Author Archive

  • 14 Dec

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    My Name is Bruce Trailer

    18

    Woot, the firewall at my work seems to be down right now and therefore I am able to bring you the first My Name is Bruce trailer.

    All I have to say is that this sure looks like fun.

  • 13 Dec

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    Middle of the Row Episode 1 – The Cop Out Trailer Show

    8

    this episode
    I ramble on a bit about the origins of Row Three, where the domain name came from and then I look at some of the early 2008 movies.

    Here are a few of the movies that I cover:

    I hope the longer show works well. I didn’t go too overboard, but with all the trailers it ended up passing the 35 minute mark.

    I really encourage any criticisms and comments that you have about the podcast. I’m still learning how to do a podcast. I am also on the look out for someone with free time, a microphone and a willingness to spend some time chatting about movies approximately once a week to join me on the show. If you are possibly interested feel free to send an email to john@rowthree.com and we can chat offline about the possibility.

    Oh and one final question… can someone please tell me why Google thinks I speak Spanish?

    Middle of the Row Episode 1 [ 35:08 | 24.12 MB ] Play Now | Play in Popup
  • 13 Dec

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    Point Me Towards Some Good Overlooked Movies Please

    38

    Perils of GwendolineI was browsing through the Movie Patron forums and one of the posts there started me thinking. The post was a list of genres and each person is supposed to list a movie in each genre. I was thinking it would be cool to do something along those lines here but with a twist. Instead of just listing movies that you enjoy we instead list movies that you enjoy that you think others might overlook. I’ll start:

    * What can I say I have a soft spot in my heart for this Indiana Jones rip off.
    ** I will eventually get everyone to watch this movie!
    *** Okay so its not really a fantasy movie but it does deal with reincarnation.
    **** Yup, this movie is bad and I know it!

  • 13 Dec

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    Help Us to Improve

    26

    Row Three LogoThis may be a bit early to post as the site is really only approximately 3 weeks old but I was over reading comments on Film Junk after listening to their always excellent podcast and I read the following:

    I can already see one downside to Row Three: too many posts. It’s almost impossible to keep up with the stories and discussion, even if I visit daily.

    So I figured I’d put the question out there. How can we improve Row Three for all of you? Our main goal is to create a site that encourages discussion on various topics in film. I do not think we’ll ever be a movie news site since that is already done well enough by many different sites. We would like Row Three to be like a group of friends just sitting around gabbing about whatever comes up.

    So is there anything you the readership would like to see here? We’re definitely open for suggestions.

  • 11 Dec

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    What Exactly is a Release Date

    12

    Pan’s LabyrinthAll of us here at Row Three have started to compile our top 10 lists for the year and a question was asked concerning one of my picks. I placed Pan’s Labyrinth on my list. At the Academy Awards last year Pan’s Labyrinth was nominated for best foreign film. This should mean that it was released previously right.

    Here in Canada we did not get to see it until January 19th unless you live in one of the major centres like Toronto. The actual limited release dates were as follows: October 11, 2006 (Spain), October 20, 2006 (Mexico), 24 November 2006 (UK), December 29, 2006 (USA) plus if you go to the film festival circuit Pan’s Labyrinth was actually released on September 10th at TIFF. So what date do we take as the actual release date? For me personally I’m going with the January 19th one which places the movie in this current year.

    My question for everyone is when would you place the release date for Pan’s Labyrinth, or for that matter any other movie with multiple release dates and Am I wrong for including it in this years top 10?

  • 10 Dec

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    Summer Blockbusters do not Have to Suck

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    It has been an early, cold winter here in Saskatoon, so I figured the best way to warm myself up was to highlight some excellent summer blockbusters. There seems to be a growing trend that a studio can just slap together any old story with some really cool special effects and it will do well in summer. I do not want to be too negative on movies so instead of knocking the movies that do this I’d rather just focus on a few movies that went the other way. Lets have some great action with a great story.

    Continue reading the post and view the trailers after the cut.

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 06 Dec

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    A Weird Discussion with the Wife

    12

    Kubrick Box SetSo last night while I was having supper with the family my wife started asking me if I was sure that I really wanted the DVD Box set I had put on my Christmas list. I stared back at her blankly and asked her which one. She couldn’t remember which it was so I assumed it was the Alejandro Jodorowsky box set but she didn’t think that was the one. I figured it had to be it be that one and she somehow read the cover of one of the DVDs or something but nope it wasn’t it. The only other one I could remember asking for was the new Coen Brother‘s set but that just didn’t make sense. Why would I not want that one? I mentioned it and she said it was not it. She pulled out the Christmas list while telling me not to look because she had made some notes on the page and it turned out it was the Stanley Kubrick set. I listed off a few movies in it from memory and she had this weird look on her face and asked if I really did want it.

