Although moviestars make good money doing their movies they sometimes get offered roles in commercials. Many moviestars don’t appear in commercials in the US, but do appear outside of it. In this series I will look at one actor or actress and select a couple of their funny commercials.

This week’s star is Kevin Bacon.

My favorite is the Logitech commercial in which he plays his own biggest fan.
What’s your favorite?

Every week I take a look at the roles of a specific actor or actress. This week the choice is Scarlett Johansson. She was born in New York in 1984. Her father was an architect and her mother a producer (and film buff). Her grandfather was a director and screenwriter. Her first appearance was in the 1994 movie North when she was only nine years old. Thanks to her roles in movies like The Horse Whisperer and Ghost World people started noticing her and she started appearing in bigger movies.

Click to enlarge

For me picking my favorite role isn’t that hard. It’s her role as the lonely wife in Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation opposite of Bill Murray. It’s one of my favorite movies and Johansson is great in it.

What is your favorite Scarlett Johansson role?

Continuing my look into the stories behind movie related things we all take for granted, this week’s choice is the 20th Century Fox logo. If you only hear the music it’s something you immediately relate to movies. But what’s the history of the logo?

Before we get to 20th Centruy Fox, we first have to look into it’s history. William Fox founded his company Fox Film Corporation in 1915. It was a merger of two of his companies, a distribution firm called Greater New York Film Rental and a production company called the Fox Office Attractions Company. He concentrated on building theaters, but slowly started making more movies as well. He almost merged the company with MGM, but because of the stock market crash the deal didn’t go through. This didn’t go well for Fox as his company was close to bankruptcy and Fox himself ended up in jail for trying to bribe a judge and committing perjury. He lost control in 1930 and the company merged with the very new 20th Century Pictures in 1935. The logo wasn’t always the same:

Before 1930

Only these words appeared before the start of the movie.

1930
After Fox lost control the title was changed to “Fox Film Corporation presents”.

1933

20th Century Pictures had the now famous logo, which was painted by Emil Kosa Jr, who later did a lot of matte paintings for big movies, the most famous one being the Statue of Liberty in Planet of the Apes and his Oscar for the special effects in Cleopatra.

1935

After the merger with Fox, Kosa simply replaced “Pictures” with “Fox”. There was also a three-strip Technicolor version of the logo, which was used for the movie Ramona (1936)

1953-1981

With the introduction of CinemaScope the logo was altered (aslo by Kosa) and was used till 1981. An exception is 1970 and 1971, when no logo was used, just “Twentieth Century-Fox Presents”. This resulted in a lot of criticism and the logo returned.

1981-1993

After a new version was done for the opening of Cannonball Run, it was adopted to be used on other movies as well.

1994-2009

In 1994 a CGI version was created.

2010

To celebrate their 75 year anniversary the camera panned up after showing the logo and this 75 appeared.

You can check out the history of other logos here

As a movielover/blogger I’m a big fan of the possibility of exploration in film. I sometimes feel like Indiana Jones discovering old treasures that amaze me. It’s a great thing to be able to do that because movies are seen as an important medium that should be taken care of. Movies allow you to experience a different time with different values or take you to worlds you’d never be able to imagine. These Amazing Shadows is a documentary which looks into the world of preservation, more specifically the National Film Registry, which is a list of American movies that is expanded each year. Each movie in this list is preserved in the Library of Congress, which allows future generations to experience them. The movies are selected by the United States National Film Preservation Board and it becomes clear that the people selecting them love movies as much as we do.

This documentary tells the viewer why the National Film Registry was created, but as some of the movies on the list are discussed (shots of the movies are shown) also looks into the history of film. I was shocked to find out how many movies were lost from the silent era, simply because people saw them as nothing more than product that could be destroyed after money was made. It shows various directors (Christopher Nolan, Rob Reiner, John Lasseter and many more) talking about specific films and why they love them. A big part of the preservation is of course making sure that the actual film is stored in perfect condition. It shows how much effort is taken in restoring movies and how fragile film can be, especially the nitrate film which will burn really quickly.

