Morgan Freeman Has Crumbs On His Face

Morgan Freeman is a great actor, no doubt. I enjoy his performance as the wise old man he plays in every single movie he has ever been in (Cue Rim Shot, click here and click the red button)

No, but seriously folks…I was watching a movie with Mr. Freeman and I was completely distracted. I don’t even remember the film to be honest…it was some movie where he gives a lot of advise. Sadly, I was hooked on one thing and one thing only.

Why was I so distracted? What was I so focused on…the absurd amount of Oreo cookie crumbs on his face. Jesus, you would think he could take a break from munching on Oreos for one second to clear the crumbs off his face and act in a film free of crumbs, for the love of (Peg Leg) Pete.

I wanted to dig deeper, I knew there was something to learn here. My search had begun for some sort of understanding of this phenomenon. My epic quest was coming up flat until I found and bought the photo to the right.

A prominent paparazzi photographer snapped this candid shot of the actor; we at the Trah Film Blog paid a significant amount for the photo. There are many phony photos floating around out there on the Internet, 100 percent certainty of its legitimacy was required for posting on our site.

We needed photographic proof of the crumb situation. The photo illustrates how Mr. Freeman acquires so many bits on his face. Notice all the crumbs in mid flight… traveling at such a high velocity that they embed themselves into the skin upon re-entry impact.

While the entire world focuses on the Tiger Woods sex scandal, here at Trah Film Blog we are staying focused on the Morgan Freeman cookie crumb scandal…a far more titillating subject if you ask us.

It’s almost as if this is a normal feature on his skin and not crumbled bits of cookies from his afternoon splurge. Thank god these are only cookie crumbs, I would be a real douche for just making fun of little crumb-like specs on his dome piece.

But at the end of the day I am huge fan of Mr. Freeman. Anytime I need advice from a wise old man with cookie crumbs rooted in his skin, I know whom to turn to.




































Look at all the crumbs on his face; do you know how many Oreos you have to eat to constantly have crumbs embedded into your skin? A fair amount, we speculate.

The “For-ev-er” guy is a Douche

I was watching The Sandlot (1993) the other day. That movie is so sweet. In my opinion I feel it is one of the finest sports films ever made…I say that because the film captures the true love of sport without the distractions of million dollar contracts and endorsement deals to get in the way. It’s just a really fun film to watch.

While watching I couldn’t help but notice what a douche Police Chief Palledorous is…ya know, the guy who says “For-ev-er” all weird and stuff.

The scene in the movie occurs when Squints Palledorous (his grandson) is telling the story of The Beast (Hercules) at the sleepover all the kids are having. I found a few holes in his story and all signs point to his grandfather being an Ass Hat.

The story about The Beast, the mean junkyard dog, has him killing and eating thieves that try to break into the junkyard where he lives. Squints says the dog ate so many thieves that after a while the cops started getting suspicious because they were receiving lots of calls with people reporting missing thieves…who the hell is calling the police and reporting missing thieves? That’s the dumbest thing I have ever heard.

Would it have gone something like this?
-----------------------------
Ring Ring

Police Operator: “Police, how may I help you?”

Guy: “Yeh, I would like to report a missing thief. I was supposed to have my TV stolen but nothing happened. I am a tax payer, goddamnit”

Police Operator: “we will send someone right over to check it out”
-----------------------------

No one reports missing thieves, it’s dumb and retarded to think people would. People would just not get stuff stolen if thieves were missing…it’s a good thing and not something the police would get suspicious over. Police Chief Palledorous is a moron to get all in a huff about missing thieves.

Not only is he a moron, he is clueless about the normal protocol of the law. He basically makes himself the Jury and Judge. Palledorous orders Mr. Mertle (the meanest old man that ever lived, but not really) to chain the dog up under his house for an undisclosed amount of time. When Mertle asks him how long he has to keep the dog there Palledorous gives a pretty unprofessional answer. Instead of saying “That’s for the judge to decide” like a upstanding officer of the law… Palledorous tells him “forever” in a very strange way with his lips moving around all weird.

Ummm…I am pretty sure the police don’t have the power to order you to chain your dog up for life with no court order or anything. The ACLU would have gotten involved...Fox News would have reported the developing story.

