Twitch

So now it's time for Robert DeNiro in "Hide and Seek" to lose a wife, have a freaky little daughter who makes an imaginary friend who doesn't seem to be friendly at all and battle a ghost or some supernatural being in his house. Nothing like just completely saturating the market with crap thrillers directed by the guy who did "Swimfan" eh?

"Hide and Seek" seems about as thrilling as "CandyMan 3" and makes me wonder why people don't seem to realize that when you come across a bath tub full of water in your creepy house there's usually something scary in it. Don't put your arm in. Seriously. Dakota Fanning, Famke Janssen and Elizabeth Shue round out the cast but what's Dylan Baker doing in this (an unfortunate choice for him)?

See the trailer for "Hide and Seek" for yourself here and see why it's better to hide from this thing than viewing it.

Well, the first footage from The Fantastic Four has found it's way online at JoBlo - the download is here, but their server is pretty much swamped so expect to have to try a few times before getting it - and it looks like ass. Seriously. I've had a bad feeling about this film for a while and this is validating every single one of my doubts ... The Human Torch and Thing effects are just horrible and Alba looks pretty out of place as Sue. Check it out and let us know what you think ...

Can't say I saw this coming ... Kartooner is reporting that a third Bill and Ted film is in the works, this one catching up with the duo in their forties and having a mid-life crisis. Call me crazy, but I'd actually pay to see that.

Hallelujah! Born To Fight will release on VCD in Thailand on November 7th, with the DVD expected to follow later in the month. No firm word yet on whether the DVD will include English subtitles as the film has apparently been purchased by a western company and their rights agreement may include subs being with held, which was the case with Ong Bak. But, really, does it matter?

For those who don't already know Born To Fight is the latest film by the director and fight choreographer of Ong Bak. This time out they cast a group of Thai national sports heros and built the action sequences around their unique skills. Once again there are no wires, no body doubles and they claim the film includes the most dangerous stunt ever put on film. Head to the official site for the trailer. Right now. Stop reading this. Go.

Oooh! Oooh! They've added a six minute reel of behind the scenes footage since last time I was there! There's a shot in there that may not beat the truck scene, but it comes pretty close ... download it here.

I've just had word from the folks at Japan's Grasshoppa Productions that Katsuhito Ishii's acclaimed Taste of Tea will be hitting DVD in early 2005 and that, yes, it will include English subtitles.

Ishii is best known in the west as the key animator on the anime sequence in Kill Bill but has also directed a trio of live action films, the highly acclaimed Taste of Tea being the most recent. Check out the trailers here, and a hugely positive review over at Midnight Eye. Canfield caught this at the Chicago Film Festival - under threat of physical violence from me if he missed it - and swears it's one of the best things he's seen in years. Maybe he'll even review it one day.

**** UPDATE ****

I just got a note pointing out that Taste of Tea won the Best Feature award at the just completed Hawaii Film Festival ... details are here.

MGM has just released a pair of still shots from The Woods, Lucky McKee's follow up to the raved about cult-horror flick May. I've yet to see May, but hey! That girl's got a great big axe! And Bruce Campbell has a major role! That's enough for me to trot out and see this one ... the film's official site is here.

Via Dread Central

With his bid to have Fahrenheit 9/11 aired on pay-per-view television prior to the US election apparently hung up in a contract dispute, Michael Moore has turned to alternate means to get the film out there.

Fahrenheit will be available online, on a pay-per-view basis, at CinemaNow.com on November 1st. It's an interesting idea, but really - why would anybody pay ten bucks to for a lousy streaming video viewing on their computer monitor when they can go out and rent the DVD for much less? If he really wants to get an audience that hasn't already seen the film he needs to be giving it away, or at least charging far less than he is.

Via Coming Soon

Kung Fu Cinema has posted a very detailed synopsis of Yoji Yamada's The Hidden Blade.

Yamada's previous film - The Twilight Samurai - won a best foreign film nomination at last year's Oscars and is one of the most acclaimed films to come out of Japan in recent years, and for good reason. Yamada is a master story teller, incredibly skilled at using genre conventions - in this case the samurai film - to tell universal stories. If the trailer for The Hidden Blade is any indication this one will be just as strong as his previous work ...

Via Opus

New still shots from Sha Po Lang have turned up online here and here. All the images that have released so far are looking amazing and this film should be right up near the top of any martial arts fan's 'must-see' list. Why? It's the first significant starring role for the incredible Donnie Yen since Hero and he co-stars with old school icon Sammo Hung and new school phenom Wu Jing in what Yen himself is describing as an old-school kung fu film. What does he mean by that? Tight choreography, no body doubles and no wire work. It's been a while since Hong Kong turned out a film where the fighters were actual fighters rather than quickly trained pop stars and I'm itching for some good old fashioned kung fu ...

There's no official site or trailer yet, but we're keeping our eyes open ...

Via Monkey Peaches

Sure, his previous film - House of a 1000 Corpses - was about as kitsch as you could get yet Rob Zombie still succeeded in creating a fun 70's throwback bloody horror, no matter what crazy things Dave says about it.

This time, comic artist and musican Zombie is back with a sequel to "House" called "The Devils Rejects". It basically starts where "House" left off and turns into a gritty highway murder rampage. Most of the lead cast is back in this one (with the exception of Karen Black) with a few surprises (Rosario Dawson is listed in the cast, though, with no title). Will it be fun - watch the teaser trailer for "The Devils Rejects" yourself here and decide. Also, you can go and mess around on the offical "The Devils Rejects" website here.

Chan Wook Park shows his understanding of psychological horror in a way that's very reminiscent of the 1970's work of noteable Italian directors such as Dario Argento in this short, twisted tale.

It's all here: the very long swooping camera shots, the bright vibrant primary colours, the terror of real-life melted with the terror of the extreme and illogical. Though it's not a pastiche, it's a very individual piece with many Park trademarks and twists of his own.

Continue reading "Three Extremes. "Cut". by Chan Wook Park. R3 HK DVD. Review."

Miike briefly decended into relatively light-hearted David Lynch mode in 2003's Gozu, and returns here with a much more sober, subtle and confusing short film : the first part of the "Three...Extremes" anthology from 2004. All that's missing to let us know when we are reality and when we are not is something so out of the ordinary as a goat-headed man, or something similar.

That's only the beginning...

Continue reading "Three Extremes. "Box". by Takashi Miike. R3 HK DVD. Review."

Yes. This is my openly blatent attempt to increase our female readership on this site. But then again one of my favorite episodes of SNL in recent memory was the one hosted by Justin and he didn't have to come to Toronto to perform during the SARS benefit concert, but he did. And I like tattoos. Bah!

Justin Timberlake topless and tattooed 1
Justin Timberlake topless and tattooed 2
Justin Timberlake topless and tattooed 3
Justin Timberlake yadda yadda you get the idea 4

Doesn't he look dreamy? I mean manly. Manly! Yeah that's it.

via Dark Horizons.

When I first heard that Disney was funding a kung fu based retelling of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves it struck me as one of those rumors that was so strange it had to be true. Well, it is, and by the time it was originally announced it had already attracted big name Asian talent in the form of director Yuen Woo Ping - fight choreographer of the gods - and stars Chow Yun Fat and Kwan Sang Soo.

There's still no word on who will be playing the Snow White role - she will be white and most likely British - but the project now has a writer: Michael Chabon. Que? The man won a Pulitzer for his last novel - The Adventures of Kavalier and Klay - and huge critical raves for Wonderboys. Sure, he's done some writer-for-hire work, notably on Spider-Man 2, but what's a Pulitzer winner doing working on a project like this? I like it but it's leaving me awfully confused ...

The full Hollywood Reporter story is here.

The Japanese trailer for Steven Chow's Kung Fu Hustle has just turned up online. Go, watch, now. Sure, the narration is all in Japanese but this is the first full length trailer for the film anywhere and also the first to show any significant amount of fight choreography and effects work. Looking good? Oh, yes.

Here it is in Real Video and Windows Media formats.

Via FilmRot and The Movie Box.

The folks at Aint It Cool have laid hands upon some set pictures from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. No more shots of the Wonka'd up Johnny Depp, but if there was any doubt who was directing this thing they'll all disappear as soon as you see the factory. No doubt about it, we're in Burton-land here ... check the shots out here.

I suppose in was inevitable [what?]. Reports are out that Hollywood is again stumped for fresh ideas and they're going to remake the Horror/Sci-Fi classic The Blob.

Seemingly 30 years between the original in 1958 and the first remake in 1988 [another period of non stop Hollywood Horror/Sci-fi remakes] is just too long for Hollywood execs to wait. Plus, with today's bigger and better means of mass destruction you can surely take out a spot of killer Jell-o with something greater and more spectacular than by freezing it. Cause, y'know, your fridge motor could burn out and then what would happen. You'd have to eat all that ice cream and endure mass destruction at the same time.

No word about writers, directors, or which young spry actors or actresses of the minute will be involved. We may keep an eye on this and let you know. No promises.

via EmpireOnline.

Oh joy. Can Wes Anderson do no wrong? Seemingly not it seems. Granted we have yet to see The Life Aquatic but gosh darn don't those trailers make it look good? And now we have received word about Mr. Anderson's next project The Fantastic Mr. Fox, adapted from the works of Roald Dahl.

But wait, there is another twist in the plot here. Anderson's not going with CGI or Cell animation here. He's going back to the classy and dignified art of stop-animation. Was he inspired to do so by the stop animation work in The Life Aquatic? The work done by Henry Selick who also directed the brilliant James and the Giant Peach, another work by Roald Dahl! Suddenly we have a game of six degrees of Kevin Bacon.

Regardless, this news has me very excited. While I don't want my appreciation of Anderson's former works, Bottle Rocket Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums, telling me I must enjoy The Life Aquatic I am looking forward it and now this news has me very excited. Very excited indeed.

My Bacon number is 4.

via EmpireOnline.

Director James Wan has been making waves with his debut film. A mix of grisly realism and kitschy humor my only question is will it survive it's own pretensions. I think the answer is yes but then mabe that's because somebody kidnapped and chained me in a room with A STINKING T-T-TAPE RE-RE-RECORDER AND THREATENED TO KILL EVERYONE I EVER KNEW IF I DIDN'T GET THIS RE-RE-REVIEW ONLINE. MAYBE I.... OH IT'S YOU, I DID WHAT YOU SAID, NO-NO-NONONONONONONONONO....

Continue reading "SAW REVIEW"

It looked like the city of Boston and the Red Sox weren't the only ones celebrating their World Series win last night. According to reports Drew Barrymore and Jimmy Fallon were in attendance and on the field refilming the ending to their latest production Fever Pitch.

Plot Outline: based on the Nick Hornby novel and movie "Fever Pitch" (1997) starring Colin Firth. Film has been updated to center of a guy and his obsession with the Boston Red Sox. Ben meets Lindsey. They fall in love. All things are wonderful. But their future together is threatened once the baseball season comes around and Lindsey discovers something about Ben...his obsession with the Boston Red Sox.

Read the full Boston Herald article here.

Continue reading "For Boston for Boston, we sing our proud refrain!"

In a sense I don't want to be that guy that's the only one to post about Star Wars stuff on this site. I mean, I don't live in my parent's basement. I have a job. The only flannel I have are the bed sheets. Yes, a girlfriend would be swell. And I try not to geek out on Star Wars. But if no one else will pick up the story then I guess this is a sacrifice that I am willing to make for you the people.

"You don't know what it was like! You weren't there!"

So if you haven't seen it already today Lucasfilm and 20th Century Fox released the first teaser poster for Star Wars Episode III Revenge of the Sith. Click here to see the much bigger and prettier version.

I've gotta admit, I am slightly underwhelmed by this poster. It's not that it pales in comparison to Natalie Portman's sudden and dramatic uh... development in the Episode II teaser poster. This one just looks like it would be something I would have done in high school art class while Mr Whorly sang us Van Morrison songs like Brown Eyed Girl.

Where's the slick? Where's the dang that's cool? Where's the I'm starting to line up now image?

Am I the only one here? What do you think?

They had been reannounced for February 22nd 2005 but now apparently they've disappeared altogether from the release list and are simply TBA (to be annouced).

So, you may want to scrape that extra cash together for either the Japanese DVDs (all with English Subtitles) or the new and upcoming Australian DVDs.

There's no obvious reason this time around for them to be delayed. It was assumed the previous February 2005 dates were intended to coincide with the cinema release of Howls Moving Castle.

Sorry. All yer gettin is a teaser! But I saw Saw!!! Full review up Friday but the bottom line is don't go expecting to find the new Seven. But do expect to be entertained by this doofy psycho thriller that knows better than to take itself too seriously. Those wanting some simple Halloween fun shouldn't worry. Saw's moral point is buried under loads of over the top moments. Reminiscent of Italian giallo it almost qualified for a “ripping” good spoof of same. The cast seems to sense it too. Cary Elwes had our entire audience laughing by the end of the film and I'm still not sure what the intent was re: laughs vs. screams. Awards? No. Plot holes? yes. Fun? Too quote famous Christian Pastor and Apologist R.C. Sproul "If you can't see the humor in dead people eating other people I can't help you." A truer foundational statement was never made for the horror fan. Tune in for my review on Friday.

Kazuaki Kiriya’s Casshern has, by far, been my most anticipated film of the past year. The very first time I saw the trailer online I was completely swept away by the visual style of the thing and there was something there, something lurking just beneath the surface, that got me thinking that this would be one of those films that had substance to back up the style. I found myself returning to the film’s web site over and over again, watching and rewatching the trailer, digging through the image galleries, and trolling the bulletin board system for whatever scraps of information I could find.

I realized that I was setting myself up for a potentially huge disappointment. Asian film has not fared well in the world of live action science fiction and the last time I was swept away by a flashy Japanese sci-fi trailer – that’d be for Returner, by the way – the film was indeed a significant let down. Having received my copy of Casshern on DVD two days ago and given it a first viewing yesterday I am very pleased to say that letdown is not a problem here. Casshern is a visually stunning film filled with complex, multi-faceted characters and a surprisingly topical, and timely, storyline. Kiriya has crafted one of the finest debut films I have ever come across and instantly established himself as a visual stylist on par with Alex Proyas, Ridley Scott and the Wachowski Brothers.

Continue reading "Casshern DVD Review"

According to Bloody Disgusting plans for the DVD release of The Grudge are already in the works and the DVD will include new and extended scenes, an alternate ending and will be unrated. Check out all the details here.

While Spider Forest didn't blow me out of the water when I caught it at the Toronto Film Festival it certainly is a very good film and one worth a second look. The lads at Greencine feel even stronger about it, proclaiming it loudly and repeatedly as one of the best films of the year and deserving of 'best-director' awards. Thus I'm pretty happy to say it's just been given a Korean DVD release date of November 10th.

Check out my film festival review of it here and the official web site here. Then, if you feel so inclined, you can order a copy to call your very own here.

Now, I haven't been able to find any info on this on any of the normal David Lynch sites so take it with a grain of salt, but according to Moviehole Kick Gurry has signed on to play the lead in Lynch's next film. Gurry is pretty much a complete unknown here in North America with his one brief moment in the spotlight coming as the lead in Alex Proyas' Garage Days.

That same article also reports that Gurry has been added to the cast of Daltry Calhoun, which it mistakenly lists as a Quentin Tarantino film. Tarantino was to have an acting role in it, yes, but that was the limit of his involvement. Gurry has just taken over the role that was to be Quentin's which means his over all involvement in the film is now zero. Cue up the 'Quentin Tarantino Presents' ad campaign.

A set of on set pictures from Guy Ritchie's Revolver have turned up here. No sign of Ritchie's famous wife - though she has apparently been given a role - but you do get to see what Jason Statham looks like with hair. Make that greasy, 1970's hair. And handlebar mustache. Nice.

Okay, Toronto folks ... incredibly short notice, but if you want to meet Enki Bilal - the director of Immortel and well known comic artist - head on down to The Beguiling (601 Markham St.) oh, right about now. He's slated to put in an appearance at 3:30 this afternoon. All the info is at the Beguiling web site here.

The trailer for the Japanese release got a lot of peoples attention a while back. And the recent Japanese DVD (without English Subtitles) passed everyone buy it seems.

Thankfully Media Blasters "Tokyo Shock" label will give it a reasonably quick American release, coming our way February 22nd 2005. I haven't read any reviews or gotten much of an impression about the film, but i do remember the trailer did look pretty wacked-out.

If anyone wants to point out reviews for this film, or give impressions if you've seen it, put in the comments below or email me. Thanks.

Spotted again over at asiandvdguide.com (props to Zuba for this and the MPD Psycho info).

First volume is February 22nd apparently. Then volume 2 will hit sometime in Arpil, with the final in June of 2005.

That's a little longer between each volume than the UK issues, but if you want the R1 DVDs because they're often cheaper - go for it. The UK volumes are £11.99 which is cheaper than usual DVD prices.

