Bad Ad: Internet Explorer

I'm not feeling this new commercial for Internet Explorer. They're pandering to people that grew up in the 90's, which I guess is their target audience. 

The copy is good, but it's waaaayyyyyy too soon to be nostalgic about the 90's. Plus in comparison to all other eras it was probably the lamest one, except for the terrible Saved By the Bell fashions that the COOL KIDS wore. 

It has almost 4 million views on YouTube, but interestingly they've disabled the comment section on this one, which is strange for commercials on YouTube. 

What do you think of it, children of the 90's?

I Was Miserable at Les Misérables

If you know me sort of well, you know that I have a pretty big penchant for musicals, be they in movie or stage form. I like to go see a live one every few months if possible (the last one being Rock Of Ages, ugh) and their movie counterparts as often as I can.

There's just something about the grandiose-ness that I love, everything is over the top, every plot nuance is belted out and the fourth wall is shattered to smithereens!

So when I heard they were making Les Mis into a movie I was excited, hoping for another Chicago to breathe life into the dying Frenchman that is movie musicals. I watched it when I was battling a terrible flu, so I cried during the whole 3 hour screening because I related to the characters' illnesses. 

Pictured: Emotion! [via]

That was a few weeks ago and I'm just coming to realize now that I really didn't like Tom Hooper's revamp, and it was not because of the "gritty" and "real" "singing" that the actors did. Honestly, I just think this movie didn't need to be a musical at all, for the most part the characters would just sing out their dialogue, but they might was well have been talking.

I'm a big fan of the golden age of musicals, the mid to late 50's. Americans were mostly shell shocked from the War and needed an escape, so the big studios funded tons of flicks where smiling people danced and sung their problems away. The movies would ask you to suspend your perception of reality, and the actors would all have to be triple threats to even be considered good enough for "showbusiness". 

Call me old fashioned, but I love my musicals as hokey as possible. Why the hell was there no dancing in Les Misérables? Because the director wanted it to be "real". If it was a "real" account, nobody would've been singing while dying of the plague during the French Civil War. They would be too busy coughing up maggots or something. 

Here are just a small portion of live-action musicals I thought were better than Les Miz:

The 50's
Guys and Dolls (1955)
Frank Sinatra plays good 'ol reliable Nathan Detroit. The cast is supported by Marlon Brando, which gives the flick a leading man with vocal chops and one that's real easy on the eyes. 

An American in Paris (1951)
How cute is Gene Kelly in this movie, not to mention supremely talented.

A Star is Born (1954)
I love everything about Judy Garland. Her flaws are what made her stand out from the whatever pile. She was way better when she wasn't being forced to act like a flustered teen like in The Wizard of Oz and Meet Me In St. Louis.

The 60's
The Music Man (1962)
A classic, Robert Preston is a treasure, and I love the huge production and huge cast.

Oliver! (1968)
Fantastic movie, adapted from a super bleak book (take note Les Mis!). One of the few movie musicals to win an Oscar for Best Picture and one of my favourite films of all time. It's also one of the only tolerable movies with kids in them ever, Nancy's hair is atrocious, though.

The 70s
Cabaret (1972)
Liza Minelli is one of the most polarizing starlets ever. Her father was a famous director who 
was responsible for reigning in Judy Garland's talents in A Star is Born. He later fathered a child with Garland and named her Liza with a Z. I love her unconventional look and over-the-top voice; and Bob Fosse really knew what to do with her dance-wise.

Phantom of the Paradise (1974)
This movie was apparently only ever famous(?) in Winnipeg, I think it still gets a run at the Park Theatre at midnight. Take this strange mess for what it is, but the director went on to make Scarface and the first Mission: Impossible.

The 80s
The Blues Brothers (1980)
Based off an SNL sketch, the (first) Blues Brothers movie has some amazing guest artists like Aretha Franklin, James Brown and Ray Charles; which is good because Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi are not the best singers. I think they kill a bunch of Nazis. 