A few weeks ago I posted about how Quint from Jaws would be my number one choice of any character from cinema to “sit down and drink beer with”…well Police Chief Palledorous is my number one choice for any character from cinema “I would most like to dip my hand in warm oil and slap across the face”. He is just a horrible police chief and a dumb douche.

I posted Squints story below.


Here is what some of the media coverage may have looked like.

Opie and Anthony Short Film Festival

I’ve been a fan of the Opie and Anthony radio show since I was in high school and they were on 102.7 WNEW in NYC. Since that time they have moved around from station to station and even to new platforms (satellite radio) but I have remained a faithful fan.

Back in mid 2008 O&A hosted a Short Film festival for their fans to participate in. The stipulation was that you had to utilize audio from their show and create an original animation/ short film to go along with it. The show would choose the 25 best pieces and showcase them at the Roseland Ballroom in New York City.

I created and entered an animation (Vos’s IQ 2008) based on audio with the hosts of the show making fun of one of their frequent guests (and friends) about how low his IQ is. The friend whose IQ is in question is comedian, Rich Vos (Comedy Central, HBO).

One cool thing I like about this animation is that that audio comes from a 20-25 minute block that I edited down to make a nice smooth moving 2-minute piece. There was a lot of stuff in between all the good lines that needed to be trimmed…I think it worked well because most people just think it’s a solid 2 minute clip from the show. This animation also marks the first time the Trah process of animation was created and utilized…a process that all current Trah Animations are now created with.

I was very happy to be accepted into the festival, they only chose 25 short films and hundreds were submitted. An added bonus was having Opie and Anthony talk about the animation live on their show.

I posted my animation below and the radio audio with them speaking about it. Please enjoy.


Vos’s IQ (2008)


Trah Film on Opie and Anthony

Merry Christmas from Star Wars

Taking a break today. Merry Christmas from Star Wars.

Christmas Randomness

Doing a little something different today. I don’t have much to say so I would like to share some random and obscure clips of classic Christmas TV and commercial moments.



Nintendo 64 commercial circa 1998


Pepsi & Nintendo 1989 TV Commercial


Fruity Pebbles Christmas Commercial


Christmas with The Joker (Batman Animated Series)


Growing Pains: Christmas Episode


Bad Guys Become Good for Christmas (Direct TV)
This is a pretty cool Direct TV commercial. I never saw it before, it has Spanish narration so it may not even get played here. Enjoy.


Wonderful Christmas Time (music video)- Paul McCartney

What’s this? What’s this?

A Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) may be one of the most unique holiday films ever produced. I say this because it doubles as both a festive Christmas film and a ghoulish delight for Halloween all while incorporating a brilliant and original storyline.

I love the idea that each holiday has it’s own magical far off land where the holiday (and everything associated with it) lives. We follow Jack the Pumpkin King (leader of the Halloween world) as he lets his curiosity get the best of him and steps into the world of Christmas. After being mystified by the holiday, Jack attempts to bring Christmas back to his home of Halloween. It is so much fun to see him try to explain Christmas to the ghosts, skeletons and vampires of the Halloween world and watch them attempt to pull off their own Christmas celebration.

Contrary to common belief this film was not directed by Tim Burton, but by Henry Selick (James and the Giant Peach, Caroline). Burton is credited as the writer and producer of the picture, which is why the film’s official title is “Tim Burton’s A Nightmare Before Christmas” (and the reason why many believe he directed it). Burton had originally intended to direct the film but placed Selick at the helm because Burton was just too busy with Batman Returns (1992). That is pretty funny to me because this is much more of a memorable film than lame ass Batman Returns with Michael Keaton.

I think we can all agree that the songs in this film kick ass. The music was an original composition by Danny Elfman (Composer of The Simpson’s theme song). In my opinion these are some of the best songs ever written for a film.

The idea for the film was originally drafted from a poem that Burton had written. He was inspired after being in a department store a few days after Halloween. He noticed the store workers taking down the Halloween decorations and replacing them with decorations for Christmas. The juxtaposition of ghosts and goblins with Santa and his elves sparked his imagination.

This film utilizes the stop motion animation technique that I wrote about in the Christmas Misfits piece last week. This technique adds a real special element to this film, a surreal tone that fits perfectly. Believe it or not A Nightmare Before Christmas was the first ever fully animated feature film using stop motion animation. The animators for the film received an Oscar nomination for Best Visual Effects as a result but ultimately lost to Industrial Light and Magic (Special Effects for Star Wars, Indiana Jones) for their creation of the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park (1994).

