Judgment

Are you familiar with the website Letters of Note? If not, the title is rather self-explanatory. It’s a blog that shares with the interwebs interesting letters written by, well, interesting people. I‘d recommend checking out the site wholesale, but since this is a movie blog after all, I am obliged to point you straight to their cinema category. There’s a number of entries there that should pique the interest of even the most casual film buff - I particularly like Stanley Kubrick’s letter to the Director of Culture in Italy asking him to reconsider the restrictive rating they had branded Full Metal Jacket with - but the one I’d like to focus on today deals with North by Northwest.

Alfred Hitchcock historians and trivia-loving fans of North by Northwest may already know the story behind how the concept of the Cary Grant starring thriller came to be, but if you’re not up to snuff on your Hitchcockian origins, it goes a little something like this: Hitchcock hired screenwriter Ernest Lehman to adapt a novel called The Wreck of the Mary Deare. After a few failed attempts, Lehman told Hitchcock he couldn’t crack the novel, but instead of parting ways the now-friends decided to find out a way to work in an idea Hitchcock had long wanted to film; a chase across Mount Rushmore. They brainstormed over possible scenarios that could spark that chase, but eventually settled on the idea of a man who is mistakenly thought to be a spy.

Filed under: Mystery & Suspense, Fandom

Continue reading Cinematic Letters of Note: The Birth of ‘North by Northwest’

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When it comes to World of Warcraft and doing the quest in game, you might need help or it could be hard to level fast as you want. Fast questing is fast leveling and can be done using the add-on on quest helper. The World of Warcraft quest helper has always been a great help with the entire quests in the game and will get you fast questing. Do you need a good way to be leveled?

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Second Life real estate produced the virtual world’s first millionaire and has long since been thought of as THE business to be in if you want to make money in Second Life. But Second Life real estate got tough. Real tough…

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There is no doubt in my mind that you are going to be amazed at what info a WoW guide can teach you. It’s not just about rapid leveling and gold grabbing, it’s also about the awesome information and expert perspective that you only get from expert guides.

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There’s a little add-on called Auctionator, but really what it stands for is “Make you a lot of money if you know how to use it properly”. There are a lot of people who think that because they have downloaded and installed addons, such as Auctionator, that they are “using” them or have “tried” them. These people also go around telling you how they don’t work or they already “knew” about these add-ons and it’s nothing new to them.

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The selections for this year’s additions to the National Film Registry include some Muppets, a Sergio Leone classic, dancing zombies, and a Doris Day rom-com. In short, not a bad slice of U.S. film history.

Under the National Film Preservation Act, the Library of Congress chooses 25 films each year to add to the registry, picking titles that they consider “culturally, historically, or aesthetically” significant. The movies aren’t preserved because they’re the “best,” but rather because of their cultural importance. This year’s selections bring the number of films in the collection to 525.

The 2009 entries include 1979’s The Muppet Movie, Sidney Lumet’s Oscar-winning Dog Day Afternoon, 1957’s The Incredible Shrinking Man, the William Wyler-directed Mrs. Miniver, and the Doris Day-Rock Hudson classic Pillow Talk. Also on the list are the animated 1911 adaptation of Windsor McKay’s Little Nemo, and Mabel Normand’s silent Mabel’s Blunder, which the actress wrote and directed, as well.

Possibly the most unusual choice on Congress’ list is Michael Jackson’s 1983 Thriller video, described by the Library as “the most famous music video of all time,” so popular when it arrived on the scene that it was released to theaters in 35mm. Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in the West — from the director who helped launch Clint Eastwood’s film career — and the Bette Davis costume drama Jezebel were also chosen.

You’ll find the whole list at the National Film Preservation Board website.

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When a quest becomes unclear first thing a player will do is put his game down and start searching on the web. There are plenty of WoW sites that offer explanations when it comes to any WoW issue but like this, you have to admit, a lot of precious play time is wasted.

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Farmville is an online game based around a simple concept which has been successful in many other areas: you design and build your own farm. If you are just discovering Farmville, you will probably figure out pretty quickly why this game has become so popular.

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Over many weeks, I‘ve tried various guides and out of all of them, I found Dugi’s guide to be the best due to many reasons. Dugi’s eBook comes with an AddOn that helps you quest a lot faster while making gold. As a bonus, I also recieved a gold guide, Professions guide, class guide, PlayerVersusPlayer guide and a Daily Quest guide that helped get so far ahead of the other players in WoW.

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New Year’s Eve is a time for new beginnings, forgiving old beefs and ringing in the coming year by looking forward to all of the hopeful things to come. That karmic holiday tradition applies to the movies just as it does in real life, as everyone from Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal to the Ghostbusters and the sprawling cast of 200 Cigarettes (along with Elvis Costello) has shown us the value in forgetting those auld acquaintances every December 31st. But we all know how to raise a glass and pucker up at the stroke of midnight. What were those things the movies told us not to do on New Year’s Eve?

Find out after the jump.

[Screen grab courtesy of MovieMorlocks.com]

Filed under: Cinematical Seven, Lists

Continue reading Cinematical Seven: How Not to Spend Your New Year’s Eve

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