As a movielover this really is a documentary you can’t miss as it constantly shows people passionately talking about the importance of movies. It is sprinkled with shots of all the movies that are part of the Registry and immediately makes you want to watch them. Just watch the trailer and tell me you wouldn’t want to see this. I know I was watching this with a warm feeling inside, love for movies.

Score: 8

Welcome to this week’s Moviesite Spotlight. For those who wonder what this is:

Every week I read a lot of great movie related blogs and I thought it was time to give the ones I visit regularly a chance to shine in the spotlight, by interviewing its writers.

This week’s interview is with Andina, writer of Inspired Ground.

What’s the history of your site, why did you start it?
It was in April 2010. I caught the Golden Globes on TV, and I had the idea to put any movie that won or nominated on a list to watch it myself. I went to watch them one by one and I was blown away. I always thought movies are just for entertainment, eventhough at that time I had already watched movies like Forrest Gump (who is philosophical) but never thought in that kind of angle. I had the idea to start a blog to put these kinds of movies, then I forgot about it. But the idea kept coming back. And after that, I thought this must be something I’ve got to get out of my system. So I started the blog in April of 2010.

What makes your movie blog different from the other ones out there?
I think basically every movie lover want to write about their cinematic experience. I personally love movies with good stories, or, coming-of-age themes. My friend said I review feel-good-after movies, that could be right too. I watched a local movie once and found a quote that matches my point, “We are the generation who gets philosophy in a movie”. We crave for entertainment and so we went to see movies, but some movies are ‘clever’ to make stories that could make us think more about life. But I don’t want to get all spiritual, I just want to review those movies that have the potential.

What do enjoy most about your site and what is the reason you keep doing it?
I enjoy sharing good movies, for people who are probably tired of seeing too many that are sheer entertainment. I think many people want to blog to express their opinions, I’m not different. I keep doing it because it’s fun and enlightens me somehow.

In which ways has your blogging changed the way you watch movies?
I guess I get more critical, or sense a bad story right away (sometimes I can be wrong). I get choosy sometimes, and I do judge some by their covers. There won’t be enough movies to watch, they just keep coming The more you watch the good ones, the more knowledge you get.

What’s your favorite article you have written?
Probably a blogathon, The Film I Always Get Back To : JerryMaguire. From my own post would be My 68 most influential movies.

Could you name five of your all time favorite movies?

500 Days of Summer

Dead Poets Society

Up In The Air

Shawshank Redemption

Jerry Maguire

How many movies do you watch on average each week?
One or two. More if I have more time

Do you own any movie related items that you are very proud of?
I used to buy magazine movies in college (almost ten years ago). There was a time when the magazine published a golden edition, so they printed out some of the legendary movies. I threw away most of it, but kept Taxi Driver and 2001: A Space Odyssey because I love the posters, but I didn’t know what they were. Then I forgot about it, until a couple weeks ago when I was cleaning up and found them. I’m glad I kept them.

Anything else you want to tell us about yourself?
I guess I have always been interested in movies from when I was a child. I used to read this japanese comic book about plays and acting. And then I took multimedia classes in college. I guess this blog helps me broaden my knowledge. Besides fun, it challenges to be creative too.

I’m also glad I found LAMB so I can get to know some other people in the world who appreciate and love movies like I do.

The rise of technology has had a big impact on the world including the world of film. Digital cameras are now of the quality that it is possible to make your own low-budget movie in HD. Even special effects can now be done on you PC at home and this has resulted in some interesting low-budget movies in recent years. Bellflower has been made with a tiny budget of $17000 and shot on a camera that director/editor/producer/writer and actor Evan Glodell made himself. He made the camera because he wanted a unique look he might not get out of “normal” cameras. It’s an interesting approach, but is the end result worth watching?