These American discs come courtesy of Adness / Ventura. Spotted over at asiandvdguide.com.

So, only a few years after the HK edition. I don't really know if this is of much use to anyone except those with a multiregion taste who don't have a multiregion player.

I suppose there's an element of not being in the know as much as some are, and so wanting the basic UK DVD will bring limited sales in.

Oh, and by the listings of the disc I would say it's going to be exactly the same specification as the USA disc which is due soon.

So, shop at Miramax? Buy some nice Asian films? Some company can... Spotted this over at kungfucinema.com a couple of days ago. Been thinking about it a bit : it's odd isn't it, to license all those wonderful films and not release them? Plenty of people kicked up a fuss over the handling of Hero - rightly so - and now it seems to mend it's finances, Miramax may offload all or the majority of it's stuff to someone else.

OK, so this could mean no release for all those Shaw Brothers films. Could be good new, bad news, or a mixture of the two. Miramax has also cut a load of its staff this year, so hopefully they're sorting their act out.

Hollywood Reporter have annouced the right for Casshern in America have been signed over to Dreamworks. OK, so now we know there will be a DVD release sometime down the line, but expect to wait around a year (possibly) because they will probably do a cinema run first. Even then you can't be sure you will get a disc as good as the Japanese edition which has just come out.

The official Casshern site has been redesigned slightly so you can now see a really nice photo of the DVD packaging, if you desire, here

Yours truly is proud to offer you a chance to glance over my latest (and certainly not last) Halloween Update. But this one comes to you courtesy of Home Vision Entertainment who asked me to cover their Halloween oriented fare for their website. Crass marketing ploy? far from it. HVE has some hard to find titles that any self-respecting horror fan should familiarize themselves with.

Continue reading "HVE: SCREAM YOUR BRAINS OUT THIS HALLOWEEN"

I doubt there is a single more under appreciated film maker in North America today than Errol Morris. Yes, he won an Oscar last year but go out and ask someone on the street if they've heard of him and I'll bet that better than ninety percent of the time the answer will be no. The man is a master of his craft, spinning these odd little documentary films that unfold to reveal just incredible things about human nature.

In many ways Morris - with his quiet, subtle style and insistence on remaining firmly off camera - is the anti-Moore, as stylistically opposed to Moore's in your face antics and bluster as is humanly possible but if they agree on one point it's politics. While Moore continues to make waves with Fahrenheit 9/11, Morris has just shot and posted online a series of pro-Kerry election ads in which he finds people who voted for Bush in the previous election but are voting for Kerry in this election and simply lets them explain why. The spots are vintage Morris, simple, minimalist, and very effective. Check them out here.

via Greencine

The Japan Times has just run a review of Blood and Bone, a violent family drama starring Takeshi Kitano that drew rave reviews at the Pusan Film Festival with many declaring it the performance of Kitano's career. The Times' take? Five stars, "the finest performance of [Kitano's] long career", "Kitano has found the role he was born for". That's high praise directed at a man who is already an international critics' darling. Read the full review here and check out the official website - with a trio of remarkably pointless trailers, here.

Yeah, you read that right. And, yeah, it's a spy movie based on the series of yellow-covered instructional books. What are you thinking, John? I know you hit a bit of a dry patch after Windtalkers and Paycheck both tanked but are you trying to throw your career away? Spy Hunter, He Man and Espionage for Dummies. This is not a production slate to be proud of. The full story is here.

We originally ran this review a solid month ago but with the discs about to hit shelves it seems like a good time to revisit this. Enjoy.

It seems like Artsmagic is making it their personal mission to dig up and release every Takashi Miike film ever made and, given how prolific the man is, that's no small task. The latest to come down the line are the two films from the Young Thugs (Kishiwada Shonen Gurentai) series that Miike directed. These films have been virtually impossible to find outside of Japan which is a shame as they showcase a seldom seen side of the director as he delves into nearly autobiographical territory. These are very personal films for Miike - he has gone on record saying the second entry is his personal favorite of his entire extensive canon of work - and that is shown in attention to detail and rich characters.

Continue reading "Young Thugs: Innocent Blood & Nostalgia DVD Reviews"

I hit the theatre at least every weekend to catch a show. Now, I am in the fortunate position that when I am not convincing old age pensioners that they should get life time warrenty brake pads for their 1977 Toronado I do get Friday's off so I will usually catch the first matinee show of the day on opening weekend. So I save a couple bucks and will the see the movie usually before any of my friends do while they're stuck at work. Huzzah!

But how much can getting good seats, let alone tickets in Korea suck? Apparently it can suck a lot.

Continue reading "All the good seats are taken? How much does this suck?"

Is this the first image of Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka? While it is yet to be confirmed England's The Sun Newspaper is claiming it is. Let's keep in mind that this is the same paper that builds it's readership on the Page 3 Girls.

Tim Burton's remake of the 1971 classic Charlie and the Chocolate Factory will hit theatres July 15, 2005 and is currently filming on the other side of the pond in England at Pinewood Studios.

via ComingSoon.

It appears that someone other than you has already seen a rough draft version of Revenge of the Sith minus some special effects and musical score.

There's no telling how long this review will be up on the message boards over at TheForce.net before someone at LucasFilm comes over with a baseball bat. A warning though. It looks to contain heavy spoilers so if you're like me and you don't want to know then don't read it. The choice is yours of course.

Click here to read the first review of Episode III Revenge of the Sith.

via EmpireOnline.

Ben, Ben, Ben, we hardly knew ye ... first the Thuderbirds, then Suspect Zero and now BloodRayne. I hope you're being well paid, because you're in the midst of a streak of Very Bad Films.

I cringed when I heard that Kingsley was set to appear in a film by Uwe Boll, a man whose talent for making immensely bad films is surpassed only by his talent for writing angry rants defending said very bad films as 'art'. A note to Uwe: saying your film is better than Resident Evil (a debatable claim in the first place) is not really a firm base to work from when arguing for quality.

BloodRayne actually managed to attract an interesting cast, a fact that made me at least consider the possibility that the suck factor may be significantly lower on this one than earlier Boll projects. But no. The trailer is available for download here. What were you thinking, Ben? And what's with the wig?

No word yet on just how wide a release this will be but Film Threat is reporting that Geneon has set a release date of January 14th for Appleseed. This is a bit later than they were originally aiming for but I'm just happy that it will be getting theatrical screenings because this one looks like it really needs to be seen on the big screen ...

Based on a manga by Masamune Shirow - the man behind the classic Ghost in the Shell - Appleseed uses an entirely new method of CG animation and it looks goooooooooood. Check out the trailers on the Japanese site here.

There are certain things in life that are just inevitable. One of them is that when a film pulls in four times more at the box office than it cost to make studio heads will begin to salivate and make plans for a sequel. Thus it is no surprise that after The Grudge - made for a measley $10 million - generated $40 mil in it's opening weekend people at Sony were merrily talking up a sequel.

Moviehole is reporting that Sony would like to have the sequel ready to roll by the new year, which shouldn't be difficult to pull off if they simply do a close adaptation of the second Japanese film. They're also saying that they'd like this to launch a franchise, which could be considerably more difficult considering that director Takashi Shimizu is on record saying that the third Ju-On film will be the final one.

As recently as a year ago I wouldn't have believed it if someone had told me that cult director Takashi Miike was making a big budget children's film, but then along came the brilliant Zebraman which, once again, totally blew away all my pre-conceived notions of the man's ability.

Miike's Big Spook War - described by some as a Japanese answer to the Harry Potter phenomenon - is the story of a young boy fighting monsters in a magical land and stars Chiaki Kuriyama of Battle Royale and Kill Bill fame. It has jumped right up to the top of my must view list and it doesn't look like I'll have to wait much longer. The cast and crew recently held a press conference for the film, details of which have been archived here. There's even video footage, which includes the cast posing with an assortment of monsters from the film, in both Real Video and Windows Media formats. It's all in Japanese, of course, so I don't have a clue what they're actually saying, but it's worth looking at to check out the monsters and costuming ...

Thanks to Tom for the tip ...

OK, so Todd made a promise Twitch would be the first place you would find the trailer for Shimizus "Marebito". Well, I found it for you.

First, go here and hunt around to find the chirashi (advertisement) for the film (shows both sides). Also there in the few links shown is the English publicity information.

The film apparently came out October 16th in Japan, and runs for 92 minutes.

So : the trailer. It's not got an official site, the film, it seems. Found this in an odd place and it took me 2 hours - so listen up. Go here. You've got he AOL japan entertainment page for the film.

Click on the little blue speech bubble and you will get the 2.5 minute stream Real One Player version of the trailer in a small window. If anyone can copy the stream into a standalone file I would appreciate that. Enjoy.

EDIT : The Gomorrahizer contacted me to say download here (QT version), and site for the series of films (of which Marebito is a part) here. Seen this site before but couldn't work it out.

CIFF 2004 was exhausting, and exhilerating. Soon I'll have reviews up of Journey Into Bliss, Grey Gardens, McDull Prince De La Bun, The Taste of Tea, The Woodsman, Primer, Bitter Dream, and a host of others. But let me start with some coverage of a Special Screening of Kinji Fukasaku's Battles Without Honor and Humanity hosted by the good folks at Home Vision Entertainment.

Continue reading "CIFF 2004 MEMORIES: KINJI FUKASAKU'S BATTLES WITHOUT HONOR AND HUMANITY"

I don't know why, but the 26th seems to be one of those days thats only comes once a year : there's loads of stuff coming out - and for some reason loads of it suits me. Takashi Miike fans get "Young Thugs : Innocent Blood" and "Young Thugs : Nostalgia" (reviewed by Todd a while back, here) - as well as "Kintaro : White Collar Worker" (and on the 28th, ahem - "Andromedia").

Also released on the 26th : Ryuhei Kitamuras' "Alive" in both R-Rated and Uncut versions. Volume 1 of "Paranoia Agent" from Satoshi Kon is also there (seen it, got it early - superb). Also out is "Killing Machine" from the Sonny Chiba collection (superb pic quality on this Adness disc), and a Bill Hicks Live DVD with a painfully long title.

And, only a couple of days ago was "Zero Woman : Red Handcuff" and "Casshern". A painful time for the old CC.

Kind of semi-vague this. Big fan of Kiyoshi Kurosawa personally. Lovely films.

Anyhow, I know IMDB lists "Ghost Cop" as his latest entry after "Doppelganger" (which i personally loved), but according to jasongray.net there's also "Shi no Otome" or "Maiden of Death) to come. The site, which i found yesterday, shows in a september post and a couple of small pics. Jason says he has a copy of the screenplay but hasn't read it (he's also in the film!) - it's also apparent Jason has connections with Artsmagic and seems to be conducting interviews for other DVD releases.

"Ghost Cop" i believe to have been shown at a recent "Cop Film Festival" in Japan, but i cant find any more info. "Shi No Otome" (as far as i know) han't been mentioned anywhere other than Jasons' site. Anyone got any more on either of these?

For all those in the UK who don't want to wait for the USA DVD until they see the film, or alternatively want to see it on a big screen first and then make up their mind : you can venture to the Leeds Film Festival and put down your cash.

It seems to be only getting two screenings. One on the 6th November, and then again the following day. Both days fall on a weekend, so it should make it as convenient as it's going to be.

Visit the Film Festival site here for more info.

A quickie. Bandai Entertainment are expanding their Anime division into Canada. Don't know exactly how this affects anime distribution in Canada, but there you go. From Bandai Official Site news piece.

Additionally, Bandai have had their American West Coast warehouse flooded by the heavy rains. Shipping has temporarily been suspended until they sort themselves out. From AnimeOnDVD.

Here's a breakdown of new info regarding the recent Boxset for "Fist of The North Star" Tv Series from 1984.

Boxset : 6 DVDs, each contain 6 episodes. 2.5 hours per disc, 900 min across the set. The box has incorrect times on. Each episode almost 25 minutes long.

Set includes episodes 1 thru 36. At this rate (if licensed) you would need around 3 more boxsets. Manga only have the license to these 36 episodes.

Discs contain English Dub and Japanese Audio (with accurate Subtitles). Audio is in Mono. Manga may (apparently) try to license more episodes depending on how this first set sells (!). Some episodes previously released in the UK had cuts made by the BBFC. It's not know if the set is now uncut.

This info from post at sexgoremutants forum by Pooch. Thanks for the info.

One of the highlights of the 2003 Toronto Film Festival was the chance to see Takashi Shimizu’s Ju-On in a theater crowded with over nine hundred souls all itching for a good scare. They did not leave disappointed. Ju-On was one of the high points of the Japanese horror explosion of the late nineties and beginning of the twenty first century. It’s an atmospheric, creepy ride – a continual cycle of slow building tension and scream-out-loud payoff. When I heard that it had been picked up for a North American remake it was no great surprise, but when word got out that Evil Dead director Sam Raimi would be producing with the original director back behind the camera the remake jumped right up to the top of my anticipated films list.

And now The Grudge is here, bringing a string of questions with it. Does it live up to the original? Does the horror translate? Will it live up to the expectations created by the overwhelming success of The Ring, another Japanese horror remake? The answer to all of the above is yes and no.

Continue reading "The Grudge Review"

The next couple of months are full of highly anticipated film releases to the big screen (House of Flying Daggers, A Long Engagement and more) as well as the number one need to see film on my list from Wes Anderson - "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou". From the previous trailer already released here it looks to be another right on the mark hit from Anderson and now there is a new trailer with recently released footage cut into the old trailer. Also the website is up and running as well so go on over and join Team Zissou there. Now, only if December wouldn't take so long getting here.

Thanks for the heads up Cinema Confidential

Apple has just posted the trailers for Danny Boyle's Millions and Alejandro Almenabar's The Sea Inside.

Boyle, of course, is the Scottish director of Trainspotting, Shallow Grave and 28 Days Laters and, though I missed his latest at the Toronto Film Fest, I've heard nothing but good things about this one. Spain's Almenabar - director of The Others - got that country's nomination for the Best Foreign Film Oscar over Pedro Almodavar's Bad Education and for pretty good reason. This is the sort of thing that awards voters lap up and it's my pick to win the best foreign film award.

Yes, I know the reviews are mixed. Still waiting for Casshern so I can judge for myself.

Anyhow, getting mine sent from someone i know in Japan. Expecting an invoice yesterday, I sent an email; two minutes later on the news was the Typhoon damage. All is OK apparently "just a little flooding; what you have to worry about is the Earthquakes...".

OK, sent another email today to see if it had arrived "Any news?..." i politely asked. Went to sit and watch the news and "News Flash : Earthquake hits Tokyo". Oooops. Anyhow, friends OK. Just shows : they're only films!

Anyhow. Casshern is out. Reminder over.

Here's one for you, Mack ...

Long before The Fast and The Furious was inflicted upon the youth of this land anime fans with a yen for street racing were plugged into Initial D, a long running anime series revolving around a group of young street racers and their heavily modified cars. Well, the anime is now being made into a film in Hong Kong with many of the key people from Infernal Affairs involved and Monkey Peaches has just linked to some behind the scenes footage. Click here to see Edison drive real fast ...

Freeze Dried Movies has posted some pictures from George Romero's Land of the Dead here. They show you, well, pretty much nothing, really, but at least you can brag to all your geeky little friends that you some them first.

Does anybody know where this is actually filming? That's not right in Toronto ... looks a little like Unionville, or maybe Georgetown ...

Screen Daily has run a review of A Very Long Engagement - the latest meeting of Amelie's director and star - here.

This is by far one of my most anticipated films of the year. I'm a huge fan of Jeunet and this overwhelmingly positive review makes it sound like he's still on top of his game ...

After years of plodding along with one of the uglier sites on the web - not a good thing when you're a company selling visuals - Aardman Animation have just launched a pretty new flash based site here. Among other things the site now includes a show reel - plenty of streaming video of their commercial, television and film work. Thus, those of us in North America can now check out the Wallace and Gromit cracker ad, the Creature Comforts heating ads, and a lovely little space odyssey in favor of condom use from the comfort of our own homes.

I've just noticed a little problem with our comment posting system ... it appears that our spam filter is being just a little over zealous. If you receive an error message saying that you need to be registered to post or that your post needs to be approved by a moderator, that's the filter kicking in. We don't use a moderation or registration system here. I'm not certain what all can trigger it but it appears that posting multiple links in a comment (hello, Kurt!)sets it off. If you get one of these error messages drop me a note and let me know ... the system saves your message, I just need to go and approve it manually.

Thought I'd offer a post interview review of Brad Anderson's excellent film The Machinist. I find more to this film every time I watch it.

Continue reading "THE MACHINIST REVIEW"

So, I was wondering this morning (as I have done most mornings recently) "..when wil Steamboy get announced for DVD?...". And here it is. The bad news is as expected. No Subtitles in English (from what i can gather).

The announcement is on the official website; it says it will be availble for rental in Japan from March 11th, then on sale to the public from April 15th 2005. There's two different editions : a bog-standard and a memorial box (that's about $90).

