Banksy's Movie Is So Unbelievable, It Must Be True

It's no secret among my friends that I'm a huge Banksy fan. If you talk to me about art at any point I'll gush to you about him. So obviously when I heard Banksy made a film I had to see it. Despite not being in my normal theater, I still managed to see it by driving quite a way.

The film tells the story of Thierry Guetta, store-owner, aspiring film maker and insanely likable despite his immense stupidity. But all the graffiti writers have that kinda charm. Shepard Fairey aka Obey, is introduced at a Kinko's with his girlfriend cutting up a giant poster to later illegally hang. Space Invader, one of the many graffiti artists to have his face blurred, started off in his parents garage in France. Even Banksy, the king of graffiti, tells the story about how, for a prank, he forged about a million pounds and threw them into the street. Not until later does he realize the seriousness of the situation, and even then he seems to see it as a particularly funny prank.

Thierry seems all to happy with his life, he sells shirts from thrift stores for hundreds of dollars to various LA bigwigs. He has a wife who is nice and accepting, healthy children and an obsession with videotaping. Oh yes that last thing, Thierry never goes anywhere without it, he lives life through the viewfinder always taping. It really doesn't hit you till Thierry shows you his collection of tapes. Thousands upon thousands of tapes tossed in boxes. That alone is good enough for the best episode of Horders ever, but something happens to Thierry. He meets his cousin. Well that is to say, he meets Space Invader, street artist extraordinaire.

Thierry is soon wrapped up in the whirlwind of street art, and he's there filming it all, claiming to be making a documentary. Eventually he meets his idol and the white whale of graffiti enthusiast, Banksy. Banksy takes a shining to Guetta. He lets him film his secrets, his methods and lets him go along on one of his more dangerous missions. Namely, putting a inflatable doll dressed as a Gitmo prisoner in Disney Land on the anniversary of 9/11. Yea, he's that kinda guy.

As street art makes it big with Banksy setting records at Sotheby's Auction House and Obey now having a Hot Wheel car made from his art, Banksy tells Thierry to make the documentary. Thierry fails miserably, making an abomination of a film called Life Remote Control. Banksy, realizing as he puts it, "that he might just some crazy dude with a camera" decides to take the project and off handily tells him to do some art. A suggestion Thierry goes a bit too far with, putting on a full show, risking his house in the process.

The cast is as weird and quirky as you would expect. Thierry as said is insane and a little bit of a douchebag, but still weirdly likable. Banksy is mainly unseen, but his constant quips at both his and Thierry's work helps drive the film and makes for some funny yet interesting stuff. I have to say the breakout guy in this is Shepard Fairey. He comes across like that one guy in college who kept to himself, but if you ever talked to him he was brimming with interesting ideas. We see his rise from small time to big time and it's actually a very intersting story on it's own.His best moment comes when he walks around Thierry's art and gives the camera a slightly bemused expression, seeming to say "What the fuck did I do?"

Not only will this please street art fans but regular movie goers will be happy to get a glimpse into a world still very underground. Plus I haven't even got to the the the final third which raises question such as "what is art?" The film decides not to answer that, dumping the unsuspecting audience into a huge debate, when all they wanted to see is a movie about a guy breaking the law.

Mega 64: Version 3

After four years of anticipation and a bunch of great skits, Mega 64 comes back with their explosive season three. Does it live up to the expectations?

Yes, a thousand times yes.

If you don't know the plot of Mega64 it's as follows, evil scientist Dr. Poque tests video games on a group of gamers Rocko, Derek and Sean. However as they go deeper into the world of Mega 64, they find that there's a deeper conspiracy to all of it.

While they may be known for their Jackass like skits online their thirty minute episodes really is what makes them great. It goes between rather silly episodes like the Curb Your Enthusiasm reminiscent "Bigger Boat" or the Lost eclipsing finale "Delaware." While they did start off as public access they are almost near big budget movie levels, all on a indie movie budget.

The writing is at the top of their game. The first two episodes are a bit stale as they're a bit rusty from doing full on episodes, not to say they don't have utterly hilarious jokes. One joke in the first episode had me rolling on the floor. As they hit their stride they keep going until one of the greatest finales I've seen. The acting makes you actually care for these joke characters. One scene actually almost brought me near tears. While I have to admit that Rocco has been one of the weaker actors, not to say he's bad, but I think Shawn and Derek have always hit it out of the park. Rocco however does really great work on this DVD.

Now I may be talking a lot about the serious aspect but I will say that this is comedy at it's finest, the jokes that work make you howl and there's tons of jokes you won't pick up until a repeated viewing. The serious bits are sprinkled evenly enough to make them not seem out of place. In fact the only thing that seems out of place in the later episodes are the skits. While they're still funny the skits near the end kinda outstay their welcome as they shoe horned in to please the fans who love them.

Rocco has said multiple times that people should make their perfect trilogy, even if they go longer. As the trilogy closes I feel that they've truly made a trilogy that will be hard for not only them to top, but internet film makers in general.

If Internet Geeks Made Shirts

So here is a collection of T-Shirts made off the internet site ShirtMockUp. In a bit of a mixed blessing you can't buy the shirts, sad because I wanted some, good because I have no money.