Ahhhhh, Real Busy

Hey Everybody,

Thanks again for reading my silly blog. Right now I'm working a lot on my upcoming books ORGANIZING CLASSICS and ORGANIZING CRIME Second Edition. They will premiere at BoucherCon 2011 if all goes right. Yet there are three additional movies opening today I didn't have time to write full reviews. Here's some mini-reviews and additional stuff.

30 Minutes or Less

This is such an odd film. I was worried that I went to too early of a screening because it felt like it wasn't done with its editing. Yet the running time is the same... The cast is likable and the premise is amusing--even though it's apparently based off a real life tragedy. There are just too many things off about its timing, its stakes, and its world. It's a forgettable misstep with a few solid laughs.

Beats, Rhymes and Life

I am not a hip person so I never heard of A Tribe Called Quest. This documentary covers the four men who became a sensation in the 90s and then fizzled out due to internal conflicts. The film did a great job capturing the times and letting all of its subjects speak candidly. I loved seeing how the cool thing was to wear a bright colored jacket in a music video to the rich thug lifestyle as seen now in rap. I wish there was more music, since I wasn't the most familiar. Worth seeing.

Sarah's Key

Not every Holocaust film is going to be good. This one has a lot of good moments, surrounded by a lot of bloated ones. There is no surprise to where the story is going, which seems essential since there is someone obsessed about finding out what happens next. Far too many coincidences with the mystery and over-directing becomes a big problem in too many moments. The whole thing falls flat.

You can see Chris Lloyd and I argue about Sarah's Key in a commentary for The Film Yap. I was called a new insult during it!

I was thrilled to be able to write an article for Mystery Scene. I have a featured article on their website talking about the five best foreign thriller films. Add them all to your queue!

Finally, I can say I shall be on a panel at BoucherCon this year. Last Magna I created a game show where a panel of judges determines who is the Greatest Detective. I'm bringing it to St. Louis with an incredible panel of JoAnna Carl, Terence Faherty, Lauren Henderson, Harry Hunsicker and Simon Wood. I'm excited!

Once again, thank you everyone for reading my silly thoughts. There are plenty more on the way.

--Austin

More Housekeeping!

Hey Everybody,

Thanks everyone for continuing to read the blog. More movie reviews are on their way this summer and some exciting articles about mysteries books as well. Until then here are some more small things that aren't going to get their own page.

I was on The Film Yap podcast this week chatting it up about Marvel and DC movies. You can find it here and on iTunes very soon.

We had another episode of And the Nominees Are (finally) recorded and posted. Keith, Kenny, and I talk about the first half of 1939. The second half has been recorded and will be posted in a few days. You can find it on our website and on iTunes.

I caught Midnight in Paris, the latest Woody Allen film and loved it. Try to catch it in theatres and don't learn anything about it. Absolutely charming.

I also saw The Princess of Montpensier, which was very good. Unfortunately it is leaving theatres in my area today so I'm not going to write a full review. It'll be worth checking out on DVD especially if you're a fan of movies like I Am Love or Atonement.

Thanks again for everyone's support. Feel free to leave comments to start a discussion. Also I can't explicitly suggest that you do it but if there is anywhere on the page that you want to click that would be grand.

--Austin

ATNA Website

Hey Everybody,

Our podcast And the Nominees Are has been a bit tricky lately as we try to get movies and try to juggle everything. Yet we have one bit thing finally finished. Our website is now up! www.atnapodcast.com There's still a few more things to add on the episode page, but this is something we've been working on for a little bit. HUGE thanks to Jeff Higgens for designing this and putting it together.

We are finishing up the last few films of 1938 and shall get another new episode up soon. Along with that will (probably) be an announcement involving Keith. Another one!

Also to tease something else, my next housekeeping blog post will be talking about a new publication I'm writing for. Not movies this time...

Thanks everybody for reading this silly thing and Happy New Year!

--Austin

Random Bits of Information

Hey Everybody,

I'm a bit overwhelmed with a lot of my work so here is just random stuff.