See the cdjapan listing here. See the Official site here. Post tearful comments below.

I tried to set this up last night but everything went tits up on my computer. And it seems that it is happening again so I will make this short.

Word is that we're going to get to see the first trailer for the final Star Wars movie on November 5th when we go see Pixar's next amazing project The Incredibles.

Hyperspace subscribers will get to see it the day before on November 4th.

How sweet is that? You get to see the trailer of the next film of the guy who made Pixar possible in the first place. Nice.

Via EmpireOnline.

The site has been in existance for some time, but today it's reopened with some actual content.

So, now you can get a brief overview of the story, some character images and background, a complete staff / credits list, and links to buy tickets for when it opens (November 20th in Japan).

Unfortunately the contents all in Japanese ofcourse, and there's no official trailer on there yet. But keep looking.

Oh, and there's this odd spinning coloured-wheel thing i can't work out for the life of me. Anyone figures it out, let us know. Thanks. Site here.

Spotted listed over at monkeypeaches, so plopping it here as a quickie.

So, head on over if your interested in the new Stephen Chow movie, by clicking here. It's probably been up a while, but apparently it's now completely finished and has all its content in place.

There's loads of other posts about the film here at twitch in the archives.

The Submissions list for next years oscars are here. For "Best Foreign Language" film anyhow. You can view them here, at Oscar Watch, or click down below for a copy.

Probably one of the fairest awards given out, i think. I remember watching an interview with an academy award voter who said that he, like many, would simply pick who they had worked with in the past and gotten along with pretty well : it's the "He's a nice chap" approach to a meritocracy.

Anyhow, note the inclusion of "Taegukgi" from Korea, out now on DVD in various editions in various asian countries. I honestly don't know anything about the others : educate me. Oh, and also note the list apparently contains many errors, so any corrections welcome too.

Continue reading "77th Academy Awards. Foreign Language Film. Submissions List."

So, we've been teased for a while with the air-brushed painted costumes and characters from the "Fantastic Four" - but now, thanks to the good ole people at Comics2Film we've got a look at them in action filming in Vancouver. Some are quality, some are just of the street (great shooting) but it's a chance to see how they've actually made "The Thing" look. Check out the film shoot pictures here for the "Fantastic Four" and see for yourself.

Via filmrot

Joy. I loved Ocean's Eleven. I've been a big Steven Soderbergh fan ever since The Limey. Loved it! Loved them all! Well, Full Frontal was sort of 'Meh', and I didn't bother with Solaris, but the rest of them? Nice.

And here's the first full trailer for the sequel Ocean's Twelve. Enjoy.

While you're waiting for the trailer to download take a look at that cast list over on the right. Pretty impressive stuff. But I want to draw your attention to that very last name there. Right at the very bottom. Could it be? Oh yes it is my friends. British comedian Eddie Izzard, everyone's favorite Executive Transvestite, is part of the cast. Now, will he or won't he be wearing his fake breasts as ear muffs?

Via EmpireOnline.

In case you haven't already been persuaded, let Johnathan Ross try. If you head over to the BBCs "Film 2004" website you can currently stream Mr.Ross' 3+ minute review of the great Korean revenge masterpiece.

The review does ofcourse contain a lot of footage you won't see in the trailers currently being posted.
Be quick though, the site regularly updates; which also makes it useful for regular news, reviews and trailers. Go here.

Nothing in the way of a trailer at the Official Site which has just opened. There's some text. In Japanese.

Anyone know any more about this new Sonny Chiba movie? It's not on IMDB yet, and as far as his listing over there goes, he hasnt done a film since Kill Bill Volume 1.

Don't know why Todd hasn't posted this yet, at least he seems not to have : the Official Site for Shinya Tsukamotos "Vital" is here. Theres a trailer in there (Quicktime, no subtitles).

And, if you go to Goldview : who are distributing the film, you can search the English Language Version of the site for the Director listings and scroll down to find the Vital entry and right click + save on the "trailer" icon to actually download rather than stream the bigger English Subtitled version.

Both trailers contain different footage.

Here's a flying guess based on what i've seen. Hinokio, a small "Robot Boy" wants to become a "Real Boy". Watch his strange adventure(s) as he begins to realise he can't become real, but people love him anyway.

I think it looks like something potentially great, but anything with such a cool looking robot has potential to some extent.

Also : it's from Japan, so it's bound to be different. Even though it does appear to be a highly commercial movie.

Anyone able to find out more, get more english-language info? Here's the Official Site. Not seen this talked about anywhere yet.

So. It officially came out on Monday the 18th October 2004. The Edko / Hong Kong DVD of "House of Flying Daggers".

Many might be waiting to see some pictures of the image quality (at least) before buying. So, i stumbled across this page. Note it has large screen grabs, pictures and a nice bitrate diagram. Cool.

I am still waiting for my disc to arrive from DDDHouse.com : it should be here this morning. Fingers crossed (still).

AICN aka Aint It Cool News has put up a link to the Tetsujin 28 site overnight. Thing is, it was posted here weeks ago by Todd (i think?). Infact, I can't even find it in the archives here at Twitch : but who knows, someone might have spotted it here and told AICN about it. Bit late guys.

Anyhow : I can't tell them over there. So, anyone with the ability to post at AICN, can you please tell them and everyone else we were on the case.

The only snippets i've heard about the film so far suggest theres little CGI in it and its "paced for shit", as a forum poster put it. Still, thats opinion in part so lets wait and see for ourselves, hopefully in 2005.

Whilst perusing the web this evening I stumbled across a fine young man saying kind things about us over at Cinema Minima which, in turn, led me to the same young man's glowing review for Gusher No Binds Me, a low budget Japanese sci-fi flick I've been lusting after since first spotting a trailer almost a year ago. This thing invokes images of Terry Gilliam and Jean-Pierre Jeunet's love child strung out on some high-potency Japanese crack and if the review is any indication the film is every bit as solid as the trailer.

A trailer, you say? Well, glory! That same review included a link to an English subtitled trailer here, courtesy of the film's international sales agent, and a little further digging on my part turned up this: the first trailer for Shinya Tsukamoto's Vital I'm aware of anywhere, also subtitled in English.

Artsmagic? Tartan? You paying attention? Somebody buy these things. Happy viewing.

A good, cheap option for Studio Ghibli films on DVD. In Australia. But don't worry...

You can buy them from great online Australian sites like EzyDvd for around £12 plus postage each. Thats relatively cheap : nice artwork too.

Out Now : Laputa, Grave of The Fireflies, Kikis Delivery Service, Princess Mononoke, and Spirited Away. Coming Soon : Nausicaa, Totoro, Only Yesterday, Proco Rosso, Pom Poko, Whisper of The Heart, My Neighbours The Yamadas, and The Cat Returns.

Check out the Madman site for box shots, details, screen shots and more. Thanks to Anime News Network.

Whoopsie. Been slacking off the last couple days and just realized I hadn't posted this yet. Voila, the official Sony one sheet poster for the North American release of Pedro Almodavar's Bad Education. Click here to see a larger version.

In the Toronto area? Want to be a zombie in George Romero's Land of the Dead? Here's how. Call 416-633-2442 or fax 416-633-9440 with your contact info. I just made the call myself and it looks legit ...

Via Bloody-Disgusting and FilmRot

Here's an interesting rumor and one that I could actually see working. According to a couple scoopers over at Aint It Cool Jean-Pierre Jeunet has let it be known that he's been offered a Harry Potter film.

Throwing some water on this is the fact that he himself has said he's not so interested; the fact that, yes, his Alien Resurrection was looking to be the hands down winner of the 'Worst Alien Film' award by a comfortable margin until ol' Paul WS came along; and the fact that he'd have to reign in some of his stylistic excesses to conform with the tone of the earlier Potter films.

But even with all of that in mind I've got to say I find this a fairly compelling idea. He's an incredible visual stylist, has a keen grasp on the sense of fantasy and whimsy needed for this kind of thing and can veer into harder edged tones when necessary. I don't think it's going to happen but it's nice to see that Warner's is at least thinking along potentially risky but also potentially hugely rewarding lines ...

The Japan Times has just run a review of Wong Kar Wai's 2046. The early response to the film has been pretty evenly divided between those who are simply overwhelmed by the film and those who find it a bit of a self-referential letdown next to WKW's earlier work and the Japan Times review falls into the latter camp. Still, they find an awful lot to like ...

So. Japan gets this for the standard DVD (and several lush special editions), and in America you get that over there... that horrible, washed out, cheap-ass cartoon, idiotically misrepresentative pile of cack.

Forgive my language. It's not like me to be so upset over something so trivial as a DVD cover, but this USA cover for "Ghost in The Shell : Innocence" is THE WORST EVER. If I had the money, and was completely bothered, I would have a trophy made to show them they won that particular competition, and have it shipped over to America to let them know.

But, all I can do is let you take this opportunity to "sign" this little petition : leave your comments on the cover here and I will then email them all to Dreamworks Home Entertainment in exactly one week.

Please, tell everyone where they can add their comments - the more the merrier. Thanks.

UPDATE : larger image of cover in window (*click*). Now with added AICN quote.

Let me begin by saying that if nearly half his cast hadn't gone and died, thus preventing him from finished the thing, Lars Von Trier's The Kingdom would stand as an absolute classic in the realm of world wide horror film. As it is the two completed segments are a cruel, cruel tease for fans, every bit as strange and compelling as David Lynch's Twin Peaks and the Steven King penned American remake / interpretation / completion of the story was an utter travesty. I am one of those fans who has been hoping in vain that Von Trier would find a way of completing the Kingdom cycle, for years trolling the web from time to time hoping to stumble across some glimmer of possibility. Back when it looks as though labor strikes in Hollywood were going to shut down the production of Dogville there were rumors of Von Trier re-casting and completing his classic miniseries, but no ... the labor dispute was resolved and the Kingdom faded back into the mists.

So I'm mighty happy about this. After years of spinning art house philosophy and trying to change the way films are made around the world Von Trier is returning to 'commercial film making' and the horror genre with Antichrist. Currently editing Dogville's sequel Von Trier has been quoted as saying that he needs "to earn some money" before shooting the third and final film of his American trilogy and, thus, once he has finished editing Manderlay he will launch production on a new horror film "for a wider audience, a horror film not with vampires but more in the style of The Kingdom ... I don't want to say any more. It is kind of an Antichrist with international distribution, based on the theory that it was not God but Satan who created the world."

Yeah, I'll be in line day one. Go rent The Kingdom. Right now. Hell, just buy it.

You are in for a treat come February. If you haven't see Ong-Bak you will have your chance soon. Famed french director and producer Luc Besson recut the film and secured a U.S. distribution deal with Magnolia Pictures. No word on Canadian dates yet but one can only hope.

In the meantime I came across an article proclaiming Tony as the new Bruce Lee. Bruce, huh? We here at Twitch has always compared him to Jackie and Jet. The athletecism and grace of Jackie combined with the ferocity and power of Jet. Regardless, Tony kicks huge ass and you will be converted once you see him in action.

You can read the full TIME Asia Tony Jaa Ong-Bak magazine article right here.

You can also visit the Japanese web-site or the French web-site as well.

Via KungFuCinema.

I like Viz. Well, I liked Viz i should say. It was superbly funny and strangely sophisticated for toilet humour when i was a teenager. So, more than a decade later, they made a film of "The Fat Slags" - probably the most outright offensive strip in it.

Cue cameo appearances from people who will forever regret it : the movie bombed without much of a trace. Infact i hadn't the slightest clue it was finished let alone released.

So : not only was it worse than the abomination that was "Sex Lives of The Potato Men". It's also worse than the laden-with-british-comedy-talent "Churchill : The Hollywood Years". That's some achievement.

What's more : Viz have decided the films sheds such a bad light on the Magazine, they're ending the original strip in the 25th Anniversary issue, which is due out soon. Blimey.

See the BBC article.

Not entirely sure of the state of gossip on a decent French Language (with English Subtitles) release of "Switchblade Romance" aka "Haute Tension". So, I emailed the UK distributors and they've replies quickly to say it's pencilled in for a Januray / February 2005 release.

That's relatively soon after the recent UK cinema release, and not entirely uncommon nowadays - but it's good to know that it won't be too long (surely) until the final date comes, and preorder listings begin to appear.

I have been tempted by the dubbed and uncut Thai DVD, and the unsubbed and uncut French DVD, and sometimes even the cut Korean DVD. But the holy grail at the moment is this UK Disc.

Okay okay okay. We've taken our shots at John for a while now. I will still admit that I love the man and I dearly hope that he can bring things around. I still haven't given up hope on him though he makes it really hard with news like the live action He-Man.

But here's some news that has me quite intrigued. After Spy Hunter and The War of the Red Cliff [He-Man is in there somewhere] it appears that John is gearing up to do a remake of Jean-Pierre Melville's 1970 crime caper, Le Cercle Rouge.

Why all the fuss? Jean-Pierre Melville's films had a huge impact on John. Le Samourai being one of the biggest. So you would think that John would take the upmost care to honor a man who influenced him so much. And honestly, crime and gangster movies is where John has been most successful.

Everyone else is saying it so I might as well. Hopefully this return to gangster noire will have brought John around full circle? [snicker]

via Empire and ComingSoon.

Since trailers reveal everything these days it seems only natural that film companies would start releasing large chunks of the movie before it gets released. Jerry Bruckheimer's new Nicolas Cage vehical "Natural Treasure" is not content with just giving you a trailer, oh no, the first 10 minutes of the film are now available online for you all to see here. "National Treasure" also has quite an elaborate website as well (as posted by Todd a while ago) so if you haven't checked that out yet view the website and piddly little "trailer" here. "National Treasure" opens Novemeber 19/04.

Via filmrot.com

I knew about this yesterday, and emailed Homevision. Anyhow, i haven't had a response yet : but someone else has. So : the release date initially shifted back a week and now its simply "Coming Soon".

Kinji Fukasakus "Battles Without Honour or Humanity" films, in one box, from Homevision = Best Boxset of The Year (2004). Potentially. But it's delayed due to "manufacturing issues", so who knows how long the delay could end up being?

Hopefully we will still see it this year. Fingers Crossed.

Note : Difficult to type with fingers crossed.

During the film festival this year Opus and myself were both lucky enough to catch the screening of "Undertow" and the Q&A with director David Gordon Green (who I feel is vastly talented). "Undertow" is a follow up to his critically raved indie films "George Washington" and "All the Real Girls" (both recommended watches) and Green takes on a different genre here trying his hand at a thriller with his most celebrity ridden cast to date (Josh Lucas, Jamie Bell, Dermot Mulroney).

Set in the south, a single father trying to raise his two sons in impovershied surrondings gets an unexpected visit from his recently released jailbird brother with plans of more than a family reunion. David Gordon Green continues to impress me with his creativity and imagination as director and writer and "Undertow" unfolds into a film only he could tell so well. Visit the website to check out the trailer, clips from the film and photo gallery, then go out and rent his other two previous films and hope that your city has a "select" theatre showing "Undertow" this Friday. Read Opus' film fest review of the film here as well here to get the twitch skinny on "Undertow".

It's been a puzzling time of late with certain directors picking or being rumoured to be working on such random films (John Woo - He-Man, Steven Spielberg - Transformer) and now continuing this trend is Jim Sheridan. It appears that the director of "My Left Foot" and "In America" (which was such a great film) will be at the helm of "Locked and Loaded" starring 50 Cent in which an orphaned former drug dealer stops pushing (for you whities - that means selling drugs) and focuses on a career in rapping. Emimen and Dr. Dre will be producing the film with a host of others, persumably because they want people who actually know how to produce a "movie" - though Dre is one of rap musics best producers. Want to read the whole article, check it out here but I have but one question for Jim Sheridan - is it the challenge or the money? I have my suspicions.

Via filmrot.com

Part Twilight Zone, part after school special, and directed by the great Joe Dante, Eerie , Indiana was an all too brief breath of fresh air marked by genuinely good writing and imagination in a medium that too often rehashed itself. For adults revisiting the series on DVD the test isn’t so much whether Eerie evokes enough nostalgia for itself but for the myriad of Twilight Zone, Outer Limits, Sci-fi monster movie homages paid throughout it’s half hour episodes.

Continue reading "HALLOWEEN UPDATE EERIE INDIANA DVD REVIEW"

It's only just made it out on an unsubtitles Japanese DVD. It's only just made it to the Cinemas in America.

That's why i am excited to be able to sat that the sequel to Ghost In The Shell has been announced for a USA release date, so at least i am not upset that i am here in the UK and unable to see it right now.
The reviews may have been mixed but i want to see it for myself.

The disc is $30 rrp : is in 1.85:1 aspect ratio and ofcourse has English Subtitles. More details when i find them.

The keen-eyed Logboy spotted this one ...

Universal has announced a release date of December 21st for the North American DVD of Shaun of the Dead, the fantastic zombie comedy from the UK. Which we love. Which we think all people should love. And own. As soon as humanly possible. Which is apparently December 21st.

