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

Oh dear lord. TOKYOPOP has signed actress Melissa Joan Hart [Sabrina the Teenage Witch] and screenwriter Dan Gordon [The Hurricane, Wyatt Earp and don’t forget the stellar Surf Ninjas] to take one of their properties Samurai Girl: Real Bout High School to the big screen.

Continue Reading "Sabrina the Teenage Wuxia?"...

Another review, another opening disclaimer.  Lars Von Trier is an enormously divisive film maker.  People tend to either love his work or absolutely loathe it, there are very few taking up ground in the middle.  Personally, I fall into the love camp.  If you’ve seen his earlier work and thought it was overwrought, pretentious crap you’ll think the same of this one and you may as well stop now because there’s nothing in this film that’ll change your mind and you may as well find a more constructive use of the next few minutes than spending it sitting and reading this.  If you think a little more kindly of the man continue right on in ...

Continue Reading "The Five Obstructions Review"...

Fangoria is reporting that Chan Wook Park’s Old Boy will be hitting US theaters in February 2005 while Ji-Woon Kim’s Tale of Two Sisters will be hitting in mid-December.  You need to see these films.  Yes.  You do.  Trust me.  In the mean time check out the Old Boy trailers on this page and the Tale of Two Sisters trailer here.

Media bias?  What media bias? 

LA Weekly has just run an article detailing how Sony has been refused ad space for the DVD release of Fahrenheit 9/11 by ABC, CBS and NBC.  Sony didn’t even bother to ask Fox.  All three major networks refused to sell them ad space during the news hour - peak time for advertisers wanting to hit an adult audience - citing proximity to the coming US federal election.  Damn those media leftists always giving Bush a hard ti ... oh wait ... maybe Fox News is gonna have to find something else to rant about for a while ...

Via Greencine.

Variety reported today that computer animation studio Wild Brain has reached a deal with Miramax / Dimension to bring their animation projects to both the big screen and DVD and project number one will be a film based on Berkeley Breathed’s Opus.  You know, the penguin from Bloom County, Outland and now his own eponymous strip.  I have three complete distinct and wildly opposed reactions to this news.

Reaction One:
Hurray!  Opus on the big screen!  And Berkeley’s already hard at work doing character designs!  Whee!

Reaction Two:
Hmmm ... Miramax moving into the CG animation world just as Disney’s contract with Pixar is dissolving in a sea of unhappy feelings.  Coincidence?  A shot at Michael Eisner?  I’ll take door #2.

Reaction Three:
Sheer, abject terror.  Why?  Script by Craig Mazin.  Craig who?  Craig “I wrote Scary Movie 3” Mazin.  Yeah.  I see why someone would think the author of Scary Movie 3 was up to bringing a Pulitzer winner to the big screen. 

More terror comes from these quotes and discriptors of the business arrangement between the two companies:  “family fare”; “viable product for a reasonable price”; “family fare” (again); “family films”; “family entertainment is the biggest seller in DVD”

Uh, boys?  Bill the Cat?  Frequent drug use?  Sex and violence? Political satire?  Brilliantly surreal social criticism, yes.  Cute and fuzzy children’s entertainment, no.  If you try to make Opus into a cuddly plush toy to sell to my three year old son you will, in the process, destroy everything that makes the character great.

First in an irregular series. I wanted to put some info together about finding posters for old and new Japanese films and western films issued in Japan. I love Japanese design and I have tried desperately to get hold of posters for some of my favourite films. Here’s what I know… anyone have any more guidance?

Option 1. Buying full-size posters from Applet-J. He has two sites : otaku-j.co.jp and Applet Co. He is best conctated through emailing via his ebay account as “jjoe-nippon”. His english may be broken, but he does special deals according to how many you buy and will find things for people. Posters are always packaged in very, very hard plastic tubes. His pages look unkempt but there’s stuff there he still has in stock. Navigation is awkward too.

Option 2. Buying “Chirashi”. A4 (8 1/2 x 11) size exact reproductions of poster designs in convenient and cheap versions. Promotional leaflets for films essentially, they’re still highly collectable in Japan. I use Citaya Collectables, an English man living in Japan : superb service, everything always packaged and protected well. He will also find OOP DVDs for you on request and sells film programmes, too.

There’s also eBay - search for “chirashi” or “japan film poster” but they’re nearly always overpriced or caught in auctions with plenty of people competing. Other site-based options for chirashi are : Magazine Queen and JMShop, the latter have extensive illustrations of those in stock, which are updated regularly. The former only lists titles it seems.

I’ve seen pieces online about shops in Japan but after much searching I can’t find one with a site, either in Japanese or English. I would love to know of more sources if anyone else has had more success finding posters online.