If you have seen the trailer for this, with this flame throwing muscle car taking center stage you might think this is a Mad Max type of movie. As you start watching it you realise it isn’t though. Woodrow and Aiden are two friends who are obsessed by Mad Max and want to build a flamethrower and badass muscle car which would scare everyone once the apocalypse takes place and you’d see them driving down the street. It’s something they have been dreaming about for years and slowly try to realise. They live in L.A. and go out regularly. During one of their nights out Woodrow meets a girl he falls in love with and as love stories go there are ups and downs. This love story is the focus of the movie and I thought it was very interesting. The cast might consist of unknown actors, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth watching. As the movie progresses you are caught up in the emotions and once you see the flame throwing muscle car it’s something you want to see more of. It’s a movie that’s not all romance as there is some violence as well, but it fits the story.

The cool car and flamethrower add a lot of cool to this movie, especially knowing that these guys actually made this to appear in the movie. Without them though I still think it is one that is worth watching. Because of the unique camera that was used to make this movie the look is unique as well. There are times you can see the dirt on the lens, but it just adds to the feeling of grittiness this movie has. If Glodell managed to make this movie on such a small budget I can’t wait to see what he will do if he has more available.

Score: 8

Impossible is nothing to Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) as he’s able to accept missions where reaching results seem to be unachievable but he manages to succeed every time. The previous three spy movies in the series have had a lot of memorable action scenes. Does this fourth installment entertain as much?

I’m going to skip a summary of the story, because really, do you watch the Mission Impossible movies for that? Of course it must keep you interested in what is happening, but that’s done well here. During the movie you get enough background of the various characters to understand what motivates them. Hunt’s team all got their own stories. For a big part of the movie it’s unclear who William Brandt (Jeremy Renner) actually is, Jane Carter (Paula Patton) is also a new face, but an amazing agent (and not only for her looks) and Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) has made field agent too.

Personally I’ve come to expect great scenes in which these spies have to get something from somewhere or someone and have to do all these cool things to get it done. You’ll remember Tom Cruise’s character suspended just above the floor or riding on top of a high speed train in the first one, something with motorcycles in the second one (I have to admit I forgot most of that movie) and jumping off a building and running on a bridge as some of the highlights. This new instalment offers more of that and really doesn’t disappoint. Of course by now everyone will have seen Cruise hanging of the side of the Burj Khalifa, but Ghost Protocol and it’s amazing to see Cruise still pushing himself to do all these stunts himself. This movie offers more than him hanging off the side of the highest building in the world though all taking place in various parts of the world (Russia/India).

Now this is a movie where I was watching it with a constant grin on my face. It’s almost non stop action and suspense, mixed with some humour thanks to Simon Pegg. The bad guy might be a disappointing (Michael Nyqvist really doesn’t have enough screen time to be really menacing), but it really does not matter much. The new Mission Impossible offers spies, cool gadgets, cars and amazing locations all brought together by great action and sometimes that is more than enough for me to make me happy.

Score: 9

Another weekend has passed us and a fresh new week is about to start again. Hope you all had a great weekend and enjoyed yourself. Today the weekly question is about something which probably has happened to all of us. You are really excited to see a movie, get ready to go but when you are at the cinema you suddenly notice that your body doesn’t have the same plans as you do, causing you to start missing the movie. Today’s question is:
Did you ever fall asleep in the cinema?

Luckily I only had it happen to me twice. The first time it happened was when I went to London to visit friends and after I landed and dropped off my bag, we immediately headed for the cinema and went to see Cats and Dogs. It didn’t take long (probably also because of the movie) to fall asleep.

The second time was when I went out with friends to go and see Shutter Island. We had been playing squash for about two hours and since I hadn’t played sports in a while my body was wasted. My muscles were aching and let’s say I even couldn’t walk graciously. After dinner we headed to the cinema to Scorcese’s movie, which I was looking forward to. My body though saw this as an opportunity for revenge and I just couldn’t stay awake. I still have to rewatch the movie to give it a fair chance.