According to DVD Answers the spec sheet hasn't been announced yet but the assumption is that it will be pretty well identical to the packed-to-the-gills UK DVD, though it may include a couple of new and exclusive features. If they include footage of Edgar and Simon getting body-casted for their body make up for their zombie roles in Romero's Land of the Dead I may just have to trade up ...

And in a completely unrelated public service announcement I offer this reminder: falling off a roof is not as much fun as it may appear.

A week or so back we ran this story, linking to reviews of a pair of new horror films from the Japanese producer of The Ring and Ju-On. Well, Screen Daily has just weighed in with reviews of their own and the word is good ... check it out here.

Today's issue of Screen Daily is running a story officially confirming that Nicole Kidman has signed on to star in Wong Kar Wai's The Lady From Shanghai. This has been rumored for weeks and isn't much of a surprise. What is surprising is the story's claim that Gong Li is not only co-starring but has already shot her part. My guess is they must have done it while shooting WKW's segment of the Eros anthology, in which Li also starred. For all the heat Wong Kar Wai takes over his often tedious shooting style the man can work quickly when need be and it certainly looks as though this next film may be one of his faster productions.

Apple has just posted the International trailer for Bly Sky Studios' Robots here. Personally, I like this one a little better than the original and think that while most people are pointing to Dreamworks' CG Animation division as the major competition for Pixar Blue Sky is the real challenger. The animation, design and voice work here are all well ahead of what Dreamworks does.

It's been interesting to watch the public response to the Jon Stewart led incarnation of The Daily Show ... as Stewart et al rack up Emmy awards he has increasingly been viewed as one of the primary news sources, particularly for young people, in North America - a fact that has politicians clamoring for guest spots and Stewart himself voicing concern. After all, what does it say about a culture when a satirist is considered more credible than supposed 'hard news' outlets?

Well, here's why. Stewart recently put in a guest stint on CNN's Crossfire - a frequent target of his jokes - and the good people at IFilm have made the entire visit available online. It's shocking how easily Stewart is able to put the hosts off their game by simply refusing to play "the funny man" for them and a little alarming how quickly the tone swings through condesension and outright hostility when Stewart challenges their methods. It's compelling stuff. Keep doing what you're doing, Jon. We need you.

Via Opus.

According to Monkey Peaches Japan's Toei Studios is considering withdrawing its support of the Speilberg produced Memoirs of a Geisha. Upset with the story's portrayal of geisha culture and the fact that the Asian part of the cast is almost entirely Chinese instead of Japanese the studio is contemplating pulling their support and refusing to lease sets to the production.

They've got a good point ... much as I like Zhang Ziyi, Michelle Yeoh and Gong Li it doesn't really make a lot of sense to cast them as the female leads in a Japan-based film when there are stacks of talented young Japanese actresses available who, you know, can actually speak the language. I've heard it said more than once that the casting of this film betrays a certain form of racism - equating all Asian cultures and assuming that westerners simply won't know or won't care about the differences - and, though I don't particularly think that's what's going on here, Toei evidently does and I can't really blame them.

Taking a page from the very successful BMW Films promotion of a few years back - BMW hired world reknowned film directors to shoot short films that just happened to revolve around Clive Owen driving a BMW very, very fast - Korean search engine Daum has commisioned short genre films from five rising directors to be shown only via the Daum website. The first film has already been rolled out with additional offerings to come one per week for the next month.

They're not skimping on the talent here, either ... the first short is from director Kim Sung-Soo - his Musa: The Warrior is an enormously overlooked masterpiece - and features Arahan's Ryu Seung-beom as a man living in a Twilight Zone styled world in which everyone walks backwards until he realizes that forward motion is possible and becomes a revolutionary. The second short comes from Save The Green Planet director Jang Jun-hwan and is a fantasy story about a man who dreams that he is the King of the Kingdom of Chest Hair. Later shorts will come from the director of The Ring Virus, Untold Scandal and One Fine Spring Day.

Check the films out here. I doubt any will include subtitles, but Back - the first film - is a mighty impressive piece of visual work that doesn't include any dialogue so no subs are required.

Via koreanfilm.org

**** UPDATE ****

Jang Jun-hwan's entry is now available here and it's every bit as strange as you'd expect a film about a man dreaming of growing chest hair to be ...

Thanks to asiandvdguide.com : IVL have begun a relationship with Toei to release their films on DVD and VCD on a regular basis. We should see a few titles each month, beginning in November.

First releases : by Kinji Fukasaku. We get :"Battles without honour or humanity" (1974; out this month in the USA as part of the "Yakuza Papers Boxset"), and "House on Fire" (1986), and "Rage of Love" (1988).

These IVL discs should be remastered if the recent Jackie Chan, John Woo, and Bruce Lee sets are anything to go by. So not only will they be excellent releases, they will be cheap too - and issued regularly. Best News in ages!

14 year old US Martial Artist Jake Strickland has recently joined the cast of House of Fury, produced by Jackie Chan's JCE Movies. Not only is Jake the first child actor from the west to land a role in an eastern film but he gets to do it under the direction of THE Yuen Wo-Ping. You know, that guy who made Keanu look really really cool in The Matrix series and Uma Thurman really really hot in the Kill Bill series. Add on to that resume Unleashed, Kung Fu Hustle and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. Yeah. The kid is in really good hands and will have the tutelage of one of film's greatest martial artist experts.

Strickland began training in martial arts at the age of seven. His training is rooted in Karate and Taekwondo, with emphasis on traditional, open and musical forms and fighting. He currently holds a second degree black belt and has competed in the last three World Championships hosted by the North American Sports Karate Association.

Jake joins a pretty sweet cast too. He'll work along side Daniel Wu, Michael Wong, Josie Ho, and The Twins Gillian Chung and Charlene Choi. Hmmm, twins. Niiiiice.

You can follow Jake's filming experience in his web diary over at xmarevolution.com.

You can also see Jake in action on his own site. There is some sick stuff on it. Hence our desire to share this news with you all.

Best of luck Jake. Remember, if you meet us in a dark alley go easy on us.

Thanks kungfucinema and wu-jing.

More great news for me, and great news for any Takashi Miike fan. MPD Psycho : the short TV Series, will be released in the UK across 3 volumes soon.

Volume 1 : 31st January 2005. Volume 2 : 28th February 2005. Volume 3 : 21st March 2005.

There's no certification information at BBFC yet, and theres no company listing alongside play.com preorder listings. The price for each volume is £11.99 to UK buyers.

As an aside : "Young Thugs : Innocent Blood " is certified 18. "Young Thugs : Nostalgia" is certified 15.

It's been one of the most rumor-fueled casting processes ever and according to FilmRot the time for speculation is over. Bryan Singer's Superman film has been cast.

Playing Jimmy Olsen will be That 70's Show's Topher Grace. The O.C.'s Mischa Barton will be Lois Lane. And as Clark Kent / Superman? Brandon Routh.

Singer said repeatedly that he was comitted to casting an unknown as Superman and he wasn't kidding. I will say that I like this better than Nicholas Cage as Superman as was the original idea years ago but I'd like pretty much anybody better than Cage. I quite like the idea of Topher Grace as Jimmy Olsen. Not being a fan of The O.C. - I've never watched a complete episode - I have no opinion whatsoever on Barton.

The cast is surprisingly young and I don't know yet if Routh meets Singer's stated goal of casting someone openly gay to play Supes but I'm glad all the rumor mongering is finally over ... assuming, of course, that this story is actually correct ...

With the DVD release of Kaz Kiriya's sci-fi epic Casshern rapidly approaching - just a week to go - some more details have leaked out. The basic edition, due October 23rd, will be a three disc set with the film available on the first disc and the other two discs filled with behind the scenes footage, making of featurettes and cast / crew interviews. It was announced long ago that the feature would be subtitled but I wouldn't bank on that being the case for the bonus material. If someone who reads Japanese would care to take a look at this and tell us what it says on the matter - a complete list of features would be nice, too - we'd appreciate it greatly.

Not speaking Japanese I could be wrong on this next bit, but it certainly appears to me that the bottom section of the page linked above is detailing an 'Ultimate Edition' release of the film due November 7th. I haven't seen listings for that in any of the online retailers so I have no clue what may be included ... once again, a translation would be lovely ...

For those not in the know on this film, take a look at the trailer here. Then just go ahead and order the thing here.

My hat goes off to Palm Pictures. They are far from the most prolific film label around but they choose their titles with care, digging up excellent, odd little films from around the world and give them quality releases. The latest Palm release to cross my desk is Noi Albinoi (Noi the Albino), 2002's award winning and much acclaimed character sketch from Iceland's Dagur Kari.

The film is the story of seventeen year old Noi, a misfit youth growing up in a remote Icelandic fishing village with his very odd grandmother and alcoholic, Elvis-fixated, cab-driving, karaoke-singing absentee father. The packaging boldly invites comparisons to the work of Wes Anderson and Richard Kelly and, though somewhat misleading in terms of content and tone, the comparison is perfectly apt in terms of raw talent and the distinctiveness of vision. In American hands this same basic mix of high school outsider angst and absurd humor gave us Napoleon Dynamite, in Dagur Kari's hands it gives us a much quieter, subtler and distinctly Scandanavian character study that is no less memorable.

Continue reading "Noi Albinoi DVD Review"

Now listed at DDDHouse.com so it should pop-up everywhere else over the weekend and early into next week.

Price is $80HK, that's $10USD, or about £6 - a typical price. The disc was expected at the end of January 2005 according to previous Yesasia.com listing. Notice the artwork show here in this post : it's different to the previous poster or assumed DVD artwork.

Disc issued by Megastar with Surround Sound 5.1 and DTS, lanuguages are ofcourse Korean, Japanese and Cantonese : so there's English and Chinese Subtitles. It simply says widescreen in this listing, but mentions also that it's a fixed Region 3 disc in NTSC.

See the preorder / listing page here. Any more places list it, please leave links in comments.

Thanks.

Just a quick pointer over to the official LOTR site, as they've released a trailer / preview for the Extended Edition of "Return of the King".

It's due (ofcourse) on December 16th 2004 now. Also available is a boxset containing all three of the EE DVDs issued.

You should see the option for the trailer in the bottom-left of the page.

So. Directed by Shinichiro Watanabe (of "Cowboy Bebop" fame), designed by Kazuto Nakazawa (responsible for the sequence in "Kill Bill"). Mahiro Maeda (of "Last Exile" and "Blue Submarine") is also involved.

I've seen the first episode, and was surprised by the dynamic mix old Japan and flashes of Modern culture popped in their too. Geneon know how to pick great stuff out from the largely generic Anime stuff. It's perhaps the most noteable new anime series of 2004.

The discs include DD 2.0 (Japanese), DD 5.1 (English), and DTS 5.1 (Japanese) and are Anamorphic Widescreen. First volume available with Box too.

The extras seem fairly limited, as they often are on Anime discs. I just want to watch the show.

Although it's only a six minute piece, it's got the potential to be much more interesting than anything Disney has directly been responsible for in many years. Begun in 1946 and finished in 2003 (not continuous work!) it was brought out for a showing as 2004 in the 100th anniversary of Dalis' birth.

2003 saw the film recieve an Oscar for best animated short, and 2005 should see it on DVD along with a lenghty documentary about the history and making of the film.

Goes straight on my list. See the CNN piece here.

Monsters and Critics have posted some new still from Christian Bales "Batman Begins". They don't really show much, apart from one character which looks like the wise old Chinese master Pai Mei. See them here.

The pictures can also be seen at the Official Site, so the images of various characters we could have seen haven't arrive. Yet.

Fingers Crossed.

Woke up to a nice shipping confirmation from DDDHouse.com to let me know my "House of Flying Daggers" has been shipped. It's gone out early as I hoped : 4 days, I think it is. Anyhow, others will hopefully follow suit soon. DDDHouse usually take just under a week to arrive, and it only cost £7.70 inclusive of shipping.

CD-Wow.com listed the release date as the 21st (something they often do, put dates artificially back to allow them to get stock in).

When anyone else starts to get a shipping notice from other retailers, let us know in the comments so we can share. Thanks.

Here's a little something LogBoy turned up ... Got a hankering for a bit of Godzilla action? There was that tv report with footage from Godzilla: Final Wars circulating not so long ago but with servers coming and going on a seemingly hourly basis it was next to impossible to find a stable source. Well, here you go. They've got the tv spot, a pair of teaser trailers, an interview with director Ryuhei Kitamura and more for your viewing pleasure.

And who knew? Local boys Sum 41 are apparently providing the theme song. They're currently playing the crap out of that track on the local alt-rock station ...

I remember watching "Clerks" for the first time in highschool and laughing so loud in my friend Ian's living room that his mother yelled at us. I've been an outspoken, character quoting fan of Kevin Smith ever since and seem to always be wanting to know whats going on in the world of "Smith". I came across this interview with him at Comics2Film from the "Surviving Christmas" premiere (obviously there to laugh at a certain Mr. Affleck) and it's a pretty decent look in on him.

In the interview Smith shed's light on writing "The Green Hornet" script (which he says will be done by Nov. 1/04), why he decided to do a sequel to "Clerks", hanging out at Quentin Tarantino's house, the rumour of his involvement in a "Star Wars" tv show and the love needs on Ben Affleck (whuh?). Go on, read away people.

Considering I think the first two installments of "Blade" are nothing more than popcorn entertainment I guess that's the reason for my lackluster approach to "Blade: Trinity". Wesley Snipes, vampiers, blood, a happy ending and industrial music - ehhh, but for those of you who are fans of the series rejoice! With a mere click of the button you can witness two new video clips, one featuring Jessica Biel fighting young hooligan vampires in an empty subway station and one with writer/director David Goyer interviewing himself. Check out the official "Blade: Trinity" website here with access to the film's trailer.

Word on the street is that the third installment in the "Blade" series is supposed to be the best one, although I'm not sure what street that is from (probably the one where the people who financed the movie live on). That being said, from the Biel clip it's pretty clear she CAN'T fight at all, and it just reminds me of the terrible crap-tastic fighting style of Jamie King in "Bulletproof Monk".

Via filmrot.com

Those of you who were following our coverage of the Toronto Film Festival may recall some confusion surrounding Kung Fu Hustle, the latest flick from Hong Kong mega-star comedian Steven Chow. The festival cancelled the second screening of the film - the screening I had tickets to, incidentally - and there were conflicting reports as to why. The official line was that the print had been damaged in a private screening. A less official line said that Sony had it pulled from the festival over piracy fears.

Well, how's this for an explanation. Sony sold the film. Citing a story in the Nanking Daily Wu-Jing.org says Hustle has left the Sony fold and been purchased by Miramax. That's right. The same company that screwed over Chow's brilliant Shaolin Soccer, a company Chow swore to never work with again, has apparently secured North American rights to Kung Fu Hustle. They say they will give it a wide release but we've heard that before ...

It's possible that this is all just a rumor of the bad-dream variety but it looks pretty solid ... I've written a contact at Sony to see if I can get this confirmed or denied by the powers that be and will be posting their response as soon as I get it.

via KFC

**** UPDATE ****

Looks like Wu-Jing and KFC have got their info wrong. Here's the news straight from a PR rep at Sony:

"OK, So I called Sony to hear the news directly. I said "I saw online that Kung Fu Hustle was sold to Miramax. Is this true?" Their answer: "What? No. Absolutely not." Hope this helps."

So there you have it. Hustle's still with Sony and all is well.

Yes, yes, you're sick of hearing about this movie already. Well, it's really good. And now there's a non-Korean trailer for it thanks to the good people of the UK. Click here to see just what the big deal is. The hype's for real on this one, people. If you're the impatient sort the Korean DVD - with subtitles - is available here.

via JoBlo

Sony has released a trailer for Pedro Almodavar's Bad Education. It's brief and it tells you pretty much nothing about the film, but it's pretty. Check it out here. You can also check the website for the film here.

I was going to write something about the infamous films regarding "The Nanking Massacre" in November when Unearthed Films release "Black Sun : The Nanking Massacre" (1995) on the 16th in the USA.

Thing is, theres a piece at Japan Times about a Manga that's about said events, and it's been suspended from publication after running since 2002, due to political denial and complaints from the public.

Until recently the events of 1937 were completely taboo in Japan. Wiped from the history books, not talked about and out-right denied by every top politician and figure-head across Japan.

Several hundred thousand Chinese were killed, raped, or experimented upon whilst concious and alive. Photographs were taken, and they don't make easy viewing. Thing is, I love Japanese culture but their history is disturbing in so many ways.

Continue reading "The Nanking Massacre. The Films. The Controversy. The Denial."

Well, it's about bloody time. Guy Ritchie has apparently found his manhood [rumor has it, it was in Madonna's sock drawer tucked away in the back] and has returned to what he knows best. The gangster genre. Can I hear a 'Huzzah'?

