To make a feature-length movie for $7,000—pocket change by Hollywood’s inflated standards—is a real achievement. But to make a good movie, one that favorably compares to the slick, big-budget studio blockbusters, for such a pittance is close to a miracle. In 1993 (or 1992, as reports vary), then novice director Robert Rodriguez wowed the Sundance Film Festival crowd with his ultra low-budget shoot’em-up El Mariachi, a fast and funny pastiche of spaghetti-western and lurid crime-drama conventions. A one-man production crew who wrote, directed, produced, edited, and shot El Mariachi, Rodriguez was warmly embraced by aspiring filmmakers for his cheerful, pragmatic approach to what he called guerrilla film making: make it dirt cheap and have fun. Continue reading MasterChugs Theater: ‘El Mariachi’
Day: February 22, 2008
Bringing back the lush’s lunch
The people of China are fighting back! They are not going to take government oppression anymore. They have had it with being told what do to and how to do it, and they are tired of Big Brother watching everything they do on their lunch breaks.
In an act of defiance not seen in China since Tienanmen Square, a legal challenge, backed by the country’s liquor producers, is looking to overturn a ban on imbibing on lunch breaks in the Henan province. This blog supports the three (or five)-martini lunch, and would like nothing better than to see this ban free the Chinese people.
Where ever there is a ban on alcoholic beverages, consider SeriouslyGuys your own personal Tom Joad.
Update: Florida approves ‘evolved’ science curriculum
We’ve followed this story from one article to the next, each with its own set of flame wars between smug atheists, smug fundamentalists and the occassional scientific wet blanket.
In one heck of an upset, the state school board voted 4-3 in favor of basing all biology classes on “the scientific theory of evolution.” “The scientific theory of” was added at the urging of concerned fundies to make sure their children understand that “evolution is not a fact.”
Instead, children will learn the process behind a scientific theory, as opposed to the throw-your-hands-up and make-a-wild-guess process behind everyday theories. This should go over well.
Black market booties and you
In what may become the most epically legendary news story lead this week, the BBC reports that “a national dance craze in Ivory Coast has spawned a black market in treatments claiming to increase one’s bottom size.” And once that fad passes, I wouldn’t be surprised if there are at least a few movie producers who might be interested in seeing whether all those creams and injections had any lasting effects ….
Less filling, tastes Hepatitisy
As The Guys are rarely invited out to A-list celebrity events and locales, the extravagant red carpet lifestyle is still a mystery to us–a mystery we really, really don’t want to solve.
While celebrities are not often known for dangerous, self-destructive behavior (especially involving booze), they apparently love hepatitis. What’s even more surprising is that a popular Cuban bar in the West Village of New York, the Socialista, is in trouble for supplying this novelty with every drink.
Like gourmet coffee, a hepatitis cocktail is served with the special ingredient encased in fecal matter that is excreted from a genuine New York bartender. Because it’s a subtle flavor, it mixes with any liquor. The appeal is that, coupled with hepatitis A, your liver receives a double-whammy of disease, unlike those petit bourgeois who settle for cirrhosis.
Warrior of the Week
As most Spanish people and rodeo clowns can tell you, bulls are not the friendliest of creatures. In fact, they can be downright ornery. A 75-year-old Tennessee man found this out when he was feeding a bull on his son’s farm and it attacked him (the bull, not the farm).
As the bull was set to trample the man to death, his 13-year-old grandson, who happened to be driving a truck on the farm at the time, saw what was happening and attacked the bull with the truck, saving his grandfather. Sadly, it sounds like the bull was not killed in the accident, and therefore will not be coming to a McDonald’s near you.