The war of northern aggression

This weekend we checked out C.S.A.: Confederate States of America. It’s a new movie from right here in the KC area that explores what 21st century America would be like if the South had won the Civil War and slavery was still legal today. It was a very well-done mockumentary complete with commercial breaks and ads for products like an electronic slave shackle and the Home Slave Shopping Network.

The film has received lots of critical praise, including an appearance at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival. Right now it’s playing at the Screenland Theater in the Crossroads District of downtown KCMO. Here are the movie web site and the IMDb info.

Posted in KC, Movies | Comments (1)

McQuarrie artwork

Binary Bonsai has put up several high-res images from Ralph McQuarrie, the artist who made the original conceptual art work for the Star Wars trilogy. Flickr tip: when viewing the individual images, look towards the lower right of the screen for a link to more sizes.

More images

Posted in Movies | Comments

OK, maybe SpongeBob really is gay

At first I thought the accusations of SpongeBob being a gay influence on children were just more bizarre claims from the Repugnant wingnuts. But then I saw the movie. I won’t spoil the plot for you, but I can say that there are definitely some homoerotic undertones, and overtones (not that there’s anything wrong with that…). I’ll just give you two words. Patrick. Fishnets.

And then there was the gratuitous Hasselhoff. Shudder. That freak did a thing with his body that was absolutely horrific, in a children’s movie no less!

Posted in Movies | Comments (7)

Day After

This week I revisited an old classic, The Day After – that 1983 TV movie depicting a nuclear holocaust in the Midwest. The scenario has Kansas City obliterated by multiple bombs, leaving Lawrence, Kansas with the only surviving hospital for a hundred miles.

Most of the movie was filmed in KC and Lawrence, and its broadcast was a huge event here in Missouri. It was very powerful for me because I grew up among the minuteman missile silos scattered throughout west-central Missouri. The closest was only about a mile from our house. The movie had several very compelling scenes for us locals. One is a decimated Mass. Street in Lawrence. Another is Jason Robards standing in the pile of rubble that used to be the Liberty Memorial, looking out over a moonscape that used to be Kansas City. Then there is a soldier walking along what appears to be 50 Hwy outside of Holden, asking a passerby about Sedalia and Whiteman AFB. The reply is simply “there ain’t no Sedalia. No Green Ridge. No Leeton. No Nothin.” And then Arrowhead Stadium full of Chiefs fans watching missiles launching out of the ground around them, even though I don’t think there were really any silos inside the city.

Then there are the inaccuracies that are probably inevitible. For example, the movie places the KU Medical Center in Lawrence instead of KC and Whiteman Airforce Base in Sedalia instead of Knob Knoster. It also uses the fictional Sweetsage, MO, even though it includes other real towns like Harrisonville, Joplin, and Sedalia. Plus, the picture quality sucked, especially for a blockbuster event. The picture was fuzzy and grainy at the same time, and the colors were terrible. Did all TV look this bad in the 80s?

A new reaction to the movie was the similarities with the current tsunami disaster in southeast Asia. There were thousands of people with homes or even towns to return to. Literally nothing left. No hope of finding family or loved ones might have been just one or towns away when the bombs hit.

   

Posted in KC, Missouri, Movies | Comments (3)

Napoleon Dynamite

I laughed so hard at this movie that my face hurt. Then in the morning my stomach was sore. It’s one of the most random movies I’ve seen in a long time, and a great story of being a misfit in a 1980s small town.

Update: Just found this Napoleon Dynamite soundboard, with most of the good sound clips (but no “flippin”).

Posted in Fun, Movies | Comments