:: Guy in a Suit Productions ::

Tuesday, January 27, 2004

posted by Travis at 9:49 AM

All right, the GiaS Oscar Pool is up. Here are the directions for joining. Feel free to invite other people you know. I am the defending champion. If you read this blog regularly, you should enter the pool. That means you, Mollie.

1. Go here
2. Log in. If you played last year, you are already registered. If not, register...it takes 2 minutes.
3. Click the check box for I Accept the Updated Privacy Policy when the page pops up.
4. Update address and phone number.
6. Edit nickname.
7. Click Create or join a group.
8. Put guy in a suit in the search field and click Search by Name.
9. Click Guy in a Suit Oscar Pool.
10. Enter lucasrocks as the password.
11. Click Play Now
12. Click Edit Your Predictions
13. When you're done hit submit your selections

posted by Travis at 8:42 AM

The Oscar nominations are in. There aren't a lot of surprises in the list. The Return of the King got 11 nominations (the most for a single movie) followed by Master and Commander with 10. All the buzz about Tom Cruise getting nominated for The Last Samurai was for naught. I'll be creating the GiaS Oscar Pool again this year. I'll post when I get it all up.

Sunday, January 25, 2004

posted by Travis at 10:59 PM

Kim and I don't go to clubs much, but on Saturday Kim and her friend Heather asked me to "escort" them to a dance club for the night, so I did. Heather took us to Bar Sinister which is a goth club in Hollywood. I'm not a dancer or a club person, but I do enjoy watching strange people in their element, and at Bar Sinister there was plenty of that to go around. The patrons are those people from high school who were socially awkward, wore all black, and listened to The Cure all the time except now they're all grown up, still a bit awkward, and still into the black. I have to say, I enjoyed myself and would consider escorting the girls there again. Being the escort is simple; all you have to do is scowl at people that get too close to the girls. Actually, Kim and Heather would probably have been better off by themselves. I had to be the least scary person in the club.

I started watching the special features for Alien in the Alien Quadrilogy DVD boxed set tonight. If you're a fan of these movies, you'll love this set. If you already have the Alien Legacy boxed set (as I do) sell it and buy this one. Although, thanks to a friend of a friend, I got mine for $40 instead of the usual $80. That made my decision to buy much easier. I think I'm going to try to conquer all 9 DVDs this week; at least the movies and the featurettes.

The dogs are still alive, too.

Thursday, January 22, 2004

posted by Travis at 8:52 PM

"You might be a redneck if..."

...you build a yard on your back porch. Since we don't have a grassy area nearby for the dogs, we built one. It actually works perfectly, and it will work even better once the grass starts growing. We're going to build a second one, but smaller, on the upstairs porch.

The people wanted more pictures of the puppies, so here they are.

Monday, January 19, 2004

posted by Travis at 2:27 PM

Friday, January 16, 2004

posted by Travis at 10:27 AM

Some new trailers out today:

Van Helsing - Looks like it could be something, but then again, so did LXG.
Starsky and Hutch - This could be damn funny. A little Vince Vaughn goes a long way. The link goes directly to the large version, so right-click and do 'Save Target as'.
The Passion of the Christ - This is the third trailer that I've seen for this, although they all showcase the same scenes. I understand that this is the final trailer. Also, The Passion of the Christ, an independent movie that people were saying would never get distribution, is going to be on 2000 screens making it the biggest independent release ever. It's RealPlayer, but worth watching none-the-less.

Thursday, January 15, 2004

posted by Travis at 10:18 AM

All right. There are rumors out there about a third Star Wars trilogy. I've read the supporting evidence, and while it is convincing (ie FX companies' contracts being extended until 2012 and Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca) being contracted for Episodes VII, VIII, and IX), I urge everyone to take all these rumors with a grain of salt. I won't believe it until I read a Lucasfilm Ltd. press release on it. I do think, however, that shutting down a money printing machine like the Star Wars franchise may not be a good idea from a business stand point. I'm a fan of all the movies, and I mean all of them. The last two episodes have been critically panned and even fans come out against them, yet they continue to make at least $300 million in the US, not to mention the marketing tie-ins, DVDs, etc. So there is still money to be made from Star Wars. There are also rumors of new directors for the third trilogy.