Revolver stars Ray Liotta and Ritchie repertory company player, Jason Statham, in the London-set tale of a gambler who gets in way over his head – with potentially fatal results.

Potentially? One can only hope that Guy tops the tea cozy from Snatch. You lucky Londonites may stumble across filming being done in your fair city so keep an eye out for Guy and the gang. And read a short bit on the movie here on Empire Online's site.

Given how much of my life I devoted in the last three years to watching Peter Jackson's work on Lord of the Rings I feel a bit ashamed that I have not been keeping up to speed with Peter's next cinematic offering, King Kong. Peter must have felt that shame because he has enticed me over to the King Kong site by way of a smashing spandex motion capture suit. It's almost... hypnotic.

See Peter in action in the site's latest production diary here.

Thanks to Comingsoon.net for the head's up.

Comingsoon.net put up their interview with the creators of Team America: World Police, Trey Parker and Matt Stone. Read it here.

Read my thoughts on last weekend's sneek peak screening here.

Yup, that's me again. Except this time I'm standing next to some one from the other side of storytelling spectrum. Brad Anderson is a refreshingly normal kind of genius. But the movies he makes are anything but. His last film, the much-neglected Session 9, offered an unforgettable blend of atmosphere, horror and metaphysics. His new film The Machinist features an astonishing performance from one of film’s most respected actors, Christian Bale who brings his considerable skills and a shocking 63 pound weight loss to a paranoid story about guilt, identity and the power of the conscience to enact payment.

Continue reading "BRAD ANDERSON: AN INTERVIEW WITH THE DIRECTOR OF SESSION 9 AND THE MACHINIST"

Whassamatta Twitchers?! Nobody commented on my last The Incredibles post so I'll up the ante. Saw the film again. This time at the first public screening. But don't worry, I tweren't alone. No, no. Mon director Brad Bird was there and sat down for a lovely Q &A and autograph session. That's me by the way smugly rolling up my autographed poster as Brad looks serenly pleased.

The movie was just as good, if not better, the second time around. But the Bradster was the real highlight. Funny, articulate, and finally basking in his well-deserved glory Brad Bird said some things you can read about if you follow the link below.

Continue reading "Apparently Being At The First Press Screening Ever Wasn't Enough For Him. Canfield Hits the First Public Screening of The Incredibles as Well, And This Time Director Brad Bird Was Present And Talking ..."

A little while back we posted this article commenting on Sam Raimi's involvement on the upcoming adaptation of graphic novel 30 Days of Night, a vampire story set in Alaska during one of the region's extended night cycles.

Well, according to SciFi Wire the production now has a script they're happy with and the film should be moving ahead. No definite word yet on who will direct but the film is set to be produced by Ghost House - the production imprint Raimi runs with long time business partner Rob Tapert - with a budget in the $50-70 million range.

Word on the street is that a new series of Batman Begins still shots will be posted on the film's official site tomorrow with more to follow next week. Tomorrow's batch promises to include shots of Ken Watanabe, Linus Roache and Tom Wilkinson.

Coming Soon has just posted casting notes for the upcoming Darren Aronofsky flick The Fountain, which is about to move production from Australia to Montreal.

I'm a huge fan of Aronofsky's work and have been following this film closely since the days when Brad Pitt was slated for the lead role and the man is being maddeningly tight lipped when it comes to any sort of details about the film, describing it only as a metaphysical, post-Matrix sci-fi film. I know it jumps through time, but that's been about it until now.

If this is any indicator, it appears that one of the time periods is going to revolve around the Spanish Inquisition and that - as was the case with Aronofsky's stellar debut Pi - there will be a hefty religious element to it.

I am going to make this as clear as i can. There is an official Chinese DVD of 2046 appearing now on certain online retailers and ofcourse on eBay. The Disc is issued by GDFACE : the company responsible for this years "Hero : Extended Edition".

It's cheap enough to be worth the risk, even including shipping from China. But please be warned : on the Hero DVD, and 99% for certain on this disc, when you put the English Subtitles on you will get a smallish GDFace logo in the top left-hand corner for 30 seconds every 5 minutes throughout the duration of the film.

The Disc has removeable English Subtitles. Audio : depends on edition , but theres AC-3, DTS and DD 5.1.

EDIT : the dvd-5 has no extras and mandarin audio track only. the dvd-9 (mid-range disc) is PAL with limited extras. the special edition is a dvd-9 in NTSC. both the mid-range and SE also have japanese audio tracks. see the monkeypeaches details.

Disc officially released on the 15th of October 2004. HK retailers online are stocking it.

Trends come and go within the film world, with an idea or genre seemingly coming out of nowhere to dominate the field only to fade away a year or two down the line. There is talk that 2004 will go down as the year of transgressive film - pedophilia in The Woodsman, Palindromes and even Nicole Kidman's next flick contributes to that argument - but I disagree. 2004 is the year of the political documentary. Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 got the ball rolling but the flood gates are open good and wide now with films directly responding to Moore's, films about John Kerry and films about political manipulation of the media all occupying prime territory. Add Bush's Brain to the list and just go ahead and move it right on up close to the top.

Continue reading "Bush's Brain Review"

Not that I had any complaints with the first "The Ring" re-make, aside from the fact that I had seen it before and knew pretty much all that was going to happen (can't wait until "The Grudge" re-make does the same thing) but I like the fact that "The Ring 2" was directed by Hideo Nakata, the man responsible for the first two Japanese Ring films as well as "Dark Water" which is also being remade with Jennifer Conelly in the lead role. From the looks of this teaser trailer - and as teasers go this is pretty decent - "The Ring 2" looks to be as good as the first re-make. So turn out your lights, and click your left mouse button here for the trailer and the website. "The Ring 2" is set to be released March 18, 2005.

Via Comingsoon.net

CEX are reporting that subscribers to the online PC game "City of Heroes, in which you assume the identity of a superhero, carried out a touching tribute to Superman actor Christopher Reeve.

Many of the players had their character attend a virtual memorial and kneel in tribute or salute the man. It's odd, yes - strangely touching too. See the picture at War Cry. Or a smaller version in a pop-up window at twitch.

IGN Filmforce has labelled this one the best rumor ever and I'm inclined to agree with them ... Apparently the UK's Mirror - a tabloid known for its in depth reporting and unerring accuracy - has run an article claiming that David Hasselhoff is up for a role in the next Harry Potter film.

Only if you bring the car, Dave. Only if you bring the car.

Think back with me, if you will, to this post. You know. The one in which I ranted about just how badly I wanted to see Survive Style 5, how incredible those trailers look, and about my deep personal need for a tiger-headed codpiece to call my own.

Well, no word on the codpiece just yet but the folks at The Japan Times have gotten around to reviewing the film and they gave it a lofty four out of five star review and have an awful lot of good things to say about it. Check out the review here. Anyone want to send me a screener copy? Please?

The good folks at The Movie Box have collected every known trailer and clip for Wong Kar Wai's 2046 online anywhere in the world and dropped them all in one place for the betterment of obsessives such as myself. Go here to see the list. And watch them all.

Monkey Peaches has just run a story outlining Johnnie To's next projects. Following a pair of Hong Kong based crime films - one revolving around a gang choosing a new boss, the other the story of a pick pocket - To will be coming to Hollywood to shoot a "big budget" project. Whether this will be big budget by Hollywood standards or Hong Kong standards - there's a world of difference between the two - is yet to be seen, but the project is currently slated for a March launch so more details should be coming soon.

Remember how loads of people were annoyed when they found out the Japanese DVD for Kill Bill Volume 1 was different from the American Issue of the film? The extended fight sequences, more gore, full colour : mostly to do with the "House of Blue Leaves" sequence.

Well, bad news : those of use who (on a mixture of instinct and to be honest no actual reason at all) waited for the Japanese DVD of Kill Bill Volume 2 (out last week) have been "rewarded".

Don't worry the extra stuff isn't that easy to notice. But someone at the DVDTalk forums posted some grabs and description of the differences; an extra minute or so of footage and the whore house and that seems to be all.

Umetsu is the brains behind both "A Kite" and the equally infamous or well known "Mezzo Forte" (and it's spin-off mini series "Mezzo : DSA"; Volume 1 out now in the USA). Additionally Umetsu is an animator, having worked on Akira, Barefoot Gen, Megazone 23, Tombstone for the Fireflies, A Wind Named Amnesia, and movies from both the Yurusei Yatsura series.

Read on...

Continue reading "A Kite : Uncut. By Yasoumi Umetsu. R1 USA DVD. Review."

Since I can't navigate the French website at all, thanks goes out to Warner Independant Pictures for releasing an easy to access trailer even a grade 9 French prodigy like myself can find and watch. This movie looks amazing (and melting at the same time - Audrey) which is no suprise at all since I and many of the twitcher's here regard Jean-Pierre Jeunet to such a high degree. Check out the North American trailer here, via Ain't It Cool (who have some stills from the film on there site here). And, if your looking to be adventurous check out the French website here that Todd had posted some time ago.

Golly, I'm giddy like a school girl on prom night and it's all thanks to the fine folk at TLA who have just announced that they've acquired In China They Eat Dogs and Old Men In New Cars for North American distribution. Why should you care? Well, chances are you're never really going to, not as much as I do anyway. So why do I care? Well, before I got on to my current Japanese film fixation I was pretty locked on to Denmark. Lars Von Trier was largely responsible for getting me there but screen writer and sometime director Tomas Anders Jensen is what kept me there and both of these films are Jensen creations.

As writers go Jensen is pretty much money in the bank. He's versatile, prolific and immensely talented. He was a huge figure in the Dogme movement penning two of the first four Dogme films (Mifune and The King is Alive) as well as one later acknowledged as one of the finest in the movement (Open Hearts). His darker-than-dark comedies Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself and The Green Butchers are two of my favorite films of the last year. I was so impressed by Wilbur at the 2003 Toronto Film Festival that I actually went and tracked down someone in Denmark who would direct ship me a copy of The Green Butchers to get around Denmark's export laws (thanks Mack!) and it was absolutely worth the effort.

These two films - neither of which I've yet seen but I've read a lot of good things about both - are a pair of bleak crime comedies revolving around low-end thug Harald. It appears that the In China They Eat Dogs website has died an ignoble death but the Danish site for Old Men In New Cars is up and running here and there is a trailer included. And, yes, that is the girl from High Fidelity. One of the guys from The Idiots, too, but High Fidelity girl is definitely the more appealing of the two to look at.

Read on for the complete press release, which includes detailed summaries of both films.

Continue reading "Whee! TLA To Release In China They Eat Dogs and Old Men In New Cars!"

Logboy just forwarded a little something of interest to me that I'm going to repeat here ... someone over on the Sex Gore Mutants message boards jumped at the chance to pick up the Zoke edition of House of Flying Daggers early and cheap and has posted a couple of screen captures and his impressions of the edition. I've seen worse, but this one aint real hot.

First, Zoke has inserted a permanent company logo into the top left corner of the screen. They were smart enough not to actually place it over the actual film image - unlike the Face edition of the extended Hero - but it's still irritating. Second, the subs are burned in and they're white which makes them hard to read. Here are those screen caps:

So my advice is steer clear of this edition. Go for the Edko version, which is the one on sale at YesAsia, DDD House and Layoyo.

Not sure how this managed to slip past me but the director's cut of Donnie Darko - a cult classic that fully deserves the 'classic' part of the tag - was released on DVD in the UK last week. They're not skimping on this set, either ... check out the list of features:

Disc 1: Director's Cut of the film (expanded to 133 minutes); All new Director’s Cut specific Director’s commentary; Sundance Channel’s ‘Anatomy of a Scene’ documentary; Donnie Darko Production Diary documentary; “The Cultural Impact of Donnie Darko in the UK” featurette; Mad World music videos; Director’s Cut Trailer; Disc 2: Original Cut of the film; Commentary by Richard Kelly and Jake Gyllenhaal; Commentary by selected cast & crew including: Richard Kelly, Drew Barrymore, Katherine Ross and Jean Malone; 20 Deleted & Extended Scenes with optional commentary by Richard Kelly; Interviews with 20 principal cast and crew members – B roll footage; The Philosophy of Time Travel; Website Gallery; Artwork Gallery; UK Art Exhibition; Extensive Cast & Crew Filmographies; 'They Made Me Do It' – making of the art gallery; Cunning Visions Gallery; TV Spots

Nice. I've got mine on order already ...

Via SexGoreMutants

Heres something you won't have heard about. There's a sequel in the works for 2004 Takashi Miike project "Chakushin Ari" (aka "One Missed Call").

Miikes' name isn't apparent on the website, so i assume it's nothing to do with him. Thing is, no one probably thought to look back at the official site for the original film : now there's a teaser there for the follow-up.

If i can find out more about it then i will post an update in the coming hours or days. I noticed on a japanese website it's somehow managed to make the top of their "most wanted" list.

See the archive for my recent review of the HK DVD of the original.

YesAsia's getting into the Halloween spirit with a massive sale on Asian horror DVDs. Buy three or more and they're only $8.99 each. They're offering $5 off any order over $30 for new customers as well - just enter the code "horror 2004" at check out.

The list of available titles is just massive and there are some gems tucked in there: the original Three anthology, The Ring Virus (the Korean remake of The Ring), Hideo Nakata's Dark Water, The Quiet Family (the source film for Miike's Happiness of the Katakuris), the Pang Brothers' The Eye, Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Kairo, one of the Baby Cart films and lots more ... if you've been looking to start checking out the whole Asian horror thing you're not going to get a better chance than this. Check the whole list here.

I know, I know, these Halloween updates we're supposed to be everyday but I'm in the middle of CIFF 2004 and I'm busily transcribing my interview with Session 9/The Machinst director Brad Anderson.

When was the last time you saw The Lost Boys. Let's face it LB is a movie worth watching over and over again. Even without the Frog Brothers this dark riff on Peter Pan stakes most other recent vampire flicks to the ground. And Warner has just released a fabulous two-disc Special Edition.

Continue reading "Halloween Update-O-Rama: The Lost Boys Review"

No, really. I'm not making this up. Check it out here. This has got to be one of the most bizarre things I've ever heard. What are you thinking, man?

Via the forums at KFC.

Okay, this is just ridiculous but it makes me smile nonetheless. Variety is reporting that Bruce Feirstein has been hired to write the screenplay for a film version of The A Team. Feirstein's been the go to guy for James Bond scripts throughout the Pierce Brosnan era with Goldeneye, Tomorrow Never Dies and The World Is Not Enough to his credit. No word yet on cast or director ...

I've just received two new tv spots and a screen shot from The Incredibles and they look pretty sweet ... both spots are available medium and large sized, and here they are in Quicktime format:

"Ever Wonder": Medium Large
"Super Powers": Medium Large

While you're getting your Incredibles fix click here
to see a much larger version of that still shot. The level of detail on this is mighty impressive ... Pixar just keeps doing better and better work ...

A while back we posted some screen shots from a film called Marebito - the latest from Takashi Shimizu (Ju-on) starring Shinya Tsukamoto (Testsuo: The Iron Man). I've been looking forward to this one quite a lot and Logboy just turned up what may be the first english language review of the film here. Shimizu and Tsukamoto working together on a film littered with HP Lovecraft references? Sweet!

I did some digging yesterday on the multiple DVD editions of House of Flying Daggers due out this month and here's what I've turned up:

As near as I can tell the cheap Zoke edition is a bootleg. It's listed as having burned in subtitles, which is a dead giveaway. It's also being manufactured in Hong Kong, where the official rights holder is Edko - another dead giveaway. Thus, the Zoke edition will most likely be fairly low quality and one to avoid.

Then there's the Chinese mainland edition which doesn't include subtitles of any sort. This one is not widely available outside the mainland so it's not much of an issue.

Then there's the Edko release, which will be the high quality, official edition. It's 16:9 anamorphic with removable subs and 5.1 audio. I've also seen three different release dates given for it so far - Oct 15th, 18th and 20th.

How to tell which edition you're getting? Luckily enough the covers are significantly different from each other so it's not too difficult. The Edko cover is the one attached to this article. Note the color of the Chinese character. The Zoke cover is here. The key difference is that the Chinese glyph is red on the Zoke version, and there's also an additional row of lettering on this one. So: white writing good, red writing bad. If you're one of those who jumped on the chance to order through YesAsia you can rest assured that you're getting the Edko release. They don't stock boots, which rules Zoke out, and a look at their cover image confirms that they're stocking the white lettered Edko release.

Anime News Network states the new rendered "Apppleseed" movie gets its USA premiere this coming Saturday.

It's showing at the Boston Fantastic Film Festival. Anyone going?

Still no sign of a subtitled DVD of this, but the official unsubtitled japanese release is soon. I hope it's as good as it looks...

You can still visit the Japanese official site for downloads, trailers and so on. Click here.

So. Japan Shock are well established as the European home to some of the more obscure and extreme Japanese Cinema. They've gone a long time without a new release, but now they're back. Firstly is the 1974 "Zero Woman" film : an early entry into the series that went on for a couple of decades or more.

