My Black Brick

Tank on empty, yo!

I haven’t seen the show myself, but it looks like the main character in the TV show “Medium” drives a nice gold brick.

As with most movie cars, the headrests are removed for good shots of the actors.

At some point the car explodes? Or is abducted by aliens?

Apparently the movie “Motherhood” opened last October in theaters in the US, but it’s making the news now because it only made about $115 on its opening weekend in the UK a few weeks ago. That includes the sale of ONE ticket on the Sunday of its premier.

From the trailer it looks like we have yet another case of a typecast blue beater brick. Uma Thurman is a mommy blogger (as is my wife) who lives in an inexpensive apartment in an expensive urban neighborhood (like my family) and the movie chronicles a day in her life where she prepares for her daughter’s 6th birthday (like my daughter had on Thursday), deals with her hapless husband (played by my doppelganger Anthony Edwards), and struggles to find a space to park her brick (which I do on a regular basis).

According to the website there’s a “battle for a parking space during an epic alternate side parking showdown.” Don’t know if it’s with that hot rod Camaro in the frame grab above.

I found a couple weird photos of the car taken by the dog trainer. The first one shows Uma’s puppy sitting in the passenger seat while the other has the film crew gathered around the car preparing to shoot a scene.

It sounds like the blue beater gets good screen time as the trailer shows it in the background in a bunch of shots. I’m guessing it’s another symbolic stand in for the main character; a tough, grizzled veteran with a heart of gold. Considering the movies reception in London, however, I don’t think I’ll bother renting it to find out.

I dusted off my old Michel Gondry Director Series DVD and was excited to see a couple of bricks in the video for Kylie Minougue “Come Into My World“. The blue brick is a 140, but there’s also a white 200 series parked on one of the side streets. The video isn’t embeddable, so you’ll have to view it on YouTube.

The video is shot as if it’s one camera take, panning 360 degrees as Kyle walks around an intersection. Her route loops when she gets to the chorus, and she repeatedly spawns a clone who follows the same walk from the beginning. It’s some amazing choreography and loops 5 times.

As part of MoMA’s Tim Burton show they are screening his films. Today was “Pee Wee’s Big Adventure” and I went with my daughters and a friend. During the final chase scene this blue brick pops up in a shot. See it at 5:45 in the video below. Keep playing the video for some Twisted Sister mayhem.

On the TV show Scrubs, Zack Braff’s character J.D.  owned a brick that blew up in the first episode of the fourth season.

I had a friend whose 1970 Pontiac GTO blew up in front of his apartment. We were hanging out in his place when one of his neighbors stopped by and said “Dude, your cars on fire.” We ran out the door and saw the goat spitting flames from both edges of the hood. My buddy  had worked on his carburetor earlier in the day and there must have been a leak somewhere in the fuel line.

When the fire department got there they immediately tried to puncture the radiator, because the heat from the fire could cause it to explode. They swung an axe into the nose of the car over and over again until radiator fluid gushed to the ground. They sprayed the car w/ foam and let it smolder. All we could do was sit on the curb and watch the tires pop from the heat. The car was totaled.

Via IMCDB

Tonight is the 5th Episode of “10 Things I Hate About You”, a show where Kat, the main character, drives a pale yellow 244. In this episode, titled “Don’t Give Up”, Kat goes DIY and takes the brick into the shop.

After blowing major smoke out the tail pipe of her “Chernobyl-mobile”, she decides to switch to bio-diesel to cut her carbon footprint. Using a manual she downloaded off the internet, she jacks up her brick and tinkers around, while enduring harassment from the boys in the shop. Eventually her father helps out, and she ends up with a smooth running french-fry flier.

Looks like the whole episode is available online.

“Carousel” is a video created by Stink Digital for Tribal DDB to showcase Philips new 21:9 ratio television. It’s a bullet-time tour de force; the viewer gets a panoramic view of a single moment of a wild crime scene featuring clowns, a hospital… and a wrecked Volvo 740. From all the cops surrounding the car and the clown being pulled from the wreckage we can assume the black brick was the clowns’ getaway car. Doesn’t look like they’re going anywhere now though.

See the interactive video at Philips site.

See the lower quality version on YouTube.

See the bastardized 50Cent music video version.

ABC Family has a new show based on the 1999 movie “10 Things I Hate About You” and from the promo it looks like a Volvo 240 is once again used as a prop to symbolize  and extend the personality of one of the main characters. The driver is Kat Stratford, played by actress Lindsey Shaw. From the character description on the ABC site:

A feminist with a razor-sharp tongue, Kat possesses a strong sense of self and a keen scorn for the trappings of high school. She does have a softer side under that tough exterior, though — a fact she keeps closely guarded.

The 240 matches perfectly, as it’s the complete opposite of the trendy new vehicles the other kids in the school drive. You’ve got to have a “strong sense of self” to be seen in this tank-on-wheels. She even uses it as a weapon, getting into a battle over a spot in the school parking lot.

The characters play chicken over a parking space until Kat’s rival calls her car a dinosaur. Kat then nonchalantly rams into the front of her opponent’s  Mini-Cooper, tearing off the bumper and sliding into the spot. She strides out and says “My dinosaur wanted to Jurrasic park, here.” Oh snap! Groan…

While the car may look out of place, old and insignificant, Kat uses it as a source of power and violence, establishing herself as someone who is unafraid to use brute force to get her way, regardless of the consequences to her reputation.

From the sound of the audio track, Kat is packing V8 power under the hood of her Swedish iron. The sound emerging from under the hood as she slides into the space doesn’t match any brick I’ve heard.

A beat up Volvo 240 seems to be the vehicle-of-choice when a film script calls for low-income, shabby-chic characters to have a car that could feasibly drive long distances. Witness the new film “Away We Go“, pictured above. How will they get where they go? In a blue brick, of course.

The movie “follows the journey of an expectant couple as they travel the U.S. in search of the perfect place to put down roots and raise their family.”

Raise a family? I highly recommend they upgrade to a wagon.

Who has the responsibility for casting cars in movies like this? Is it the set designer? Cinemetographer? Casting director?

It’s obvious that the vehicle in this movie has an important role transporting the couple around the US and the film makers decided that for this journey, they needed a beat up 240. It’s an older car that has a quirky, hipster feel. Unlike other manufacturers, Volvo made so few stylistic changes over the years of production that it’s hard to place the model year. The sedan looks so generic that it becomes almost invisible. It doesn’t have the retro look that a 1980s Ford Taurus would; with a few rusted panels it just looks like “old car”.

When Rachel McAdams’s character, Amy, slides into the driveway for the holidays in the movie “The Family Stone” she’s also piloting a rusty 240. If we read between the lines in the photo we surmise that it was handed down to her when the parents bought their new V70. In the video below, Amy pulls up at :20.

Amy is the “NPR supporting” black sheep of the family. We immediately know she’s low income from the car she drives. She works as a school teacher and obviously rejects the material rewards the other members of the family have gained from their achievements, as evidenced by the palatial home and slick cars in the driveway. We don’t see the car again, but it plays an important role in introducing her character at the beginning of the movie.

But who are we kidding? In the real world, every one of these people would actually be driving a 1991 Honda Accord.