Did you ever fall asleep in the cinema?

Although moviestars make good money doing their movies they sometimes get offered roles in commercials. Many moviestars don’t appear in commercials in the US, but do appear outside of it. In this series I will look at one actor or actress and select a couple of their funny commercials.

With the second entry in this series I will look into some of the commercials Mickey Rourke has done. What’s your favorite?

Daihatsu Charade

Toyota

Suntory

Snickers

Beer without alcohol

BMW Commercial (with a lot of other famous actors)

My personal favorite have to be the beer without alcohol ones.
What’s your favorite?

Another Friday and a new installment in this weekly series. This week actor Robert De Niro. He was born on August 17, 1943 and didn’t start acting in 1963 (although the movie wasn’t released until 1969). His career really started in 1973. It didn’t take long for him to appear in a big movie though as he starred as Vito Corleone in the second Godfather movie in 1974, for which he won an Oscar. Now that’s a good start of your career.
He appeared in close to 90 movies, so picking out a favorite for this actor is going to be a tough one.

Click to enlarge

Now I think most of you agree that De Niro’s movie choices have been great the last couple of years. There was a time when you could blindly go into one of his movies and know it was going to be great, but it seems that time is behind us. As for picking out a favorite, it’s almost impossible and I’ve decided that I really can’t and will narrow it down to 5 roles. I loved him in Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Heat and Cape Fear.

What is your favorite Robert de Niro role?

In “The Story Behind…” series I take a look at movie related things, with this time the focus on a logo. It is something we see every time a movie starts, but do you know the history of them? This week I look into the logo of Columbia Pictures. It was founded in 1919 and named Cohn-Brandt-Cohn Film Sales, which got changed to Columbia Pictures in 1924. So what does Columbia mean and who is the lady in the logo?

To know the origin of the name Columbia we have to travel back all the way to 1738 when it was published in the weekly publication of the debates of the British Parliament. It was forbidden to print the debates and to camouflage this they were published as Reports of the Debates of the Senate of Lilliput. Fictional names were thought up for other countries and Columbia was the one used for America, the one responsible for this is most probably Samuel Johnson. The name finally became the female personification of America and was chosen to be the name and logo of the company. It is not completely clear however on which woman Columbia has been based. Several women have claimed to be the inspiration, but a conclusive answer was never found.

Through the years the logo has had many forms:

The original CBC Films Sales logo

1924-1928
Before the Torch lady appeared in 1928 the studio used the image of a female Roman Soldier holding a stick and a shield.

1928-1936

In this version the Torch Lady had a headdress and had rays on the torch that flickered.

1936-1943

This updated version removed the headdress and a pedestal was added.

1961-1976

Although the image remained much the same a colored widescreen version was introduced.
1976-1980

Although this version started with the torch lady, it zoomed in on the rays of the torch to end with the stylised Columbia Pictures logo.

1981-1992

This version was similar to the previous one, although less detailed, with the stylised version shortly appearing before Columbia Pictures appeared.

1992-1998

In 1992 a new matte painting was made by artist Michael J. Deas. It was Jenny Joseph who was the model for this updated version. Deas didn’t use her face however and made a composite using a computer.

1999

For their 75th Anniversary it showed a quick transition of the lady to the current version with “75th” appearing as well.

1999-now

Also available: The Story Behind…The Paramount Pictures Logo

Recently Raghav from Ticker Talks Films started an interesting feature asking other bloggers to make 10 pictures of DVDs in their collection and tell a short story about them. Of course I was very interested to send in mine. One of the pictures I took was of my Alien Quadrilogy boxset, but there are more. The complete list has now been published and you can find it here

Welcome to this week’s Moviesite Spotlight. For those who wonder what this is:

Every week I read a lot of great movie related blogs and I thought it was time to give the ones I visit regularly a chance to shine in the spotlight, by interviewing its writers.

