fett's ancestors, the fearsome Mandalorians.

• Michael Bay could make over $150 million on Transformers 2 merchandising alone. Now that's Bayhem.

• Cameron Diaz is looking set to be the leading lady of Seth Rogen and Michel Gondry's Green Hornet.

• SF Signal continues its three part Mind Meld with their guide to International Science Fiction.

]]> • If the Green Lantern's screenwriter has his druthers, Superman will appear in the film to establish a universe, a la Iron Man.

• Except it might be more complicated than that: Unless Warner Bros. makes another Superman movie by 2013, they'll lose the rights to the film back to creators Siegel and Shuster.

• Harold Ramis talks about Ghostbusters 3 and keeping the formula true to form.

Ultimate Fan Quiz - Dennis Quaid

2009-07-10T04:00:15Z

Breaking Away and Jaws 3-D catapulted Dennis Quaid to stardom. Quaid then earned a reputation as a guy who could deliver winning performances, whether it's with his rock band Shark or as an aging ballplayer in The Rookie. (What team does he pitch for?) Which star does he play in Great Balls of Fire!? Find out now.Take Quiz Â»

To challenge yourself with more movie trivia, try our Super Movie Quiz.

Check out The Rookie, playing Saturday on AMC at 8PM | 7C and Sunday at 5PM | 4C Click here for the full schedule.

Also check out Rookie of the Year, about a boy who becomes a phenom pitcher for the Chicago Cubs, playing Saturday on AMC at 11PM | 10C and on Sunday at 2:30PM | 1:30C. Click here for the full schedule.

Blood: The Last Vampire Review - Buffy Meets Blade, But How Do They Get Along?

2009-07-10T04:00:12Z

Imagine a cross between Blade and TV's Buffy the Vampire Slayer, set it on a U.S. Air Force base in Vietnam-era Japan, and add elaborate actionsequences choreographed by martial arts master Corey Yuen. That should give you some idea what to expect from Blood: The Last Vampire, an English-language stew of international genre influences, directed by French filmmaker Chris Nahon and written by Chris Chow, who was born in mainland China, raised in Hong Kong and educated in America.

Tokyo, 1970: Saya (Korean model/actress Jun Ji-hyun, billedas "Gianna") doesn'tlook a day over 16, but she was born 400 years ago to a legendary warrior and the vampire demon who seduced and murdered him. Having since devoted more lifetimes than she can count to slaughtering creatures of darkness, Saya maintains an uneasy alliance with "The Council," a clandestine organization that keeps her in blood and safe houses in return for her very special services. She's seen as a loose cannon by everyone but her longtime handler, Michael (Liam Cunningham), who's probably the only person in the world capable of persuading her to take a job that demands she swap her sullen, street-chic look for pigtails, knee socks and adorable sailor-style uniform of a Japanese student. Her mission: Clean up the nasty little demon problem that's cropped up at Kanto Base, a U.S. military installation without drawing undue attention to herself.

]]> Saya finds Kanto Base seriously infested with blood-sucking scum, and is forced to team up willful teenager Alice McKee (Allison Miller), who happens to see her decapitate a couple of vamps -- so much for the low-profile part of her assignment. After the creatures kill Alice's dad, the girls take it on the lam, warding off demon attacks as they search for the big bad, an ancient demon called Onigen (Kato Koyuki).

Blood: The Last Vampire is part of a saga spread across manga, video games, a TV series, an animated movie and several novels. This installment is essentially an extended remake of the 2001 anime version; the first half sticks pretty closely to the original, while the second is a string of large-scale action sequences a la Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, interspersed with flashbacks to Saya's 16th-century youth, when her late father's loyal factotum taught her ways of the samurai.

The movie's look is stunning, a shimmering, neo-noir fever dream of neon signs, rain-slicked streets, lonely crowds and enigmatic men in dark suits and darker sunglasses. But the special effects are less than special: The vampire demons, which look like living gargoyles when they drop their human pretenses, are rubbery, and the buckets of CGI blood are conspicuously fake. Blood's greatest asset is Jun in her sexy-cute uniform, accessorized with a gleaming samurai sword: She's a bad-ass Sailor Moon. But nothing underscores stilted dialogue like handing it off to someone who speaks the language imperfectly, and Jun is better seen than heard.

Overall, this take on Blood: The Last Vampire is a disappointment, but nothing short of a stake through the heart will keep the franchise down.

The Newsdesk 07.10.09 - Timberlake Might Be Green Lantern; Galifianakis Reteams With Hangover Helmer

2009-07-10T04:00:01Z

• Justin Timberlake, Ryan Reynolds, and Bradley Cooper are the top contenders to play Green Lantern. Timberlake's clearly the way to go here. He'll use his powers to spread funky grooves to the masses.

• Todd Phillips and Zach Galifianakis will reunite for the comedy Due Date before making The Hangover 2. But will the baby from The Hangover make a cameo? There's your breakout star.

• Mel Gibson will star as a depressed man whose only friend is his beaver puppet in Jodie Foster's Beaver. This has the potential to be his best film since Lethal Weapon.

]]> • Zooey Deschanel will join James Franco and Danny McBride in Your Highness, a period comedy from David Gordon Green (Pineapple Express). Mr. Green, please stop making stoner movies before you blow all the cred you earned with George Washington.

• George Clooney plans to make a movie in the earthquake-ravaged Italian city of L'Aquila.

• The producer of The Dark Knight plans to bring back the Remo Williams, Destroyer character. Yes, the one from 1985's Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins -- 14 years later, the adventure finally continues.