I don’t think I have ever met anyone who didn’t like this film; I mean how could you not? Unless you’re not a fan of an original idea, great production value, great voice over work, a great script, sweet music, cutting edge filmmaking, magic, fantasy, Halloween/Christmas and fun.

So make sure to get your viewing of this film in for the season. If you missed it for Halloween, now’s your chance for Christmas.

What’s This? Jack discovers Christmas.


Making Christmas in the world of Halloween


Trah Bonus Classicness
Did you know that at Disney World during the month of October completely changes The Haunted Mansion ride into a ride that revolves around A Nightmare Before Christmas? It’s pretty sweet. Check out this video some like-minded fan took for all of us to enjoy.

I said, “I wish I’d never been Born”

It’s been said that the purpose of art is to up lift mans spirit…Frank Capra’s, It’s a Wonderful life (1946), does just that. When you watch this film it helps you put life into perspective. We all have our down days; we loose sight of how we are all interconnected and what we mean to the other people in our life.

Capra stated that he felt this was the best work he ever created. He was intrigued by the idea of exploring how one mans life reaches out and effects the lives of many. Capra’s vision paired with the sweet performance given by Jimmy Stewart as George Bailey created one of the best films in the history of cinema. We follow Stewart through the full range of human emotions, a performance so sophisticated that it easily holds up in 2009… even with great advancements made in the filmmaking/performance process.

By this time in Capra’s carrier, the peak of his creative powers, he said he wanted to create more soul-searching pictures. With that in mind he established Liberty Films in 1945 with Directors, George Stevens (The Diary of Anne Frank, A Place in the Sun) and William Wyler (Ben Hur, The Best Years of our Lives). It’s a Wonderful Life was Liberty Films first production.

Although considered a timeless classic now, when released the film was not all that popular. When the film was released in the winter of 1946 the east coast was experiencing record low temperatures with heavy snow and ice...most people just stayed home and listened to the radio. Another factor was that many audience members viewed this as too depressing of a film for the holidays, which is odd because we now consider this a holiday classic. The film was not a flop at the box office, but once it left the theaters in a few months it was out of sight and out of mind.

A legal loophole may be responsible for allowing modern generations to discover this classic. In the early 1970’s the copyright on the film had expired. There was an option to renew the copyright for another 28 years but because of a clerical error the film slipped into public domain. Television stations across the country started to play the film with out having to pay any royalties to a copyright holder. Since that time it as evolved into a revered body of cinematic work shown every Christmas season.

Television and Film really are best friends forever. If poor old cinema didn’t have his buddy TV around to help him make friends there is a chance we would never know about some of these classic movies. Well there is now a third buddy to join the group…You Tube. You Tube picks up where TV left off and helps deliver these classic films to younger generations.

Enjoy.

George Bailey is rescued by Clarence, his guardian Angel.



Bailey's famous Speech to Old Man Potter & the Loan Board

I Double Dog Dare Ya…24-hours of A Christmas Story

As Christmas approaches I know all of you out there are looking forward to TBS’s 24-hour marathon of A Christmas Story (1983, Directed by Bob Clark). What’s that...you don’t know about the 24-hour A Christmas Story marathon on TBS? what are you, a communist?

Since 1997 TBS has been airing the film 12 consecutive times on Christmas. Starting at 8 PM on Christmas Eve and lasting until about the same time on Christmas Day. I love when networks go against the grain with things like this. Airing the same movie 12 consecutive times over a 24-hour period seems like a stupid idea, but it has become a Christmas classic for many. I personally leave one TV on in the house that has TBS on the entire day.

In the mid 1990’s Turner Broadcasting acquired ownership of the broadcasting rights. They began to air the movie the night after Thanksgiving to open up the holiday Television season. As the years went on they began to show the film more frequently in their stations time slots and by 1997 they decided to air the movie for a full 24-hour period…a tradition was born.

Personally this film holds a special place in my memories, as it does for many of my other friends I grew up with. At Munsey Park Elementary School in the mid 90’s we had a pretty cool tradition. The last day of school before Christmas break the teachers gathered all of the 5th and 6th graders in the library before the day was over and showed us A Christmas Story on VHS. Looking back now, that was pretty sweet. Pretty much every scene in this film is a classic. It’s no wonder millions demand the 24-hour marathon every year.