This week’s interview is with ScarletSp1der, also known as T, the editor of The Focused Filmographer.

What’s the history of your site, why did you start it?

My page “TheScarletSp1der’s Movie Blog” started on May 25th 2010 after posting 4 mini-reviews on my personal facebook page for my friends. (11 Minutes Ago, Iron Man 2, Robin Hood, and Shrek 4). I have always loved movies and enjoyed writing (studying history in college forces one to grow accustomed to writing quite a bit), so it made sense to blend those 2 loves together and share my passions with more of the world than just my friends on facebook.

I named it TheScarletSp1der because I am a BIG Spiderman comicbook fan and ScarletSp1der is my current gamertag on XBOX 360! Plus, I liked the idea of thinking of myself as a movie guardian superhero to help keep innocents from ruining their eyes and wasting their hard earned dollars on films they shouldn’t see! It is my mission of sorts! You can see that HERE.
With the start of the new year, the website underwent a namechange to make it easier for navigation, searching, typing (avoiding the “1″), and professionalism, as it were and is now called The Focused Filmographer.

What makes your movie blog different from the other ones out there?
There are a lot of great blogs out there! But I’d like to think that mine is a lot of fun on a regular basis! There are 3 regular weekly segments

1. Movie News Monday: focuses on weekend box office reports, 3 major movie news stories, and what to new blu-ray releases to look for later in the week!
2. Time to Vote Tuesday: fun weekly poll for debate and discussion on a topic of choice that is movie related (i.e. Who is the better Superman? Christopher Reeves, Brandon Routh, Henry Cavill, or OTHER)
3. Trailer Time Thursday: perhaps the most popular weekly segment that highlights 6-7 new trailers of the week for upcoming titles

Each segment has its own unique following! They really are a lot of fun!

There are also tons of other not-so-regular segments that I enjoy writing such as:
1. From TheScarletSp1der’s Shelf to Yours: Highlighting a movie from my own personal collection.
2. Checking Out the HappyHaps: Sharing linklove focusing on other awesome movie blogs
3. CinematiCaptions: Caption contest for 2 Movie pictures
4. In TheScarletSp1der’s Spotlight: Focus on upcoming film…all the need-to-knows!
Also, every movie review written is SPOILER-FREE!

I try to keep a well-rounded amount of reporting going on for all readers. I have 3 younger sisters that all read my site and that helps me to keep in mind that parents would like to know what is okay for their children to watch. I also know that some of my readers love other aspects of film (independent films, action films, superhero films, horror, scifi, and so on and so forth). You will find a plethora of genres reviewed and reported on at my page. Very reader friendly. And, not to criticize anybody’s page, but I really like the layout of my page. It’s been referred to often as very clean, streamlined, and organized. I like that!

What do enjoy most about your site and what is the reason you keep doing it?
The thing I enjoy most is interacting with other people all around the world who share the same passions as I do when it comes to movies. Some of which I can call “friends!” If you would’ve asked me when I started the page if I expected to get to know people like Novia in Indonesia or Russell in Australia or Ruth and Castor in Minneapolis, or Scott and Claire in the UK, I would’ve said “No!” But, now I can’t imagine blogging without knowing them! It really is a worldwide community that, even though we are spread apart, we remain close! That is an awesome thing!

An author always loves to know when his work is read and appreciated. It takes time to keep and maintain a page like this. But, comments keep coming in, and that inspires me to continue on a regular basis. Sometimes I am up until 3 or 4am working on the next day’s post, but I do it because I know that for some people it is a staple stop in their day. I am humbled by the many people who have told me that my little page is a saved bookmark on their web browser. It truly is humbling and keeps me going to not let them down.

I also have to say that I love keeping my site going because it is fun when you are in a movie-blogger community and yet you are honored to be able to be the one to present them with news first that they haven’t heard yet. It’s sometimes hard to beat Twitter and IMDB, but when you do it feels like a homerun!

