The Wire – Way Down in the Hole

The Wire – Down in the Hole

At long last.  The Fabisch Factor returns.

This time we delve WAY down in the hole, to check out the beginning of what I feel is the best TV show ever made.

HBO’s The Wire.

Batman Begins

We get into Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins.  And a new standard in superhero films.

Batman Begins

Alien Series (sort of) V – PROMETHEUS

Prometheus.  Is it indeed an Alien film like the trailer says?  Or is it something else like Ridley Scott says?

Tune in to find out?

Alien Series (sort of) V – PROMETHEUS

Alien Series: Part IV of IV – ALIEN RESSURECTION + PROMETHEUS PREVIEW

The 4th and final chapter in our Alien series.

The Firefly prequel gets a quick glance and then it’s onto Prometheus, a look to the summer of 2012 and our feelings on film advertising.

Alien Series: Part IV of IV – ALIEN RESURRECTION + PROMETHEUS PREVIEW

Alien Series: Part III of IV – ALIEN 3

This is the same Alien 3 show, just with the audio leveled.

Same love for it as before!

Alien Series_ Part III of IV – ALIEN

Prometheus Review

I’ve now seen Prometheus.  Very funny, Ridley.  Where’s the real movie?  I’m serious.  I know you’ve got a sense of humor.  Remember the poison food gag from Gladiator?  We all had a nice chuckle over that one.

Really, where’s the real movie?  You know, the prequel to Alien you went on about for a bit on the dvd to the wonderful film you made back in ’79.  That movie is very good.  Where’s the prequel I asked for?  Oh, that’s right.  I never asked for a prequel.  Just like I never asked if Deckard was a Replicant.

The movie I saw in the trailer for the movie Prometheus looked very good.  It had that nice Alien trailer music from the trailer for Alien.  That led me to think that I was going to see an Alien movie.  THERE’S the ship from Alien.  THERE’S the Space Jockey, right there in the trailer.  So, where’s the other Alien stuff?

Oh, I see it now, Ridley.  You’re not kidding.  Prometheus IS the final product of 30+ years of anticipation.  30 years of wondering what those eggs were doing on that ship.  Wondering how that Space Jockey ended up dead like that IN HIS SEAT!  Wondering where this whole Alien thing started.

But hey, at least we got to see a guy smoking pot out of his space suit respirator.  At least we got to see that these Space Jockeys are just big humans.  At least we got to see Guy Pearce play an old man when an old man in the part would have been just as good.  At least we got to see the Kraken from Pirates of the Carribean back on the big screen.

But hey, at least you want to get back to Blade Runner.  Judging from this… movie, Blade Runner 2 is gonna rock.

PS

David Fincher, sorry about what I said regarding Alien 3.  I thought you made the worst Alien film… I was wrong.

Alien Series: Part II of IV – ALIENS

Part 2 of our Alien series.

Here, it’s all Aliens!

Alien Series – Part II of IV – ALIENS

Alien Series – Part I of IV – ALIEN

The first in our series on the Alien films.

Here we talk Ridley Scott’s Alien.  With a little bit of Alien VS Predator towards the end.

Alien Series_ Part I of IV – ALIEN

Episode 1: The Films that Define Us

The first episode of the Fabisch Factor Film Podcast.

Episode 1: The Films that Define Us

The Princess and the Frog Review

Just watched The Princess and the Frog.  Loved it.  Maybe not a classic like Beauty and the Beast, but it’ll do for now.  I loved everything about the setting of this movie.  1920s New Orleans, who’d ever guess that Disney would set a movie there?

Now, if I had a complaint it would be that not all the songs are THAT great of memorable.  But there’s some good ones, the first few.  ‘Almost There’, ‘Down in New Orleans’ and ‘Friends on the Other Side’, which brings me to both an observation AND my favorite part of the movie.

It’s no secret that Disney do great villains.  Princess and the Frog’s got a great one.  Dr. Facilier, the ‘Shadowman’ witch doctor animated by Bruce Smith and voiced to perfection by Keith David.  I freaking LOVED the shadow creatures of this movie, such a simple idea, creatures that only exist as 2D shadows.  The design of the shadows just made me think of the designs of Nightmare Before Christmas, a tremendous compliment.  And the song Dr. Facilier gets is just my favorite.

So my observation, not a complaint mind you, is that Disney have got to work on making the heroes more interesting.  I’m not the first person to suggest this.  Because the villains are ALWAYS the most interesting characters in these movies… maybe in every movie.

So Disney have either got to:

A) Spend more time on the heroes
or
B) Make a movie that centers on the villain.  I can’t be the only one who’d like that.

So anyway, this is a terrific movie.  If I were to redo my top 10 films of 2009 list, Princess and the Frog would definitely be on it.

Extra kudos to John Lasseter for helping to reinstate traditional hand drawn animation at the Disney studios.  Can’t wait for the next one!

Rating (out of 4 stars):

***1/2