A side kick against cinema mediocrity

Cue movie preview announcer man ...

In a world in which movie theaters have been invaded by remakes, reboots, sequels ... one man stands up for originality ... for movies with vision. That man is Jean-Claude Van Damme.

Yeah. I said Jean-Claud Van Damme. And yep, I'm being deliberately hyperbolic. But he deserves some respect for this: JCVD. It's not a new film, dating to 2008. My wife stumbled across references to the film while reviewing a peculiar Belgian novel that liberally quoted the film and Van Damme.

Van Damme plays himself. And in playing himself, ironically becomes a pretty good actor. The plot in a nutshell, Van Damme, in the midst of a child custody battle, returns to Brussels and goes to the post office to get some money. The office is being robbed. And then it's completely unlike any Van Damme film you've seen. Hint: Don't hold your breath for the side kick.

Perfect film. No. Interesting film. Hell yes.

I don't bother heading to the movies much anymore, because I'm tired of remakes, reboots and sequels. (Though I will watch the last Twilight film with my wife because the novelist has such as awful style that the movies are actually much better.)

Big Thinkers

I design print publications for Bloomsburg University. A lot of stuff crosses my desk and email. Things designed in MS Word, in Publisher, with lousy clipart, with ugly fonts, with type that glows, has been twisted or just plain looks silly.

I walked into work last week and this was taped to the door in all of it's black and white glory. I stopped dead in my tracks and read it, right then, right there.

It got my attention. I got the message. I loved the snarky edge.

Sometimes, all you need is simple black and white, simple words, and a little attitude to make something really cool.