Twitch

Neil Gaiman has a resume to die for. As if he hadn't already cemented his place in geek-culture history as the writer of the classic Sandman graphic novels he has also built a loyal following of readers for his fantasy novels and, more recently, children's fiction. And now there is a simply massive buzz building around MirrorMask, the feature film scripted by Gaiman and director by Sandman artist Dave McKean.

Gaiman is riding hard on the PR trail for MirrorMask and we were fortunate enough to land a twenty minute interview slot with him earlier today. Read on for a complete history of MirrorMask and a whole lot more.

Continue reading "Twitch Interviews Neil Gaiman"

It never rains but it pours ... it seems like just a few days ago we were posting those pictures for Kiyoshi Kurosawa's loft and now here comes news of ANOTHER new project from the Japanese master. This from Tommie, currently attending the Rotterdam film festival:

"Today I attended the International Film Festival Rotterdam and picked up a daily festival paper. In it was a small article about the cinemart.This is where filmmakers can pitch new projects to investors and do some networking. Anyway,the article mentioned a new film project by Kurosawa Kiyoshi!!!

Hope you find this interesting."

Interesting? You bet! Particularly so because this thing's already 20% of the way to having it's budget in place! Sweet!

Before I commence with the review let me drop this little bit of advice: If you happen to live in the LA area plan on spending some time at Golden Apple Comics on Wednesday. Ray Harryhausen will be there signing copies of this new DVD release from 4-6 pm. All the details are at that link above.

Commercial over, on we go. Ray Harryhausen is one of a handful of men who can justly be termed a living legend. His best known works - Jason and The Argonauts, Clash of the Titans - has pretty much always been available in some form or another but the man also had a vast catalog of older, lesser known material that has slowly gathered dust. No more. Sparkhill's Early Years Collection is, quite simply, the definitive edition of the man's early work, immensely valuable both as a cultural document and a work of art.

Continue reading "Ray Harryhausen Early Years Collection Review"

How does Uwe Boll keep making films? It's a mystery of the universe. Maybe it has something to do with karmic balance. To quote Nick at CHUD : "Of course, I'm biased. I've never seen a Uwe Boll film. I've also never covered my genitals in peanut butter and straddled the face of a lion."

Couldn't possibly sum things up better than that ... click here for the pain. Ben! Michael! Never do anything like this again!

They're not citing a source for the news, so I have no way of commenting on its accuracy, but Comic Book Resources are reporting that Edgar Wright - he of Spaced and Shaun of the Dead fame - has signed on to helm an adaptation of the Scott Pilgrim comic book. Enquiries are being made and I'll let you know what I find out, but I know all the principal Shaun people are hard at work prepping Hot Fuzz, so even if this turns out to be true it won't be happening for a little while yet ...

A quick note (courtesy of Ecranlarge) that Arsen Lupin is to be released this May 19. The film will be presented in two versions: a single disc and a double collectors set. Specs for the single disc are the same without the extras ... No info whether or not English subs will be provided.

DVD 1
Le film en version DD 2.0 ou 5.1 et DTS
Commentaires audio de Jean-Paul Salomé et Laurent Vachaud

DVD 2
Making of (31 min)
Essais maquillages commentés par Jean-Paul Salomé (40 min)
Essais maquillages commentés par Jean-Paul Salomé (17 min)
Casting de Romain Duris commenté par Jean-Paul Salomé (10 min)
Comparatif film/ storyboards commentéspar Jean-Paul Salomé (20 min)
Documentaire exclusif sur Arsène Lupin (40 min)

[an update from Todd]

You can hit the official website here and check the trailer here. If this thing's got subs I am so there ... looks amazing ...

Continue reading "Arsene Lupin DVD to be released in France on May 19"

This pretty much speaks for itself:

(01-30-2005) The Who's 'Tommy' to Become Most Expensive Animation

--contactmusic

Evidently by "right" Stigwood means "insanely bloated and expensive". Four hundred million dollars!?! Forget most expensive piece of animation ever, that's got to be the most expensive FILM ever. What on earth are they going to spend all that money on? Gold plated toilet paper at the production house? Zowie.

Thanks to Reneedo, who spotted this at U2interference.com because she's an obsessive fan. Bono's already married, Reneedo. Let it go.

Some new details trickled out yesterday that confirmed preview discs of the show had fallen into some peoples hands (not mine, so that label doesn't read this site!). Then Al_Sex_Gore, main man at SexGoreMutants posted info today that says all the episodes have indeed been passed uncut by the BBFC for release in the UK.

For those wondering why this might be an issue, well there are two odd things about the show and the Japanese discs. Firstly, as on a couple of occasions in the past, but this time more predominantly, Miike used intentional optical fogging / pixelation and other self-censorship techniques for style. Secondly, the uncensored scenes were included as extras on those discs, and they could have been contentious for the BBFC.

Well, the extras or rather the uncensored footage wasn't supplied for the UK release licensees, so you get the show only, as Miike intended it to be seen and in a way that can't be taken as anything other than visual style or technique in operation. Unfortunately, the BBFC haven't updated their listing to put the show on there, but play.com have it listed in stock and someone else from SGM has managed to buy the disc at MVC, so i have reordered it from play.com myself for £11.99. For 2 hours or more off Miike, it's great value.

Whilst gushing about the goodness that is Analife yesterday I commented on how unusual it was to find a Japanese film website that included a fully translated version of the entire site, not to mention an English language trailer. Well, here's the reason why ...

I sent an email to the site's contact address, fully expecting that it would vanish off into the ether not to be heard from again. Shockingly enough this morning I received a response straight from the director. Seems Goda's got his eye on the international market with this film and is currently hard at work prepping an English language version which he will then start promoting in the global market. He doesn't specify what's entailed in his English version, so it could range from a simple subtitle job up to some large scale reworking, but we are definitely going to be seeing this film hit the international stage in some English language format in the near future. Todd is a happy boy.

You should have watched the trailer twenty or thirty times by now. Get to it.

Dreams, the unofficial but so thorough it may as well be official Terry Gilliam fan site, has scored themselves a mitt full of images from Gilliam's Tideland. The new shots are a mix of film stills and behind the scenes stuff and they all look pretty sweet ... check 'em here.

Via AICN

Glory! I've been champing impatiently waiting for season two of Little Britain to hit DVD but it looks as though I won't have to wait quite so long for new stuff from the twisted minds of DavidWalliams and Matt Lucas. It seems the duo have a Comic Relief DVD slated to release in mid-February. I question whether it'll stand up nearly as well as the proper episodes as the general point of the Comic Relief stuff is to jam as many celebrity appearances in as possible rather than write something cohesive but I have to admit that I giggle a little at the thought of George Michael visiting Lou and Andy, Robbie Williams cross dressing with Emily and Elton John paying a visit to Daffyd.

The DVD is due for a February 14th release but is not yet available at any of the major online retailers. We'll keep our eyes open.

Via Digital Spy

*** UPDATE ***

Just found some more info about this over at davidwalliams.com - which is also floating a film rumor! Apparently the BBC is willing to fund a feature - the Comic Relief thing is a new twenty minute episode produced as part of Comic Relief's Red Nose Day. Details are here.

So, I'm still making my way through that massive Eiga list of Japanese film links that I posted yesterday and, if today's big update over there is any indication, Stauffen is doing the same thing. They've found some good stuff - including the next film from the young star of Nobody Knows - but two stand out ...

First is Zoo. Logboy actually sent me a heads up on this a couple days ago, but I never quite got around to it. A guy's got to sleep sometime, right? This is one brilliant looking horror project that looks to be made up of at least three smaller segments and includes some anime. If someone who reads Japanese wants to read the website and fill in some details, we'd appreciate it. But regardless of what the thing says the film looks fantastic. Six trailers, and every one of them's a keeper. Vampirism, rotting corpses, forced imprisonment, very long falls ... all sorts of happy things shot with a fantastic sense of style. Definitely one to watch for.

Second is Analife. I may have entirely missed this if not for the link at Stauffen and that would have been just a huge loss ... where to even begin with this? This looks as though it will fall into that elusive magical-realism category of films - 3 Iron, Last Life in the Universe and Lost in Translation are all recent examples of the type - but more extreme than most in both directions. The entire website has been translated into English, which is incredibly rare,and the trailer ... man, be prepared to just fall right into this thing. Absolutely one of the best thing I have seen in ages. No joke. No exaggeration. Stunning, pure and simple. If I'm reading things correctly this is only the second feature film from writer / director Kenji Goda and I'll say right now that we're about to witness the emergence of a very major talent in the international film world. Run, don't walk.

**** UPDATE ****

We just had a reader send in a translation of the Zoo site. Click below to check it out.

Continue reading "More Good Things From Japan: Zoo and Analife *UPDATE*"

Here's a bit of a viewing heads up to everyone with access to BBC America. Watch out for Green Wing. Apparently BBC America picked up rights to it a week or two back so it should be coming along shortly, though they've not yet listed it on their website.

Continue reading "In Praise of Green Wing"

There are four of 'em and they are beautiful ... click away for all four all big and purty.

Poster One
Poster Two
Poster Three
Poster Four

Number two is definitely my favorite of the lot. Got a bit of the ol' BVM action going there ...

I got 'em via Filmacco, who apparently found them on the KFC forum.

Here's some happy news Logboy stumbled across in the KFC Cinema Forums ...

If you missed out on that big eight disc Infernal Affairs box set that came out of Hong Kong late last year and you've been kicking yourself ever since, well, it's time to give those shins a rest. Korea's Enterone is doing a similar release with one exception: the packaging here might actually be even better. No word yet on price but it's due for a March release, so more details should be coming soon. Click here to see a larger version of the image above and click below for the full specs.

Continue reading "Miss Out on That Big Infernal Affairs Box Set? You're Getting Another Chance ..."

Going ion to the Sundance Festival this year one of the big question marks was Brick. The film is a modern high school drama, whih is familiar enough territory. But where things get interesting is that it is also a classical film noir. Apparently this thing gets all Bogart on you. It's an interesting fusion if done well - if nothing else the stark imagery and buried emotions of film noir make for a fantastic re-imaging of the high school experience - but it definitely had the potential to crash and burn on a massive scale.

Well, judging from the critical response the film is a massive success. Sadly the trailers have been removed from the website but there's plenty there to nose around in. And can I say that I'm happy to see Lukas Haas working again? Great actor who always does interesting stuff ... rest of the cast looks good, too ...

Great site, Midnighteye.com. Anyhow, some noteable stuff in relation to what has generally been obviously going on in Japanese cinema from most fans points of view, and some surprises to be found (as always). Firstly, their review of Izo by Takashi Miike is up here

Secondly, a nice interview with Japans master of the nasty film, Teruo Ishii is here, as is a review of his 1969 film "The Horror of Malformed Men" here.

Thirdly, the writers have put up their best and worst of 2004's films. Vital, Doppelganger, Nobody Knows, Izo, Innocence, Mind Game, Howls Moving Castle, Appleseed, Memories of Murder, Last Life In The Universe, Running on Karma, Breaking News, Paranoia Agent, and Blood & Bones are many of the top selections most will be familiar with, with some surprising nominations for films like Casshern and Steamboy amongst the worst. See the fill list here and find some new films we've all completely missed it seems.

I am so glad there are a couple of really high-ranking mentions for Mind Game, which some people have begun to pick up on now (still selling well at Yesasia.com) - for me not only one of THE best films of 2004, but one of the best blind-buys I've ever had, and they're 95% of what i go for. Jasper Sharp says, "...the relative disappointments of Steamboy and Howl's Moving Castle were more than offset by the astounding Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence, and Studio 4C's flabbergasting Mind Game, a magical work that appeared as if from nowhere.".

For the top of Midnighteye ...

Saw the banner ad for this over at AICN, the official site for Danny Boyle's latest, Millions. Nick and I saw this at TIFF last September and we both had very good things to say about it. And is so happens that the rest of you will be able to see this on March 11th. It appears to have a full release on this date.

Can't wait until March 11th? Live in New York or L.A? Then by a stroke of marvelous luck you can go to a free screening on one of two dates in those areas.

Tuesday, Feb 01 7:00 PM AMC Empire 25, New York
Wednesday, Feb 02 7:00 PM AMC Burbank 16, Burbank
Thursday, Feb 17 7:30 PM AMC Santa Monica, Santa Monica
Thursday, Feb 24 7:00 PM Irvine Regal Spectrum Theatre, Irvine

Read my review of Millions from TIFF here.

Todd and everyone else at Twitch are probably sitting seeing this thinking "Prince Of F**king Tennis? Has He F**king Lost It?". Hmmm... Maybe, but the thing is the animation is by Production I.G and they don't get involved in many things, and what they have touched has been top-notch.

Anyhow, even though i've seen the site before, you can go over there are check out the trailer to at least look at the masters of animation in action.

The film opened yesterday in Japan.

With all the well deserved hype around Tony Jaa claiming the international martial arts star throne there's a pretty major risk of overlooking some significant talent a little closer to home ... I've had some readers prodding me to look into a DVD release of the Besson-produced Banlieue 13 (no word anywhere on a French release yet, my hunch is that we'll see a Russian DVD first, and the Russian stands a better chance of being subtitled) and has just pointed out the stellar websites for Banlieue stars Cyril Rafaelli and David Belle.

We've linked to these before, but it's worth doing it again ... Rafaelli and Belle are two of the originators of a new form of martial arts that fuses traditional fight styles with gymnastics. They like to jump off buildings and generally defy gravity a lot. If you've seen the Yamakasi films - and if anyone has solid news on subtitled releases of either Yamakasi or Les Fils Du Vent, I'd like to know about them - you know what I'm talking about. Both of the artist sites above contain extensive video archives ... click and be prepared to scrape your jaw off the floor ... the videos don't appear to load properly with Firefox, so if you're having problems try IE ...

Just realized that whilst linking to the League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse trailer I had neglected to include the poster. So there you have it. All big and pretty, even.

People have been buzzing about this film ever since the first images turned up online. If you're a mech-geek at all, there's an awful lot to like about that robot design ... unfortunately nobody's been able to see it move or see anything to give any kind of clue about the general tone of the film until now. The trailer has just released and it's intriguing, although flawed ... if the film comes in at the bottom end of the possibility spectrum we're looking at Short Circuit with better robot designs. If it comes in at the high end, though, it looks as though it could be pretty exceptional ... check the website out here ...

Go ahead. Try it. Go get a stick and just you try. Your arm will get tired long before you run out of links to peruse. Trust me. I just tried getting through them all and bailed about a third of the way through. Too ... many ... films ...

Want to know what's happening in the Japanese film industry? Go here. Yeah, that just went straight into my bookmarks file ...

There's an awful lot of stuff in there ... the Bayside Shakedown spin off flick and the Azumi sequel that people have been talking up for a little while, a ridiculous modern army vs Samurai war picture, and a sign that KSS Films have finally realized that no budget need not equal no story and lousy film work. That's just on first perusal, though ... click around and let us know what you find ... I gotta stop before my head explodes ...

MonkeyPeaches has been busy the past couple days. Yesterday they reported that Rogue Pictures released the Unleashed trailer on their web-site and it comes in glorious freaking awesome Quicktime! We've seen it hundreds of time and think about it when we sleep at night.

Then today they link to 44 images from the movie over at the fan site Jet Li Online. That and the North American poster, neither of which I had seen yet. Click here to see a full sized image of the North American Unleashed poster.

I think they're nifty. And so should you. Or I will take my collar off and there will be hell to pay. Like it. Like it now.

This past week the S Korean entertainment industry had been rocked by a 113-page report in a Microsoft Power Point file, dubbed the "Entertainers' X-Files,". Created by Dongseo Research for Cheil Communications the file was a research document which would be used to determine the value of potential models and minimize risk factors for advertisers. [Ed note: Dongseo interviewed 10 reporters, who were given vouchers worth 200,000 Won each for their information - Approx $500 CDA]

The report first scores "present position", describing how entertainers became known and what they do as well as their "prospects". Other categories, "Attractions/talents", "self-management" and "rumors" are scored in a separate table.

The "rumors" category has become especially troublesome. There are unconfirmed and potentially defaming rumors. Keywords and phrases like "bisexual," "scandals involving the sons of a certain business tycoon", "love affairs with entertainers", "sponsors have recently changed", and "had a friendly relationship with a certain Cabinet minister" appear in the report.

Sadly, attention has mainly focused on the “rumors” category. Comments and posts on message boards about this file and categories are mostly nasty than supportive. The contents of the file have been expressed in crude fashion. Many ridicule the rumored sexual tendencies of some of the stars in very colorful language. Others claim to be of a higher moral standing and resort to expressing their disgust with the poor personal morals of some of the entertainers. Of course this is something that is so much easier to do with the anonymity of the internet. They’ll never know who you are so go ahead and slander them!