Easy A - This movie ended up being a lot of fun. It's very clever and consistently funny. Sure I have a few flaws, but for the most part this was a very surprising hit.

I'm Still Here - This is the Joaquin Phoenix "documentary." I hate this film. A lot.

New episode of And the Nominees Are podcast is up on iTunes. For new readers, this is the podcast I have with Keith Jackson and Kenny Jones where we discuss every single Best Picture nominee. This one covers the first half of films from 1937.

I was also a guest on The Film Yap podcast. You can find that on their site or on iTunes. The episode is about "Directors Who Throw Changeups" like how Zack Synder went out of his comfort zone for Legend of the Guardians.

Oh and I realized through a conversation yesterday that I never bothered to post my Top Ten Films of 2009. So better (way) late than never, here you go:

1) The Hurt Locker

2) Inglourious Basterds

3) An Education

4) In the Loop

5) Up

6) Bright Star

7) A Serious Man

8) A Single Man

9) Star Trek

10) Fantastic Mr. Fox

Honorable mentions include Up in the Air, Where the Wild Things Are, Ponyo, Coraline, The Brothers Bloom, Bad Lieutentant: Port of Call New Orleans, Sita Sings the Blues, and Humpday.

That's probably it. Next week I'll have a bunch of DVD reviews and my official review of The Social Network. Get excited!!!!!2!

New Stuff!

Hey everybody,

Some quick things:

1) I was a guest on the Film Yap podcast again! Joe Shearer and I talked about graphic novel movies and I disappoint him by not liking Sin City. I may be fired. You can find it on iTunes and on the Film Yap Website.

2) I'm now writing weekly for another website. Every Monday I'll have an article at The Higgens Network. I'll reprint them here on the blog, but I encourage you to check out the rest of the site here: http://www.higgens.net/

3) Next week I'll be going to Malice Domestic. Let me know if you're going as well. It should be a lot of fun.

4) I'm almost done with my Sophomore year of college. Thanks for asking!

I Guest Starred on The Film Yap Podcast!

The Film Yap, besides being an awesome movie website, is also a rather spiffy weekly podcast. Every week Joe Shearer and Christopher Lloyd discuss a specific topic of cinema. This week they talked about film remakes and they asked me to join them!

I wrote this article for The Film Yap about remakes so this is what we are referring to: http://www.thefilmyap.com/2010/04/03/the-rules-of-remakes/

You can listen to the episode here: http://www.thefilmyap.com/2010/04/07/when-to-remake/

Or if you have iTunes you can download this episode (When to Remake?) and subscribe to their show here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/filmyap/id317236151

Or if you just like clicking links here's Michael Buble Being Stalked by a Velociraptor: http://bubleraptor.tumblr.com/

And the Nominees Are...

I adore podcasts. I discovered them when I first got an iPod because there was this entire section of iTunes that was free. I love free! Then I discovered that not only were they free, but they were brilliant. Years later I’m not hooked on tons of podcasts like Filmspotting, The Hollywood Saloon, Battleship Pretension, God Loved Jacob, KCRW’s The Treatment, Nowhere in Mulberry, SModcast, This American Life and many more.

It comes as no surprise that I wanted to make my own. Along with my friends Keith Jackson and Kenny Jones (of The Reel Deal fame) we decided to make a podcast where we take on a difficult assignment. It's called And the Nominees Are. We are reviewing every single Best Picture nominee starting in 1927. Oh yeah.

That’s over 400 movies to review and it’s also a project that will not end until Hollywood decides to stop giving themselves awards. So never.

Our first three episodes are now online and I think they’re amusing. You may not have seen (or heard of) most of the movies we’re talking about but hopefully we approach them in a way that is inviting. You may not have seen a movie with Chester Morris, but now you’ll know how to make fun of him!