In which ways has your blogging changed the way you watch movies?
Great question: I would say that I pay attention to a lot more details. It has helped me to really come to understand what I, personally, look for in movies. When I first started the page, I was just rating films here and there based on how I felt I wanted to rate them. It worked so-so. But then I began to really understand what I liked and created a rating system based off of that, to which I adhere to for every movie review now. (You can see that HERE).
But you know what, it also has made me not care what other people think when I say I like this movie or I hated this movie, etc because I can speak to my reasons why/why not even better now with a greater credibility (if only self-proclaimed)! That’s gotta count for something!

What’s your favorite article you have written?
This question truly is a hard one for me to answer…I actually read and re-read every article of mine between 5-15 times (and I still miss some mistakes), because I literally have fun writing and enjoy reading so many of them. I’m careful not to come across as conceited in anyway, but I really enjoy my work. (An artist/author should, I believe)
I may ask you to indulge me here with 2 separate answers, if I may:
1. Reviews: Black Swan and Skyline (Click HERE, they are #67 and #56 respectively)

2. Articles: Films That Made Me A Critic and the Morality Bites Blogathon which debated filmmakers’ social responsibility.

Could you name five of your all time favorite movies?

Hook

The Shawshank Redemption

Toy Story

The Dark Knight

The Lord of the Rings (that’s cheating possibly, because it’s 3…but, oh well!)

There are too many movies to choose from, but I think that’s a pretty good stab at it!

How many movies do you watch on average each week?
I watch about 4-5 movies a week. Not all of them are in the cinema, most of them are from my own collection or being streamed via CinemaNow or Netflix.

Do you own any movie related items that you are very proud of?
Yes! I am a BIG movie poster lover/collector, but lately I have also been into collecting the canvas movie banners from the theaters! I currently have a small collection but it is always growing! I am very proud of my Spiderman 2 theatrical movie poster and a 5′x10′ movie banner for 007 Casino Royale which is proudly displayed in my movie room!

Anything else you want to tell us about yourself?

• Yes, My name is Terrence. My friends call me “T”. You can feel free to do so whenever you leave a comment on my page or respond to a comment I have left on someone else’s.
• You will find no profanity in any of the posts that I write. I try to keep it clean for family friendliness (not everyone likes to read 4-letter words).
• I have a big crush on Scarlett Johansson. It is no secret! (Ruth over at Flixchatter and Julian at DirtyWithClass often tease and play around with me on that!) And I have met her. I’ve seen almost every single one of her films, and while other actresses may have better roles and acting chops, she will always hold a fond place in my heart! She is mentioned often on my page. (…Kristen Stewart is also mentioned a lot, but for the EXACT OPPOSITE reason!)
• I am one of the team members/authors over at IEatFilms.com
• I do my best to respond to every comment that comes in
•  I really enjoy when someone has a different opinion of a movie than I do and expresses it. I truly believe that if everyone liked the same stuff then the world would be a pretty boring place. I also believe that if 2 people can express their viewpoints on a movie, then both of us can have an even greater understanding of the film in question! I love conflicting (while still respectful) views on film!

Thank you for the opportunity to share a little bit about myself and my page here on your site! I truly appreciate it. It is the community of movie lovers that really makes any and all of this so great. Thank you for reading! Happy Watching!

Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, John C. Reilly and Christopher Waltz star in this movie about parents who meet to talk about a fight that happened between their kids. What initially starts as a short meeting ends up as a very long conversation between them and where the social norms slowly seem to break down.

Carnage is originally based on a play and it’s something you will notice very soon. The whole movie takes place in one apartment, which could work (look at something like Hitchcock’s Rear Window), the question is if it does here. When these parents meet it is clear that they have never met each other and the fact that one of the kids had his teeth knocked out forces them to talk to each other. Now would these people talk to each other for a long time if this was real life? It depends whether or not they like each other, but it’s pretty clear that they don’t in this case. This, to me, made the movie feel artificial, with reasons having to be made up for these people to stay together for the whole movie. Even if Waltz and Winslet’s characters are about to leave they re-enter the apartment for coffee.