I think it's one of the best this year, and i hope to review it soon.

So, if you enjoy the 70's feel of films like "Lady Snowblood" or "Lone Wolf and Cub", i think this could be another worthwhile title to hunt down. You should find this title turning up at the major USA import sites like HKFlix and DVDAsian. Also, there are some good european sellers like Absurd or Chainsaw.

Then on 22nd November it's the infamous "Yakuzas Law". Dates have been shifted twice already, so fingers crossed this time. See the trailers at the Japan Shock site.

Having missed out on "I (Heart) Huckabees" at the Film Festival this year (you'd think 9:30am wasn't that hard to get up at but oh my...) I was pins and needles waiting for this to be released. Sunday's viewing was all I had hoped it was and made me realize just how much I like David O. Russell's films (plus anyone who uses "The Piano Teacher's" Isabelle Huppert is gold in my book). "Flirting With Disaster" was great, "Three Kings" still remains a wonderful viewing and now "I (Heart) Huckabees" becomes a recommendation I put out to the masses (with a great elevator brawl scene between Jason Schwartzman and Jude Law). Now, take a peek into Russell's mind and his philosophy he wished to put forth into the film by scanning the interview he had here with RopeofSilicon.com

I guess when you start to find yourself in movie limbo - it's time to make a thriller and try to get back to the top of it all again (ie, Richard Gere - "Mothman Prophecies, Kevin Costner - "Dragon Fly", Bill Pullman - "The Grudge"). Now the latest star to shock his way back into our hearts is Michael Keaton. With good supporting cast roles in "Jackie Brown" and "Out of Sight", and horrible lead choices like "Jack Frost" and "Desperate Measures" it seems he wants to re-invent himself now. "White Noise" revolves around E.V.P. (Electronic Voice Phenomena - a process of contacting the dead through recording devices - see the official American Association of E.V.P. website here for more info). When John Rivers (Michael Keaton) loses his wife, he begins to try and contact her through E.V.P and eventually does - but if she's able to come through......who else can come through? I bet someone or something that really just wants to start messing around with people because I tell you, the dead just don't like us living for some reason. "White Noise" probably will be buried somewhere beside "The Forgotten" and "Shocker" but judge for youself here and take a peek at the trailer and website - I'm more interested in the actual American Association of E.V.P website myself. "White Noise" is set to be released January 7, 2005.

Via RopeofSilicon.com

According to DVD Answers Miramax will be releasing Infernal Affairs on DVD in North America December 7th. It'll include a basic batch of bonus features - including the original and mainland China endings - and the worst cover art ever. Seriously. It's wretched. So bad I'm not even putting it on the front page. Click here if you want to see it.

So ... who's the chick with the gun? No, seriously. Who the hell is the chick with the gun? She's not even in the movie! Why is she in the middle of the cover!?! Did they just copy and paste her from some other film artwork? Come on Harv ... with what you paid some poor sap to work up that load of crap you could've just gone out and bought rights to use the cover image from any of the stacks of DVD editions for the film that already exist world wide. There are lots of them and every single one has got better art than that ...

A new trailer for Wes Anderson's The Life Aquatic has turned up online here, and it brings with it a release date. Word on the street is the film will start out with a limited release on December 25th and expand from there.

I realize it's been awhile since I've posted to the ol' Twitch, but I saw this and just couldn't resist. AnimeOnDVD and Anime News Network are both reporting that a live action version of Saikano, aka She, The Ultimate Weapon is in the works and set to be released sometime in 2005. Saikano follows the burgeoning relationship between two awkward high school students, and what happens when one of them is revealed to be a deadly cyborg created by the government. I've seen a couple of episodes, and it's pretty decent dramatic stuff (as might be expected from a company like Gonzo), if highly overwrought and melodramatic.

So what's the big deal? Well, Aki Maeda has been cast in the lead role of Chise, the titular "ultimate weapon". Maeda is probably best known to Twitch readers for her role as Noriko Nakagawa in the infamous Battle Royale (she also had a cameo in Battle Royale 2, but I'm doing my best to pretend that particular movie never happened).

Saikano is currently being released in North America by VIZ.

Dark Horizons has linked to a couple bits of info from Latino Review. Sam Raimi's been talking Spider-Man 3 and Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash and the news is bad and good.

Continue reading "Sam Raimi on Spider-Man 3 and Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash"

TheForce.Net has a description of the first Star Wars Revenge of the Sith trailer here.

I've got the DVDs sitting here at home. I've watched all the material on the bonus disc. I haven't brought myself to watch the movies yet though. Admittedly watching all that bonus material and the trailer description has gotten me a bit excited about the movie again. Not giggling like a little school girl excited, mind you, but excited enough.

Christopher Reeve, known around the world for his role as Superman in the 70s and 80s then as an advocate for spinal chord research during the past nine years, died of hear failure yesterday. He was 52.

Reeve was an incredible man of courage and strength who overcame the greatest of odds after being thrown from a horse back in 1995. Despite his paralysis, he continued to work in Hollywood both in front and behind the camera even winning the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a TV Movie or Miniseries in the movie Rear Window.

Christopher Reeve was the comic book movie actor of my time. Respect is due.

OK. So i spotted some more info on the upcoming DVD release(s) of "House of Flying Daggers".

The Chinese DVD : October 15th. Its said to be from a company called "Zoke" and apparently they dont have a very good reputation for decent transfers. You can get this cheaply ($4) at Koreandvds.com. It suggests burnt-in subtitles. Bootleg!

The Korean DVD : has begun to be listed at some sites. This looks like the better option, and you will only have to wait until the end of November (25th) for that ($25 for this). See it listed at DVDAsian.com.

The Hong-Kong DVD : Layoyo.com are listing a release for October 18th (for $8) that will be released by Edko : they usually do a great job, so this is also a good option that has appeared out of nowhere.DDDHouse.com and CD-Wow.com (free worldwide shipping at cd-wow) both in HK have it listed too...

Ofcourse, all of these discs are Region 3. EDIT : Large cover of HK disc here (from asiandvdguide.com).

This will get Opus and Todd's undies in a bunch for sure. ADV Films announced recently that they're going to release a 2 disc special edition of The Princess Blade on November 9th. They love this movie. I've seen it a couple times and am sort of 'meh' about it. But they love it so ADV Films may hear from their credit card companies soon enough.

What is worth mentioning and drawing your attention to is the movie's action director - Donnie Yen [Hero, Shanghai Knights, Blade 2 and Iron Monkey]. If it's got Donnie Yen involved in it in any shape or form we're going to mention it because this man deserves our props. And the action is pretty sweet in this movie.

Here's what you're gonna get - The Princess Blade: Special Edition (SRP $29.98)
2-disc DVD
95-minute feature length film
Never before seen extras
The Making of The Princess Blade
The Special Effects of The Princess Blade
Interviews with the cast and staff
Action Director Donnie Yen on the Action of The Princess Blade
Behind the Scenes of The Princess Blade
Deleted scenes
Outtakes
ADV previews

Thank you KungFuCinema.

P.S. Miram-AXE! You reading this? Of course you are. Here's a suggestion. If what logboy said in his Green Hornet casting thread is true and you're looking for some lower tier actors to save your budget then you should really consider casting Donnie in the role of Kato. We know you have him under contract. Only true die hard asian film fans on this side of the Pacific know who he is. So his limited exposure over hear means leverage on your account. Your current golden boy Jet is going to cost you a lot of money. Donnie is as good if not a better martial artist than Jet. He speaks better English. Heck, his complexion's even smoother meaning less expense on make-up. You really should pay head to our words and sign him on to the cast. It could bring back some of the credibility you've been sorely lacking of late.

So. Hopefully you are all aware, if you like extreme and bizarre japanese cinema, of the notorious if not legendary "Guinea Pig" series?

Yes? Good : The final disc "Devil Womans Doctor / Guinea Pigs Greatest" as it is to be called, will be released soon. Date above.

No? Blimey. Well, check this site. Don't say i didn't warn you, cos i am warning you : seriously extreme stuff. Even the strongest stomachs. Fear not though : completely fabricated stuff.

Also : the Boxset, containing all the four discs in the series makes it out the same day. So do reissues (Unearthed Films has a new distribution deal) of all the separate discs incase you need to find a particular one and can't.

Unearthed have released this date for preorder listings, they've yet to add it to the new on their site.

Drudgereport.com have posted a memo from Sean Penn to Trey Parker and Matt Stone regarding his opinions on "Team America : World Police".

Read it via this link.

Most rumours turn out not to be true (like the one about mine and Audrey Tautou's relationship, there was no relationship - we just dated briefly) so take these ones lightly and no one should get hurt.

"He-Man"
Supposedly Fox is trying to get "Sex and the City" star Jason Lewis (take a look at him here - he seems to have a He-Man "look") to play the role of He-Man and John Woo has been trying to get his good friend Nicolas Cage to play Skeletor (though his Ghost Rider schedule may not allow that to happen). Whuh? I never thought of Skeletor as a drunk, car stealing, prisoner plane riding, romantic angel - but then again - it's John Woo doing He-Man. Yeah.

"Green Hornet"
Matt Leblanc as the Green Hornet for the Weinsteins. I guess the plan is to have him star to scale down the budget without resorting to an "unknown". It's almost enough to make you feel bad for Leblanc, but mostly it just makes me laugh then lower my head in disappointment. So this is the "new" Miramax, huh?

These fine rumours were taken from Comics2Film.

"Batman Interview"
Now on to things that we all actually care about. I think Christian Bale is an excellent choice to revive the limp Batman film series (Christopher Nolan directing is on the money as well) and Comic Book Movie has an interview with the man himself. It's been a long time since I've been looking forward to a comic book movie, it's got a great cast (Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Cillian Murphy, Gary Oldman), a bunch of money ($135 million) and hopefully this one restores some confidence in my regard for the genre. Read the interview here.

Widely considered one of the best entries into the crime genre in recent years the Infernal Affairs trilogy is one of those must sees for anyone who claims to be a fan of Asian cinema. Combine the powerhouse acting of Andy Lau and Tony Leung with the skilled direction of Andrew Lau and Alan Mak and you have one of the most successful movie exports out of Hong Kong in recent years. And it looks like the audience in New York is going to be the first group outside of Hong Kong to see all three at the New York Film Festival. Not that we haven't seen all three installments ourselves here at Twitchfilm. It's just that the big screen would be peachy keen. What makes it even more desirable is knowing in the back of our minds that there is a bastardization of the original material in the works starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon, helmed by Martin Scorsese.

Coomingsoon.net just posted an interview with the directors, Lau and Mak. You can read it here.

Celebrated Broadway star Gary Johnston is called upon by Team America, a team of heroes set on ridding the world of terrorism, to infiltrate a terrorist organization and uncover who is bent on bringing doom to the free world. They have the guns and tanks – it might as well be them. But we discover that Team America is viewed no differently from terrorist organizations as national landmarks are often left to ruin after TA’s work is done. Who is the real terrorist here? That’s about as deep as it gets though. After all, this is a movie from the creators of South Park and who brought you their form of small screen vulgarity and blew it up in South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut. You can expect the same vulgarity and crassness you have come to love from these fine upstanding pillars of society.

Continue reading "Team America: World Police Sneek Peak Review"

The most important thing I learned about the Chicago International Film Festival? I was welcome.

Not having covered the Chicago International Film Festival since 1999 and having never attended any of the media events (my previous coverage had been limited to a handful of film reviews) I felt decidedly out of place at the annual Media Party but knowing that the fish out of water formula has formed the basis for a lot of good movies, I went.

SOON TO COME MY INTERVIEW WITH SESSION 9/THEMACHINIST DIRECTOR BRAD ANDERSON! PRIMER'S SHANE CARRUTH AND REVIEWS OF CIFF 2004 FILMS

Continue reading "CHICAGO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2004- REPORT ONE"

Manga Video (UK) would love us to believe they're issuing 20 hours worth of the original 1984 ultra-violent anime series "Fist of The North Star" aka "Hokuto No Ken" in mid-October. Their site is down, they're not answering emails.

The word is, of this 100+ episode series (potentially 150+ if you include the second season), they only managed to license around 40 episodes. They also redubbed the music (heavy metal! rawk!) and changed the titles / credits. The box would actually appear to only contain a repackaging of the 6 volumes they've released both in the UK and the USA.

BBFC site says only 6 volumes have been certified, when they were issued on VHS in the early 90s. The DVD boxset says "volume 1 - 12". Can't be possible. "20 hours", which would be almost 50 episodes, at 25 mins each?

How can they issue a boxset that will never be completed? How can they be so vague with customers?
There's an un-subbed Japanese boxset of all the episodes, and somewhere there also bootlegs and perhaps official chinese issues of it too, so why not in the west?

Thing is, up until now, this absolute classic (which still has a huge following around the world) has not had a decent DVD release. Neither has the Movie! I want "Fist of The North Star" - can i have it all?

A trailer for the German release of Creep - the claustophobic horror film with Franka Potente locked in to London Underground - has hit online here.

I caught this at the Toronto Film Festival and enjoyed it a fair bit. It's a fairly conventional horror film that isn't going to shock you with anything particularly new and it can be a little cliched but director Christopher Smith knows his stuff and the execution of all the key scenes is pretty fantastic.

Via Dread Central

Back when Bubba Ho Tep was doing the rounds in theaters director Don Coscarelli let it slip that there was already talk of doing another Bubba film with Bruce Campbell reprising his role as Elvis Presley. According to Coscarelli at the time it all depended on what sort of business Ho Tep did. Well, the film made some good coin in it's limited theatrical run and has sold an impressive stack on DVDs and according to this article the sequel may indeed be in the works.

Assuming Coscarelli sticks to the original plan, the sequel will be Bubba Nosferatu, a prequel of sorts with Bruce as a young Elvis battling a vampire while on a movie set in New Orleans.

Via FilmRot

The Japan Times - an English-language paper in Japan - has just published a review of Kansen and Yogen, the first two films in producer Takashige Ichise's six flick J-Horror Anthology cycle. Why should you care? Ichise was the man behind the original Japanese version of The Ring which launched the whole recent J-Horror movement and has had his fingers all over pretty much every recent decent Japanese horror film. These are also the first two films in a cycle that will include efforts from Ring director Hideo Nakata, Ju-On director Takashi Shimizu and Cure director Kiyoshi Kurosawa. That is some big time talent. The rights to the entire cycle have already been sold for the North American market - Lion's Gate has them, I believe - so you'll be seeing these cross over soon enough, as well.

Read the review here, check an interview with Ichise here, and check the official anthology website here.

Excited about the coming DVD release for House of Flying Daggers? Well, there's more coming ... orders aren't being accepted yet but release dates have been announced for a stack of high profile films. Read on for info on the new Three Extreme anthology, Wong Kar Wai's 2046, the latest from Jackie Chan, Japan's master animator and a pair of Thai guns for hire ...

Continue reading "Release Dates O' Plenty. A Stack of Titles Announced for Hong Kong DVD Releases"

Yesasia.com have listed "House of Flying Daggers" for preorder. Usually they are quite speculative with there dates, but this date isn't vague and its close. Chances are it's official and firm. Other retailers will catch-up soon.

The YesAsia listing is here.

EDIT : This appears to be a chinese disc thats listed. the HK and Korean are also announced. See the news story above...

Johnnie To - where to begin. So much potential - you always draw me in and make me excited only to let me down again. Burn me once (Breaking News) and well... I'll watch another one, but burn me again (Throwdown) and that's about it.

"Yesterday Once More", To's third film of the year, is a self described game of cat and mouse with seduction and jealousy. The film stars Sammi Cheng as a woman who is about to re-marry when suddenly her husband is kidnapped and the wedding is called off. I'm sure some of you married men now are wishing this happened to you. Andy Lau (you're such a great actor - I know you've been with To a while but...) stars as her ex-husband who she belives to be the one behind the kidnapping.

I'm thinking my chances for To have run short and this one appears to be where they stop. Now, I know there are people out there that enjoy his work so for them I present the website for "Yesterday Once More" full of trailers (1 for the film and 6 making of's) and so much more. Enjoy. I'm thinking this movie looks as good as the "Tailor of Panama". Maybe I'll turn out to be wrong. Maybe.

Via KFC

Empire reports today that Run Lola Run director, Tom Twyker, has been picked up by Columbia Pictures to direct their upcoming action-adventure flick The International due out in 2006.

I love Run Lola Run. I love Lola - period. If there was ever a film for the advocacy of sports bras you know this was it. But Tom hasn't been able to bring the goods since then.

But with a big Hollywood budget now behind him and a script penned by Eric Singer [which doesn't really mean much right now since I couldn't find a scratch about him during a cursory glance] we have some kind of hope for him. Perhaps he can recapture that magic that made RLR such good stuff.

You can also read pretty much the same thing at ComingSoon.net and Hollywoodreporter.

