So Ed and his liver have been busy ... introducing Drink Battle!

Yeah, this Cinebriated.com is about as active as a dormant volcano these days with a slight burps and rumblings every now and then but life and stuff, y'know? Although if you've been paying attention to our Twitter feed or Facebook page you'll have noticed our ever intrepid (read: inebriated) Ed has been keeping active with a newish ongoing column over at our Ministry of Mixology.

It's called Drink Battle and it's awesome.

This is how it works; Ed has a category of liquor and he then decides to choose two worthy champions of said booze to go head to head in a battle royale. It's not like Ed needs an excuse to abuse his liver but you should totally head over and check out the first few entries of Drink Battle. Feel free to participate in the battles and choose your own victors, just be sure to tell Ed how wrong he is in the comments so he'll drink (and hopefully write) more to cope with your valuable criticism.

Oh, be sure also wish him a happy birthday while you're at it! 

Ed did it, he actually did it ... Hitchcock Chasers completed!

Fellow Cinebriates, this week marks the end of a journey taken by our intrepid Ed that first began over two years ago.

In his own personal fanatical Quixotic mission Ed took it upon himself to explore the vast library of Alfred Hitchcock's directorial work and while it is not technically a complete collection of the Master of Suspense's full oeuvre it is a singular triumph. Ed has viewed, reviewed, analyzed, mused, waxed poetic and rated a body of work that spans over six decades. He took on the universally loved classics, he sifted through the lesser knowns, hidden gems and even the misteps and came out the other side.

Perhaps Ed will someday feel a compulsion to delve deeper into Hitch's work in other mediums like TV, documentaries or shorts but as of now the final regular entry of Hitchcock Chasers concludes with 1976's Family Plot, if you are fully caught up head right on over here to check that out. Definitely be sure to leave some comments of a congratulatory nature for Ed, he didn't do it for a pat on the back but he for sure as hell earned one.

If you have some catching up to do or haven't yet imbibed in any Hitchcock Chaser goodness here's Ed's personal triumph conveniently catalogued out for you. So get busy drinking:

Family Plot (1976)  Frenzy (1972)  Topaz (1969)  Torn Curtain (1966)  Marnie (1964)  The Birds (1963)  Psycho (1960)  North By Northwest (1959)  Vertigo (1958)  The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934 AND 1956)

The Trouble With Harry (1956)  Rope (1948)  Shadow of a Doubt (1943)  Strangers on a Train (1951)  Notorious (1946)  Spellbound (1945)  Lifeboat (1944)  The 39 Steps (1935)  Sabotage (1936)  Blackmail (1929)  The Girl was Young (1937)

Jake goes west with The Searchers

It's been a while since Jake had a fresh review on this site ... Skyfall? Wow, really? He's been seriously slacking. 

Anyway, he's back now and reckons it's time he reviewed something from his favorite genre, the Western. So what better place to start than with the one that bridges the gap between classic romanticism and modern grit? Saddle up, pard', and head over yonder to check out Jake's review of the 1956 Johns Ford and Wayne masterpiece The Searchers.  

Ed finally takes on the Hitchcock trifecta!

   

It's been a long time coming. When our intrepid Ed first set out on his solo mission to watch every Alfred Hitchcock flick many of us wondered when he'd be doing Vertigo, North by Northwest and Psycho. When discussing the Master of Suspense these three flicks made between 1958 and 1960 are when ol' Hitch was at the pinnacle of his game.

So saddle up to the bar and line up not one, not two but three of the toppest of the top shelf Hitchock Chasers available with Vertigo, North by Northwest and Psycho. We would say drink responsibly, but sometimes that's just out of your control, just hope your mom is there to bail you out.

 *By the way, if you want to know more about those awesome motion posters head here.

Get off your soapbox Jake, we all know you're right.

Jake has been thinking a lot recently about things like aspect ratios, formats, the history of film, what he's going to have for dinner tommorrow night (Spoiler Alert: Probably pizza) but he thinks you should really head over to the Cinebriated Blog to check out his super important sounding "A Brief Treatise on the Aspect Ratios and Artistic Integrity of Film".

So please, go check it out. If not for you then do it for us, he won't shut up about this stuff. Why don't you just marry it already, Jake?!