The Neurotic Monkey's Guide to Survival is dedicated to providing innovative ideas that will alter reality as we know it and could very well SAVE YOUR LIFE. Plus videos of people getting hit in the junk.
Rob Dean On Thursday, May 26, 2011 at 5:00PM Rob Dean On Thursday, May 26, 2011 at 3:30PM I reject passive consumption. I reject the premise. I will have no passive consumers. Casanova will not stop and explain itself to you. It will not allow you to flip through it while you're dropping a deuce and waiting for Batman to show up.
Rob Dean On Thursday, May 26, 2011 at 2:00PM Rob Dean examines the overlooked, unappreciated or unfairly maligned movies. Sometimes these films haven't been seen by anyone, and sometimes they've been seen by everyone - who loathed them. This is Missing Reels.
Today's film is the 1998 comic-neo-noir-detective-character-study Zero Effect. With an easy sell like that, how could it have not done well? Written and directed by Jake Kasdan (yes, son of Lawrence "I Wrote the Good Parts of Your Favorite Movies But Also Dreamcatcher" Kasdan), the film is a look at a quirky detective who's idiosyncratic approach to crime-solving makes him a very successful sleuth, but also marks him as an oddball outcast who is ill-equipped to deal with people. Sounds familiar, doesn't it? Like the entire line up of USA programming from Monk onward?
Well, apparently it was too ahead of its time as most people haven't seen it. Using IMDB's numbers, the budget was $5M and it only made about $2M in its theatrical run. People were not coming out to see "the world's most private detective." This is also due to how the film was marketed: a quirky comedy starring that guy from that show on Fox that no one saw but won an emmy, and all those other hilarious comedies!
Ultimately, it's a real shame that people haven't seen this film. Zero Effect is a good character study of people who set out to define their lives but ultimately are defined by outside forces. It's also a great updating of Sherlock Holmes, taking the obsessive, addict, musical and social malcontent elements and bringing them into late 90s America. And, lastly but not leastly, it's an interesting mystery movie that quickly solves the original mystery in favor of finding the deeper reasons and more profound secrets that are at work.
Rob Dean On Thursday, May 26, 2011 at 12:30PM A new Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis just came out! (Some NSFW Language)
Rob Dean On Thursday, May 26, 2011 at 11:00AM Today's word of the day is Torment
–verb (used with object)
Rob Dean On Thursday, May 26, 2011 at 9:30AM From Whitest Kids U'Know comes this ad for The Jizzle (NSFWish language):
Rob Dean On Wednesday, May 25, 2011 at 5:00PM Rob Dean On Wednesday, May 25, 2011 at 3:30PM Rob Dean On Wednesday, May 25, 2011 at 1:45PM Immodest Proposal is a place where Rob Dean makes humble suggestions that would forever alter the world and vastly improve the lives of everyone. But, you know, you don't have to listen to him, or whatever.
the resemblence is uncanny!The Simpsons is in a rut. That venerable institution, once lauded by cool english teachers and awkward IT staffs alike, has fallen into disrepair and it may take drastic measures to bring it back.
Starting around the early 2000s, it seemed there were less good episodes per season; instead the show was dominated by stunt casting, delving into backstories of lesser characters, random "travel episodes" that eventually descended into becoming the lazy set-ups that were mocked by earlier Simpsons episodes. Random changes were made to characters - Apu's octoplets, for example - that served as nothing more than 30 minutes of filler. The writers began lapping old scripts, revisiting plot points that were already dealt with or that previous writing staffs derided (rightfully) as cheap and uninteresting.
How can the producers hope to rescue the show? What price will they have to pay to escape from the shadows of Macfarlane's Animation Empire and reassert itself as the rightful Emperor of Smart and Important Cartoons? My suggestion: it's time for the characters in The Simpsons to start aging.
Rob Dean On Wednesday, May 25, 2011 at 11:00AM Today's word of the day: Emphatic
[em-fat-ik]
Rob Dean On Wednesday, May 25, 2011 at 9:30AM Please to enjoy - Matt & Kim, "Lessons Learned" (from their very good album Grand) as interpreted through the medium of Saved by the Bell:
(video by Corey McKenna)
Rob Dean On Tuesday, May 24, 2011 at 5:00PM Rob Dean On Tuesday, May 24, 2011 at 3:30PM I am certain of nothing but the holiness of the Heart's affections and the truth of the imagination.
Eryn Ashley On Tuesday, May 24, 2011 at 2:00PM I work in a cubicle. It hurts my soul. The day is one long sigh, a dirge of defeat. But they have free coffee and vendors sometimes send us chocolate bars as bribes to keep doing things for them, so hey, VICTORY.
In order to not cry constantly, I like to think of things that don’t suck. Here are some:
