When we were kids, my sister Lou and I spent a lot of time playing with Legos….not that we ever really built anything. No mega skyscrapers or castles. No construction sites or villages with train depots.
We made dogs.
Yep — simple little dogs who lived in small, one-level Lego houses. No roofs. No windows even. Just your basic foundation with low walls, so the dogs could move from kitchen to living room to bedroom as they went about their daily lives.
Hey, it worked for us.
I was reminded of our little doggie dramas when I happened upon the amazingly detailed movie scenes that artist Alex Eylar created with Legos to celebrate the 2011 Academy Award Best Picture nominees.
These things are brilliant! Using only Legos, Alex was able to communicate each movie’s storyline and emotional essence. It’s difficult to select a favorite — they are all amazing in their own way — but I have included three below.
Enjoy the full gallery here. Then, grab some Legos and build your own drama (or dog house).
127 Hours
The King’s Speech
Black Swan
Censor this
After a long day yesterday, I was excited to see that Tropic Thunder, the hilarious Vietnam War movie-within-a-movie, was playing on FX.
So I settled on the couch, prepared to laugh away my lethargy. But I was soon too annoyed to enjoy the film.
Why?
One of my favorite scenes in the movie — which is also one of the most controversial — was censored. As in bleeped. When no curse words were used.
In the scene, actors Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey, Jr.), a five-time Oscar winner, and Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller), an action hero whose career is definitely waning, are discussing Tugg’s recent performance in the movie Simple Jack, where Tugg portrayed a mentally challenged boy ala Forrest Gump.
The conversation pokes fun at actors — how they choose these roles to garner major awards — and not at the characters they portray. But the comedy is apparently too subtle for some, because FX bleeped out certain words in Lazarus’s speech, thereby killing the scene and the movie (for me).
If he had belittled the Simple Jack character, that would be one thing. But the whole scene made fun of actors.
Actors!
Trust me, they can take it. And hopefully have maintained their sense of humor.
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Posted in Business, Comedy, Commentary, Entertainment, Humor, Life, Movies, Television, TV
Tagged actors, Ben Stiller, bleep, Business, celebrities, censorship, comedy, commentary, curse words, entertainment, Forrest Gump, FX, FX Network, Humor, Jack Black, Kirk Lazarus, life, major movie awards, movie scenes, movie-within-a-movie, Movies, Oscar-winning actor, Oscars, poking fun, Robert Downey Jr., Simple Jack movie, Television, Tropic Thunder movie, Tugg Speedman, TV, Vietnam War