Disney have announced the new release dates for the "eternally in limbo" USA DVDs of "My Neighbour Totoro", "Nausicaa of The Valley of The Wind" and "Porco Rosso".

They're all stunning films of course, each with their own atmosphere and yet typical of Studio Ghibli in every respect. "Nausicaa" is quite dark and adult in many ways, and has that odd 1970s feeling and (sometimes) visual style. "Porco" is light-hearted in many respects, and "Totoro" is a touching childrens film with depth.

It's almost a decade (i think) since Disneys arrangement with Ghiblis parent company. I am glad they're now scheduled : "better late than never" - but i would have prefered "sooner rather than later". They should go on every anime fans list, and anyone not into anime but interested in "Spirited Away" will also hopefully get a lot from them too.

It's an incredibly narrow focus, yes, but this looks absolutely fantastic ... running from October 15 - 17 the Toronto Japanese Short Film Festival features four programs of short films either from or about Japan and the lineup looks pretty incredible. People looking for a big name will want to make sure and see Hideo (The Ring) Nakata's 12 minute animated Auto Mommy, but the lesser known stuff looks every bit as strong. Check the website for a complete film list and schedule.

The official website for Kim Ki Duk's 3 Iron - Twitch's highest rated film at the just completed Toronto Film Festival - has just gone online here and it's a good one. I could just go ahead and link you straight to the trailer, but that would spoil all the fun you'll have finding it.

Site discovered thanks to Hitman at KFC, who is also good enough to point out that the next flick from the director of Arahan will star Arahan's Ryu Seung-bum and Old Boy's Choi Min-shik as a pair of boxers. Nice.

That gruesome little fellow to your left? Mukmouth posted that claiming it had been sent to them by someone compiling images for an 'Art of Batman Begins' and that it was concept art for The Scarecrow, one of the villains slated to appear in the film. That post was quickly followed by one over on Batman on Film. They've got a couple people who claim to have seen the actual Scarecrow costume and say that this image is way off.

So, real or not? I've got no clue. You could do an awful lot worse, though.

I got nuthin' else to say. Click here.

Via dtheatre.com

If ever a film qualified as an overlooked comic masterpiece that film is Office Space. Hot damn, this is one funny movie and virtually nobody has seen it. But soon those of us who have seen and been smitten by Mike Judge's genius will be able to view it in a glorious new format. The Digital Bits is reporting that 20th Century Fox has green lit a special edition release of the film for the spring of 2005 and that creator / writer Mike Judge - he of King of the Hill and Beavis & Butt-Head fame - is hard at work prepping special materials. Nummy.

That thudding sound you just heard was web-monkey Dave falling over and twitching about in the throes of ecstacy ...

So, for those who haven't seen it already Aint It Cool posted a supposed one sheet for Star Wars Episode Three. It's mighty purty, yes, but apparently it's nothing more than a photoshopped production still. Real poster, no. Pretty picture, yes. Click here to see it in all it's glorious largeness.

Apple has just posted new behind the scenes footage and a new trailer for The Machinist. We were generally a little underwhelmed by the film around here but you seriously need to check out these clips if only to see what horrific lengths Christian Bale went to for the role ...

Really!?! A second Hulk movie!?! You sure about that? I mean, if it weren't for overseas markets the domestic take wouldn't haven't covered the first movie's production costs. But then again, $132 million is a pretty snappy number that most movies would only dream of bringing in.

Moviehole.net is reporting that Eric Bana is seriously considering signing on again to play that green guy in the torn 'shants'. Read the brief article here.

Regardless. Was it me or did anyone else kind of feel the first Hulk... erm... blew goats? Do we really need a second Hulk movie?

We'll keep you posted. As soon as we know - you'll know.

InCinemas.com posted a new international trailer on their site yesterday. This may suffice until we get to see it ourselves or Canfield spills the beans and let's us know what the advance screening was like. Give up the goods Man!!!

Check it out here.

So. Here's an early look at the teaser poster for Jennifer Garner project : Elektra.

Of course, this is based on the Daredevil characterisation of Elektra.
It bares little resemblance in any way to the character in the best graphic novels about her.

This isn't an obviously strong, independant woman on a mission : it's a sexy, strangely vulnerable woman in a tight outfit. Anyway, it's another example of a "comic book" movie that's probably way off the mark.

The best was probably "Batman Returns" and the best may turn out to be "Batman Begins".

The best illustration of the character of Elektra comes from the drawings and paintings of Bill Sienkiewicz. He nailed that character. Check out this. And his site for more.

Sienkiewicz has worked on films too. He has done storyboard work (in paintings) for "The Grinch" and "Green Mile". And posters for films such as "Unforgiven". They may not have used his work directly, but you can see how his ideas translated to the final work. Somehow, comic book adaptations need to understand the importance of the visuals more. Sienkiewicz does : Genius.

Unfortuantely with the amount of movies and books I've been digging through for, well, as long as I can remember - I have yet to crack open one of the 13 "Lemony Snickets - A Series Of Unfortunate Events" tales. Though, if going on word of mouth from ex-girlfriends, friends, children and people in the know of the Lemony world this appears to be quite an interesting read. Bleak, unfortunate childrens tales that never turn out the way you hope but are funny and charming at the same time. Where were these when I was a kid? I guess purposely choosing the wrong outcome in "Choose Your Own Adventure" books was as close as I got. Check out the trailer here and the website over here.

Via Dark Horizons.

Well I'm not going to lie and say this idea doesn't scare me, and as fun and somewhat reminiscent as watching Freddy vs Jason was, I still don't know exactly how they're going to pull this off. The one redeming quality I found so far in this interview about the film with Jeff Katz (the New Line executive who did the 20 page treatment for Freddy Vs. Jason 2) was when asked if he was afraid if Ash wasn't commecial enough for Freddy and Jason he stated that this film wasn't about commercial success, (well....umm....we'll see if that holds up) but delivering a story better than the first and a sense of continuity to the franchises. Read the entire article for yourself via Creature Corner here.

I have very, very mixed feelings about the coming film version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I love the books. Hell, I adore pretty much every word Douglas Adams ever wrote. Thus, I really want this to be good. However I just can't expunge the memory of the BBC television version - which I loathe, or at least loathed when I saw it years ago - from my mind. People talked about Lord of the Rings being 'un-adaptable' but at least it had a linear story line. This? This has got missiles turning into whales and delivering lengthy monologues as they plummet to their doom. Brilliant, yes, but hard to make work on screen.

Calming my beating heart are the facts that everyone involved have been saying the right things; the teaser trailer captures the tone nicely; and the trio of images they've released at least demonstrate that the film's got a decent budget. Making me think even more happy thoughts is this interview with Zooey Deschanel, aka Trillian. Once you're done with that you can check the website for the film here and the teaser here.

Domino is a film that I've been tracking for one simple reason: Richard Kelly. Though he's not at the helm himself - Tony Scott is manning the controls for this one - the film is being shot from a Kelly script, his first work to hit the public eye since the stellar Donnie Darko. Kiera Knightley stars in the true story of Domino Harvey, a high profile model who quit to become a bounty hunter. Mena Suvari was added to the cast a week or so back and they announced a whole stack of new names today. Mickey Rourke, Christopher Walken, Lucy Liu, Macy Gray, Jacqueline Bisset, Edgar Ramirez, Mo'Nique and Shondrella Avery have all confirmed and reports are that there are also offers out to Delroy Lindo and Dabney Coleman. Now that is just a flat out strange cast for something shaping up to be an A-list studio release.

Kelly is also hard at work on pre-production on Southland Tales, his second directorial effort which also sports a mighty interesting cast. Scifi.com just posted a brief interview with star Sarah Michelle Gellar about that one here.

Anybody else out there collect monster memorabilia? As a bona fide monster freak I'm always looking for bargain basement bogies. Of course it helps dearly to have those old promotional relationships. One of the oldest and best has been with Sideshow and one of their best recent pieces of polystone comes courtesy of one of the summers biggest flops Van Helsing!

Continue reading "FRANKENSTEIN- A PART OF VAN HELSING THAT DIDN'T STINK!"

According to this story at comingsoon.net, Team America : World Police has been given an "R" rating, avoiding the death-knell "NC-17".

Apparently, there's some marionette-sex in there. Golden Showers etc were filmed and may not be included in the final cut, so I will expect them to turn up on the DVD.

The film goes on to my dvd wishlist for 2005 straight away, especially after reading this at AICN. If anyone catches one of the upcoming preview screenings on October 9th, let us know what you think. The film opens on the 15th of October. Again : Official Site here.

So, Taegukgi has been selected as Korea's entry for next years Oscars / Academy Awards. Not 3-Iron. Nor Oldboy.

The film came out on DVD in Korea on October 5th, i.e. yesterday. I suppose I will have to order it and see, if they reckon it's better than Oldboy - potentially one of the most interesting films in the world during the past year at least.

Story originally spotted thanks to KFC, that thread takes from this page here.

We're beside ourselves with news and tid-bits about Luc Besson's Banlieue 13. KungFuCinema has provided a plethora of links to all sorts of cool stuff that will have you uttering unholy words and phrases and checking your drawers afterwards. This stuff is sick!

You can link to the official site and watch 2 trailers and 7 making of's.

Or, if you have DivX you can download a pants-dropping demo reel. Make sure you right click on it though to save it and watch it many many times over.

And, there is a sick amount of demo reel material over at Le Parkour. You have to weed your way through them but there are some diamonds in the rough.

All of this will give you a pretty clear idea what kind of mind-blowing stuf we're going to see in this film. It opens in France on November 10th. Between David Belle & Cyril Raffaelli and Tony Jaa from Ong-Bak fame we've got serious contendors for leaders of the new school of action movies.

Oh, and if that weren't enough. KungFuCinema is torturing us with a small teaser at the very end of the article saying that Besson is producing Guy Ritchie's Revolver.

Y'know, it wasn't all that long ago when Guy Ritchie was the golden child of British film. His first two films - Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch - were enormous world wide success stories jammed with more style than you could safely shake a stick at and he was working with some of the biggest stars in the world. Then he went and put his wife in his next film. May have been a good move in your bedroom, Guy, but out here in the rest of the world ... shudder ...

Well, look who's here to claim the vacant UK gangster mantle: Matthew Vaughn. After making his name as Ritchie's producer Vaughn has now stepped behind the camera to shoot Layer Cake, a British crime film revolving around a drug dealer known only as X. Now, Vaughn's got a celbrity spouse of his own but thus far he's been bright enough to keep her far, far away from the cameras.

Check out the UK Layer Cake site here ... it's got trailers and all the other goodies you'd expect but they aint kidding when they say broadband is required ...

Sony has just released a second teaser trailer for The House of Flying Daggers. They're calling this one the "Romance" trailer to go along with the already available "Action" trailer, but the label is a bit of a misnomer as there's plenty of action in both. I should point out, though, that the color is a bit bleached out in both trailers, so to get the full effect of just how stunning the imagery in this thing really is you really ought to check out the stack of still shots Sony has added to the official North American web page.

Strangely enough, the Windows Media versions of the trailers look the best so here they are.

Action Trailer
Romance Trailer

If you want to know more you can either read on for the official press release synopsis of the film, or click here for my review from the Toronto Film Festival. It's the second review of three in the post, so you'll need to scroll down a little. Suffice to say that we liked it a little bit.

Continue reading "Another House of Flying Daggers Trailer"

This was in a small piece inside a magazine a while back. Not sure how many people got to see it. It's a short film done entirely with Lego for the release of Spiderman 2. If you can't wait til late November for the DVD...

That's right : the film company actually employed a small animation outfit to condense the film and do it with Lego. It's cool.

I am not sure how many of you will have hear of this so i thought i would plop in a post... click here.

Actually I'm not 100% sure that's true but the rep told me so and also told me that security on this title is tighter than spandex pants on a middleaged superhero's hiny. he had to lug the film cans out to the corporate-plex for us media types in the weeeeeee early hours of the morning.

You ain't gettin a review yet but for some scattered thoughts be sure to read on.

Continue reading "I WAS JUST AT THE FIRST TIME EVER THE INCREDIBLES SCREENING ANYWHERE!!!!"

Well, they've been talking about doing a Wolverine spin off film ever since the first X Men film proved so successful - they'd be stupid not to do it, really - and it looks as though it's finally moving ahead. Variety is reporting that Fox has hired David Benioff, best known for his work on Troy, to write a script for the proposed film. Given Brian Singer's current relationship with Fox I'd say he's out of the running to direct but if memory serves Hugh Jackman was saying that he'd committed to it back during the X2 press junket ...

I've been looking around for more information on 3Extremes : i've seen "Dumplings", not the other two.

Everything i try to translate doesn't really work.

As far as "Box" is concerned, it seems it is about a mute woman who accidentally caused the death of her younger sister. Her boss (?) seems to resemble someone from her past. He seems to have an unhealthy interest in dolls.

I have found some nice picture though. Heres a larger version of the poster to the left. Click to here for more to see some small stills from the film.

Anyone got more on these? I cant even get the official site to work properly.

Chan Wook Parks' "Cut" seems to be about a woman being forced to play the piano : she seems wired-up. Heres a large poster design for the film. And heres some small stills.

Here's the poster for the anthology you may have seen, in a small version.

Whee! Though not due for release until later this month Team America: World Police - the puppet film from the creators of South Park - will be getting a sneak preview on 800 screens this October 9th. For the calendar-impaired among you that would be this Saturday. I'm not a huge South Park fan but everything I've seen from this has had me giggling away like a little girl ... check out the website here.

Shortly after posting this article some kind soul emailed me the entire translated text of Labirint Otrazhenij, the Russian novel from the author of The Night Watch that the film is being based upon. I'm a little more than three quarters of the way through it now and here's what I can tell you:

The book is a relatively lo-tech take on the cyberpunk genre and, though the translation I've got is definitely amateur work roughly equivalent to a mid grade anime fansub, it seems to be a pretty good one. A lot of the rhythm and imagery has been lost in the translation but the basic plot is very good, well paced and quite visual. There are some set pieces in here that will look fantastic on the big screen.

Continue reading "More Info on Glubina - That Russian Sci-Fi Flick With Bruce Campbell and Christopher Lee"

Just in time for the November election - use your heads, people, and vote out Bush - comes the documentary that won the Palme D'Or at Cannes and is the highest grossing documentary ever. Although scattered as a film - each segment could have been made into a movie itself - "Fahrenheit 9/11" is still worth the watch. The dvd comes with some special features such as:

-The Release of Fahrenheit 9/11" featurette

-"Iraq, Pre-War" featurette: The people of Iraq on the eve of invasion

-"Homeland security, Miami style" featurette: Footage of the old men who patrol the Florida coast lookng for terrorists as part of the homeland security plan

-"Outside Abu Ghraib Prison" Eyewitness account from Samara, Iraq

-"Lila, D.C.": Lila Lipscomb at the Washington, D.C. premiere

-Arab-American comedians: Their acts and experiences after 9/11

-Extended interview: More with Abdul Henderson

-"Condi 9/11": Condoleezza Rice's 9/11 Commission testimony

-"Bush Rose Garden": George W. Bush's full press briefing after 9/11 Commission appearance

Wanna buy it but can't go outside?

Those of you who aren't so fond of Michael Moore for whatever reason - enough with the fat jokes, people - check out this documentary put out by the Disinformation Company called - "Uncovered - The Whole Truth About The War on Iraq".

Great stills. Touted as "High Res" - yes, they're large. But they're scans with hairs and dust on them.

Still, if you want some nice large grabs from the film they're worth a look. If you haven't seen it yet, beware there might be spoilers in the images shown : I think there are, anyhow. Opens on the 15th of October 2004 in the U.K. Available still on a good and reasonably cheap Korean DVD. Enjoy.

The biggest surprise of the Film Fest this year for me was "Primer". It was the tale of two friends and their discovery that the project they had been working on for years suddenly had formed into a time machine (no smoke, lights or lazers - this thing was just wires and a box). With a story that had as many puzzled viewers with it's content and mind bending ideas as all those who realized they paid money to see Wimbledon, it requires a second viewing for sure and a lenghty discussion with everyone around you (bring a scientist - it'll help). I came across a great interview on Greencine with the director, writer, star, editor, cinematographer and pusher Shane Carruth (who Ain't It Cool are calling the next Kubrick) and a link to the website which has the listings for where and when the movie will be playing the next few months (only American dates for now). If you live in or near a city it's showing you must go and see it - and then we can discuss. Read the interview here and check out the website with a click on this word. And if you haven't yet - see the trailer here.

That's 325 minutes of wired weirdness, for $60. The highly regarded anime series gets a cheap reissue as a boxset from Geneon (aka Pioneer) early in the new year - One of the best anime DVD companies the USA has.

I tried to watch the series once. Don't get me wrong, I like weird, and this is truly weird. But i just couldn't get into it.

Anyone else seen it, or tried to watch it? Anyone excited about this opportunity to finally see it for a resonable price? If you're not : I think you probably should be... see this site for more info.