I Posted two classic clips below.

I Double Dog Dare ya...

Where else to go when the dogs eat Christmas diner? Chinese Food.


These only scratch the surface. If you crave more I also posted a link to a You Tube search for A Christmas Story. Click Here. Enjoy.

A Festivus For the Rest of Us

There are many great aspects to Seinfeld; one aspect that stands out is the classic line up of side characters…Frank Costanza being one of the best. When an episode revolved around Frank you knew it was going to be hysterically funny. From lawyers wearing capes, selling computers out of his garage or creating a holiday that incorporates decorating your house with an aluminum pole... he always has some asinine scheme up his sleeve.

Sticking with out holiday theme, the Festivus episode is a series classic. Festivus was first introduced in the episode "The Strike" (Season 9 Episode 166). The episode first aired on December 18th, 1997.

Frank Costanza created the holiday of Festivus. In the Seinfeld universe, Festivus is celebrated on December 23rd and includes practices such as the "Airing of Grievances” and the "Feats of Strength". The purpose of the holiday is to escape the commercial and religious aspects of the Christmas season, as explained by Frank Himself. Festivus is now regarded as a high holy day.

The "Airing of Grievances" segment of the celebration is a sacred and holy practice for the followers of the holiday. This occurs during the Festivus meal in which each person goes around the table and tells everyone else all the ways they have disappointed them during the year. After the meal the family gathers 'round the fireplace for the "Feats of Strength". This involves each member of the family attempting to wrestle the head of the family (usually the father) and pinning them to the ground. Festivus is a magical holiday that brings smiles to the faces of children everywhere.

Frank's son, George, has continued the tradition and has set up a charitable foundation that seeks to better his fellow man, The Human Fund…money for people. Because we love you here at Trah Film, We have made a generous donation in YOUR name to the Human Fund to help spread the cheer and good fortune this season.

We would like to wish you a Happy Festivus.

Christmas Misfits

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer (1964) and Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town (1970) animated Christmas TV specials are the most kick ass animated Christmas specials ever (Sorry Charlie Brown, you can have Halloween).

One of the things I really love about these films is the Stop Motion Animation, you really don’t see too much of that these days (although Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox was recently released). This animation style brings so much charm to the overall tone of the film. When I was a kid I was captivated by seeing inanimate objects move around on their own. Watching hand drawn animation or even computer animation, which I do love, its not as dazzling as when you see puppets and sets that you know are inert objects made out of plastic and wood…only they move like they are alive.

Arthur Rankin and his production company, Rankin/Bass Productions inc, produced these specials back in the mid 1960’s and 70’s. Their work has been a staple in Christmas entertainment for over 40 years.

There were many classic characters in these movies but one of my favorites from back in the day was Burgermeister Meisterburger, the bad guy from Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town. I always thought that guy was such a douche. But looking back now…he may have been even more of a douche than I realized. Are Burgermeister Meisterburger and his goons Nazis? Look at the still I posted. I don’t know…maybe its just me, but once you get a group of angry Germans marching around in matching shirts…well lets just say things could be inferred…you decide.
























A clip from Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

Merry Christmas…Shitter was full

Ahhh, it’s that time of year again. Christmas time, the happiest time of year with smiling children, Santa giving presents, warm cookies baking in the oven and Cousin Eddie emptying his RV’s toilet in your driveway…don’t ya just love family?

I was thinking I should start shifting the focus of my blogs to some classic Christmas films. The wonderful thing about Christmas movies is that you never really out grow them. Something that makes you happy as a kid usually continues to make you happy as the years go on, that’s kinda cool.

Cousin Eddie and The Griswolds make me happy. The classic American family. All poor Clark wants is to have a fun, old-fashioned family Christmas…and who doesn’t after all?

Christmas Vacation is certainly a traditional viewing every Christmas season (as is A Christmas Story - 24 hour replay on TBS…but we will get to that in another blog). I remember watching Christmas Vacation when I was a young kid on VHS at my friend Charlie’s house and loving every minute of it.

One of the cool things about this movie is that different stuff makes you laugh at different times in your life. When you are younger you are getting more of a kick out of the physical slapstick humor. I still love that aspect of the film but now as I get older I enjoy the humor that derives from the family dynamic…The grumpy old grandfathers, the drunk uncle, the desperate father who just wants to have the “hap, hap, happiest Christmas since Bing Crosby tap-danced with Danny fucking Kaye”, according to Clark himself.