You find us on iTunes (Remember, for free!) and on Facebook and even on Twitter. We also have a website that is currently under construction. Soon it will be awesome and booming with a schedule of our upcoming shows. Please let us know how we’re doing and leave us a review on iTunes.

The next episodes will be up as soon as we can get to them. It usually takes us about two weeks to watch the five films and then to record our thoughts on them. Once we work out a proper schedule it’ll be up on our website.

I hope you like it!

Live Muncie

So I'm now writing for another publication. I know, I know. I'm repetitive. This is a really cool thing, though. It's called Live Muncie. It's a new magazine of sorts that is about to print its first edition. A lot of articles are available on its website right now (livemuncie.com). It's full of articles showing the value of life and the opportunities around us. So many of them are really fascinating and inspiration. Just take a look at the very well written article by Jama Kehoe Bigger entitled "A Desire to Be Happy": http://livemuncie.com/?p=67

So every once in awhile I'll be posting an article I've written. They won't be reviews but just fun comedy pieces about random topics. The name of my column will be called Words Words Words, because I am a nerd. I hope you enjoy them.

The Film Yap

So I have an exciting piece of news. I'm now writing reviews and articles for this great website called The Film Yap. It's a cool website composed of a lot of writers I respect, like Christopher Lloyd and Joseph Shearer. I'll be reposting my articles on this blog, but I strongly recommend you check out their site every day. I really like the "Heroes of the Zeroes" project that Nick Rogers is doing. He made a list of the best 365 movies of the last decade and every day he releases a new review.

My first review went up last weekend and I felt a bit of hazing with their assigned movie...

Upcoming Book Reviews

It seems like this blog is just about my random ramblings about movie, but I also ramble about books too! I've been a bit behind with some of my book reviews, but within the next few days you'll have a bunch pop up. For the past year I've been writing reviews for books that were released during 2009. After this upcoming set I'm going to be switching to only writing reviews for books I've read that came out during 2010.

The books I review are just the ones I naturally come across. However, I'm always interested in recommendations. If you have one just put it as a comment and I'll take a look at it.

As always, thanks you so much for reading. Next up will be The Angels' Game...

Organizing Crime: The Mystery Company's Guide to Series

Oh yeah. I have a new book out. (Aren't I the best promoter?) Just in time for this holiday season, Jim Huang and I created Organizing Crime: The Mystery Company's Guide to Crime. It's a guide to every active mystery series on the market right now. We put all of those books in the right canonical order, included a simple little description, and put little boxes next to the titles so you can check off if you read it or not. Also there's a comical introduction and 42 Top Five Lists for recommendations to new series. (Why 42? For Jim likes Douglas Adams and I like LOST.) Also there is a great original cover from Wanni Zhou.

Basically it's awesome.