Since Monday, 55 of the 99 celebrities mentioned in the document have filed a class action suit against Cheil Communications and Dongseo Research. Also, 359 people from the show business industry have expressed their intentions to boycott Cheil. "This incident isn’t just about the entertainers, but about the violation of an individual’s privacy," said Hong Jong-goo, a representative of the entertainers’ group. "We’re going to take every action and see this to the end."

Kwon Sang-woo [Volcano High/My Tutor Friend], a Twitch favorite, said in recent interview that because of the break-out of the file he has seriously considering quitting show business altogether. Quite sad news since he is set up to work with Yuen Wo-Ping and is also rumored to be up for a role in John Woo’s The War of the Red Cliff.

A total of 368 entertainers, including such names as TV stars Bae Yong-joon and Kwon Sang-woo, belonging to 45 talent agencies announced later in the week that they will refuse to work with Cheil Communications.

Define Irony: This file is leaked and it will likely ruin some amazing entertainers' careers in Korea. A talentless hack like Paris Hilton becomes even more popular in America after her sex video is released online.

Via english.chosun.com and The Korea Times.

The crazy bastards at CHUD.com have gotten their paws on some images of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy merchandise and we have what appears to be the first image of the Vogons. Huzzah! Along with a couple Vogons we also see Arthur, Zaphod, Trillian, Ford and Marvin plush dolls. Arthur and Zaphod action figures and other collectible goodness.

Follow this link to see images of Vogons, hitchhikers, moody robots and the likes.

'On no account allow a Vogon to read poetry at you'.

Anyone who has followed the Dogme movement will tell you that Anders Tomas Jensen is a genius. As the author of Open Hearts, The King is Alive and Mifune you could argue that Jensen is actually a more important figure in the movement than are the directors simply because he's been the source of the very best scripts. What Dogme fans may not be able to tell you, however, is that Jensen is a very funny man. Funny in a bleak, Scandanavian sort of way, but very funny nonetheless.

Enter The Green Butchers, a film both written and directed by Jensen which is just getting a limited theatrical run in North America now. I missed this one when it played the Toronto Film Festival opting instead for another fantastic Jensen offering (Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself) which impressed me so much that I immediately went on a quest to find The Green Butchers on DVD. Thanks to Denmark's restrictive export laws this was more difficult than you might think, but it was well worth the effort. Very bleak, very funny, with an incredible cast and very tight writing.

And now Apple has posted the North American trailer. And it's horrible. Not only is the video bleached and bled out but it's been subjected to a horribly cheerful soundtrack and irritating text panels. The only thing they didn't do is lay Mr. Movie Voice on it. Making matters worse the old Danish website has been taken over by an actual butcher shop so I can't even point you to a GOOD trailer. Sigh ... don't let the crappy trailer fool you. This is a very good film. Check it out if you're lucky enough to have it playing in your neighborhood.

It actually IS a new one this time, much longer, and no irritating Mr. Movie Voice. A healthy load of new footage ... click here for happiness ...

I couldn't see any info on whether it has English subtitles or not, so anyone who knows Thaid VCD / DVD suppliers other than ethaicd.com should nose around and see.

Having said that, it's the most hopeful sign of the possibility of a English subtitled DVD coming out anywhere soon. Personally, I just plumped for a factory-pressed bootleg from eBay incase there wasn't one for ages, and then the eBay ones might start disappearing too. Anyhow, look at the Thai listing here.

Other Miike news : according to AICN, Miike has a small cameo in "Rinjin 13" aka "Neighbour No.13".

Finally, Dreamworks has launched a replacement program for those unhappy with the subtitles track on the 'Innocence' R1 USA DVD which including captions for the deaf and hard of hearing.

If you are in the USA or Canada, go here. If you are outside the USA, the company that sold you the disc should be able to replace the disc on your behalf through the same scheme, so tell them the URL in that link i just did, and send the disc back to them instead. It may take longer that way, but you will get it done.

Dreamworks said this, "As you know, we have discovered that the Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence DVD was presented with English SDH (Subtitles for the Deaf & Hard of Hearing) closed captions instead of English subtitles on the film.

As this has now been corrected, DreamWorks Home Entertainment is offering consumers who are not satisfied with the original subtitle options the opportunity to replace the DVD with a version that includes English language subtitles."

So, In time you should get your new disc with a hopefully perfect English Subtitles track.

Hopefully many that know me from forums will be aware I like more than Japanese Cinema... I've been a fan of Dario Argento for about 15 years, and that was my initial aim when DVD came along : see all the Argento films uncut and in decent quality.

The man himself has long been called "The Italian Hitchcock" and has admitedly been influenced, but ultimately he is something very different. Now Argentos' new TV work "Ti Piace Hitchock" (aka "Do You Like Hithcock?") has finally shown its' fruits in the form of the first pictures of the final product. Darkdreams.org, the stunning site dedicated to the Maestro, has put them up in their news section here. They have some set-report pictures and background info on the project here.

Glory, hallelujah!

The first glimpse of finished footage from Tom Yum Goong - the new film from the director and star of Ong Bak - has turned up online and we've got it! People over on the Tony Jaa forums found a video clip from a Thai news show that includes around a minute of finalized footage from the film - as well as a snippet of an upcoming Tom Yum Goong video game - in both streaming and downloadable versions, but both servers frankly sucked. So, after spending a half hour or so downloading and re-downloading until finally getting the whole file we're opting to host the thing here at Twitch so people can see just why we're convinced that Tony Jaa will be the world's next major action star without having to gnaw their own limbs off in frustration thanks to the download continually crapping out.

Click here for two and a half minutes of press-conference goodness! The film footage starts at about the one minute mark.

No footage to speak of, but it still makes me giggle like a little girl ... the teaser for The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse has turned up online here. The correct answer, for those who don't know, is 'yes'.

Thanks to Joel and Roraz for the heads up ...

First of all i spotted the UK cinema release date for Casshern : it's February 18th 2005. So, if you have already seen it, or if you've been unwilling to shell-out the cash to see if you like it (because the Japanese disc was expensive) you can try and track it down this way.

Coming in at a slightly cheaper price, and released slightly earlier, is the newly announced R3 Hong Kong DVD. That's out February 8th, and is also listed for sale at cd-wow.com now, so click for Casshern R3 HK ! It's a good price with free worldwide shipping : £8.99. It is also listed at DDDHouse.com, should turn up at Layoyo.com and Yesasia.com also soon.

So, when are we going to get tired of talking about this film? Probably never. Just got a note from Sony pointing out that the North American trailer for Kung Fu Hustle is now available in Quicktime format here. I love this trailer. Snappy, very funny, and it sells the film without giving much of anything away. Plus it's a good time just to dig through it and spot the familiar faces from Shaolin Soccer ... found the wannabe singer from the food stall this morning ...

A couple weeks back we posted a link to the website for Rinjin 13, a live adaptation of a violent Japanese manga. Well, Logboy just turned up that official poster you see to the left and a quick perusal turned up a major site redesign, including a full length trailer. The poster I love, the website I love, the trailer .... not so much. There are parts of it that look quite nice, but there are others that just look incredibly low budget, and not in a good way. It's like there are at least two films competing to get out here ...

The good people over at Narnia Web recently posted a still shot from the film featuring the four children cast in the lead roles ... it disappeared from their site fairly promptly, but a regular reader passed it along to us. No idea how these kids are as actors but they certainly look the parts. Click here for a larger version of the picture and here if you need convincing as to why you should care.

Thanks to Tracy.

Okay, the information is fifth or sixth hand by now, but it appears solid ... word at the H2G2 fan site is that the full length trailer - with actual footage and all - for The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy should appear sometime in February. All the details are here.

Here's a little something good courtesy of Stauffen's Japanese Film blog ... we linked to the website for Ryuichi Hiroki's L'Amant a little while back and Stauffen is now pointing the way to a fantastic trailer for the film. Hiroki rose to international prominence with the release of Vibrator, a film that could easily have slid into crass exploitation territory but instead elevated itself into a pretty compelling character study. If the trailer for L'Amant is any indication it looks as though Hiroki is looking to build on the ideas he introduced in Vibrator and I'm very much looking forward to seeing it ... the trailer is here, the website here.

A film that very definitely DOES move into exploitation territory - and I mean that in the best possible way - is Sodom No Ichi. I knew nothing of it until I came across the link on Stauffen, but check this out. Seriously. Check it out. Evil nuns! Satanists! Necromancy! All kinds of good stuff! If not for all the Japanese people I'd think this was made in Italy back in the seventies!

The get some details wrong and strangely opt to treat the film more as a Henson product than a McKean / Gaiman collaboration, but The Hollywood Reporter has a hugely positive review of MirrorMask here. They stop just short of labelling it a classic but as buzz continues to grow around this I just keep getting more and more excited to see it ...

Less than a week now until I'll be talking with Gaiman, so if you've got any questions, speak up!

Okay ... here's a film that just leapt way up to the top of my 'to-watch-for' list ... music video director Mike Mills' feature debut just got a glowing review in Screendaily - seriously, they love it - and it sounds like something right up my alley. I mean it's the guy's first film and they're already putting him in a class with Spike Jonez and Sofia Coppola. Fun cast, too ... it'll be interesting to see how the shape-shifting Vincent D'Onofrio presents himself here. Nice. Check the review here and the Sundance info page here.

Remember, Mr.Gervais has written an episode of The Simpsons? OK, now we know that the voice he will himself provide, is that of a character and not of himself (like other guest stars).

Also revealed today is that the recording will not take place until June this year, so Todd get your pencil sharpened and dial that phone! Finally, it has also been announced that Gervais' character will sing to Marge during the show, a love song of course, but nothing more than that has been rsaid.

Okay ... the observant will note that I killed the previous post about Kung Fu Hustle being up for pre-order at CD WOW. Why? Because I'm a whore, that's why. YesAsia's just added all three versions of Steven Chow's latest opus for decent prices and since we've got an affiliate account there and the only income this site generates is from affiliate links, here they are:

The stripped naked, but nonetheless alluring edition.

The slightly fancier edition.

The 'good lord, I need to change my pants' edition. That'd be it in the picture above.

But wait! That's not all! There's more good stuff! Koi No Mon, the Ryuhei Matsuda (of Blue Spring and Nine Souls fame) starring flick revolving around manga otaku and featuring cameos from Takashi Miike, Shinya Tsukamoto and Hideaki Anno, among others, has also been announed for an April release in both standard and excessive editions and, yes, it is english subtitled. Midnight Eye's review is here.

And for the more budget conscious, Andy Lau star vehicle A World Without Thieves is also coming down the runway ... nummy ...

The Austin Chronicle has paid a visit to the animation studio hard at work on Richard Linklater's A Scanner Darkly and they've got the pictures to prove it. They've also got word that the production needs more animators, so if you've got the skills and want to work on something very, very cool then you've got two reasons to check out the article. This article. Go now. Pictures good.

Via Greencine

Okay, I have nothing to base this opinion on but a gut feeling, but it says here that this one is a case of wishful thinking and / or a game of Broken Telephone on the original reporter's part, buuuuuut ...

Crienglish is reporting that Dustin Hoffman will appear in Zhang Yimou's next film. I doubt this one based both on what's in the article and its general vagueness ... First, it bases the rumor on a meeting between the two men at the recent Golden Globe Awards. Given that Yimou is already deep into production on Qian Li Zou Dan Ji there's no way that this could be the film in question unless Hoffman were to fly out to China for a glorified walk-on. I don't see that happening. Could they be referring to Yimou's planned film after Qian Li Zou Dan Ji? I very much doubt it considering that the stated plan is for Yimou to make another martial arts film next and Jackie Chan has been floated as a surprising, but possible, star.

I'm betting what happened here is that Hoffman simply said that he admires Yimou's work and would like the chance to work with him and this, in the reporters mind, translated to a firm committment. It could pan out - stranger things have happened - but I really doubt it.

Yeah, we were fairly mixed on the film around here - Canfield loves it, I'm in the middle ground, Mack and Nick are less forgiving - but Logboy just came across the Japanese website for The Machinist and it's sweeeeeet. Seriously, just go and poke around for a while. If nothing else, it's got the hands-down best trailer for the film that I've seen anywhere in the world thus far ...

Screendaily and The Hollywood Reporter have both just run a reviews of Adrien Brody starring head trip The Jacket ... the Screendaily review is a bit mixed but there's more than enough in there to convince me that this is a film that I really, really want to see and the Hollywood Reporter one just gushes about it. The trailer aint so bad, either. Check the Screendaily review here and The Hollywood Reporter here.

Well, golly. Here's something major for fans of Ray Harryhausen and animation in general. Sparkhill DVD will be releasing a 2 DVD set of Harryhausen's early works on February first and, juding from the spec sheet, this thing is going to be pretty much a compulsory purchase. Check it out:

Disc one features nine Mother Goose and classic fairy tale shorts; four early films, one of which appears in three distinct versions; eleven shorts labelled 'Tests and Experiments'; a making of featurette; a commentary for The Tortoise and The Hare, and an alternate ending to How To Bridge a Gorge.

Disc two gives you nine more featurettes, a series of tributes to the legendary animator and an image gallery.

Sparkhill's website for the release gives you all the details as well as a pretty sweet selection of images. Now everybody stand back and watch as Canfield's head explodes as he realizes that the screener for this is coming to me and not him.

So some of these are kind of obvious, some are new titles announced for American release, and some i know nothing about. Please let us me know about the ones i put a star next to. Otherwise, I am assuming people are familiar with them.

Firtsly, Media Blasters (in its' various guises) have announced :

March 15: MATANGO: ATTACK OF THE MUSHROOM PEOPLE (Tokyo Shock).
March 22: THE MYSTERIANS* (Tokyo Shock). Looks like an old monster B-Movie Thing.
April 12: ONE MISSED CALL (Tokyo Shock). Takashi Miikes' appaling "Chakushin Ari".
April 26: CURSED* (Tokyo Shock). Read the synopsis, might be retitled, dunno really...
May 10: VARAN THE UNBELIEVABLE* (Tokyo Shock).
June 14: SAMURAI RESURRECTION* (Tokyo Shock).
June 28: NIGHTMARE* (Korean; Tokyo Shock).
July 12: DOGORA* (Tokyo Shock).
August 16: THE SISTERS* (Tokyo Shock).

Now : Lions Gate Home Entertainment :

May 17: INFECTION* (J-Horror).
July 12: PREMONITION* (J-Horror).
August 16: THREE: TRILOGY OF FEAR. The original Three Anthology, followed by :
November 8: THREE: EXTREMES. A Year after the perfectly good R3 HK Disc. by Park / Miike / Fruit Chan.

Via Fangoria.

Award season in is full swing and it's only fair that when you celebrate the very best [read most popular] in cinema that you also celebrate the very worst as well. Thank god for the Razzies.

Starting with an Oscar Night ceremony so small it was actually staged in a living room alcove, The Golden Raspberry (RAZZIE) Awards have grown into what E! On-Line recently called "the foremost authority on all things that suck on the big screen".

Nominees were determined by mailing ballots to more than 650 film professionals, film journalists and film fans from 40 U.S. states and 15 foreign countries. Often called Tinsel Town’s tackiest Trophy, the RAZZIE Award itself is an intentionally cheapjack tchotchke featuring a golf-ball-sized, handcrafted RAZZberry atop a mangled Super 8 film reel that’s spray-painted gold and has an estimated street value of $4.97. Ceremonies will be held the now-traditional 24 hours BEFORE That Other Award Show: 7:30pm/PST Saturday, February 26 at the historic Ivar Theatre in Hollywood. - Razzies.com

Both Catwoman and Alexander lead the pack this year with a respective 7 and 6 nominations, and with good cause to. Though I was very impressed with Ben Stiller getting the Worst Actor nod for his roles in an incredible FIVE films this year. Good for you Ben. And of course the other Ben, Mr. Affleck, offers some competition with his roles in Jersey Girl and Surviving Christmas. My vote for Worst Screen Couple would go to George W. Bush & EITHER Condoleeza Rice OR His Pet Goat / FAHRENHEIT 9/11. Yay pet goat.

Read on to see who is up for the Golden Raspberry this year and let us know who you would vote for. And go to Razzies.com for the complete press release and more categories of the worst in film.

via FilmRot.

Continue reading "25th Annual Razzie Award Nominees announced"

Well, it seems like "Pas sur la bouche"/ Not on the Lips will make it to R1 after all. After being released in Europe some time ago this well made musical will receive its R1 debut on March 22. Should appeal to those interested in A.Tautou. In addition, it should be noted that Alain Resnais' production won three Cesar Awards- Best Costume Design, Best Sound, and Best Supporting Actor (Darry Cowl).