This is a comedy and there are some laughs to be had, most of them thanks to Christopher Waltz. His character is constantly on the phone which becomes a recurring joke. In general though I didn’t laugh enough to really enjoy it and the whole movie just dragged way too much for my liking. Having seen more Polanski movies I expected more. The thing is though that comedy can be very personal, so your opinion might differ. Give the trailer a look to make up your mind.

Score: 4

The Shrek franchise has been very profitable for Dreamworks, but as it ended it was inevitable that we hadn’t seen the last of these characters. Puss in Boots was widely loved, so a spinoff was a no brainer. Is it catnip or will it have you coughing up hairballs?

Besides this character appearing in Shrek there really isn’t a connection to these movies and the story stands on its own. As you are watching this you find out how he was raised and how he got his boots. The story is an adaptation of Jack and the beanstalk and Puss tries to get his hands on the magic beans of the story in order to help an old friend of his.

The animation is as we have come to expect from Dreamworks and the story has lots of humour, my personal favorite was a cat who only said “oooh” (you’ll recognise it when you see it). Puss in Boots offers a lot of action as well and the time flies when watching it.

So basically a very enjoyable movie, but I did have an issue with the story because of the way it ended. Now I won’t give anything away, but let’s just say that I felt the ending made the investment in the story feel cheap and the story itself unrealistic. Of course this is a kids movie, but it bothered me. Not enough to say you shouldn’t see this (I think you should), but it’s a minor flaw in an otherwise pretty good animation movie.

Score: 7

If you love movies you also usually like talking about it or knowing the opinion of someone else (otherwise you wouldn’t be visiting My Filmviews). I am exactly the same and one of the great ways to hear more about movies is to check out some podcasts. There are a couple of them which get me trhough my working week. So this week’s question is:
What are your favorite podcasts?

/Filmcast
One of my favorites from one of my favorite movie news sites. This one has been going for a long time and I love the fact that they keep it all spoilerfree.

Film Junk Podcast
This is a highly enjoyable one to listen to. There are always discussions about stuff that has nothing to do with movies, but these guys make it entertaining. I don’t always agree with their opinions about movies, but it’s a great way to spend a couple of hours.

Hollywood Babble-On
Now this one is not a show you want to listen to with people who are easily offended as the language that is used here will be shocking to some (so NSFW). I think Kevin Smith and Ralph Garman are very funny though and they give their own spin on the latest entertainment news.

Operation Kino Podcast
A lot more serious than the previous podcast, but the crew here always have interesting discussions.

The above ones are the ones I listen to weekly. The following ones I listen to depending on their subject:

Not just new movies Podcast
These guys review older movies as well, which is sometimes interesting if I just have seen one.

How Did This Get Made Podcast
Now this podcast concentrates only on bad blockbuster movies and wonder how they got made. They discuss ridiculous things that happen in the movie they are discussing and makes for a very entertaining listen.

These podcasts I have only discovered recently, so I can’t say to much about them yet except that they are worth checking out:

Battleship Pretension Podcast

The Golden Briefcase Podcast

What are your favorite podcasts?

To make Fridays even more fun I decided to start another new feature (yeah, my creative side has been very productive lately). Although moviestars make good money doing their movies they sometimes get offered roles in commercials. Many moviestars don’t appear in commercials in the US, but do appear outside of it. In this new series I will look at one actor or actress and select a couple of their funny commercials.

The first pick is action star Jean Claude van Damme.

Detergent

Cell phones

World of Warcraft

DVD site

Japanese chewing gum commercial

Some other Japanese ads

Beer

My personal favorite is the last one. It’s ridiculous and van Damme knows how to deliver it in such a serious way.

What is your favorite?