This film is a holiday classic just like Miracle on 34th Street and It’s a Wonderful Life.

O…so getting back to Cousin Eddie emptying his RV’s toilet in your driveway. Just pretend it’s your family. Enjoy.



Watch the entire Christmas Vacation Movie, Below part I is posted. Follow the related videos link on You Tube for the entire film. Have fun.

Here's to swimmin' with bow-legged women

If I had to pick one character from cinema to sit down and throw back beers with it would have to be Quint, Captain of the Orca, from Spielberg’s 1975 summer blockbuster, Jaws.

What a classic guy he is. Champion Arm Wrestler, World War II Veteran and Shark Hunter…Quint is a real no nonsense type of guy, he drinks his vodka out of a Styrofoam cup. The best character in the entire film, hands down.

Quint is the type of dude you see at the bar down by the docks holding court with his fellow sailors. You know not to mess with him so you grab a beer, sit quietly and listen to him tell his tales. He is almost like a character from Greek mythology, a traveler of the seas. As he takes a sip he tells about the time he entered an arm wrestling contest at an Okie bar in San Francisco, how he got to the semi finals celebrating his third wife’s demise and a big Chinese fella pulled him right over.

One thing I always noticed about him was the terrible crease he has in his hat. You know what that tells me? That Quint is the real deal badass motherf*cker. I know that because anyone else would feel like a douche walking around with said crease, you have to be pretty secure with your inner illlness to pull that off.

Alas, sadly you can't sit down at a bar with Quint and listen to his stories, damn shark ate him. But you can grab a nice cold one and watch the video below. Enjoy!

Old School Nickelodeon Rules

Wow, so I just happen to flip on Nickelodeon, what treacherously awful programming they have on these days. There is zero imagination or creativity in this junk. Growing up in the mid 90's was pretty much the golden age for kids television. You never realize what you had until it's gone, I guess.

The line up of shows that Nick aired during the 90's was epic. Salute Your Shorts, Pete and Pete, Ren and Stimpy, Doug, Hey Dude, Clarissa Explains It All, Welcome Freshmen… The list goes on and on. Why does the programming on Nick not measure up these days? There is a real lack of imaginative ideas and the taking of chances. It feels like they just got lazy and less apt to produce material with a bit of an edge to it.

Remember Ren and Stimpy? There was definitely material on there that you look back on now and realize “wow, they would never put something like that out again”. Why are they so scared these days? Did that stuff really do any harm to us?

The really sad thing is that Viacom (the parent company of Nickelodeon) has not even released our old classic shows on DVD. Viacom only released the first and second season of Pete and Pete and no seasons of the other shows previously mentioned.

For the love of these old shows, faithful viewers have transferred their old VHS tapes to digital files and posted them onto You Tube. I did some searching around and found some of these old shows for your viewing. Enjoy

Salute Your Shorts Season 1 Episode 1 (Part 1)


Salute Your Shorts Season 1 Episode 1 (Part 2)

Salute Your Shorts Season 1 Episode 1 (Part 3)

Click here to buy Pete and Pete on DVD

Terminator 2: Judgment Day…What if ?

Today I was watching Terminator 2, I love that movie. Arnold is pretty badass in that one, that may be his most badass movie of all time (not including Kindergarten Cop of course). Running around in that sweet leather jacket on a motorcycle, blasting people away. Don’t you just love Hollywood? Everything seems to work out perfectly.

So it got me thinking. At the start of the film Arnold arrives naked and needs to get himself some clothes. Just by coincidence he happens to be near a biker bar with all kinds of dudes wearing leather jackets, biker pants and cool shades. He kicks all their asses (sweet) and gets some badass threads. So, by that logic it's only coincidental that Arnold looks pretty cool in that movie.

With that logic in mind....what if Arnold just happened to get zapped back near a geeky computer club’s weekly meeting, packed with nerds? He would have walked in, mid conversation about Microsoft, and just started ruthlessly beating geeks up and stealing their clothes. Poor nerds would have no idea what was going on. Arnold would have been decked out in full nerd attire, not knowing the better.

Now close your eyes and picture the classic action sequences from that film, only Arnold looks something like this…