Bad Mother Fucker.

QT BLOGATHON

So I know I've been a little MIA lately, but I've been locked in a heated battle with The Terminator, so it takes up a lot of my time. Oh, that and moving to Atlanta. Which is wild. But which also hasn't left a lot of down time for writing up reviews. And so in trying to make some time to kick my ass into gear, a couple things occurred to me:

1. I love Quentin Tarantino. 
2. I foam at the mouth whenever someone mentions Django Unchained. 
3. Other fellow badasses share my affliction. 

And so I came to the solution. A blogathon. I personally suck at blogathoning. The Incredible Suit came up with the brilliant BlogalongaBond in which everyone reviews a Bond film every month until we reach Skyfall (I swear, it's not rabies, this happens with all December movies). Even though I'm still stuck somewhere in Roger Moore while everyone else is finally climbing out of that rabbit hole, it's a great concept. So I figured I'd apply the same rules to Quentin Tarantino, since we're all of ten months away and QT has written ten films (give or take 30 minutes of Four Rooms). What are the odds, right? So if I review a Tarantino a month, the schedule comes out looking something like this:

March: Reservoir Dogs
April: True Romance
May: Pulp Fiction
June: From Dusk Till Dawn
July: Jackie Brown
August: Kill Bill: Vol. 1
September: Kill Bill: Vol. 2
October: Grindhouse ("Death Proof")
November: Inglourious Basterds
December: Django Unchained

And so this is my pet project of the year, but I'm opening it up to anyone who's interested to join in. So maybe you write a review every month, maybe you don't. Maybe you mention it in a podcast, maybe you pull an old review out from the dust, maybe you make a list ranking the badass women The Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, maybe you count all the mentions of Red Apple Cigarettes. This is the year of the Tarantino, anything goes, amiright?

Let's get this show on the motherfucking road. If anyone's interested, let me know. You can join in any time, all that jazz. Over the course of the month, send whatever you've got to mhufstader (at) gm.slc.edu and on the first of every month, I'll put up links so you can see what everyone else has got, even if I only have one madman following me on this badass fucking quest. So c'mon, daddy-os, don't be a--

Grand Opening Of Sister Site!

FEED ME A STRAY CAT!

It's official: I'm addicted to movies. Unable to sate my cinematic gluttony with only The Smoking Pen (why am I linking that? You're already here), I've created my second monster. Behold: Feed Me A Stay Cat! (Or how I learned to stop worrying and love the blog). It's a little more polite and concise and features movies of all genres, not just badass movies. Clearly, it's only just opened and has all of one review (and not very concise at that...hush), but I'll get the ball rolling on it soon. And never fear, The Smoking Pen won't fall into decay, I'll keep things rockin' and rollin' here for you hip jive cats. It's just another branch of my film obsession. 

In short, head on over, check it out. After all, insanity loves company.

Cin-cerely,

M. Hufstader

ALERT: Sunshine Cinemas.

I'm not sure if there are any fellow New Yorkers who actually read this blog, but there's some badassitry coming up in the city. For one, Sunshine Cinemas has some epic midnight showings. 

1. We've got King Of New York (1990) tonight, which I haven't seen, but it's got Christopher Walken and Laurence Fishburne, so I expect it's awesome. 

2. From July 1st-3rd, they're screening Independence Day (1996), which never gets old. 

3. Last but definitely not least, July 22nd-23rd they're doing midnight showings of True Romance (1993), also known as "the other Tarantino movie". You can bet I'll be there. 

ALERT: New Tarantino Film In The Works!

DJANGO UNCHAINED

Image from www.cinemablend.com

You heard me right. There's a new Tarantino in the house. At least, The Quentin Tarantino Archives, who've mostly been a reliable source of Tarantino information, officially confirmed today that Tarantino's new script it up and running. So far, little is known except that it's a "southern" film, which means that most are interpreting it to be a spaghetti western, knowing Tarantino, but it's also entirely possible he could pull another bloodthirsty, smooth-talking cat out of the bag. Now, I never for a second doubted that Quentin Tarantino was lifting pen to paper again and scribbling out a new script, since all this man really seems to do is write. But if you're a cynic like me and you're not going to believe the movie is actually a reality until you have a release date stamped neatly on a trailer, here's a little something to give you some hope:

Image from Quentin Tarantino Archives. 

That's right. The title page of his script. LAST DRAFT. Scribbled in his very own unmistakable chicken scratch handwriting. I'm so excited I'm about to blow like a race car in the red. Here's QT Archives Django Unchained article and official Django Unchained page if you want as many dirty little rumors as you can get. They've also got a facebook page so you can keep yourself in the know. Lastly, if you need a source that's not fucking QT Archives, here you go. IMDB, our never ever trusted friend, has no information in Django Unchained yet, and instead is still claiming Kill Bill: Vol. 3 is "announced", but I'm not holding my breath for that one. 

ALERT: DOUBLE FEATURE OF EPICNESS.

Attention, brothers! If you happen to be in the New York area, check out the IFC Center this weekend on 6th Ave and West 3rd St where there will be two MIDNIGHT SHOWINGS of A Clockwork Orange and Pulp Fiction on Friday and Saturday night.

Be there or be square. Viddy well.