Regards,
Pro-B

It wasn’t until I read the liner notes for the Palm Pictures release of Pen-Ek Ratanaruang’s 6ixtynin9 that I realized that the man had four films to his credit rather than three. I had been under the impression that 6ixtynin9 was Ratanaruang’s debut, but that is not correct. His debut is an earlier film titled Fun Bar Karaoke and a quick scan online turned up an English subtitled VCD of the film.

Continue reading "Fun Bar Karaoke Review"

So, I'm sitting here watching my newly arrived copy of Pen-Ek Ratanaruang's Fun Bar Karaoke - very good film, very bad VCD - and, for some reason, decided to check my mail while grabbing snacks after disc one ... good thing ... some happy soul just sent me a link to five new production stills from Chan Wook Park's Sympathy For Lady Vengeance! These look to have been taken on the same day as the first leaked shot - at the very least lead actress Lee Young Ae is sporting the same costume - but we get some wider shots here, including some of director Chan Wook Park working with his actors. Nice! Click the link above (happy, web-monkey?) to check 'em all out ...

Via Filmacco, who I'd not heard of before but who have just been added to my bookmarks ...

As Todd prepares his interview with the mighty Neil Gaiman we should make it known that the trailer for the movie MirrorMask is now online through the official site. And while I may not be the best person to give this trailer props, given that I have never dipped my big toe into the Gaiman universe, I will say this...

What the hell was that?!!?

Don't get me wrong. It looks very interesting and the visuals look spectacular. Quint at AICN says this, it's like they combined SKY CAPTAIN with LABYRINTH with a hint of BRAZIL thrown in for good measure. But I am almost unsure if I should delve into Gaiman's works or not before seeing this. Do I read some of his stuff before going or do I enter the theatre a Gaiman virgin?

Click here to go to see the Mirrormask online trailer.

via AICN.

A couple of short pieces relating to "Howls Moving Castle". Firstly, various people are now reporting that "Oceans 12" has managed to finally knock the latest Ghibli film from its' No.1 spot in Japan. It opened on November 21st 2004 : so that's a very long run that surely has outstripped many records. It continues to do well at the cinema in Korea and France, and should open in other countries throughout the year.

By the time it makes its' now "firmer" June 10th USA release date, we should be very close to seeing a DVD release in Japan; all Ghibli films released there so far have contained English Subtitles, and if that's not the case this time, expect a mini-revolt online... started by me for one.

The poster art for Yasuaki Nakajima’s After the Apocalypse happily invites comparisons to David Lynch’s Eraserhead. Whoa, there! That’s dangerous ground to be treading … you go putting a name like Lynch on your PR material and people will indeed go ahead and compare, and woe to you if you fail to live up to those lofty standards. Well, here are a couple more names for you. Not only does Nakajima’s stark photography evoke Lynch but there is also a healthy amount of Shinya Tsukamoto and Chris Marker (La Jetee) in there as well. Shot for no money with minimal cast and crew After the Apocalypse is nonetheless a remarkable first feature driven by a striking visual aesthetic.

Continue reading "After the Apocalypse Review"

Man, how sweet is this ... if you happen to be in New York City in February I hope you have a lot of time available to watch movies ... Henrik from KitanoTakeshi.com just sent me the link to the Film Comments Selects screening series and it's just a scary good line up ... Old Boy, Clean, Vital, Der Untergang, Izo, Turtles Can Fly, Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance, Ma Mere, Los Muertos, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeosie, Memories of Murder ... the list just goes on and on.
The series runs February 9 - 24 ... check the site out here.

Well, the House of Flying Daggers soundtrack CD giveaway has wrapped up. Thanks to all who entered. To be considered for this one you had to correctly identify the actor who did NOT appear in House of Flying Daggers but who HAS starred in at least one other film with each of the Daggers three main stars and identify at least one film he appeared in with each. That actor is Tony Leung. There were a couple of different possible responses for Zhang Ziyi and Andy Lau as far as co-starring films, but the most common responses were either Hero or 2046 for Zhang Ziyi, Infernal Affairs for Andy Lau and Chungking Express with Takeshi Kaneshiro. These are all very good films. You should go watch them right now.

Anyway ... the names have been drawn out of the hat and we've gone all old-school with our winners. A bunch of original readers represented here ... congratulations go out to:

Kurt Halfyard
Raquel
Travon Boykins
Geert Jan Alsem
Tracey Powell

Though he is not yet well known in the western world Japanese genre-auteur Kiyoshi Kurosawa looms large in the Japanese industry. Getting his start with low budget straight to video fare Kurosawa quickly built a name for himself with his deconstructionist takes on horror and yakuza films and is now considered one of the top three or four directors in his home country. It’s only a matter of time before word gets out world wide … his ghost apocalypse Kairo was purchased for a western remake, atmospheric supernatural serial killer flick Cure won critical raves world wide, and his aimless youth film Bright Future is currently winning widespread praise in a limited US theatrical release. And now the fledgling US arm of the Tartan Asia Extreme DVD label is bringing his latest – Doppelganger – to our home shores.

Doppelganger stars Kurosawa regular Koji Yakusho – perhaps best known for his role in the original Japanese Shall We Dance – as Hayasaki, a high strung medical technology researcher who begins to be haunted by a doppelganger, an exact physical replica of himself.

Continue reading "Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Doppelganger Review"

Director Toshiaki Toyoda, best known for his violent high school drama Blue SPring, is a master of the bait and switch. He has an uncanny ability to lull you into believing you're going one way while all the while he's actually leading you somewhere else, an ability that he uses to full effect in his latest film.

The story of "9 Souls" begins with Michiru, a troubled youth most likely suffering from some sort of mental illness and whose world is a dark, bleak and hopeless place. Michiru kills his own father and is sent to prison where he must share a crowded cell with nine other convicts. Shortly after one of their cellmates - a forger who often bragged about having a large amount of money stashed in a student time capsule at Mt. Fuji Elementary School - is dragged off to solitary confinement, the remaining nine make a break for it and, of course, hit the road in search of the hidden money.

Continue reading "9 Souls Review"

Okay, I filed away the recent news that David Fincher was in negotiations to helm a film about the Zodiac killer with a grain of salt. I love the guy, but he hasn't had a whole lot of success getting things made of late and, if the rumors are true, he's largely been the author of his own demise thanks to excessive budgetary demands. But this whole Zodiac rumor just got a whole lot more interesting ...

They're not citing a source so I have no way of confirming this or commenting on the reliability of the information, but Dark Horizons has just posted a one line blurb stating that Frank Black (aka Black Francis, aka Charles Thompson aka front man for the greatest rock band that ever lived) is in talks to play the role of the serial killer in question. Does he get to do the soundtrack, too? Please?

I posted about this Haruki Murakami adaptation a couple days back and, lo! A reader just dropped a note pointing out the trailer over at Apple Japan and Indiewire is reporting that the film is the first to land distribution at this year's Sundance Festival, with indie distributor Strand Releasing taking the plunge. That trailer's looking pretty nice, too ... now if only someone would take a good run at A Wild Sheep Chase or another of Murakami's more surreal moments ...

And on an entirely unrelated note: if you have an aversion to cleaning up vomit, or to being vomitted upon, I recommend against having children. Almost four years old now, and no end in sight ...

Thanks to Fannyslacks for the pointer to the trailer.

The Assassination of Richard Nixon carries the perfect tagline The Mad Story of A True Man. Based on real life it finds the heart and soul of a historical event through a devastating character study of it's prime participant Sam Bicke played with breath taking complexity by Sean Penn. It's a performance than in any genuine assessment of the years performances should garner him another Oscar nomination.

Continue reading "THE ASSASSINATION OF RICHARD NIXON FILM REVIEW"

Get yer hands on Sideshow Toys you @#$%& dirty collectors?! Any Planet of the Apes fans left out there after Tim Burton's ahem...interesting 2001 re-envisioning?! There must be if the response to Sideshow's 12' figure line is any indication. I recently got a few of these in the mail and they are well worth your time especially considering the information I was able to pry out of them about their plans to add more figures to the collection.

Continue reading "SIDESHOW TOY PLANET OF THE APES 12” FIGURES REVIEW"

Who is Andy Millman? Well, that's the name of the character Ricky Gervais will be playing in his new series "Extras" - that's hot off the press, as this is the first mention of that you will probably have been able to read online.

What else is new? Well, Gervais has managed to secure a couple more names who make cameo appearances in the show : Ben Stiller and Samuel L Jackson.

Anything more? Yes, apparently each star who appears in the show effectively plays a twisted version of themselves, and the whole episode seems to revolve around a different guest appearance. No wonder Madonna apparently turned Gervais down, saying she wanted a character written especially for her; she is already, to some extent, a parody of herself anyway.

Well, I gotta say that this is one trailer that snuck up on me ... I wasn't expecting to see anything from this film for a good while yet, but I'm glad I did. Things are looking sweeeeet ... click here for all the Tim Burton / Henry Selick stop-motion goodness ...

Yep. This is the second music video post of the last week. Sue me. This one is from Napoleon Dynamite director Jared Hess, for the new single by The Postal Service, who are apparently finally working on a new record. Check the video here.

via IFC.

Shuffled over to the Media Blasters site, notoriously difficuly to navigate, and looked through the upcoming releases. It must have been updated recently, as no one yet has obviously picked up on this one. Yes, finally we get the Teruo Ishii masterpiece "Jigoku" released in American under the title "Japanese Hell". Make sure you note that title change when prebooking it online.

It's the later remake that Ishii Directed, as the original seems to have been done by Nobuo Nakagawa. Looking forward to this one either way.

Continue reading "Jigoku. by Teruo Ishii. R1 USA DVD. April 12th 2005."

Yes, it's true : but only one source (so far) has picked up on Media Blasters fixed release for "Sky High", which although it had mixed reviews, still has some fans. Ofcourse, it's based on a Manga, and ofcourse it recieved a subtitled DVD release in Japan earlish last year. Now those not willing to fork-out for the expense of Japanese discs but who a) like Kitamura, and b) want to see it for themselves can do so.

The one thing you get in the USA which you didn't in either Japanese edition is this : the 132 minute Director Cut (with English Subtitles)... it was there on the Japanese Special Edition, but without Subtitles if i remember correctly. Click down below (on this post, not to go to the source!) to read the press release with full specs and synopsis.

Source : Anime News Service

Continue reading "Sky High. by Ryuhei Kitamura. R1 USA DVD. March 29th 2005."

Twitch readers may remember that we had a little problem with our domain a little while back - namely that our old host decided to shut their doors and take everyone's registered domains with them. Well, after bashing my head repeatedly against a wall in a vain attempt to try and get the rights to the old .com domain back our new host has done what I had come to believe impossible. They somehow did it. Despite a complete lack of cooperation from Bloghosts - our old web host - we are now back in possession of twitchfilm.com and the address is now pointing here. So ... .net or .com it makes no difference. As long as it says 'twitchfilm' in front, you'll find us.

And so, in closing, a hearty 'Screw you!' to Jace Herring and Bloghosts and a very, very sincere 'I love you' to Living Dot. Seriously, if you're in the market for a web-host, go there.

A little something I stumbled across thanks to the good folks at Greencine ...

I'm a big fan of Japanese author Haruki Murakami and unbeknownst to me - until about five minutes ago - there is a film based on a Murakami short story playing at Sundance this year. There's no trailer yet but I did find the official Tony Takitani website, which is chock full of gorgeous photography ... if anybody reading this happens to be at Sundance, check the film out and let us know what you think ...

Crispin Glover is a very strange man. Very. Remarkably. Quite unusual. And I've been hearing rumblings that he was making an equally strange film - titled What Is It - for quite a while. Well, the rumors are true, the film is playing this year's Sundance, it's got that very strange poster to the left and an equally strange trailer here. Be warned: it's not work-safe. Quite possibly not brain-safe, either. He's come a long way since McFly ...

via IFC and Low Culture

How do you follow up a string of bloody sword fights, physics-be-damned- archery and gravity defying martial arts work? If you're Takeshi Kaneshiro, you sing! Kaneshiro will follow up his role in House of Flying Daggers with a part in If Love, a musical featuring live stage star Jacky Cheung and directed by Peter Chan.

Cheung is currently winning critical praise for his touring live musical "Snow. Wolf. Lake." and there had been speculation that he would try and bring that to the screen, a possibility Cheung has been playing down due to the high budget required. For Cheung fans this should be the next best thing ...

Via Crienglish

Well, the good news is that somebody's got the wheel's moving on a DVD release for Miike's Izo outside of Japan. The bad news is that it's happening in Germany. Rapid Eye Movies will be releasing the film for rental in April and for purchase in June. I would rate the chances of English subtitles about 50-50 on this. Some Rapid Eye releases have 'em, some don't. The fact that this is the first release of the film in the western world ought to bump the chances up a little bit as Rapid Eye will have a bit of an export market to cash in on, but that's pure speculation on my part ...

Spotted by Logboy on the AsianDVDGuide forum.

This is one check I wouldn't want to write ...

Stan Lee has won his lawsuit against Marvel comics and Marvel ordered to pay him a 10% cut of their income over the past seven years, including their share of the take from the Spider-Man movies. There are apparently still some lingering issues to be resolved in the courts, but the long and the short is that Marvel got caught out trying to shaft the man that created all of their key characters ...

Via The Hollywood Reporter

... and it's Sarajevo native Emir Kusturica. Now, people were wont to accuse last year's jury as being style over substance thanks to the presence of Quentin Tarantino as jury boss but this year I'm fairly confident there will be a healthy dose of both style and substance. Not only does Kusturica play bass in a rock band when not making films but he once attacked the leader of the New Serbian Right during a film festival and in 1993 publicly challenged Vojislav Seselj, leader of Serbia's ultranationalist movement, to a duel in the center of Belgrade at high noon using any weapon of Seselj's choosing. Seselj politely declined. Apparently the man feels strongly about his politics.

news via Screendaily, bio details via the IMDB.

The Sun, the biggest selling tabloid here in the UK, has apparently today reported that Matt Groening is now "courting" Matt Lucas and David Walliams, the creators and stars of British Comedy "Little Britain".

The suggestion is one of some of the characters from Little Britain appearing in The Simpsons as they already are, and not one of the two creating characters for the show which are new. Recently, Ricky Gervais of The Office completed writing his script for the show, at Groenings invitation.

At the moment this remains simply rumour, and i can't find the story at the site for The Sun. Television news shows however have actually bought the paper today and are reporting it themselves. Groening made it clear that he and The Simpsons team have a great love of British Comedy that goes beyond what is well known or currently popular.

h2g2movie.com has announced fresh news from BBC1 that Stephen Fry will voice ‘The Guide‘ in the upcoming "The Hitchhiker‘s Guide To The Galaxy" movie.

"As a friend of Douglas‘s and a besotted fan of "The Hitchhiker‘s Guide to the Galaxy", being asked to do the voice of The Guide is like having your birthday on Christmas Day, discovering a winning lottery ticket in your stocking and having chocolate poured all over you," Fry proclaimed.

I cannot imagine anyone else putting it quite that way. I've been a long time fan of Fry's since his days on Black Adder, Jeeves & Wooster and my paperback copy of '3 Bits of Fry & Laurie' [Hugh, pictured here with Fry, also of Black Adder fame], based on another tv show, is well read and worn. I am making my way through 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' so now I will have Fry and Alan Rickman's voices going through my head whenever I pick up the book.

Along with the others. Who tell me to burn things.

All you need to know about Leave Me Alone: it is aptly titled. Danny is definitely the less talented of the Pang Brothers and two Ekins plus half a script do not a good film make. The Pangs are now officially joining Ryuhei Kitamura and Johnnie To on my probation list ... you've got one more film each to prove to me that you haven't entirely lost it, boys.

On the other hand, Mind Game is pretty compelling stuff. A fantastic blend of animation styles that hang together shockingly well despite all the variation. It takes a hard left into purely metaphysical territory about half an hour in, but it's definitely worth a look and definitely one of the better pieces of pure animation I've seen in a good while.

The major source of joy tonight, though? The Cinema 16 DVD of international short films. Check out the list of names on this thing ... Lukas Moodyson, Jan Svankmajer, Krzysztof Kieslowski, Jan Kounen, Anders Tomas Jensen, Lars von Trier, Jean-Luc Godard, Tom Tykwer, and the list goes on. An incredible mix of virtually lost early films by established talents - the von Trier is his first film school short, Moodyson's and Kounen's pieces also rank among their very first works - and bright young talent and EVERY SINGLE FILM here includes commentary. It's fantastic viewing ... the brightest lights for me were Chris Morris' My Wrongs which I've almost picked up a few times only to balk at paying full price for a short film and which is absolutely fantastic, and Juan Solanis' L'Homme Sans Tete. Seeing some stunning still shots from the Solanis film and hearing him labelled the next Jeunet or Gilliam - both of which are VERY deserved comparisons - was what led me on the path to this disc in the first place. I've got a few solid short film collections kicking around here but this is by far the best ...

Because George Lucas doesn't have enough money, because we need a monument to how over the top and silly Star Wars has become, but most of all because we all know that Darth Vadar is such a ....spud Hasbro has announced the emergence of what will undoubtedely push the SW phenomenah even deeper towards becoming an actual religion. No word on whether other Star Wars vegetable figures will follow.

Right.

Ever since we here at Twitch had this little run in with KFCCinema.com over them plagiarizing some of our work I've had to deal with KFC loyalists sending me email and posting on the site accusing us of 'stealing' information from KFC.

Well, two things: First, KFC has greatly improved their editorial practices of late and it is now VERY rare to see a news piece running uncredited there. Which is a good thing. I acknowledge that they've dealt with the problem, and I'm in no way trying to slander their current behavior.

Second: I'm sick of all these stupid emails. So here's what I'm going to do.

The most recent irritating poster claimed that we took over fifty percent of our information from KFC. This is so laughably false that I'm going to issue a challenge and back it up with some serious coin.

I am so confident in our level of editorial integrity that if ANY reader can find 100 posts in the entire history of this site - that would be about ten percent of our content total, well below the fifty percent claim - that includes information available at KFC PRIOR to being posted here that is not credited back to them, I will pay that person five hundred US dollars out of my own pocket.

Note that I'm not even saying that this has to be uncredited information. EVEN IF WE FOUND THE INFORMATION VIA ANOTHER SOURCE - which is often the case - if KFC had it first, it counts towards the total. I am so confident that a) we credit our sources and b) we get there first, that I am perfectly confident that nobody will be able to claim the money.

In other words I am so confident that not only does Twitch NOT plagiarize KFC - or any other site, for that matter - and that we beat them to the punch on over 90% of our information that I am willing to front $500 of my own money to back that claim up.

And it is worth pointing out again that this really has nothing in particular to do with KFC other than the fact that it's always KFC people want to claim we're stealing from ... my issue here is with the idiot posters, not with KFC themselves. I would respond in exactly the same way if someone were to claim we were stealing from any other source.

So ... all you happy trolls, I'm putting my money where my mouth is. Get to it.

It appears that after being released in Denmark on an excellent DVD (sadly without English subs) RECONSTRUCTION is now coming to the US offered by Palm Pictures. Street date is April 12.

Continue reading "The Scandinavian production RECONSTRUCTION comes to R1"

Jean-Pierre Jeunet's A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT has been announced by Warner-France as a double dvd coming this April 27. While the R1 version is also set for an April release I would strongly recommend to those of you interested in the film to pick up the French double disc.

Continue reading "Jean-Pierre Jeunet's A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT"

The legendary series of three samurai films, much lusted after on dodgy VHS tapes still, and previously (and only recently) announced for this year, have finally recieved an apparently solid release date. Make a note : April 19th 2005.

Kung Fu Cinema seems to have enclusively announced the date. They also say the three films, "Sword Of Justice", "The Snare" and "Who's Got The Gold?" will be packaged together at a RRP of $59.95. Each will have a new digital transfer in 16:9 Anamorphic, and will include original trailers amongst the extras.

More details as they are available. via KFC.

Nausicaa.net have published the initial details for Hayao Miyazakis' next project(s). They may not be a feature film like we're used to, but there's definately three (and possibly a fourth) short films.

The site says, "...we're not sure if he is directing the films, but the probability is high... one of them is called "Hoshi wo Katta Hi," ... The title could mean "The Day I Bought (Hunted, or Cropped) A Star"... one of other two short films is called "Mizugumo Monmon" (Mizugumo means Water Spider). Another one is about a girl who is looking for a place to live. "

The continues on to mention the possibility of a fourth film, "...Miyazaki-San is wiring yet another story, which is about a river, when ships were used to transport goods...".

As always, we highly suggest a visit over to Nausicaa.net to take a look at this wonderful resource for all Miyazaki / Studio Ghibli fans. "Howls Moving Castle" continues to top the charts at Cinemas in Japan. It has also just opened in France too, and is top of the charts there too.

Just a reminder that our House of Flying Daggers Soundtrack giveaway contest will soon be coming to a close ... check out the details here and get your entries in before the 22nd!

The Japan Times has just posted a review of Shinji Aoyama's Lakeside Murder Case along with an interview with the director. It sounds as though this one may be a bit of a step back for the acclaimed director, but when your stuff routinely wins raves at Cannes putting out a slightly lesser film still means you're better than most ...

You can check out the trailer here.

Top grossing actor of all time: Samuel L. Jackson.

Apparently The Incredibles put him over the top ...

via IFC and the SF Chronicle

The Hong Kong Film Critics Society has announced their annual awards and at the top of the heap? Their pick for best of the year? Is it 2046? Kung Fu Hustle? Dumplings? Anything by perpetual, though confusing, favorite Johnnie To? Nope. The big award went to:

McDull, Prince De La Bun. An animated film about a pig. A compellingly strange choice ... enough so that I'm probably going to have to order myself a copy of this now ...

via Monkeypeaches

Though I'll readily acknowledge not having seen the Korean film being remade here I've just got to ask this question: Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock cast together in a romantic drama? What was the casting director thinking? While I'm a fan of The Matrix and have high hopes for Constantine, and will admit that Bullock is, from time to time, not without a certain goofy charm putting the two of them in a film that will require actual acting seems to me a certain recipe for disaster. I'm still having nightmares brought on by Reeves "performance" in Much Ado About Nothing. Apparently I'll be adding this one to my list of Asian remakes to skip ...

Via The Hollywood Reporter.

From the "things I would love to have seen" file:

"Director Miike, ovbiously exhausted himself, inexplicably slipped on a perfectly fitting mask of Zebraman, the title character of his last film, perhaps in solidarity with his extras. Sitting in his director's chair, wearing his mask, he quietly surveyed his surroundings and signed paperwork -- a perfect and surreal end to the day."

That lifted from this on set report from an extra in Miike's Big Spook War ... There are photos from the author's time on set to be found here and here.

Those to me via Logboy and to Logboy via the Horror HQ Forum.

Rights to Tom Yum Goong - the new Tony Jaa film from the director of Ong Bak - have been purchased for Korea, Hong Kong and India. I believe Luc Besson bought the rights for most of the western world around the same time he picked up the rights for Ong Bak so it will be hitting here as well, but these pre-sales - especially the Hong Kong pick up - means that we should be seeing a fairly prompt release for this one once it wraps post-production.

via Screendaily

So you decided to give Elektra a miss this past weekend but you're still a glutton for punishment? Well superstars the Fantastic Four web-site is online and the trailer that was shown before Elektra is now online.

Okay. If a trailer must tell you, "you know that looked cool" at the end of it? Oh dear god are we in trouble. And is anyone else concerned at all about the well-being of that poor semi-trailer truck driver on the bridge? Anyone? Just me?

Go if you must. We only report the news.

via Comic Book Movie.

I am a cursed man. Again foiled by my lack of WMP 10 I cannot watch Yahoo Movies' exclusive clips of Tom Cruise and Steven Speilberg talking about their collaborative effort, War of the Worlds. Foiled again!!!

Please take a look for yourselves and let us know what you think.

via AICN.

Sony has sent out links today to the US Trailer for Kung Fu Hustle. For now, available in Windows Media [devil] and Real Player [boil on the devil's bum!!!].

What made me cock [tee hee] my head to the side, like a golden retriever hearing a high pitched whistle, was the rating from the MPAA. Really now. Does it warrent an 'R' rating in the US? Can anyone attest to this?

Kurt, where are you? You saw this at TIFF. An 'R' rating? Dude?

Other than that there are some laugh out loud bits in the trailer. And I don't remember the last time Ballroom Blitz and pinball effects were used so... well... effectively in a movie trailer. Looking forward to this very much.

MonkeyPeaches is reporting that a Hong Kong tabloid Sudden Weekly has taken this picture as proof that Chow Yun-Fat is growing a beard for his role, a Chinese pirate leader, in the Pirates of the Caribbean sequals. It was also reported by the tabloid that he was asked to get more muscular and he did not need to lose weight.

Of course rumors have been circulating for about a month now that he is close to signing on for the role. It could just be that his significant other thinks he's dead sexy with facial hair and he's groomed it to perfection to please them.

The crazy things we'll do to get some.

USA Today reports that Disney/Pixar's most recent and awesome animation, The Incredibles, will be in stores on March 15th. Great. Now parents, you know when you will finally have something to replace your child's current fixation and you'll get to watch this five times a day. It's a good thing this movie rocked as much as it did.

Todd already reported on the specs so we don't need to go into those details. However, I did find this very interesting. According to the article, "A making-of-the-film featurette began as soon as Bird came to Pixar to start work on the film. "When he walked in the first time, he carried a camera, and it was rolling the whole time," Brilz [Pixar DVD Producer] says. "We had this great body of footage to draw from." Even though kids may not find that very interesting I will, since Bird is a freaking genius and I would love to see him at work.

Sorry Todd, but this is going to sting a bit. Dark Horizons drew my attention to the report in Variety today about Matthew Vaughn and his work with the big screen adaptation of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. Or should I say bastardization?

"I've always wanted to make a spy movie, and our idea is like nothing you've ever seen before. The name is the only thing that's staying from the original show. The studio is giving us a lot of freedom to break the rules." Warner offered him "U.N.C.L.E." after choosing David Yates instead to direct "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix." Insiders say Vaughn's pitch for Potter was a tad too graphic and violent for the studio's taste.

So here's the thing. If the only thing you're going to use from a classic television series is ONLY the name then why on god's good green earth use the name AT ALL?!!? Utter profanity and suggestions of dirty things to do to the Warner executive's mothers want to come streaming from my finger tips through the keyboard! I would have much rather seen you get to do the next James Bond film, Mr. Vaughn, and give that a good rodgering.

Adaptations. Suck. Nuts.

Is Matthew Vaughn ever going to shake his "Guy Ritchie's sidekick" label? No, probably not, but there are worse things to have on your resume than production credits for Snatch and Lock Stock if you're going to head off and make British gangster films yourself. Which Vaughn has gone and done. Layer Cake, his directorial debut, has yet to hit local shores but it got good press in the UK and will be hitting DVD there in March in a two disc edition replete with commentaries, deleted scenes and Hindi subtitles. Hindi subtitles? Am I missing something? Check the DVD Times for the full skinny.

Brit spy fans should also be aware that Vaughn is currently hard at work prepping a big-screen version of The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

Logboy just sent me the proposed DVD specs for the Hong Kong release of Stephen Chow's Kung Fu Hustle, which he apparently found over at the DVD Talk forums. I would double check this and link to the post in question but I'm not even organized enough today to be wearing pants, which means fact checking is well out of the question.

Anyway ... the DVD is still slated for a late February release and will be available in three versions, all including a complete, uncut version of the film and DTS audio. Version one will be the bare bones edition. Version two will be a limited edition, packaged in sandpaper package and apparently autographed. Version three will come in a leather gift set with an autographed palm print, photo book, martial arts manual and certificate of authenticity.

The one important spec not mentioned: English subtitles. Nobody's got this listed for sale yet, but once it starts turning up we'll let you know.

Paging all Neil Gaiman fans ... The MirrorMask / Sandman / Coraline author agreed in theory to do an interview with us a couple months back but it's taken a while to firm things up enough that I'm confident theory will turn into fact. I've got some time scheduled to talk to the man at the end of the month so if any of you have any questions you'd like me to ask then either post them in the comments section or use the handy contact form to send them to me.

Just be aware that I'm not certain how much time I will actually have - this will most likely be occuring on a day when Neil has a string of interviews scheduled - so time may be at a premium and we'll most likely need to spend most of our time talking about MirrorMask since that's the film he's officially pushing at the moment ...

Nothing definite yet, but according to this article Tsui Hark's martial arts epic Seven Swords may be the opening film at the coming Cannes Film Festival. The word came from the film's editor, not from someone at the festival, but she's certainly in a position to know more about it than I do ... the film stars a mix of old and new martial arts stars including the fantastic Donnie Yen ...

**** UPDATE ****

Looks like we've got confirmation on this. Check it out:

"I check this wonderfull site every day, and I can confirm that Tsui Hark's Seven Swords will open the Cannes Festival. The managing director of Fortissimo Films told me that a few months agao. Fortissimo invests in Seven Swords and do the international sales. Like 2046, CHUNGKING EXPRESS, ALL ABOUT LILY CHOU CHOU ect."

Fortissimo would definitely be in a position to know, so if they're saying it's so then it's so. Nice.

Thanks to Lars.

**** YET ANOTHER UPDATE ****

Fortissimo is not officially confirming or denying ... here's the word directly from them:

"Please be advised that we cannot confirm at this stage if SEVEN SWORDS will be in Cannes or not. The film is to be submitted, but an official selection -if this happens- cannot be revealed until the official press conference of the festival at the end of April."

So, time will tell on this one ...

Here's something fun ... I was just sent the link to the video for a song titled Bastardo by Charlotte, directed by Shaun of the Dead's Edgar Wright. Spot the cameos! The song's not half bad, either. Click here to hum along.

Call it cutting edge journalism. Call it blatent opportunism to increase readership. Call it what you want. But if we get you to our site and you end up looking at other posts about other, more worthy or your attention, films then consider this my good deed for the day.

Walt Disney Films sent Comingsoon.Net the first poster for Herbie: Fully Loaded starring Lindsay Lohan. I can't say for sure that anyone here at Twitch really wants to see this. But the fully legal Lohan has been a bonafide cash cow for Disney in recent years and this will no doubt garner a lot of attention from her fans.

Kind of creepy to think about that though. What will the audience look like. 13 year old little girls who love her music and movies and 30 year old guys who love... well... her!!! Yikes. Parents go with your children!!! Please.

I miss Don Knotts.

Click here to see a full image of the poster.

Just a quickie to point out a few details that have surfaced in relation to Subversive Cinemas upcoming (sometime in March or April is the vague date) disc of "Battlefield Baseball". Sure, lots of people bought the expensive R2 Japan Disc / Set and were disappointed (great trailer you see...), and sure there has been a cheapo Korean Disc (late last year)... both had English Subtitles you see.

Now those interested in a Subtitled Commentary, a couple of "Making Of" features, and a 5.1 remixed Audio track can get this issue if they please... Nice artwork too.

Via Fangoria.

I'm not sure when the update went live but the website for Southland Tales - the new film from Donnie Darko helmer Richard Kelly - has been greatly expanded, particularly the Left option. I love how this thing forces you to move at its own pace and works to set a tone more than give concrete information ... Check it out ...

According to both MonkeyPeaches and Wu-Jing.org legendary action director Yuen Wu Ping has joined the Ronnie Yu-directed and Jet Li starring historical biopic revolving around the life of legendary martial artist Huo Yuanjia. The film - titled Legend of a Fighter - is being produced by Columbia Pictures Asian arm, which means there is a fighting chance we'll get to see it here in North America.

So, who is this guy? Well ... remember the last time Wu Ping and Jet Li made a historical martial arts film together? That would be the stellar Fist of Legend, in which Li played Chen Zhen. Huo Yuanjia was Chen Zhen's master, which means Li and Ping are moving back into familiar territory. Word is the film will feature an ensemble cast drawn from all around the globe, with the bulk of the cast made up of highly skilled martial artists.

For all those that missed out on a Golden Globe, now is the "British Guide To Prospective Oscar Winners" (as though the awards themselves weren't as much of an indicator of quality as an Oscar...).

"House Of Flying Daggers" is up for loads of awards, as the Baftas have deemed it necessary to be about more than British work these days, and apart from this nothing really stands out as unusual or a surprise.

See the nominations here, or click to continue reading for a copy of them.

Continue reading "Bafta Nominations 2005. Second Chance This Year For Decorative Metal Object."

The Golden Globes have just wrapped up and you can see the full list of results here. A bit of a mixed bag for me ... the films I figured would win (Sideways, The Aviator, The Sea Inside) all did, with Clint Eastwood providing the upset win of the night by picking up a best director Oscar. Charlie Kaufmann was overlooked in favor of Alexander Payne and both Clive Owen and Natalie Portman won for Closer. Who says taking your clothes off is a bad career move?

I'm not so interested in the tv side of the awards but I was thrilled to see that Ian McShane won - and very, very deservedly so - for Deadwood, a show that I'm verging on religious fervor for. Seriously, it rules. Season one is out on DVD in February. Get it.

We have the best readers in the world. Why? Because they send us stuff like this: the poster for the new film by Kiyoshi Kurosawa.

We posted about this a while back when all we had was a Japanese title - Shi No Otome - and we now have the English title of Loft and the official poster. Click here to see a larger version of that. And I've also just been clued in to the fact that this is a mummy movie. Did anybody else know this? 'Cause it's the first I've heard. I need to go change my pants.