    So now I am totally confused. She wouldn’t really say what is wrong with the set or anything. My feeling is she just thinks I’m crazy that I would want movies that are not mainstream. My question to all of you is do your families think you are crazy for wanting to watch movies that are not the typical fare?

  • 05 Dec

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    Defining Moment: The Jazz Singer

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    Jazz SingerI‘ve decided to contribute a new reoccurring post here on Row Three called Defining Moment. My plan is to give a short mention of moments in film that have had an impact on film as a whole.

    The first of that I’d like to mention is Al Jolson‘s first words in The Jazz Singer. The Jazz singer was released in 1927 and it was the first non silent feature movie. Prior to this movie if a movie had sound it came from a gramophone records. Even when it was released with sound there were only a few theatres that were equipped to handle the sound but it became obvious pretty quickly that this was not a fad and soon more and more theatres were equipped.

    Al Jolson’s first words which were ad libbed were “Wait a minute, wait a minute, you ain’t heard nothin’ yet! Wait a minute, I tell ya! You ain’t heard nothin’! You wanna hear “Toot, Toot, Tootsie”? All right, hold on, hold on…Lou, listen. Play “Toot, Toot, Tootsie”, three chorus, you understand. In the third chorus, I whistle. Now give it to ‘em hard and heavy, go right ahead.”

    Its with these words that Jolson and The Jazz Singer ushered in a new era of movies.

  • 05 Dec

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    Limited Releases

    30

    before1.jpg“Limited release is a term in the American motion picture industry for a motion picture that is playing in a select few theaters across the country (typically in cities such as New York and Los Angeles).

    A limited release is often used to gauge the appeal of an independent film – especially of documentaries and art films. A common practice by major film studios is to give highly anticipated and critically-acclaimed films a limited release in December in New York and Los Angeles in order to qualify them for an Academy Award nomination, as set out by the rules outlined by the Academy. These films would often receive a wider release later in January or February.” (Source: Wikipedia)

    I hate to say it but I have a serious problem with movie studios. I can acknowledge the use of releasing a small low budget film on a very limited scale to gauge the response in order to see if it should be given a wide release. I do not accept giving limited releases to movies that they know will get a wide release. In my mind all this encourages is movie piracy. If a movie is available in Toronto, Los Angeles and New York and I do not know when it will be released in my city I would be tempted to see if I can find that movie by other means. I would still pick it up on DVD if it is good once it is released but until that point I would be very tempted to watch it illegally.

    I live in a fair sized city. Saskatoon has approximately 200,000 people currently living here. As an example, I am sure that if they released Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead (Our Review) there would be a large enough audience to justify its release here. There are only three cases where in my mind I can justify a limited release: 1) Releasing a movie for press only is completely valid. This is how movies get early reviews; 2) Showing the movie at a film festival. Film festivals are a special case and I can fully appreciate that; and 3) Releasing small low budget films on a limited scale in order to gauge if they will make or loose money when released fully.

    I am not saying that I believe in movie piracy or anything but it sure makes it hard to wait for a movie when everyone I know has already seen it.

  • 03 Dec

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    Extended Thoughts: The Ending of The Mist

    30

    The MistI have yet to read Stephen King‘s novella The Mist and truthfully I probably never will but I have heard how the ending of the movie is quite different than the provided in the novella and I would really like to delve into the new ending a bit.

    Stephen King has gone on to give his approval of the new ending: “Frank wrote a new ending that I loved. It is the most shocking ending ever and there should be a law passed stating that anybody who reveals the last 5 minutes of this film should be hung from their neck until dead.” (Source: Cinema Blend). Since I do want to discuss how I think the ending fails I will first off warn you to not click the button nor should you read the comments which I am sure will contain spoilers if you have not seen the movie.

    Of all the reviews I have read and heard everyone has heaped a fair amount of praise on Darabont for writing an ending that does not follow the usual Hollywood standard. I am willing to give him that he did create an ending that is memorable but I also do feel that it is a rather shallow ending. Since you are still reading this I will assume that you are either seen the movie or are fine with spoilers. The ending of the movie is not so much a twist but it does have an emotional punch so this is your last warning.

    show

  • 01 Dec

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    Update on Podcast Feeds

    0

    Hi All,

    I haven’t had a chance to post anything here but I am actually one of the contributors too. I figured I’d just say hi and let you know that I’m happy too see all of you here commenting and I look forward to participating myself. Unfortunately I’ve been kept fairly busy with the working on the actual site. The server crash threw a bit of a crimp into my planned postings but like every new project there will always be glitches.

    One glitch which is on my list of fixes are the rss feeds. Currently the feeds do not have any of the necessary code in to make them work with Itunes. My plan is to have this fixed by mid-week. I shall post another message to let you know when they are up and running.

    Sorry for the delay on this. I hope it isn’t inconveniencing any too much.

    John.

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