*EDIT* adding this great site posted in comments by iamNataku : Twinkleonline. For HK mostly, some Japanese stuff etc.

It’s been almost a year since the Japanese DVD for this Studio Ghibli masterpiece, “Nausicaa in the Valley of the Wind”. I preordered it back then and it’s got a cherished place alongside every other Japanese release of Ghiblis’ work on my shelf. It’s so rich, original, stylish - and the animation is second to none. Really: if you consider yourself a film fan (as the saying goes...) you’ve simply got to see it.

No longer do i have to endure the cut VHS version, retitled “Warriors of The Wind”, which is long out of production. Instead, this 1984 masterpiece is remastered in its extended, complete version, in such glorious quality that it is difficult for me to remember a better disc ever being put out.

You should get the delayed USA disc next year, but this issue was my favourite of last year… do yourself a favour if you haven’t seen this, or anything of Miyazaki’s beyond the Oscar winning “Spirited Away”, and get this disc - now!

There’s a late, but great review from one such person here.

I’ve seen all of the Lord of the Rings films at the cinema.  I’ve bought all the extended DVDs so far. Will be getting the final one, too. I’m not obsessive, but I do love the production values, the story telling, and I think that it’s great Peter Jackson finally gets chosen for a project that shows his wonderfully unique style off so well.

So. Would you like me to link you to some pictures of the boxe(s), the menu(s) and some grabs from the added scenes from the extended “Return of The King”?. I know, it comes in at around 250 minutes ... I may have to watch this one over two nights as the film has one major flaw - the ending just seems to keep arriving and then there more and more stuff happening.

Falls dangerously between “cure for insomnia” and “absolute masterpiece” and could seem either at any point in time, even if you’re a huge fan I reckon. Check out the full specs too, over here.

Yes, we have Robots, Shark Tale, Shrek, Toy Story, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles… now it’s the one i have been waiting for, “Madagascar”.

Looks incredible, and it’s Dreamworks at the mouse this time.  It features some famous voices, too.

It’s due to open May 27 next year in the USA. So, that’s about the same time as “Revenge of the Sith” then isn’t it?… see the trailer in various formats through this page at Yahoo Movies.

The trailer for Robots is now online over at Yahoo! Movies. Go here to watch the trailer. And please write your thoughts down for everyone to read. Especially me. I am in the process of upgrading my internet service and my present one is causing problems with the media player on the Yahoo! site. Curses!!!

But just look at this cast: Ewan McGregor, Halle Berry, Robin Williams, Mel Brooks, Greg Kinnear, Drew Carey, Amanda Bynes, Dan Hedaya, Jim Broadbent, Dianne Wiest, D.L. Hughley, Jamie Kennedy, Paul Giamatti, Amanda Bynes, Stanley Tucci, Harland Williams, Jennifer Coolidge. This is why I only briefly considered pursuing voice work. I wouldn’t have a chance against this talent. But remember when animation was about the movie and not the actors supplying the vocal talent? :::sigh:::

Faced with the stark reality that Asian American youth are the least likely demographic in the United States to vote this November MTV’s Choose or Lose campaign is teaming up with Asian celebrities to try and turn the tide. This short but a lot of fun to watch PSA stars Kelly Hu , Maggie Q , Ming-Na , Russell Wong , Tamlyn Tomita , and always funny, but not quite funny in this one, John Cho.

You can watch the PSA here.

Kudos to Rotten Tomatoes for hosting the site.

Story via KungFuCinema.

Honest, I’ll stop ranting about this show sometime soon.  But not before you go and watch this.  A trailer for the brilliant Spaced, put together to promote the coming three disc special edition ... whee!

Not particularly work friendly, by the way ...

Link by Logboy®

I’ve just come across a quartet of video clips from the upcoming Day Watch, the sequel to Night Watch, which is reviewed in the next post down.  My first impressions are that the camera work and lighting looks to be improved somewhat and I’m pleased that the first clips released are devoted to some quieter, character developement moments although that’s most likely due simply to the film still be in post production with the ‘whizz-bang’ not yet inserted.  Happy to see that Kostya not only returns but receives second billing.

Anyway, check them out here, here, here and here.

Let me get this out of the way right off the top:  if you’re thinking, “Oooh!  Ewan MacGregor!  Nick Nolte!” stop reading right now.  I’m not talking about that film.  I’m talking about this one, the Russian fantasy blockbuster that out performed the almighty Lord of the Rings films in its homeland and has been picked up for a domestic release by Fox Searchlight, who are also chipping in funding for the sequels.  That one, Ewan MacGregor surrounded by corpses.  This one, some Russian guy fighting the undead.  Not so different, really.

Continue Reading "The Night Watch Review"...