The film's official production website does not yet include anything other than the poster, but you can find it here. Huge thanks to Jason for pointing this out.

Okay, calling the information sketchy would be generous but I've just stumbled across information about the new film from Pen-Ek Ratanaruang, the man behind the brilliant Last Life In The Universe. His newest is titled Invisible Waves and it will, once again, feature the beautiful cinematography of Christopher Doyle. No word yet on cast or plot - I'm working on it - but it is currently slated for an early 2006 release.

A week or two back we linked to the trailer for After the Apocalypse, a starkly beautiful looking piece of work dipping a toe into that recently neglected 'end of civilization' pool ... Well, I just got word from the film's director / producer that there are some screenings coming up so, if you've got the chance, check it out. Here's the list:

SAN FRANCISCO INDEPENDENT FILM FESTIVAL (Feb 3-15, 2005)
SARASOTA FILM FESTIVAL (January 28 - February 6, 2005)
SEDONA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL (March 3-6, 2005)
MONTEVIDEO INT'L FILM FESTIVAL OF URUGUAY (March 19-April 3, 2005)
BRADFORD FILM FESTIVAL (March 4-19 2005)

The film's producers also maintain a complete list of current screenings here. If nothing else you really should head over to the film's site and check out the wonderfully minimalist trailer ... expect to be hearing more about the film here in the near future.

I think I've made it pretty clear that I always prefer to watch my films in their original languages but, that said, I do recognize that dubbing is a financial necessity in some cases and especially in the animation world where a sizeable portion of the audience is made up of children. So it becomes a matter of whether the studio will put the time and effort into doing a good quality dub or try to sneak one out on the cheap ...

Put Sony into the former category. According to Coming Soon the pricipal voice cast for the dubbed version of Steamboy - which they will also be releasing in a subtitled version - will be made up of Anna Paquin, Patrick Stewart and Alfred Molina. To which I say, "Hell, yeah!" That would be a solid voice cast for just about anything, but those actors - particularly Molina and Stewart - are an absolutely perfect fit for the quasi-Victorian world of Steamboy. Fantastic choices.

You can check my review of the film here, and big thanks to 'Chans' for pointing it out.

Here's a tasty little morsel I stumbled across at Aint It Cool ...

When Adrien Brody is on his game he is pretty easily one of the finest character actors going right now. Like Nicholas Cage he can have a tendency to retreat into character quirks and tics without any substance, but when he's on the man is ON. And if the trailer for The Jacket is any indication then this is definitely going to be one of Brody's best performances. Throw in a stellar supporting cast and a story that looks to play out like some metaphysical, time looping thriller and The Jacket has just jumped way up on my list of films to watch for in 2005.

Check the official website out here.

A while back we posted links to the trailer, website and DVD for Mindgame, a new anime film that somehow slipped under the radar in the west while winning critical acclaim at home. Well, a reader spotted this interview with the director over at The Japan Times and if you're an anime fan at all I recommend that you a) check out the trailer immediately, and b) go read that interview.

The interview's a good one for a couple of reasons ... firstly, it's just a good, informative chat with a guy who obviously knows his stuff. It's a good read. Second, he spills the rather disturning news that the film may need to be altered to a fairly extreme level to secure distribution in the western world. How extreme? We're not just talking a bit of an edit job, here, we're talking altering character's faces to insert western actors - the animation style is similar to Waking Life - and altering the film's script. The director doesn't seem really pleased with the idea but has resigned himself to it, if that's what it takes to have his film seen. Whch just begs the question ... do our local distributors really think we're so mentally slow that we need to see white faces in a film to buy it? The connecting question being are they right?

Thanks to Wolf for pointing this out.

I was reading something over at KFCs new "improved" (read "pretty badly done") forum yesterday. It was written by someone who bought the Ultimate Edition of Oldboy and has noticed that some scenes may have been slightly truncated or potentially "censored".

So, I am asking anyone here who has seen both editions of the film to help us point out what exactly is going on with it... the thing is, the "Final Edition" 2-disc set is also based on the new master of the film and that's the only edition now easy to find without utilising eBay and so on.

I am hoping there's not something sinister going on with it. Thankfully, I do have the original 2-disc set, but many people are still finding out about this film.

I am at Todd's right now and I have just been witness to another unholy onslaught of Thai action violence thanks to part of the team that brought you the Muay Thai actioner Ong Bak.

Born to Fight comes with a slight reversal in roles; the action director from Ong Bak, Panna Rittikrai, took the reigns and wrote and directed the movie. Prachya Pinkaew, Ong Bak's director, produced. The story is simple. Athletes with good hearts attempt to bring a little cheer to an impovrished villiage the same day it is targeted by insurgents bent on freeing one of their own from captivity. Insurgents take over village, slaughter half the village, athletes and villagers rise up and take back the village. Simple and to the point. So how is it?

Continue reading "Dear Diary: Today was my villiage's worst day ever!"

It's turning up all over the place, but just in case you haven't seen it yet, here it is. The official poster for The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Click here to check it in all of its high-res glory.

Whee! According to this thread over at Mobius American distributors have ponied up for Vital, JSA and Memories of Murder. Vital and JSA - and early Chan Wook Park film - have both generated a fair amount of international notice already, but Memories of Murder has generally been overlooked. I can't, for the life of me, understand why.

Memories is based on the true story of the police who investigated South Korea's first - or at least first widely publicized - serial killer. It's a gripping, moody piece with incredible performances all around and simply fantastic cinematography. My best guess is that people outside of Korea - where it won a stack of awards - gave it a pass because of the difficult ending. A happy ending Hollywood film this aint, but for my money it is all the more powerful because it stays true to the actual events. You can check the Japanese trailer in crappy Real Media - sorry, it's the only trailer that appears to be online right now - here. But, trust me, the film looks a LOT better than this trailer.

No release dates yet - I'm working on it - but word is Vital has been picked up by Tartan and both JSA and Memories of Murder by Palm.

Oh, well at least it's not 'Howl On Ice' ...

Read all the details below ... translated from this article and found at Nausicaa.net by Logboy.

Continue reading "Studio Ghibli Turning Howl's Moving Castle Into a Circus? Que?"

Thanks to Aaron for sending in this bit of plot info for Chan Wook Park's Sympathy For Lady Vengeance:

"Also found this info about Sympathy for Lady Vengance("Chinjeolhan Geumja-ssi"). The long anticipated third film of director Park Chan-wook's 'Revenge Trilogy' which includes Sympathy For Mr Vengeance and Oldboy. Up until now, the plot of the story has been kept closely guarded, but what is known is that it is about a thirty year old woman (who may have spent the last 13 years in prison) out to seek revenge on the man who betrayed her. The movie joins the considerable talent of Choi Min-shik (Oldboy, Springtime, in a minor but important role) and Lee Young-ae (One Fine Spring Day, JSA). This Moho Film production may be released in June."

Still riding the wave of international acclaim from 3-Iron, Samaria and Spring, Summer, Winter, Fall ... And Spring, Korean director Kim Ki-Duk is set to launch production of his latest film, titled The Bow. Content is a mystery at this point as I've not been able to turn anything up beyond the name but since 3-Iron still stands as very likely my favorite film of the year I'll be keeping my eyes open for this one ...

Via Screendaily.

**** UPDATE ****

Thanks to Aaron, who just sent this synopsis in:

"THE BOW. ("Hwal") Kim Ki-duk's 12th film is set on a tiny remote island, where a 60-year old man has fallen in love with a 16-year old girl. He plans to marry her on her 17th birthday. Seo Min-jeong from Samaritan Girl stars in this film project which was selected for the 2001 Pusan Promotion Plan (PPP). With partial funding from Happinet Pictures in Japan, The Bow will shoot for one month in January, and be completely finished by spring."

So, it looks as though we'll be seeing this one quite quickly ...

Okay ... I have to state right up front that I just cannot understand all the critical praise heaped on Tsai Ming Liang's Good-bye Dragon Inn. Opus and I caught it at the 2003 Toronto Film Festival, where it was the critic's pick of the festival. People spoke so highly of it that we happily got up early in the morning and stood in the rush line for nearly an hour to get ourselves seats. And it was deathly boring. Didn't do anything for me at all. Not even a little bit.

That said, critics around the world have continued to heap praise upon it so there are obviously a good number of people who see something that I don't. For all of those people, here's some good news. A reader just dropped a note pointing out that the film is slated to receive a North American DVD release on February 15th, the same day as Last Life in the Universe, Purple Butterfly, Taegukgi and All About Lilly Chou-Chou. In other words, February will be an expensive month for Asian film fans.

The verdict? It still looks like ass. The effects are marginally better in this than in the early test footage that leaked, but still pretty horrible, and word that they're reshooting the ending in response to the, ahem, incredible finish to The Incredibles does not bode well ... anyway, you can check out twenty seconds from the trailer here.

Rope of Silicone have just posted a batch of new stilles from Neil Gaiman and Dave McKeon's MirrorMask and they look, typically, stunning. Just fantastic stuff ... the more I see of this film the more I'm itching to see it on the big screen. Check 'em out here.

So one of the attractions of the Jeonju International Film Festival (JIFF) is that a film is specially made for the event by three separate international directors. The project is titled, "Short Digital Films by Three Filmmakers". While the title of the project doesn't exactly scream creativity, needless to say, the three directors chosen this year have raised my eyebrows exceptionally high this morning. Pictured left to right, Shinya Tsukamoto, Song Il-gon and Apichatpong Weerasthakul.

First, you might as well start with Korean local boy, Song Il-gon, director of SpiderForest and Feathers in the Wind [Git].

Then you have Thai director, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, whose resume includes Tropical Malady and The Adventures of Iron Pussy. Todd recently review Tropical Malady here.

The third director may be the most impressive of the lot, especially for us twitchers. Japanese director, Shinya Tsukamoto will create a thrid film for this project. Tsukamoto's works include Vital, Bullet Ballet and Tetsuo The Ironman.

Continue reading "So a Japanese, a Korean and a Thai make a movie..."

Jumping Catfish! More news on the nominating process over at 'The Academy'. Just out yesterday, the nominees were announced for Acheivement in Makeup and lo and behold, Del Torro's masterpiece, Hellboy, is one of seven nominees. Can you say Huzzah? I knew you could.

All seven nominees in no particular order:
The Aviator
De-Lovely
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Hellboy
Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events
The Passion of the Christ
The Sea Inside

So, if you don't know already, the nominating committee will get 10 minutes of footage from each film and nominate three of the seven to enter competition to win the Oscar.

While I don't know if it will win or perhaps get nominated for competition wouldn't it be a helluva coup if Hellboy did take it all?

Thanks Comics2Film for the heads up.

Though they have been criminally overlooked on this continent there is no doubt in my mind that England’s League of Gentlemen – not to be confused with the very bad film adapted from a very good graphic novel of a similar name – are one of the very finest comedy groups in the world today. Blending absurdist humor with classical horror film references and sly social commentary the quartet of Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton, reece Shearsmith and Jeremy Dyson have built a rabidly loyal cadre of fans scattered around the globe.

When word got out that the League were working on a feature film I immediately began digging around to see if there was any chance of speaking to one of them about their new venture. Shockingly enough I got in contact with Mark, and, even more shockingly, he agreed to speak with me. We spent more than an hour not only talking about the film but the history of the League, Mark’s involvement with the newly rejuvenated Dr. Who, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, life on a Woody Allen set and a good bit more, besides. The entire conversation follows below.

Continue reading "Mark Gatiss Speaks! League of Gentlemen! Dr. Who! Hitchhiker's Guide! Too Much Other Stuff to Count!"

I wish Donnie Yen was my dad. If not that I wish he had more exposure over here in North America and someone would give him the chance to open up a can of Whup-Ass. Alas, we shall keep on waiting until that glorious day. In the meantime, those lucky bastards over at KungFuCinema managed to get a short interview in with the Yen. They talk about Sha Po Lang, with Sammo Hung, and Seven Swords, directed by the yet-to-convince-me-he-is-great Tsui Hark.

Personal highlight of the interview is this excerpt when the Yen is talking about fighting with actor Wu Jing in Sha Po Lang, There’s one shot, a single shot that’s about 40 seconds long, with about 60 movements in it, continuously, no cuts, no editing. I hope people see it and say, "Wow, that’s the real stuff!".

Stuff? Stuff? When I see this shot the word coming out of my mouth may not be 'stuff'. It may have an 's' and a 't' in it. And some sort of quick greeting in between those two letters, like 'hello' or perhaps 'hi'. Yeah. 'Hi' sounds good.

Read KungFuCinema's interview with Donnie Yen here.

After creating an enormous buzz in Europe Sergio Castellitto's latest film Non Ti Muovere is now available on a splendid DVD by Medusa (Italy) and fortunately enough for us offers optional English subs.

Of course the film is yet to be released in the States so those interested in seeing why Penelope Cruz is being considered one of the main candidates for the prestigious Oscar Award this year will simply have to pick the R2 dvd.

Non Ti Muovere won two David Di Donatello Awards (the Italian Oscars) for Best Actor (Sergio Castellitto) and Best Acctress (Penelope Cruz) as well as the Audience Award at the European Film Awards last year.
US distribs- WAKE UP!! The film's Italian website - complete with image galleries and a stack of behind the scenes footage, though no proper trailer that I can find - is here.

Cedric Kahn's (Roberto Succo, L'Ennui) latest effort is to be released in the UK on January 24. Kahn was nominated with a Golden Bear in Berlin and Red Lights is yet to be released on the big screens in the USA.

You can also check out the film's French website - complete with trailer and image gallery - here.

I just got off the phone after more than an hour of conversation with The League of Gentlemen's Mark Gatiss and have an exciting day of transcription ahead of me but there was one snippet of information in there that really can't wait ...

League of Gentlemen fans in the UK will be able to catch the teaser trailer - and he did emphasize that it is only a teaser rather than a full trailer - for the new feature film starting this Friday in front of Meet the Fockers and Team America: World Police.

Ask anyone who was old enough to remember the 80s, or watches Jimmy Kimmel Live, and you will know that one of the great movies of that decade was Tron. Man, did that blow us away! There was nothing like it. A guy inside a video game?!? Choice!!!

And now that we have a fat man in a homemade Tron suit making the rounds on evening variety television and all sorts of tidbits of info and rumour about new Tron games and movies. Variety.com is reporting this morning that Disney has hired two writers to pen a remake of the 1982 classic.

"Disney has hired screenwriters Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal to fashion a remake of "Tron," the 1982 film about a computer programmer who gets sucked into the parallel world of a computer program."

A couple things trouble me about this.

Continue reading "Disney hires writers for Tron remake"

There has suddenly been lots of talk flying around forums more dedicated to horror in the last few days with regards a sudden appearance of the eternally delayed, and much lusted-after "Lizard In A Womans' Skin" from Lucio Fulci.

Yes, even those that aren't that keen on Fulcis' style or almost "quantity over quality, but often quite astounding" approach to film making are deperately excited by the possibility its "coming soon".

Initially it had been announced maybe a couple of years back (?), then got delayed, then recently it was to be "early February" and now it's definately February 22nd from Media Blasters. They've altered the artwork slightly, but they've got a fully uncut version and a "cut for the USA" version too, some Radio Spots and a short doc on the special effects.

Never seen it myself, but i've seen some Fulci movies, and though not exactly to my taste so far, this man has a fanatical following and some absolute gems in his back-catalogue (he's dead by the way!) including this one, which means many (including myself) will pick it up.

Oh. My. God.

I just finished watching Born To Fight. I debated writing a full review of this but have decided against it considering the VCD I watched is not subtitled and is in full frame format - a fact that spoils at least one money shot. But, really, with a film like this the plot doesn't matter the only question is how good is the action.

Well ... put it this way: there's a twenty or twenty five minute stretch in the middle of the film where they do their character development bit but the rest of the film is as pure a physical spectacle as I have ever seen. Ever. The back half of the film is so action heavy that there is virtually no dialogue at all. There is simply no time for it. The stunts are jaw dropping and while it is quite obvious which of the characters are trained stunt performers and which are the actual athletes - the athletes pull their punches a bit too obviously - they are all more than up to the task.

The lead guy in particular is just incredible ... not quite as fast or fluid as Tony Jaa but every bit as strong, agile, and willing to do himself serious bodily harm. There is a bit of CG in this one but none at all where the stunt work is concerned and they must have been hauling people to the hospital daily. Easily some of the most painful looking falls I have ever seen. Plot no. Story no. A bit of a drag in the middle. But those stunt sequences ... man ...

Oh. And the rumored 'most dangerous stunt ever put on film'? Not the truck scene in the trailer. Definitely not. That one's in the opening sequence and they beat it easily by the end.