The last DVD issue of this as a boxset in the USA, if i remember correctly, was in a tin and it sold out pretty quickly, so many that wouldn't pay a fortune for the individual disc releases probably haven't seen it.

The trailers are here : 9 souls. Bullet Ballet.

Enjoy.

Anyhow : 9 Souls = Toshiaki Toyoda. Director of Blue Spring. Personally, Blue Spring = Dull. Some loved it. Bullet Ballet = Shinya Tsukamoto. Superb looking stuff.

These are due early next year.

So, after hitting it big in the mainstream with the Spider-Man films what's on the slate for Sam Raimi? Could it be a big budget horror flick? According to this article Collateral scribe Stuart Beattie is adapting the vampire comic 30 Days of Night for Raimi to direct. I think I've gotta do some shopping and check this bad boy out ...

via Greencine

After receiving the most recent coming releases announcement from Artsmagic I dropped them a note to ask about some other unavailable titles that I've really been itching to see. Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Barren Illusion, Hideo Nakata's Ghost Actress, some more Miike titles, things like that. And I got an interesting response.

With a lot of companies sending a question like this is like talking into the void, you never hear anything back. But I got a quick response telling me that they'd forwarded my question on to their main acquisitions guy, saying that he would look into availability saying that if the titles were available and they thought there was sufficient interest that they'd look into acquiring them. And I know they're not just blowing smoke here - they picked up Toyoda's Nine Souls thanks partially to outside requests.

The last line of Artsmagic's response said to keep the suggestions coming, so I say let's do just that ... is there something out of Japan that you want to see here? If so, fire away and I'll compile a list of people's suggestions and pass them on to Artsmagic ...

In a fairly unusual move Kino Film is giving Wong Kar Wai's Days of Being Wild - a film that has been available on DVD for a few years - a limited theatrical release in November and they've just posted this trailer. Not sure if the release was brought on to commemorate star Leslie Cheung's recent death, their new Wong Kar Wai DVD box set, or by the buzz around WKW's 2046 but, whatever the reason, anything that gets Wong Kar Wai into theaters is okay by me.

Thanks to Joel for the reminder ...

Whatever you think of the war in Iraq - whether it's over or ongoing in your mind. Whether you've seen "Outfoxed" or "Farenheit 9/11". Whether you think it's odd to be interested in Al-Jazeera. It's got to be worth balancing-out our views a little more, or just feeding more information into our opinions on it all.

Control Room has been shown in clips on British T.V on ocassion. It does look fascinating, it could be very disturbing.

I think this will go onto my preorder list, and maybe, along with the tonnes of other documentaries making more obvious headway into the mainstream, it will make it onto yours.

There's an official site which includes a trailer here.

Apparently eager to speed up his downward spiral into cinema oblivion John Woo is going to produce and direct another live action He-Man movie. Logboy gave you a quick heads up if you saw his comment on the Chow-Yun Fat/Red Cliff thread below. Here's the Empire Online article on that subject.

Warning, it does contain the words 'Hitler wet dream' more than once. Don't believe me?

Yeah, this isn’t really movie related but if Todd can cover Angry Kid then Happy Tree Friends should get some face time as well. I just picked up the third Happy Tree Friends DVD yesterday.

You ever have a joke that you thought was an absolute scream and when you told it everyone turned pale and looked at you like you just punted a puppy? Based on my experience, that very same thing happens whenever I show someone a Happy Tree Friends short. File this one under sick and twisted people, the fine folks over at Happy Tree Friends have recently released a third DVD chock full of their animated shorts. Cartoon violence has never been so much fun! Not for small children or big babies. Head over to the Happy Tree Friends web-site and check out a couple shorts for yourself. And if you like what you see you can buy volume one, two and three directly from their web-site or search stores near you.

Here’s what you get in the third volume:

14 regular episodes
Exclusive Episode featuring Buddhist Monkey
Exclusive episode featuring Cro-Marmot
HTF Commercials
DVD Commentary
Sound FX Commentary
Vision-O-Rama
Follow The Yellow Rabbit
See & Scream
Comic Strips
Fan Art

Some time back when I bought the second volume the guy at the counter had this uneasy look on his face, “Do you know what this is?”, he asked. I told him I was well versed in the ways of HTF. “Good. We had this in the children’s section before and I didn’t know what it was until I watched some of it myself. It isn’t in the children’s section no more”.

I think someone posted the first full trailer for 2046 some time back. I think it was from a french site.

Here's the Koreans full trailer, and some TV spots too... unfortunately, all streaming it seems.

They're all on one page, so go here if interested.

Here's one that almost slipped past me ... Showtime Entertainment will be releasing Oxide Pang's The Tesseract on North American DVD on October 26th. Pang - along with his twin brother Danny - is the hugely acclaimed director of Bangkok Dangerous and the Eye, and The Tesseract is based on a novel by Alex Garland, critically praised author of The Beach and 28 Days Later.

After failing to receive a theatrical release of any sort in North America and passing being bought and sold by a handful of different companies it now appears that we here in North America will actually be receiving the first DVD release of the film worldwide. Check out the distributor's spec sheet here, a review by Opus from last year's Toronto Film Festival here and the Japanese website for the film - including a trailer - here.

This is pretty shocking news ... Chow Yun Fat has reportedly backed out of the starring role in John Woo's upcoming War of Red Cliff. This film was to mark Woo's return to Hong Kong film making and a chance to reunite with his biggest star. Having built their careers around collaborations such as The Killer and Hard Boiled Woo and Fat have both found their careers stagnating thanks to some poor decision making in Hollywood and this was seen by most as a chance to rejuvanate both of their careers is one shot. No word on why Fat has opted out, but the full story is here.

Via KFC.

For my second Halloween post I'm suggesting you pick up the recently released Millennium Season One starring Lance Henriksen of Aliens fame. Full of deep questions, a tenacious view of faith, hope and love set against incredible darkness this show is a testament to anyone whose search for meaning has taken place against what often seems like a shallow and vapid religious culture. Challenging in a way that few TV shows are and chilling to the core Millennium not only bears repeated viewing but much meditation.

Continue reading "HALLOWEEN UPDATE TWO: MILLENNIUM - THE TIME IS RIGHT!"

Continuing along with our facination with animation Variety reported the other day that Lion King director Roger Allers is set to direct Sony Pictures Animation's upcoming animated feature "Open Season," and Steve Bencich [Brother Bear] and Ron J. Friedman [Brother Bear as well as two of my childhood faves: G.I. Joe and Transformers] have come on board as writers.

Synopsis [a la Movies.com]A domesticated grizzly bear named Boog (Martin Lawrence) meets a deer named Elliot (Ashton Kutcher) in the woods during hunting season, and the two try to find their way out of the forest while avoiding the hunters. Debra Messing voices Beth, a park ranger who raised Boog.

Yeah. Martin Lawrence and Ashton Kutcher. Quite possibly two of Hollywood's most annoying and overbearing celebreties. These are two voices I don't want running through my head for 90 minutes. I'm going to put this in the 'maybe' pile for now. It's still a long ways away.

With lowered expectations and viewing hesitations(well at least from me) because of the horrible "Troy", the next big budget greek epic "Alexander" has released it's final trailer before the November 24th opening date (though it does have Angelina so that's viewing worthy alone). Supposedly the film was to be released 3 weeks earlier but the WB suits didn't think the bisexual scenes involving Colin Farell (Alexander) and Francisco Bosch(Bagoas) were movie-viewing friendly for audiences (aka they didn't want to lose money from people afraid of a little man on man). Read more about this story here from Dark Horizons. As said though, I'm not expecting much from this film but from the latest trailer I'm interested in seeing what Oliver Stone will do with the story. Check out the final trailer here.

One Missed Call is the 25th Miike film I have seen. This has the potential to get lost in the archives pretty quick and I don't like long reviews because of the potential for spoilers.

The disc is a DVD-9, devoid of extras, with almost faultless english subtitles. The sound is DTS and DD, big and booming throughout. It's 99% certain this is a port of Disc 1 from the 2-Disc Japanese Issue. It doesn't appear to be re-encoded.

The film is another fascinating Miike project : mostly because it's directed by Miike. The structure is typical of the J-Horror genre, almost matching the minimalist menace of Hideo Nakata's "Ringu" and "Dark Water" or Shimizu's "Ju-On". It's a ghost story about child abuse, with an apparently menacing undercurrent and the traditional major payoff. I can see why some people relate it to "Audition", but the major fault is the clearly commercial intent in the production, seemingly led by a larger budget.

Continue reading "One Missed Call. by Takashi Miike. R3 HK DVD. Mini Review."

... and it looks incredible. The still shots were gorgeous enough, now click here to see those fantastic images moving around ...

Thanks to Cris for the heads up ...

Being a firm believer that you can never have too much of a good thing I found an interview with one of Korea's hottest exports right now, Chan-Wook Park. The director of the incredible Old Boy and Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance is riding high on his win at Cannes and the impending theatrical release of Old Boy that will either keep you riveted to your seats or send you running for the hills. It a good interview and I wasn't expecting it to be interjected with as much humour as it was. Read for yourself here.

Go to KungFuCinema.

Artsmagic just sent out their updated release schedule with titles stretching well into next year and there are some big names on the list ... there's the greatly anticipated (by me, anyway) duo of Nine Souls and Bullet Ballet in January, followed by the complete Angel Guts box in February. This had all been announced previously, so no surprises yet ...

In March we get Onibaba: The Fire Within, a hugely acclaimed film from Rokuro Mochizuki, followed by three more Mochizuki titles (Fleeing From, Mobsters Confessions, Another Lonely Hitman) as the year progresses. Early 2005 also sees a trio of Shinji Aoyama films (Embalming, Wild Life, An Obsession). The big news for me, though, is the June release of Kiyoshi Kurosawa's The Guard From Underground - one of the few Kurosawa titles I don't already own - and the three part DVD release of Salaryman Kintaro coming in April, May and June. Kintaro is one of a handful of Miike related titles that has remained generally unseen outside of Japan.

It's a long way away - a solid year - but Dread Central is reporting that Anchor Bay is working up a special edition DVD release of Dellamorte, Dellamore - better known as Cemetary Man. I've never managed to see this thing straight through but I did catch a pretty good chunk of it on cable a couple years back and found it to be mighty strange, compelling stuff and it turns up on lists of classic zombie comedies all the time. If nothing else you'll never look at Rupert Everett quite the same way when he pops up in one of his regular romantic comedy roles ...

A while back I commented on how Unleashed looked to be pretty easily Jet Li's finest western produced film to date. If not for a truly putrid performance from Bridget Fonda - seriously, the only other "bad-white-girl-in-asian-styled-movie" performance that comes anywhere close to this level of vileness is Mira Sorvino in The Replacement Killers - Kiss of the Dragon would currently be laying claim to that title. Fonda was horrid, yes, but the film looked fantastic, Li got to show a little range, and the support cast were incredible - particularly those blonde twin fighters.

Well, Luc Besson is now producing a film titled Banlieu 13 starring Cyril Raffaelli - the smaller of the Kiss of the Dragon Twins - and directed by Pierre Morel, Besson's director of photography on Danny the Dog / Unleashed. Despite the fact that Besson's last directorial effort was utter trash you've got to hand it to the man - nobody balances high, glossy style with martial arts better than he does. This thing looks like a bucket full of fun. Stupid, yes, but pretty to look at, chock full of fantastic action choreography and just plain fun. Check the website here and the trailer here.

Via AICN.

None of these are actually available to purchase yet but while perusing DVDfromKorea I found a trio of 'coming soon' notices that caught my attention.

First, they've got a listing for Three: Monster (aka Three Extreme) coming sometime in October. If that date's correct - and Korean releases are notorious for being rescheduled at the last moment - this will be the first release of the horror anthology worldwide. No word on subtitles but major Korean releases almost always include them.

Second, they're saying that there will be a director's cut of Taegukgi releasing in November. No word on specs but I expect that this will at least match the pretty three disc edition that releases this week.

And third, they've got something described as an animated soundtrack to Mamoru Oshii's Ghost in the Shell: Innocence. It looks to be the same thing as this Japanese release, only the Korean version costs about a third as much. Yeah, I complained about the script some but you can be mighty certain that I'll be picking this up ...

Good news everyone! We finally have a writer for X3! Huzzah! Simon Kinberg has been asked by Marvel and Fox to script the third installment of the X-Men franchise. Uh. Who?

Yeah, I know what you're thinking. I didn't know this guy existed either until I read the article over at Empire Online but there you are. And I don't want to worry anyone right now but his track record isn't that stellar either. The only movies that you may have seen that he did rewrites for were Charlie's Angels II: Full Throttle and Catwoman. And there's more troubling rumored productions like Deep Blue Sea 2 and The Argonauts.

But don't fret though. Things can really turn around with the next few rewrite projects of his: Elektra [hmmm, Jennifer], Fantastic Four [hmmm, Jessica] and movies he's written himself like xXx: State of the Union [hmmm, uh... Ice Cube?].

So we'll have plenty of chances to see his work in the meantime and decide for ourselves if the franchise is in good hands. Marvel and Fox certainly think so.

Read the full article here.

Check your calenders, heck throw 'em out the window. Canfield here with your daily Halloween Update!! That's right. Almost everyday during October I'll be posting a review of some must see Halloween classics that have recently hit DVD. A fair number of them will be cherry picked off of my own web site Imagine 'Dat! but a few will be generated just for Twitch.

I'm kicking it off with a review of one of the truly great horror movies ever made, Tod Browning's Freaks.

Continue reading "CALLING ALL FREAKS!! HALLOWEEN STARTS NOW"

Paying honor to the American Firefighter Ladder 49 handles it's emotional moments well it's just that we've seen them all before. Only the truly spectacular fire effects make this movie standout amongst it's peers. And speaking of peers will someone tell Travolta his star status prevents audiences from accepting him in roles like this? You could do worse than take your family to see this engaging slice of firehouse life but you're liable to walk away thinking it was more like a slice of firehouse cliche film life than the real thing.

Continue reading "LADDER 49 HOT OR NOT?"

Stars that woman with the podgy nose from "Buffy" t.v series. Didn't like the original myself.
The American remake will obviously make millions and sell like hotcakes on DVD, whilst the original goes on to be simply a "cult classic foreign movie with subtitles".

Oh well, their loss... enjoy.

Ok, so this isn't really an "extreme" review but it sounded pretty funny, like something the Toronto Sun would write. Ever since seeing the trailer for Chan Wook Park's "Cut" I've been dying to see this film, and just the thought of him and Takashi Miike ("Box") as well sent me into a dizzy spin of glee. The only part of this project I was in the dark about was Fruit Chan's "Dumplings" until a while ago, when Todd told me the story line as we were waiting in line for our table at the Spag which lit my eyes up (and led the hostess, I'm sure, to believe I was given her the lovin' eye - I was). "Dumplings" is a shocking and at times subtle thriller involving human desire. The desire for beauty, the desire for love and the "extremes" people will go to fulfill them.

Continue reading "Three...Extremes: Dumplings - The "Extreme" Review"

...And I am going to get them! This is a pointer / reminder that a couple of great mini-series start on DVD in the USA this month, and that some great Yakuza movies are also coming.

Firstly, it's Mezzo - a side project to "Mezzo Forte" it seems, though this isn't hentai-oriented apparently. Anyhow : it caught my eye because it's relatively new and there's a buzz around it.

13 epsiodes in all, 20+ minutes each, across 3 dvds. The second early in the new year, the first this month. I think this will be superb. Check out the Official Site... in Japanese.

Secondly, there's Satoshi Kon's "Paranoia Agent". Also 13 episodes, across 3 DVDs in the USA. The first this month... it's got to be great : the Director of "Tokyo Godfathers", "Perfect Blue" and "Millenium Actress" - three of the greatest anime films out there. Check out the Japanese site here.

Finally, after the superb "Graveyard of Honour" and the astonishing "Street Mobster"from HVE in September, October will see the hefty "Yakuza Papers" boxset. 5 Kinji Fukasaku movies, comprising the "Battle Without Honour of Humanity" series. Available separately of course, but an extras disc in the box make this THE boxset of the year in my opinion. See more info at the HVE site.

Before the unfortunate let down "Silver City" I got to see the trailer for "Birth" - a new film starring Nicole Kidman and directed by Johnathon Glazer (Sexy Beast). I'm at the point now thinking that this may either suck something bad or be a surprisingly strong film. The story involves a woman whose husband dies, and as she is preparing to marry another man (Danny Huston - 21 Grams, who - watch, will start popping up everywhere now) she meets a 10 year old boy she believes to be the reincarnation of her dead husband. When she starts to fall in love with the 10 year old boy, as one could predict, things start going a little bit nuts. Interesting concept for sure, but as I said - from a 1st viewing of the trailer it seems like it'll either fall apart and burn or be a pretty strong watch. Check it out for yourself at the offical site here. It's got my attention for the time being.