Victor/Victoria (1982)
And basically any other movie that Julie Andrews is in. She's like the best human ever. 

The 00s
Rent (2005)
This movie is a perfect example where the cast are mostly not famous in Hollywood, they're, for the most part, seasoned Broadway actors and actresses. The movie still managed to gross 31-million dollars and chose talent over star power. 

Hairspray (2007)
I love love love this movie and watch it like once a month to replenish my soul. John Travolta and Queen Latifa are fabulous.

Honourable Mentions:
Some Like it Hot, Singin' in the Rain, On the Town, The Producers, All That Jazz, My Fair Lady, South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut,  Rocky Horror Picture Show, Sister Act, Little Shop of Horrors, Moulin Rouge!, Dreamgirls, Once, et al.

The Kraken is Released

I want to be a booze rep so bad.

Wes Anderson Movie Posters Galore!

I've been watching a bunch of Oscar-nominated movies lately, and just generally falling back in love with movies. Usually I'll go a month or three without watching any, and then when January rolls around and it's -35 every day of the week I'll power through 200 of them. 

I saw Moonrise Kingdom the other day, which is another wonderful flick to add to Wes Anderson's already lovely repertoire. I didn't think it was as good as Fantastic Mr. Fox, but then again what live-action movie is? There were some painfully awkward scenes involving the children's love story development that didn't remind me of my own first-teenage-love time at all, and they barely used Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton and the ever-present Bill Murray. All of these people are people I wish I was.

[via]

They're all over the interwebs. 

A big trend on design websites are minimal movie posters, where designers take the essence of a movie and boil it down to one object, scene or character to present the movie. I find that these stand out way more than the cookie-cutter crap.

Wes Anderson inspires some wonderful fan-created pieces, which I find to sometimes be stronger than their official counterparts. 

The Royal Tenenbaums
Official Poster: 

Non-Official Posters:

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou

Official Poster:

Non-Official Posters:

The Darjeeling Limited

Official Poster:

Non-Official Posters:

Fantastic Mr. Fox

Official Poster:

Non-Official Posters:

Moonrise Kingdom
Official Poster:

(For the record I think this poster is amazing and I love the font selection)

Non-Official Posters:

I think these fan designs are so consistent with the look of each movie because Wes Anderson always has a very distinct colour palette in mind when shooting his movies. 

[via]

According to IMDB, he's got another flick coming out in 2014 called The Grand Budapest Hotel. It's cast includes long-standing Wes favourites like Bill Murray. Willem Dafoe, Adrien Brody, Owen Wilson, Jason Schwartzman and Tilda Swinton; but the title character will be played by Ralph Fiennes, who to my knowledge has never stared in an Anderson film. Fiennes playes Mr. Gustave, the apparent owner of The Grand Budapest Hotel. 

Can't wait to see what Anderson's colour palette is for that one!

P.S. Fun trivia fact - Anderson is the son of an advertiser. 

Tattoos in Magazines

Love this cute Sailor Jerry print ad.

Do you think they got a graphic designer or a tattoo artist to make it?

Social Media Info is Graphic

Courtesy of the Huffington Post.
Who doesn't love a good infographic?

Haitus + The Most Disturbing Ad (Ever?)

Hello faithful reader.
I took a little hiatus from my usual Milk Bar updates, but I'll admit it was both self-imposed and not intentional. I had the flu. *insert dramatic music*

Have you ever had the flu? It's the absolute worst thing ever. I was asleep for 4 days straight, which doesn't make any sense, but I was so so so tired that I couldn't even lift up my eyelids to watch garbage on my laptop. I couldn't feed myself and basically would have starved if I wasn't so nauseous, and couldn't even breathe anyways, nevermind eat. Things oozed out of me from all possible places and even some impossible places, and the worst part was that my skin ached from getting the chills but my face and feet burned red with heat like the fire of a thousand steam engines. 

Long story short is that I was sick. But I missed you guys a lot, and I'm sorry I was away.

To make it up to you, here's the strangest commercial of 2012...