I am a little concerned that a listing hasn't appeared at the BBFC site to show details of the certification for Takashi Miikes "MPD Psycho" TV Series, due to start with Volume One at the end of January.

I've emailed the BBFC and they say, "Unfortunately, MPD Psycho has not yet been classified by the BBFC.  However, works are classified daily and you may find it useful to check the database on our website (www.bbfc.co.uk) every now and again." But usually things are certified well in advance. It also doesn't confirm that it has been viewed and "not passed" or is "awaiting cuts" : so i don't know what to do. I don't even know who is releasing it in the UK or the USA (at a slightly later date)...

Anyone help out? I might delay buying the UK ones and opt for the "bound to be uncut" USA discs...

When the opportunity arose to do an interview with Tim Sullivan I responded “Great!” Of course I neglected to mention that I had absolutely no idea who Tim Sullivan was. But then my editor mentioned 2001 Maniacs. For those who don’t follow the horror film scene it’s probably best to mention that this is a highly, highly anticipated riff on Herschell Gordon Lewis’ original 2000 Maniacs. How anticipated? It had buyers lining up for it BEFORE it's first screening at the American Film Market.

Continue reading "INTERVIEW WITH 2001 MANIACS DIRECTOR TIM SULLIVAN"

Another Logboy find here ...

The UK's Optimum Releasing has given Sonny Chiba's legendarily violent Street Fighter Trilogy - the first Street Fighter film was the first to ever receive an X rating based on violence alone - a bit of a spiffing up for an upcoming box set release. DVD Beaver has posted a screen shot comparison of the new version with an earlier DVD release here and the difference is pretty stunning. Special features are minimal but in terms of audio-visual quality this will probably be the best these films ever look. Considerate man that he is Logboy's even found a dirt cheap source for these ... twenty five pounds, shipping included, here.

Okay ... now don't say we didn't give you enough advance notice on this. Midnight Eye editor and general know it all when it comes to Japanese film Tom Mes will be taking part in an open chat session hosted by Cinema Nocturna on February 28th. Click below to read the full official announcement, passed along by the ever-gracious Logboy.

Continue reading "Tom Mes Chatting At Cinema Nocturna."

I meant to post this yesterday - no, really, I did - but my web-browser crapped out, taking with it all of my open windows of work in progressand I was just too lazy to go and find everything again. I can't even remember what I did instead ... baked a cake or something. Who knows.

Anyway ... a Korean site has posted nine clips from the upcoming Hellblazer adaptation Constantine here. What do you call a group of nine, anyway? Eight is an octet ... an octet plus one? A nonce? Good enough for me ... a nonce of film clips. Go nuts.

Hurray! It seems like The Chin has been talking about his new book forever - I first heard it mentioned at the Toronto Film Festival Screening of Bubba Ho Tep a couple years back - but it's finally almost here! Sci-Fi.com has just published a brief interview with Bruce on the topic in which the nail the release date down to June 1st.

For the past little while Darcy Paquet over at Koreanfilm.org - a site you really should make a habit of reading - has been singing the praises of a film called Git. Originally shot as part of an anthology, Git is the latest film from the director of Spider Forest, a film that didn't blow me away, particularly, but did do so for a decent number of people who's opinions I respect. Now, the anthology apparently didn't come off so well but Git was so well received that it has been seperated out from the larger package, expanded slightly, and is receiving a stand alone release of its own.

The official website can be found here and there are trailers and behind the scenes footage aboard ... the multimedia option is the second from the bottom.

Via the seemingly ubiquitous Hitman at KFC.

Coming Soon has just posted the first part of a lengthy interview with the director of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy ... no comments to make as yet because I've not finished reading it, but it looks like a good one ... check it here.

So, I was poking around in the newly resurrected message boards over at KFC and came across some info for A Bittersweet Life, a new film from the director of A Tale of Two Sisters. Just the fact that this guy's got a new film almost ready to go has got me mighty excited because ATOTS is one of the best films to come out of Asia in recent years and director Kim Jee-woon just has talent oozing from every pore. So a bit more digging turned up this page: a forum on a fan page for the lead actor with a STACK of still shots from the film. And every single one of them looks bloody gorgeous. And sometimes bloodily gorgeous, too. Check 'em out.

There are links to behind the scenes videos on that page as well, but not a single one of them is working for me which means that they've either been taken down or the server is having problems. Either way I don't feel much like spending the energy to post broken links ...

I have to confess that when I first heard David Duchovney talking up the possibility of a second X Files feature film I wrote it off as little more than wishful thinking from a pretty much out of work actor hoping for a return to the glory days ... glory days he destroyed himself, incidentally. But that appears not to be the case ... this thing just might get made. According to this article at Cinema Confidential there's a story in place for Mulder and Sculley to investigate some sort of horror phenomenon ...

I have mixed feelings about this ... I was a huge X Phile for years. To this day a have a major friendship built around the fact that we used to get together every Sunday night to over-caffeinate ourselves and watch the X Files. The opening seasons were soooooo good ... and then came those last two, when it became painfully obvious that nobody had much of an idea just where this thing was heading and that they were prepared to do just about anything to keep the gravy train rolling whether it made any sense or not ... So, while I'd love to see something restore the lustre a bit I just don't think it's going to happen. Honestly, I don't think it can happen - things were just too far gone by the time they wrapped up.

Back when we were hosting out House of Flying Daggers poster giveaway I mentioned that we had copies of the soundtrack on the way for another Flying Daggers contest. Well, those CDs have finally arrived. We've got five of them up for grabs. This is going to be a trivia contest and it's open to all comers. Want one? send your answer to the following question here by January 22nd.

Though this is the first time Zhang Ziyi, Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro have starred together all three have shared top billing with a fourth actor who does not appear in House of Flying Daggers. Name that actor and at least one film he has appeared in with all three of the Flying Daggers stars.

Our 6ixtynin9 DVD giveaway has come to a close. Thanks to everyone who entered and congratulations to our two winners: Graeme Lennon and Jason. As they correctly pointed out the magic word was lepidoptera. Congratulations!

Variety.com is reporting this morning that Speilberg "is ready to embark on his long-in-the-works biopic of Abraham Lincoln. Spielberg has begun discussions with Liam Neeson to play the president as he steers the North to victory in the Civil War".

My knowledge of American history is limited to only the number of times we Canadians laid a good spanking on their asses and burnt down their White House. But it is my understanding that Lincoln was a very tall gentleman even without the signature hat. Neeson's pretty freaking tall but not only that, Neeson is a proven actor and if Speilberg can land him in the role then I don't think there is anything to worry about in regards to his potrayal of one of the great American leaders.

The plan is to start production next January.

Yeah. You heard me. Burnt that mother down!!!

News straight from the mouth of Mark Gatiss:

The League of Gentlemen feature film has received a final title and release date. It will be hitting theaters in the UK on April 22 as The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse.

On a related note ... I got that news from him while arranging a time for a long-in-the-works interview. The interview will be happening Thursday this week. If there's anything in particular that you'd like me to ask let me know NOW! I'll do my best to work in as much as I can ...

Now I'm not the sort to equate popular success with quality so you don't hear a lot of discussion of box office stats around here. Generally if I bring box office up at all it's to ridicule a very bad film that has bombed horribly or, alternately, to ridicule people of dubious intelligence going out en masse to watch a very bad film but I'm making an exception here.

Howl's Moving Castle has become the only non-English language film to break the hundred million dollar mark in international box office in 2004. Why is this significant? Well, on one hand it points out just how significantly Hollywood product dominates the global market. On the other hand it says that this film is going to be just HUGE. Howl's has hit this mark based almost entirely on Asian revenues - it hasn't even begun to roll out in western markets yet and it's already crossed the official 'blockbuster' status line. I don't kid myself into thinking that Miyazaki's latest will perform as well here as in Asia, but still ... anime, or at least Miyazaki's output, is alive and well.

We here at Twitch are very happy to welcome a new writer on to our team today. A little later today you should be seeing a new post or two from Svet who'll be specializing in European film around here. If you happen to loiter about the DVD Talk forums you'll already know Svet as pro-bassonist, or you may know him as the guy who reviews the European titles for Nicheflix. Either way he's a valuable addition around here, filling in a major gap in our range of knowledge ... So, a big welcome to Svet. Everybody say hello and go easy on the new guy!

Fancy yourself a true movie trivia geek? I thought I did and then I came across this site thanks to the fine folks over at FilmRot. I thought I could identify mostly anything with a glance. While some sites have excellent screen shot contests, Brian and Jim over at Filmwise have given their's a slight twist.

Filmwise had a simple beginning in late 1999. It began with a simple question, one friend to another: "Can you guess what movie this screenshot is from?" Nothing fancy, just a screenshot from a favorite flick.

From that, a friendly game of "Oh yeah, well can you guess this one?" emerged. Over time the puzzles got more complex, themes arose, and the infamous "Invisible" was born.

How do they do it? Well from the picture you can see that they have displayed their Photoshop prowess and have removed the characters from the screenshot and left only their clothes. Now, most of you should have guessed which movie this picture is from. But can you guess all eight screen shots from this week's quiz? Admittedly, I've already gone through a lot of these and I don't think I've gotten a full eight yet.

And with a hefty 200+ quizzes under their belt you've got enough there to last you a while and expose your knowledge or lack thereof of movie geekdom. Good luck.

Okay. My computer officially sucks nuts. I know full well I can upgrade and have the neccessary operating system from the devil installed so I can in turn install Windows Media Player 10 and watch these clips. But right now I don't and it is right now that I need it so I can watch 3 clips posted over at Yahoo Movies for the upcoming anime feature Appleseed. I don't understand. Why oh why will it play shite like 'Alone in the Dark' and yet thwart my attempts at happiness with Appleseed and the likes? Dang it!

Well. Go watch these for yourself and come back and let me know what I am missing. If, my computer survived the verbal onslaught I am about to throw it's way.

The Official Appleseed site is here. Where, incidently, you can watch the trailer in QuickTime. Glorious glorious QuickTime.

Another Logboy find here, though I'm honestly not certain how trustworthy this one is ... citing this slender reference at Box Office Mojo, Nausicaa.net a June release date for Hayao Miyazaki's Howl's Moving Castle here in North America. It's not that I distrust BOM but I'd rather see something a little more in-depth before considering this one cast in stone ...

Oooooh ... Logboy just pointed ou that Tokyo Monsters has a hefty Godzilla Final Wars tv special posted here. Apparently this thing's got a stack of behind the scenes footage. If my DSL didn't insist on cutting out every minute or so I'd be able to confirm that for you, but it does so I can't. Must ... smash ... modem ....

Just a reminder ... if you want to score yourself a free copy of Pen-Ek Ratanaruang's 6ixtynin9 on DVD you only have until tomorrow night - that'd be Tuesday the 11th - to get your entry in. Click here for the details and get to it!

Why Star Trek fans are better than Star Wars fans, or at least more entertaining: having watched thier lord and master - that'd be William Shatner - devolve into a state of perpetual self-parody they are inclined to do so themselves.

A reader just sent me this. It rules. Starfleet should seriously consider those Flying V nascelles in all future star ship designs. Go. Now.

Oh sweet good lord, it seems that Mr. Uwe Boll is at it again and this time he's brought Christian Slater, Tara Reid and Stephen Dorff - what, were Robert Downey Jr. and Eric Roberts not available - along for the plane crash disaster of a movie "Alone in the Dark". Boll continues his obsession with video game adaptations here with "Alone in the Dark" looking like a big old cross of Aliens, Pitch Black and Starship Troopers. But worse. I would rank it right up with the fine cinematic flavour of Ghosts of Mars.

So you want to marvel at the fact that Uwe continues to find work, well then step right up and follow the links. You can view the trailer here and then jump over to the website here (full of stills and downloads but no production notes - why?), but you might want to take a second between the two, pausing to remember if you could ever take Stephen Dorff or Christian Slater seriously. Deuces Wild? Windtalkers? Exactly.

One of our regular readers just sent in a lengthy review of Stephen Chow's Kung Fu Hustle and, though he enjoyed it, he's not gushing with praise like most are. Can I say how insanely jealous I am that he's seen it and I haven't? And nice job giving props to God Of Cookery ... all you Chow fans out there, give us a hand on where to turn next with the man? Like Joey, Cookery and Shaolin Soccer are the only Chow films I've seen and I want more ...

But anyway, enough of that ... the review ...

Continue reading "Kung Fu Hustle Review"

The full length trailer for Shinya Tsukamoto's stellar Vital has turned up on Apple's Japanese trailer page. Why are we pointing this out when we've already steered the way to the same trailer - as well as a shorter version - over on the film's official site? Well, that site's not the easiest in the world to navigate if you don't speak Japanese and the trailer Apple's got here is far higher resolution than anything there and shows off the films gorgeous camera work to full effect. Plus they've got some new poster art ... check it out.

Like the title says ... good stuff in large formats, and they load up quick, too ...

Kung Fu Hustle. 'Nuff said.

Year One In The North. Japanese period drama ... beautiful photography.

30 Lies. Does Japan have it's very own Guy Ritchie? Certainly appears so at the start of this, though the tone shifts some by the end. A film set almost entirely in a train car revolving around a box of potatos? Screen writer's got some guts ...

Lorelei. A big, glossy sub film ... Kiyoshi Kurosawa fans will recognize the captain ...

Mach. It's the Japanese release of Ong-Bak ... this one's been up for a while and the video quality's honestly pretty bad but the presentation is so over the top that I find myself watching it fairly regularly ...

The website for Steven Fung's House of Fury has gone live here. It's pretty sparse at the moment with just the poster image and a link to the teaser - that's down in the bottom right corner - but the teaser is definitely worth a look. It shows very little of the film but is quite effective in introducing much of the stellar cast and establishing the tone of the film ... now they've just got to show us some of Yuen Wu Ping's fight choreography ...

In the last year I've been steadily trying to get into anime again. I admit, I find most of it incredibly derivative and badly made. Occasionally something stands out, though. This time its "Gantz" from Gonzo Digimation, one of the top studios putting out series in Japan these days.

Gantz was heavily censored for its' initial TV airing in Japan, but the USA release will be completely uncut in all its gore-laden glory. It looks like it's a very adult anime show all round too ... from the clip I've watched at the official Japanese site here.

DVD Vision Japan, a USA site, have a preview up the first disc (out February 8th) here. And Animenfo.com have their description and opinion(s) here. The only downside i can see is this : twelve volumes in all, thankfully only $10 each at my local seller, and 50 minutes per disc. Still, a really good solid violent anime is rare it seems.

Is there anybody out there who still remembers American Idol reject William Hung? Still humming along to his incredibly tuneless CD? 'Cause apparently his fifteen minutes isn't up yet ... The trailer for Where Is Mama's Boy, Hung's big screen debut out of Hong Kong, has hit online here. Even with the Hong Kong film industry's wildly fast turnaround times this is hitting far too late to capitalize on the irony fueled Hung craze but the thing actually looks as though it could be pretty funny in a mind-numbing sort of way ...

Via Monkey Peaches

Ah, this makes me laugh ... apparently if you're grotesquely thin you could have a shot at a role in the Pirates of the Caribbean sequels. Check the Toronto Star's transcription of a recorded voice message from the film's casting agent:

"We need extremely skinny men. You have to be anorexic looking ... you have to look like, if you're taking a nap, you may have passed away. You have to be that skinny. You have to be not just the skinniest person in the room, but the skinniest person that you have seen in months. If that's you, we need about six of you. Send us a picture without a shirt on right away."

If you happen to be rail thin and inclined to piracy all of the relevant info can be found via that Toronto Star link ...

No specs yet but word is that Blood and Bones is due to hit DVD in Japan in early April. The film was just ranked Japan's best of the year by Mark Schilling of The Japan Times and pretty much every review I've seen has labelled Takeshi Kitano's performance in it his career best ... we'll keep an eye open for details on whether this will be a subtitled release ...

Via Logboy and the Asian DVD Guide

Thankfully, all the "Entertainment Journalists" go out and buy the British tabloid newspapers, saving me from having to sift through for anything decent other than an oddly-placed pair of female breasts.

This time, the one thing they've come up with that's of note is this: apparently The Office's Ricky Gervais knows the director of the third "Mission Impossible" movie well (can't remember who it is), or at least there's something to do with having met Tom Cruise at the Golden Globes and having discussed or informally agreed to Gervais having a part in it.

So, someone does want Gervais as a baddy in a film? Odd choice if that part is true... what else could he do?

Hideo Nakata, original "Ringu" director: a couple of shortish stories... Firstly, the final trailer for the American "Ring 2" is finally here. It looks lovely and I, for one, am fascinated to see what he manages to do with a) Remakes b) Hollywood c) Lots of Money. Click Here.

