There are plenty of examples of movies with similar plots or themes coming out around the same time as each other. Dante’s Peak and Volcano, Deep Impact and Armageddon, Coco Chanel and Coco Before Chanel. A lot of these can be dismissed as just coincidence. Deep Impact and Armageddon both have giant asteroids coming to wipe out life on earth, but that’s where the similarities end.
As the trailer mash-up shows, there’s no way you can write off Friends with Benefits and No Strings Attached as just coincidence. They’re just so similar, there has to be something more to it. So, having now seen both these movies, here’s what I think.
I think what happened is that after Natalie Portman won the Oscar for Black Swan, and Mila Kunis got nattin, the two of them got into a scrap and decided to see who was actually the better actress. And what’s the best way to do this? With both of them making the exact same movie.
Because there’s no other explanation.
Also, the Natalie Portman movie is better, by virtue of the fact that it’s vaguely coherent.
I remember being fascinated by the cover for this video, with this poster, when I’d see it over in Xtravision (or, more specifically, Dano’s Video Shop - Edenmore represent!). Then I was slightly disappointed by the film afterwards. Not that The Gauntlet is a bad film. It’s just not the film I imagined from the poster.
El Shaddai’s plot summary, according to Wikipedia:
The story is inspired by the apocryphic Book of Enoch, and follows Enoch (イーノック), a priest seeking seven fallen angels to prevent a great flood from destroying mankind. He is helped in his quest by Lucifel (ルシフェル)(voiced by Jason Isaacs), a guardian angel in charge of the protection of the world who exists outside of the flow of time, and by four Archangels: Raphael (ラファエル), Uriel (ウリエル), Gabriel (ガブリエル), and Michael (ミカエル)
According to these boffins, Facebook hosts around 4% of all the photos that have ever been taken. And roughly 20% of all the photos taken this year will be uploaded to Facebook.
Kids – not even kids, teenagers – are growing up in a world where cameras are ubiquitous, they’re just part of the device you carry around with you. And photography isn’t some arcane, expensive hobby. It’s been democratized.
I can’t wait to see what this means for the next generation of photojournalists.
but honestly, this second season of Louie was one of the best seasons of TV I’ve ever seen. (And “Duckling” was one of the best episodes of any TV show I’ve ever seen). Reading this background on the production of the first couple of episodes is fascinating.
Also, much as I hate to say “X is the new Y”, anyone else get the feeling that Louis CK is taking the reins left over from when Woody Allen packed up for Europe? No-one else is making New York seem so gorgeous.
johnke.me