But who is in this spiffy book? Well let me tell you. You can find series from Catherine Aird, Boris Akunin, Susan Wittig Albert, Madelyn Alt, Donna Andrews, Suzanne Arruda, Nancy Atherton, Sandi Ault, Deb Baker, David Baldacci, Sandra Balzo, Linda Barnes, Nevada Barr, Lorna Barrett, Stephanie Barron, Brett Battles, M.C. Beaton, Carrie A. Bebris, James R. Benn, William Bernhardt, John Billheimer, Cara Black, Michael A. Black, Miranda Bliss, Lawrence Block, Giles Blunt, Stephen Booth, Michael Bowen, Rhys Bowen, C.J. Box, Gyles Brandreth, Lilian Jackson Braun, Jan Brogan, Dan Brown, Rita Mae Brown, Ken Bruen, Don Bruns, Fiona Buckley, James Lee Burke, Jan Burke, Jim Butcher, Dana Cameron, Dorothy Cannell, JoAnna Carl, Sammi Carter, Sean Chercover, Lee Child, Laura Childs, Alys Clare, Carol Higgins Clark, Jane K. Cleland, Judy Clemens, Blaize Clement, Barbara Cleverly, Harlan Coben, Margaret Coel, Mark Coggins, Jeffrey Cohen, Curt Colbert, Reed Farrel Coleman, Kate Collins, Max Allan Collins, Michael Connelly, Patricia Cornwell, Colin Cotterill, Cleo Coyle, Robert Crais, Deborah Crombie, Mary Daheim, Barbara D'Amato, Jeanne M. Dams, Shirley Damsgaard, Casey Daniels, Diane Mott Davidson, Kyra Davis, Lindsey Davis, Jeffrey Deaver, Jo Dereske, David Dickinson, Garry Disher, Brandt Dodson, Tim Dorsey, James D. Doss, Carole Nelson Douglas, Ruth Downie, Lee Driver, Phil Dunlap, Carola Dunn, John Dunning, Ruth Dudley Edwards, Kit Ehrman, Barry Eisler, Aaron Elkins, Kate Ellis, Kathy Lynn Emerson, Loren D. Estleman, Janet Evanovich, Mary Anna Evans, Terence Faherty, Monica Ferris, Jasper Fforde, Sharon Fiffer, Kate Flora, Joanne Fluke, Vince Flynn, Karin Fossum, Christopher Fowler, Earlene Fowler, Ariana Franklin, Margaret Frazer, Brian Freeman, Sara Hoskinson Frommer, David Fulmer, Leighton Gage, Roberta Gellis, Elizabeth George, Tess Gerritsen, Brent Ghelfi, Alan Gordon, Nadia Gordon, Chris Grabenstein, Sue Grafton, Caroline Graham, Kerry Greenwood, Susanna Gregory, Martha Grimes, Elizabeth Gunn, Jane Haddam, J.P. Hailey, Carolyn Haines, Parnell Hall, Timothy Hillinan, Steve Hamilton, C.S. Harris, Charlaine Harris, Rosemary Harris, Cora Harrison, Cynthia Harrod-Eagles, Carolyn G. Hart, Ellen Hart, Betty Hechtman, Libby Fischer Hellmann, Joan Hess, David Hewson, Reginald Hill, Naomi Hirahara, Steve Hockensmith, Hazel Holt, David Housewright, Julie Hyzy, Arnaldur Indridason, Roberta Isleib, Sue Ann Jaffarian, P.D. James, J.A. Jance, Michael Jecks, Maureen Jennings, Iris Johansen, Craig Johnson, Stuart M. Kaminsky, Susan Kandel, Alex Kava, Faye Kellerman, Jonathan Kellerman, Alice Kimberly, Jonathon King, Laurie R. King, Bernard Knight, Chris Knopf, J.A. Konrath, Michael Koryta, Harley Jane Kozak, Julie Kramer, William Kent Krueger, John J. Lamb, Vicki Lane, Victoria Laurie, Joyce & Jim Lavene, Mike Lawson, Dennis Lehand, Donna Leon, John Lescroart, Laura Levine, Paul Levine, Michael Z. Lewin, Martin Limón, Jeff Lindsay, Laura Lippman, David Liss, Jess Lourey, Peter Lovesey, Lisa Lutz, Stuart MacBride, Karen MacInerney, Michael McGarrity, Barry Maitland, Henning Mankell, Margaret Maron, Andrew Martin, Nancy Martin, Peter May, Archer Mayor, Susan McBride, Val McDermid, Pat McIntosh, Leslie Meier, John Ramsey Miller, Susan Cummins Miller, Walter Mosley, Marcia Muller, Shirley Rousseau Murphy, Beverle Graves Myers, Tamar Myers, Barbara Nadel, Sharan Newman, Carol O'Connell, Katherine Hall Page, Sara Paretsky, Robert B. Parker, P.J. Parrish, James Patterson, Eliot Pattison, Louise Penny, Tony Perona, Thomas Perry, Elizabeth Peters, Twist Phelan, Nancy Pickard, Cathy Pickens, Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, Bill Pronzini, Ann Purser, Ian Rankin, Deanna Raymourn, Mary Reed and Eric Mayer, Matt Beynon Rees, Kathy Reichs, Ruth Rendell, Emilie Richards, Candance Robb, J.D. Robb, Natalie M. Roberts, Peter Robinson, David Rosenfelt, Rosemary Rowe, Laura Joh Rowland, Priscilla Royal, S.J. Rozan, Greg Rucka, Hank Phillippi Ryan, John Sandford, C.J. Sansom, Ian Sansom, Jonathan Santlofer, Mary Saums, Steven Saylor, Tom Schreck, Mark Schweizer, Kate Sedley, Maggie Sefton, John Shannon, Zoe Sharp, Sharon Short, Daniel Silva, Joanna Campbell Slan, Karin Slaughter, Alexander McCall Smith, Julia Spencer-Fleming, Peter Spiegelman, Patricia Sprinkle, Dana Stabenow, J.B. Stanley, John Straley, Denise Swanson, Pari Noskin Taichert, Marcia Talley, William G. Tapply, Sarah Stewart Taylor, Terri Thayer, Will Thomas, Victoria Thompson, Aimée & David Thurlo, Ronald Tierney, Charles Todd, S.D. Tooley, P.J. Tracy, Peter Tremayne, Elaine Viets, Kathryn R. Wall, Heather Webber, Randy Wayne White, Robert Wilson, Jacqueline Winspear, David Wishart, Stuart Woods, Edward Wright, Sally Wright, Qiu Xiaolong, and Mark Richard Zubro.