Secondly, at the end of March (the 28th) in the UK, Nakata's little-seen "kidnap drama" known accurately as "Chaos" gets a double-disc DVD release. Why the interest? Well, the second disc contains an unseen (in the west I think) TV series by Nakata called "Curse, Death and Spirit" which sounds very tempting, even though I know nothing about it. But, it's released by Tartan.

Here's a brief update on the CC / closed-captions subtitles for the deaf, and the lack of a pure subtitles track for the American DVD for "Innocence". Firstly, someone found a marketing company email address for Dreamworks PR: they're saying it's an issue of allowing those with non-CC compatible televisions to have access to the script. If true, it's the best display of a minority being given priority by "Hollywood" for some time. My guess is it's a "sweeping it under the carpet" explanation.

Elsewhere, someone has managed to contact those in charge of the disc more directly, and they seem adamant that it was a simple mistake and they will look into it. So, a little more successful, and not a sign that we will surely get a recall, but at least there at least seems some admission of a cock-up.

Other things: the debate over the size (too large!), and more importantly accuracy of the subtitles (some say it has been heavily dumbed down in comparison to the subtitles on the Cinema showings) continues to rage at the official site's own forum, as well as the English Production I.G. forum and numerous DVD forums too.

I've watched the disc now: stunning film, superb sound, amazing imagery, typically "Oshii-esque" story. I didn't find the CC subtitles too distracting, but I still want a decent subtitles track that's accurate, not too large or pushed into the image of the film.

Light entertainment anyone? Then steer far away from here. The Woodsman, featuring a career performance from Kevin Bacon as a just released from prison child molester struggling to reform, is designed to challenge. The wonder is that it's smart enough to do so without becoming self righteous or naive.

Continue reading "THE WOODSMAN REVIEW"

I was never the biggest fan of "Get Shorty", even with my Elmore Leonard love, mostly in part because I hate Rene Russo and run screaming at the name. So it's to my relief that she's not in the this May's sequel "Be Cool". Now, this is not me saying I've been waiting for a sequel to come out or that I'm even anticipating some great film but the cast alone has got me a little intrigued.

"Be Cool" stars John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Vince Vaughn (as a great white guy trying to be a gangsta), The Rock, Andre 3000 (of outkast), James Woods, Cedric the Entertainer, Harvey Keitel, and even Steven Tyler (as himself obviously - to cover up his bad acting I presume). With all these different characters and the people playing them it seems that it could either come together really well or spread so thin not it's not funny and kind of embarrasing.

So, take a look at the trailer (Vince Vaughn can do no wrong in my eye - sans Domestic Disburance) and the teaser site to get a little taste of whats to come from the previously mentioned stars. My money is on matinee entertainment here or at least random hook up date night viewing. I'll cross my fingers for the second.

Bloody Disgusting have gotten their hands on a pair of official shots from George Romero's Land of the Dead. They don't show a whole lot - no surprise there - but they look pretty good. Click here and here to check them out.

via FilmRot

Well, their voices do, anyway. According to Planet Magrathea Alan Rickman with be the voice of Marvin - an inspired bit of casting - while Bill Bailey will voice the whale. Bailey should be well known to British comedy fans from his work in Black Books as well as playing Simon Pegg's boss in Spaced.

Via Coming Soon

Whee! IFilm has just posted a three minute behind the scenes feature on the upcoming Wallace And Gromit feature film and there's some great stuff in there. You get to see several finished clips from the film - including Ralph Fiennes and Helena Bonham Carter's characters in action - as well as some interview footage and a stack of other additional characters. To these eyes it looks as though they've managed to keep the essential parts of the series totally intact while also majorly upping the scale of things .... check it out here.

Now here's a happy little piece of news that I'm not sure if I can believe or not ...

CHUD is running an interview with Shaun of the Dead stars Simon Pegg and Nick Frost in which Pegg says that there may be a Shaun of the Dead sequel in the works, but only in comic book format. The proposed title? From Dusk Till Shaun.

Here's why I'm not sure if this is legit or not ... I've done a couple interviews with the Shaun boys myself and have had the chance to sit down for drinks with them. On the plus side they did mention that they had an idea for a possible sequel story that they thought would work pretty well. On the negative side they also talked about experimenting with intentionally spawning internet rumors just to see how fast they can make them spread while spitting out strings of hysterically funny titles for films that will never be made.

I'd love it if this actually panned out but for the time being I think I'll be waiting for an official announcement from a publisher ...

Aint It Cool has scored themselves a trio of high res shots from Richard Linklater's upcoming adaptation of Philip K. Dick's A Scanner Darkly and they look sweeeeeeeet ... Dick is a very unique writer who really needs to have an equally unique director on board to successfully adapt his work so I'm more than a little pleased by these. Linklater is using the same animation technique he employed with Waking Life and it looks to suit the material perfectly ... check 'em out here.

He just may have ... we linked to Stewart's infamous / legendary appearance on Crossfire a while back in which he took the show to task saying that it was damaging the country. Well, it appears that CNN head Jonathon Klein agrees with him. Crossfire co-host has just announced his plans to exit CNN for a new gig a MSNBC and Klein quickly followed that up with an announcement that Crossfire was closing its doors. Says the Washington Post:

"CNN/U.S. President Jonathan Klein sided yesterday with comedian Jon Stewart, who used a "Crossfire" appearance last fall to rip the program as partisan hackery. "I think he made a good point about the noise level of these types of shows, which does nothing to illuminate the issues of the day," Klein said in an interview. Viewers need "useful" information in a dangerous world, he said, "and a bunch of guys screaming at each other simply doesn't accomplish that.""

Well, then ... I can think of a few other people that Stewart ought to take a run at now ...

via IFC

Well, this is a pleasant surprise ... I just came across the cover image and specs for the March DVD release of Volcano High and the spec sheet, at least, is looking surprisingly good.

The disc will be a flippy with one side containing the apparently brutal MTV hip hop cut and dub - and I still want to know who thought Snoop Dogg's voice would fit in a film about Korean teenagers - with the other containing the original Korean theatrical cut of the film, with the sliced and diced International version nowhere to be found. The film also includes a brief making of documentary. Now, I've got the excellent Korean edition already, which features a pristine transfer and superior sound mix to this edition but I'm tempted if only to finally see the MTV version ...

Now, Volcano High is one of those films that tends to divide people. Those who don't like it REALLY don't like it. I, for one, think those people are insane unless they happen to have viewed it in the aforementioned International cut which strips the guts out of the admittedly slight plot line and renders the film pretty much incomprehensible. Volcano High is just a delirious and gorgeously shot supernatural wire-fu flick that approaches kung fu film conventions with the same mix of parody and love that Galaxy Quest shows for Star Trek. It also happens to be the film that launched Kwan Sang Soo's ascent to Korean box office prominence, which is notable because he now seems to be poised to break into the international scene with early rumors having him attached to John Woo's Battle of Red Cliff and Yuen Woo Ping's coming Snow White adaptation.

Via DVD Times

Hurray! More free stuff! The kind and generous souls at Palm Pictures are giving away two free DVD copies of 6ixtynin9 from writer-director Pen-Ek Ratanaruang of Last Life in the Universe fame.

Apparently the caption contest we did last time was a little too difficult for some of you - tsk, tsk - so we're doing something a little simpler this time out. Here's what you've got to do:

Head on over to our forum and find the Magic Word. It's in there. It's clearly labelled. Once you've got it email it to me here. And that's it. You're entered. We'll be accepting entries until January 11th after which two names will be drawn at random. Same rules and regs as with the last Palm DVD giveaway ... I've included them again down below.

Continue reading "6ixtynin9 DVD Giveaway"

I don’t often indulge in ‘what if’s but I can’t help but wonder how the 2004 Cannes Film Festival would have played out if not for the fact that 2004 was an election year and George W. Bush so greatly disliked around the world. There’s no doubt in my mind that Fahrenheit 9/11 wouldn’t have had a sniff at the top prize were that the case as it’s simply not a particularly well constructed film, in which case much greater acclaim would have likely fallen on Chan Wook Park’s Old Boy and Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Tropical Malady, the winner of the 2004 Special Jury Prize. And deservedly so. We’ve been singing the praises of Old Boy pretty much from day one but I’ve just now had the chance to finally see Tropical Malady and … wow. Just wow. This is simply a fantastic film, the kind that doesn’t overwhelm while viewing but continues to grow and twist and take on new meanings as you get a little distance from it.

Continue reading "Tropical Malady Review"

Chock full of gorgeous – and disturbing – cinematography Oxide Pang’s Ab-Normal Beauty represents both the best and the worst of the Pang Brothers approach. Absolutely stunning to look at the film is a text book case of style over substance and ultimately proves to be a fairly shallow, by-the-numbers shocker.

Continue reading "Ab-Normal Beauty Review"

Here's a rumour or story being published this morning in many of the UK tabloid newspapers.

You may not know unless your one of the few from outside the UK to have seen the popular British comedy "The Fast Show" during the 1990s, but Johnny Depp is a massive fan calling it his favourite show on many occassions, and boasting he knew all the catchphrases and famouse sketches. He even had a cameo appearance in one episode.

Now he has rekindled his interest thanks to McKenzie Crook giving Depp "The Office" boxset for Xmas, and now he's into "Little Britain" too : and, wait for it, he wants to play a crappy transvetite : a friend of popular character Emily.

Additionally, i hear Depp has admited to basing the Character of Willie Wonka in Tim Burtons new version of the story on Marilyn Manson : the pale face, the sharp suits, the menacing yet charming qualities... makes sense doesn't it?

Well, now here's a fun piece of news sent my way courtesy of Logboy ... Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence - a World War II POW film starring David Bowie and 'Beat' Takeshi Kitano - is about to be released in a new UK special edition with a restored and remastered transfer and a stack of solid special features. Now, this is one of a very small handful of Kitano-related titles I haven't seen - hell, I paid full price to see Johnny Mnemonic in the theater - and I'm feeling rather pleased that it's getting the deluxe treatment ... full details are here.

It was widely reported a while back (well, by me in a previous life, at least, though my writing credit has been strangely usurped ... kind of irritating, that) that Peter Jackson had purchased rights to adapt a wee novel titled The Lovely Bones when he wrapped up work on King Kong. He'd been saying since Lord of the Rings that he wanted to get back to his 'small film' roots and apparently this story was the chosen one ... well, that appears to have been confirmed now by Jackson himself in a fan club mailing. Aint it Cool's Quint has got all the details here.

Variety is reporting that the one consistently watchable part of the new Star Wars flicks - that'd be Natalie Portman - has just signed up to star in the Wachowski penned adaptation of Alan Moore's V For Vendetta. And all this time I thought V was for Visitors ... and what's up with the Wachowski's these days? Can we still call them brothers? How far along is the sex change process? Okay. I posted this as an excuse to put up a picture of Natalie Portman. I confess.

I've gotta say that I really love Greencine and not just because they say embarassingly nice things about us on a regular basis. These guys have got to be one of the most comprehensive film related blogs in the world and I regularly find incredible stuff through them that would have otherwise slipped through the cracks ...

Case in point: After the Apocalypse. I had a phase in my middle high school years where I literally read nothing but post-apocalyptic and dystopic books. It was a steady diet of Aldous Huxley, George Orwell and Ayn Rand around my house. Yeah, I was one of those kids. Thing is, this is a great genre and it's been ages since much of anyone this side of the pond took it seriously, but if the trailer's any indication this could be jus tthe raw, stark stuff that the doctor ordered. Nice.

Sony has announced a February 15th release date for a two disc DVD set of the Korean war epic Taegukgi. This looks to be a good one with the original Korean soundtrack included along with an English dub and a stack of bonus features. Full details are here.

Well, there goes my 'No More Johnnie To' pledge ... Monkey Peaches is reporting that Jet Li has signed on to the cast of Long Cheng Jian Ba, a film tracking organized crime in Hong Kong from the end of World War Two until 1983. The cast is also set to include Andy Lau and Cecilia Cheung. That makes, what, four non-American films in a row now for Li? If he made some sort of official announcement I must have missed it but it certainly appears that he's taken his cinematic ball and gone home ...

Two down and one to go!! For those worried Fox might put us Millenium fans in the same awful position as Artisan did with Twin Peaks the wait is over! Season two offers the same basic extras as the first season but a whole lot of character and plot development more than makes up for that.

Continue reading "MILLENIUM SEASON TWO REVIEW"

Attention!! Anyone waiting for Peter Jackson's sure to be wonderiffic King Kong!! May I suggest the perfect home entertainment lead in. Go get these terrific Ray Harryhausen box sets lovingly put together by the good folks at Columbia Tristar.

Continue reading "REVIEWS OF THE RAY HARRYHAUSEN BOX SETS"

Now that the website is live and the trailer is flowing freely on the internet and movie screens I guess the next thing to do is release vials of Tom Cruise's cloned alien baby......er.....movie stills from "War of the Worlds".

Both stills involve Tom Cruise either running or hiding so maybe the just went cheap with these stills and photoshopped them into Independance Day, Deep Impact, The Day After Tomorrow, Pootie Tang, but I doubt it. The atmosphere seems strong from the trailer, lets see if they get this one right now. Look at them in all their glory -

So there you go, don't tell us we don't treat you right baby. If you want to see them in their full size glory, you can check them out here.

Via Cinescape.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced the seven films being considered for Achievement in Sound Editing for the 77th Academy Awards.

These seven films are in contention for only three nominations in this category and the competition is fearce.

The Aviator [Man. I guess I am going to have to see this]
Collateral [I liked it. I like it a lot]
The Day After Tomorrow [What? Wasn't there some other SFX popcorn flick worthy of a nomination? Remember. Wood stops ice.]
The Incredibles [It was just that]
The Polar Express [Those eyes. Oh dear god those souless, dead eyes]
Ray [When you use the music of Ray Charles can you go wrong?]
Spider-Man 2 [This will very likely take home a lot of technical awards this year]

The nomination process is the same for all films considered for each category. Ten-minute clip reels from each of the seven films will be screened for the Sound Editing Award Committee on January 18. The members will then nominate three of these seven films for Oscar consideration.

The nominations will be announced along with those in 23 other categories on Tuesday, January 25, at 5:30 a.m. PST. And we'll keep you posted on our plans for our little Oscar prediction party. The other Wonder Twin has already been informed of our decision and she is willing and able to come along. Looks like Mack's shrimp dip is going to Todd's this year.

Okay, I know this makes three 6ixtynin9 related posts in a row, but I just stumbled across this and it bears mentioning ...

It looks as though Thailand has jumped aboard the great big steaming train of Hollywood remakes ... 6ixtynin9 is slated to be remade for North American audiences for release in 2006. Directing? Wait for it ... the guy who made The Lizzie McGuire Movie. And his only previous film starred Tori Spelling. Pardon me while I go gouge out my eyes ...

Good Lord, people, make it stop!

As any fan of Asian film can tell you there are two major film producing countries on the rise right now. While Hong Kong is trying to fight their way out of a massive industry decline triggered by the reversion to Chinese rule and Japan seems content to hold steady the film cultures of Korea and Thailand have exploded to the forefront, both in terms of quantity and quality of the films being produced. And without a doubt one of Thailand’s brightest lights is writer / director Pen-Ek Ratanaruang.

Ratanaruang exploded onto the international scene with the absolutely stunning Last Life in the Universe, a film sensation that triggered a rush to track down his earlier works. Monrak Transistor – his 2001 effort – was still in print and easy enough to come by, but 1999’s 6ixtynin9 proved much more elusive with only a grainy Hong Kong produced VCD edition available on a fairly limited basis. But 6ixtynin9 proved to be one of those little films that just wouldn’t go away. Lauded in its own country – the film was Thailand’s Oscar submission that year – it tended to win converts whenever someone was lucky enough to track a copy down and it continued to grow in reputation until the good folks at Palm Pictures picked up rights for a North American release.

Continue reading "6ixtynin9 Review"

I've got to complain about films I've been waiting to see more often ... two days ago I lamented the fact that Kamikaze Girls wasn't available in subtitled format anywhere in the world and today I got word straight from the horse's mouth that Tidepoint Pictures will be giving the film a limited theatrical release throughout North America sometime in 2005! I can only assume that a DVD will follow ...

I won't even try to summarize this one beyond saying that it looks gloriously bizarre in a way that only the Japanese could pull off. Check out the teaser here, the full trailer here, website here, and Midnight Eye's in depth review here.

There is no doubt in my mind that the absolute finest horror film production house in the world is Spain's Fantastic Factory. Run by Re-Animator's Brian Yuzna the Factory produces gloriously unrepentent genre and exploitation films with simply stunning production values. For proof check the trailers for The Nun and Rottweiler, the two latest FF productions.

I can't recall the last time someone made a nunsploitation film with a straight face but here one is, and there are some shots in there that are simply stunning. As for Rottweiler, it just looks incredibly cheesy, but in all the right ways ... both of these just look like way too much fun ...

