Frankbeaton.com

Brief media things

* My good friend JH Williams got me the ALIEN QUADRILOGY box set for my birthday, and I have now successfully watched all 4,300 hours of supplemental material. It was all extraordinarily well-produced, but the highlight, oddly enough, is the two-hour making-of feature for ALIEN³. The frankness of the people involved is astonishing. Writers, actors, producers, effects people all openly discussing the disappointment they felt as they were making what they knew was going to be a bad movie. One disaster after another, with plummeting morale all around. It’s a really unique insight into what “plagued by production problems” really means. And, no surprise, it all started when studio executives started rewriting the story to make it more marketable.

* On the insistence of another friend (TWO friends? No way!) I watched the much-lauded Canadian documentary THE CORPORATION and was completely blown away. It’s one of those rare docs that everyone should be forced to watch at least once. It touches on a lot of the themes in Naomi Klein’s work (she’s featured heavily in the film), but goes much further in pursuing its central question: if a corporation really is a “person” according to the law, what kind of person is it? Highest recommendation.

* Albums in heavy rotation right now: Eisley - COMBINATIONS, Various - MARIE ANTOINETTE: ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK, Flight of the Conchords - FOTC, Patton Oswalt - WEREWOLVES & LOLLIPOPS, Spearmint - PARIS IN A BOTTLE

* Fuck you, I happen to *like* M. Night Shyamalan movies. Y’all haters need to quit. For real.

* BOOM BLOX for the Wii is roughly as addictive as Percocet.

* I know I’m late to the party, but has there ever been anything as awesome as THE VENTURE BROS.? I’m pretty sure there hasn’t.