We saw Mystic River last night with special guest Clint Eastwood. The movie was fantastic. Sean Penn defines the word "malice" near the end of the movie. I was afraid of what he would do when he was on screen. I would like to see him get nominated for Best Actor for this and 21 Grams and to win for one of them. Also, seeing and listening to Clint Eastwood was a treat.

They also made an announcement about a three-day screening of The Lord of the Rings Trilogy with Peter Jackson and some of the cast as guests. I've already ordered tickets.

Tuesday, January 13, 2004

posted by Travis at 7:52 PM

Not much going on around here of late. This week we'll be a little busy, though. Tomorrow we're seeing Mystic River followed by a Q&A with Clint Eastwood, Friday we'll get our dogs, and Saturday I'm going snowboarding.

This must be the slow period for movies and games because I have not been reading a lot of interesting news lately. Lucasarts officially announced Star Wars Battlefront today. It sounds like a Star Wars version of Battlefield 1942 which isn't a bad thing necessarily. Although, the recent Terminator version of BF1942 isn't fairing very well. Who knows, it could be good. Star Wars games are hit and miss these days.

Also, I read today that the first teaser for Van Helsing is hitting the net on Friday. I think this could be a great adventure movie, but we'll have to see what the teaser looks like.

Wednesday, January 07, 2004

posted by Travis at 11:44 PM

Kim and I went to see 21 Grams tonight at The Egyptian. Wow. What an amazing film. I've heard good things about it, but it really is very powerful. I watch a lot of movies, and I think I've become desensitized to drama. I mean, I still relate and empathize with characters, but I'm hardly ever affected by movies. I was driven nearly to tears during this one. On the way home I was telling Kim that popcorn action movies felt a little like porn after seeing a movie like that. Movies like 21 Grams rely on the script and the performance of that script. The whole movie is on the page. Popcorn action movies rely on action scenes and special effects and less on story and performance. I'm definitely not against popcorn action movies or summer blockbusters, but movies like this remind me of what storytelling is. Even the direction is secondary, which is good. The director, Alejandro Gonz�lez I��rritu, stays completely out of the way and lets the actors embody their characters. Naomi Watts, Sean Penn, and Benicio del Toro are all outstanding in this. Naomi Watts was on-hand after the movie for a Q&A.

Next week we're going back to see Mystic River, which I keep hearing is also very good. Clint Eastwood is going to be at the movie doing a Q&A afterwards, so I'm really looking forward to that.

Tuesday, January 06, 2004

posted by Travis at 2:12 PM

"There are many things my father taught me here in this room. He taught me: keep your friends close, but your enemies closer."

-Michael Corleone
-The Godfather Part II

I watched some of the Steve Jobs Keynote Address from Macworld today. I've never watched one of these before, and it wasn't bad. It looks like Apple has some neat things in the works. I would buy a Mac, but then I'd have to buy a new Volkswagen bug and put up posters of Einstein and John Lennon in my house. I'm not ready for that. Also the words "Apple Gamer" make me laugh. I know Macs are good for this and that and are faster than PCs, but I think my friend Jeremy summed it up best when he said, "How fast do you have to run Word?"

Sunday, January 04, 2004

posted by Travis at 6:00 PM

Kim and I are preparing our house for the arrival of two small dogs this week. She talked me into agreeing to get a puppy, and once you get one, another one is not that much additional trouble. So we decided to get two; a beagle and a shiba inu. They are both small dogs and will do just fine in our condo. I've had dogs all my life, and having some again will be nice. I've never had a beagle or one of these shiba things before, not that I remember anyway. We went to PetCo and bought all the necessary items today.

We've also decided that we are just too damn lazy to work on our house on the weekends, so we're hiring specialists to come in and do the work. Our kitchen is mostly done, but we still need to do painting and put molding all over the house. Hopefully in a month, we'll be much further along with this lengthy renovation. I'm just not very interested in home improvement work, or learning about how to do it.

Last thing, we saw Return of the King again last week. It is even better the second time. The Witch King kicks ass.

Friday, January 02, 2004

posted by Travis at 11:33 AM

My friend Nicky the Jew left some sarcastic but disparaging remarks about Keiko the Deceased Killer Whale at findagrave.com. Ever since then he has been receiving waves of hate mail. I sent him a supportive email stating that I, too, hate whales because a gang of whales burned down my village when I was a child*. So send Nick an email about how much you hate him or how much you hate whales. Either way, he'll be glad to get the attention.

*not guaranteed to be true