Welcome to another great “Friday Faces”, this week starring Kate Winslet. Winslet was born in 1975 (same year as me!) and studied drama when growing up. She landed her first role in 1991 in the TV series Shrinks. After this she did several other TV shows and made the step into movies in 1994 as Juliet Hulme in Heavenly Creatures. After this she quickly became famous after appearing in Titanic, which broke all records at the time. She has starred in a lot of great movies and earned an Oscar with her role as Hanna Schmitz in The Reader. An overview of her roles after the jump.

Picking my favorite role in this case is easy as I will pick my favorite movie out of the ones she has appeared in, which is Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

What is your favorite Kate Winslet role?

As a kid growing up I used to be a big fan of Sesame Street and The Muppets. Sesame Street i watched every day and Muppets was broadcast Sunday evenings. Watching it I never thought about the people actually bringing these puppets to life. This documentary is about one of them, Kevin Clash and how he had a dream about working with Jim Henson and ended up puppeteering one of the most loved characters around the world, Elmo.

If you see Elmo it’s hard to imagine what the guy behind it would look like and if you would see Kevin Clash walking down the street, you would never guess he is the one responsible for this great character. He started making puppets when he was very young and made his first puppet by using scissors on one of his father’s coats. The great thing is that his parents supported him in everything he did and even though he wasn’t the coolest kid at school (other guys would thought it was strange that he played with “dolls”), but hearing his story is heart warming. He already did good things for the community, visiting hospitals to bring smiles on the faces of kids staying there. His talent got noticed and it landed him work on TV.
This documentary interviews him, his parents and other people that have worked with him and follows him as he teaches other puppeteers how they should move their hands to make the puppets move realistically.

If you expect a movie full of Elmo then you will be disappointed. This is more about Clash and how he ended up doing the character and the drive he had to realise his dream. Elmo is shown several times and it’s always fun to see him, but hearing the life story about Kevin Clash is fascinating, moving and inspirational. Clash himself sees how the chances he got on his way to the top helped him get there and now does the same for kids who dream about one day doing his job, inviting them to the workshop.

Score: 9

Through the years I have seen tons of movies. In this new (regular) feature I plan to look into the story behind things we don’t notice anymore related to movies, which are a lot of things.

One of them are the logos of the companies that produce these movies. It is something we see every time a movie starts, but do you know the history of them? This week I look into the logo of a company which was founded 100 years ago in 1912: Paramount Pictures.

The company was first called Famous Players Film Company, which merged in 1916 with Feature Play Company. Before their merger they both released their movies through Paramount Pictures Company, which was founded by William Wadsworth Hodkinson. The two merged companies acquired Paramount Pictures Company, which would be the first nation-wide film distributor in the US. The story goes that it was Hodkinson who designed the logo of Paramound Pictures on a napkin. The mountain peak that is shown is probably Ben Lomond Mountain, which he saw in his youth. The original logo had 24 stars. You may wonder why there are that many, but each star represented an actor/actress they had signed to the company, a total of 24.

There have been several versions of the logo:

1914-1952

The original logo was in black and white (with slight variations, e.g. sometimes there were more or less stars).

1952-1954

Jan Domela (Dutch born) was the chief matte painter at the studios and painted this version.

1954-1967

The logo was changed again shortly after the previous version to accomodate widescreen and the VistaVision logo appeared before it dissolved to show the above image.

1968-1975

In this newer version the text reads “Paramount” instead of “A Paramount Picture” and the Gulf+Western byline has been added.

1975-1986

This logo started out with the mountain but faded into this blue outlined version.

1987-2002

This was the first version of the logo which was CGI generated, with the stars flying towards the mountain.

2002-2011

This one starts out in the clouds and the stars seem to come from space while the camera slowly moves towards the mountain.

2011-

To celebrate their 100-year anniversary a new sequence was made. This was first shown before Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol.

Also available: The Story Behind… The Columbia Pictures Logo