Huge thanks are due to Fred from France for sending these in ...

The Hong Kong DVD for Danny Pang's Leave Me Alone is now available for pre-order here.

This sounds like a bit of an odd one ... a gangster picture with plenty of gun violence starring Ekin Cheng in a dual role as identical twin brothers, one of whom is gay. Apparently it's played for comedy. The Pang's have served up a pair of weaker efforts lately with the gorgeous but soul-less Eye 2 and the less-gorgeous but equally soul-less Tesseract but I'm still champing at the bit to see this one, Oxide's Abnormal Beauty (which is on its way as I type this) and most especially the upcoming Recycle. Then there's the upcoming Eye 10 and their North American debut Scarecrow for Sam Raimi's Ghost House ... you certainly can't accuse these boys of being lazy ...

But I digress. The ordering link is above and you can hit the website here and trailer here.

ComicBookMovie.com linked to an article with Patrick Stewart from Spaceview Magazine. Patrick talks about his future with X3 and the rumors that he is slated to play Jor El in the next Superman movie.

On X3: "Everyone, my colleagues and I, we are all very pleased to be involved on this film (X-Men 3). The filming would have to begin June 2005, because 20th Century Fox plans to release X-MEN 3 in July 2006. And it is not that simple to get all the cast together again. Unfortunately, Bryan Singer will not be involved this time, because he is directing the new SUPERMAN movie. And, as I said, is not certain that all the actors will be returning. But I am sure that Hugh Jackman will be back. He is such a crazy actor! I just saw him on stage in New York where he delivered such an extraordinary performance." Given the rumors we've been hearing about Berry and Jackman my heart would sink if Jackman didn't return to continue bearing his clwas. Barry? Meh. I can do without. It could be the running gag of the next film. "Anyone seen Storm?" "Aw Crackel. You just missed her. She went out to pick up some Elmer's White Paste Glue".

On Superman 5: "I also heard these rumors, [playing superman's father Jor El] but so far Bryan did not ask me about it. I had recently a small heart surgery - nothing serious - and while I was at the hospital, Bryan called me. We spoke a long time - yet he did not ask me. But since I am already in two big franchises, why not also in a third or a fourth?" Seriously now. Can anyone top Brando's performance? :::guffaw::: I think not. Dude was tight!

Casting rumors will circulate about both I am sure. Personally, I love the X-Men movies. They are my favorite comic book movies. I thought Stewart was perfectly cast in the role of Professor X. And I am cautiously optimistic about Superman. But only because Singer is at the helm and he's proven himself twice already with the first two X-Men. If it comes to be that Stewart is in both it doesn't sway me either way.

While I, for one, am not a huge fan of Tony Scott, nor his brother Ridley, nor his nephew Jake, or any other member of the Scott family for that matter. I am quite interested in Keira Knightley. So when New Line Cinema provided MovieWeb with a first look at their upcoming project, Domino I knew I had to do the rest of you a great service and post the pic here as well.

Click here for the full image of Keira and her bounty brothers.

The film tells the true story of Domino Harvey, a former model who rejected her modelling career to become a bounty hunter. The cast is pretty suh-weet too. Joining Keira is Mena Suvari [American Beauty/American Pie? Ying/Yang?], Christopher Walken [If you don't know any of his movies shame on you], Lucy Liu ['nuff said], Mickey Rourke [looking freaking badass in Sin City], Macy Gray [can't get that damned song out of my head], Jacqueline Bisset [uh. you know. that one], Edgar Ramirez [que?], Mo'Nique [Soul Plane? oh dear god], Shondrella Avery [Napolean Dynamite's LaFawnduh], Dabney Coleman [he's not dead?!!?], Delroy Lindo [dude's been everywhere] and Brian Austin Green [9-0-2-1-Oh my god he still has a career].

Scott films are known as a good ride. Unfortunately I don't get that from any of them that often either. Just sayin'. But I'll do it. I'll do it for Keira.

**** A Note From Todd ****

Mack left out the big non-Keira reason to see this - script by Donnie Darko writer-director Richard Kelly. That's enough to have my butt planted in a seat opening day.

**** A Note From Mack ****

Fine. I'll do it for Keira AND Richard. But that's it! Sod off to anyone else who wants me to see it for them!

The official website for Terry Gilliam's Tideland has been updated with a bunch of new still shots from the film added to the gallery and they look bloody amazing. Am I a little anxious for a new Gilliam film? Oh, yes. And I'm pretty sure that this is going to scratch my itch quite nicely ... check 'em out here.

Dark Horizons has scored a pair of official still shots from the upcoming Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy. I can't say that I ever pictured Marvin's head being quite that large, but otherwise these look pretty fantastic ... check 'em out here.

Stauffen has updated his site with information on a block of new Japanese films, a couple of which bear mentioning here ...

First is Rin-Jin 13, a live action adaptation of the manga from Santa Inoue. I don't know much about the manga but if the general tone of the website is at all accurate this thing could be bloody on an Ichi the Killer scale ... you can check the brief teaser trailer here.

Second there's L'Amant, the latest film from Ryuichi Hiroki, the Japanese art film director who generated a stack of well deserved praise for his recent film Vibrator ... There's not a whole lot on the site yet but what is there looks mighty nice. Check it out here.

Logboy just dropped a note to say that the current issue of Total Film lists June 10th as the release date for the just-wrapped League of Gentlemen feature film Royston Vasey. Don't know who the League are? Shame on you! Shame! They're only one of the UK's finest comedy exports, with members of the League of spotted slumming about with the Little Britain and Shaun of the Dead folks and, more recently, Dr. Who himself. Seriously this film will be to 2005 what Shaun of the Dead was to 2004 ... we're hoping to have an interview with the League's Mark Gatiss in the can and posted here by the end of the week ...

It was obviously going to happen, a remake of the brilliant Infernal Affairs, considering how damn amazing this film is and how perfect it is in every aspect (acting, directing, atmosphere, etc). Now the question is can it really transfer over from the Chinese underground to the Boston Irish gangster underground? Well that depends on three people - Scorsese, DiCaprio and Damon and as much as one could have some confidence in the first name - the last two are an uneasy feeling in my stomach.

They are going for a much younger look here than the original which in my mind doesn't seem to work out but and Scorsese says he's making this a much smaller picture than at least the past two he's made (Gangs of New York and recently The Aviator). At least he's doing that right, we'll just have to wait and see if The Departed (I won't even comment on the name as it's been said many times already) can really come close to touching what I would have to say is one of the best police thriller/dramas to be made.

Read what Dicaprio and Scorsese have to say here about The Departed.

You know what I don't like? Planes. Especially plane rides in school buses with wings, and even though it was a 38 minute flight from Toronto to Pittsburgh, it was still 38 minutes of sheer terror. Terror I tell you. Now, you know what I do like - Charlie Theron and new pictures of her from Aeon Flux.

Now these are still just shots of her crouching, crouching, aiming, crouching again and running but regardless - pictures of Charlie. Look at them here thanks to Comingsoon.net.

I was just browsing the behemoth known as Greencine and noticed that some guy has one whacked out "worst of 2004" list: - well - in so much that he has Goodbye Lenin, Sideways, Garden State and - wait for it - Napoleon Dynamite on it.

Apparently, I find that strange because I'm one of those, quote: "taste-impoverished, bought-off, mainstream daily and weekly reviewers"

His honourable Mentions include SuperSize Me and Closer.
No shot on his skills at being a father or making a lovely pie, but he called Lost in Translation "forgettable trifle" and a "slight, deadpan film" and then whipped around and said "Likewise with her husband’s Adaptation, the writer-director has cobbled a movie only self-appointed hipsters could love."

That.. that.. that hurts my feelings. Now I have to pick up the pieces and try to have a Happy New Year.

Asian DVD Time has posted a side by side screen capture comparison of the single disc Edko DVD release of House of Flying Daggers with the new two disc version and the new version looks a whole lot better ... crisper resolution and for more natural colors ... I'm sure Crazybee will be along in a moment or two to sing the new version's praises, but in the meantime you can check the fruits of his labor here.

In New York City? Get thee to Barnes and Noble! Specifically the Barnes and Noble at 22nd and 6th. Shaun of the Dead stars Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are on the PR trail and will be signing DVDs there Monday January 3rd. Word is they'll be at the Columbus Circle Borders on the 4th.

via Mobius

HOT DAMN! It's not another Banzai film - I've resigned myself to the fact that that just isn't going to happen - but it is the next best thing: a comic mini-series written by the creator / screen-writer with visuals supervised by the film's director. No release date yet, but I'll be buying these just as fast as they hit the shelves ... check the full press release here.

Dreamworks / Go Fish Pictures have launched the North American website for Casshern here. It's pretty sparse at the moment - only a flash intro, synopsis and link to the Japanese trailer - but it's sure to expand over the next little while. Here's hoping they do a better job with this than they did with the Ghost in the Shell 2 DVDs ...

Mark Schilling of the Japan Times has posted his list of the top ten Japanese films of 2004 and it's an interesting one ... a few that were dead obvious and more than a few surprises.

1. Blood and Bones
2. Nobody Knows
3. Howl's Moving Castle
4. Mind Game
5. Survive Style 5+
6. Swing Girls
7. A Blue Automobile
8. Casshern
9. Vital
10. Kamikaze Girls

Nice to see Survive Style 5 on a 'serious' list, Swing Girls caught me by surprise as I'd written it off as a fluff piece, and A Blue Automobile and Mind Game both came pretty well out of nowhere for me. Good to see Casshern make the grade, while A Taste of Tea is a surprising omission and I've really got to find me a subbed edition of Kamikaze Girls because that just looks like way too much fun ... the full article, with film summaries, is available here.

Links are to the DVDs, where available, to web sites where there's no DVD.

I spotted the trailer for 'Mindgame' some time back, and it got an announcement a short while ago for its Japanese DVD release, which was a few days before Xmas. Then the listing at Yesasia.com changed : English Subtitles to be included. Just snooped-out the trailer and the official site.

Really, it has some of the nicest animation I have seen anywhere, but no one seems to have been talking about it, and no one seems to have mentioned the DVD release either: so I am "bigging it up" as the youth say.

Theres three different editions: the bog-standard (which I am gonna get this week) for £23 or so, the mid price collectors box and the ultimate edition (something like £120). Oh, and it by another one of the top anime studios in Japan - 'Studio 4 Degrees C' (can't find the little circle for the "degrees"). They're up their with Production IG, and a few others, for their top quality work including most of "The Animatrix". Anyone seen it? Here's a nice pop-up of the poster for it, and the studios official site is here.

**** An Update From Todd ****

Go check that trailer right now. Seriously. That's some sweet, mind-bending stuff. If the trailers are any indication this thing is appropriately named ... and just because we love you, here are some purchasing links: Standard Edition, Pretty Deluxe Edition, Wildly Excessive Edition.

As I'm sure you've noticed by now things look a little different around here ... Huge thanks are due to our good friend Opus who took on the challenge of redesigning the site and made it look an awful lot better while also fixing some significant problems behind the scenes. We think the new look is pretty spiffy.

Now, there may be some things that need tweaking here and there so feel free to kick the tires and let us know if anything doesn't appear to be working correctly ... early testers were concerned about font sizes so those of you who had problems reading the early version of the redesign can hit those settings buttons over on the right to automatically adjust your font sizes.

I'd also like to invite people to head on over to our new forum ... this is your place to have your say or just shoot the breeze. We opened the doors over there just before Christmas but things are already moving along pretty nicely ... sign up and throw your two cents in.

We posted a link to IFC's trailer for the North American release of Kore-eda's Nobody Knows a while back ... well, IFC have now launched a full website for the film here. The film's fourteen year old lead scored the best actor award at this past Cannes festival and I've heard nothing but positive things about the film all-round ... check it out ...

We reported last week that Shinya Tsukamoto's Snake of June was finally due to hit DVD in North America in February ... well, if Korea's more your style that fine country will be releasing a deluxe two disc edition of the film in early January. No idea if the extras will be subtitled - most likely not - but the main disc includes English subs and a DTS soundtrack. And the packaging's purty. You can check it out here.

Thanks to a keen eyed Korean reader we've stumbled across a trailer for Crying Fist, the new flick from the director of Arahan with the stars of Arahan and Oldboy. Click here to check it out in high resolution ... hit the '500K' button in the top right corner to get things rolling ...

When the guys from Shaun of the Dead rolled into town last summer rumours were that their next project, a possible title was something like Hard Fuzz, was going to be a genre mix of John Woo's Hard Boiled and the 1973 cult horror classic The Wicker Man. Knowing this I ran to my local video store and rented The Wicker Man [Hard Boiled had been a part of my collection since our final year at Bible college]. I wanted to be well learned in both films so I could sound at least half intelligent when talking about their next project. I should have known that half a dozen geeks and studio funded drinking wouldn't amount to much conversation other then me asking, "Who will play the God fearing virgin?"

While The Wicker Man is a bonafied cult classic it didn't particularily strike a chord with me. More lauguable than scary, due in part to the musical numbers and naked go-go dancing, I still appreciated it clever twists and turns and horrific conclusion. And Christopher Lee certainly delivers an eery and haunting potrayal of Lord Summerside. So that is why I find it interesting that there are plans to revisit this story 30 years later and that Mr. Lee is ready to do it all again. The new film will be called May Day and Bloody Disgusting drew my attention to an article in the UK's The Herald.

Continue reading "Christopher Lee on Wicker Man follow up and Tim Burton movies."

Firstly, some background. Ishii was a film student working part-time at Nikkatsu Studios when a whirlwind romance (and marriage) led him to begin drawing and writing Manga in order to earn money. "Angel Guts" was born in 1977, and quickly became successful, and though often criticised for its' pornographic content it gained much positive attention also.

The title itself refers to the attempt to portray strong and resiliant women (or a particular woman, in this series it's always Nami Tsuchiya) so it's almost literally "beautiful woman with courage". Each film is a separate story showing various situations from which Nami must battle on. Each time the name Nami is applied to a different woman or girl at a contemporary time.

Continue reading "Angel Guts : Takashi Ishii And The Series. The Relationship."

The first of three reviews of "Angel Guts" films. Only these were available in subtitles form at the beginning of November 04 when this writing was done. In All, five films will be in the boxset from Artsmagic, to be released late March 2005. These reviews may reappear nearer to that time, but for now they go up simply because so many others have already allowed Artsmagic access to them online for promotional uses.

An odd choice to start the boxset (if the running order remains), as its the final film in the series to be produced by Nikkatsu. However, since it is the first from the creator of "Angel Guts" in terms of direction, Takashi Ishii, it is a perfectly logical one. His may be the most faithful to the original ideas behind the characters.

Released in 1998, a whole decade after the first film, it's a testiment to the quality of the work on display that such a series can be prolonged over a huge length of time. It's also worth remembering sequels in Japan aren't as obviously interlinked as their American counterparts, and exist more as independant movies with sometimes tenuous links, but more often connected by theme. Potentially the films can be watched so independantly that each one success relied more on its' own qualities as much if not more so than its' connection to the series. Each also has a feel of being a product of its time as much as the ideas of the Director or Writer.

Continue reading "Angel Guts : Red Dizziness (aka Red Vertigo). R1 USA DVD Review."

The second of the "Angel Guts" reviews for the Artsmagic boxset due late March 05.

The first in the relatively long line of Angel Guts movies, directed by Chusei Sone, is a far more literal and familiar looking film that Takashi Ishiis' self-directed "Red Dizziness". This time around the story centres on three young male gang members, Sada (the knife weilding, sunglass wearing, impotent buffer between his friends), Kawashima (the man caught between responsibility and immorality, caring for his young teenage sister Megu singlehandedly) and Kaji (the truly psychopathic murdering rapist on a pathway to distruction).

Nami, the pivotal character, as appears in each of the Angel Guts films is truly crucial to the overall story, although her screen time is minimal and comes during the film rather than from the offset. It's how she attracts and is at the centre of the gangs increasingly destructive relationship with one another that makes interesting viewing.

Continue reading "Angel Guts : High School Co-Ed. R1 USA DVD Review."

The third of my reviews for the Artsmagic release of the five Nikkatsu produced "Angel Guts" films.

This time around Chusei Sone, also the director of the first Angel Guts film, gets his input into the script in a more obvious manner. The result contains all the familiar elements blended together in the usual confusing amalgamation. Released just six months after the first film in the series, it's clear that it's a common characteristic of the romanporno genre that films come thick and fast. Infact, looking into this, Nikkatsu produced four such titles a month all year round for some considerable time. Release dates were often set well in advance, even before completion of a script, allowing them to specifically targetted at a time of year and therefore a particular age group too.

Continue reading "Angel Guts : Red Classroom. R1 USA DVD Review."