You can buy this book in a bunch of locations. Sure you can go the predicatable route of Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or any place like that. OR you could be super cool and buy it at www.themysterycompany.com (I'd vote for the latter, but I'm bias.)

Spiffy Reminders and BoucherCon

Hey everyone,

Just a reminder that two of my favorite books of the year are actually now available to buy. The Ghosts of Belfast (The Twelve) and Juliet, Naked. I highly recommend both of them and you can see more paragraphs explaining why in their respected reviews.

Also while I have your attention, BoucherCon is next week! BoucherCon is the world's largest mystery convention and this year it's in Indianapolis. I've had the fun job of being in charge of the Anthony Awards and those will be awarded next Saturday. Check back at this blog for the winners. Or follow me on Twitter to get more up-to-date information from the ceremony @AustinLugar

Also a really fun thing I'm doing will be a series of interviews for The Reel Deal at BoucherCon. So once again, check back at this blog for the YouTube links and schedules of when they will air on The Reel Deal. I don't want to jinx anything, but we have a lot of great authors confirmed for a sit-down interview to discuss their relationships with Hollywood. One MAY rhyme with Bichael Bonnelly and the other is most definitely Charlaine Harris. Also many more.... Get excited.

Blog Update

Howdy everyone

As I'm sure you've all noticed there wasn't a new episode of LOST yesterday. That is why I've been procrastinating on my write-up on "LaFleur." You can expect that in a couple of days before I head back to Ball State. I'll give you a brief spoiler: It was fantastic.

Also you can expect some more updates in the next couple of days as I start to post book reviews written entirely for this blog. It'll only be of books there were published this year. Also I'm going to make a list entirely for this blog entitled: Top Five TV Shows That No One is Watching. Feel free to start guessing what they will be.

As always, thanks everyone for reading.

And Here We Go...

Howdy everyone.

For all of you who don't know me, my name is Austin Lugar. I'm a big admirer of film, television, and books and this blog will show that. I'll be posting a variety of lists, reviews, and sometime just silly rants on a (hopefully) regular basis. I am a student at Ball State University so that could get in my way in terms of regular postings.

Yet luckily right now I have a bunch of articles that I can post here that I have already written for Facebook, family and for a publication. What I shall encourage for every thing I write is discussion. I almost want you to disagree with me because there's nothing I like more than to talk about the things I'm interested in. So if you ever think I've erred do not hesitate to tell me otherwise. Just be articulate with it.

So there we go. I hope that you all subscribe to the blog however you choose. Thanks for reading.

--Austin