I lost track of this project a while back. The last thing I remember was bumping into one of the directors, Sam Dunn, on a flight out to Calgary a couple Christmas’ ago. Then they were half way through filming their second documentary about Metal music. Global Metal has since been completed and played in a couple festivals since October of last year.
Today, Seville International has announced that Warner Home Video has acquired US, UK and Mexican distribution rights to the feature documentary GLOBAL METAL directed by Scot McFadyen and Sam Dunn. The two companies had previously collaborated on the filmmakers’ previous film: Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey.
Here in Canada in the center of our universe, Toronto, and on the Left Coast in Vancouver we’ll get to see it on June 20th. In Montreal they will have to wait a week later on June 27th. The documentary will also open the 14th Annual North By Northeast Film Festival here in Toronto on Thursday, June 12. It’s time to polish off my devil horns and get me to that screening.
In GLOBAL METAL, directors Scot McFadyen and Sam Dunn set out to discover how the West’s most maligned musical genre – heavy metal – has impacted the world’s cultures beyond Europe and North America. The film follows metal fan and anthropologist Sam Dunn on a whirlwind journey through Asia, South America and the Middle East as he explores the underbelly of the world’s emerging extreme music scenes; from Indonesian death metal to Chinese black metal to Iranian thrash metal. GLOBAL METAL reveals a worldwide community of metalheads who aren’t just absorbing metal from the West – they’re transforming it - creating a new form of cultural expression in societies dominated by conflict, corruption and mass-consumerism.
Nice. Appearances by Metallica, Slayer and Iron Maiden. Starring Orphaned Land, X Japan, Tang Dynasty and Max Cavalera. Music featuring KISS, Deep Purple, Sepultura, Lamb of God and In Flames. Yes please.
Photo Gallery and trailer after the break!
Continue Reading "‘Global Metal’ release dates, images, trailer and a kick to the face!"...
Few films from the Bollywood system have arrived this year with as much advance hype as Tashan. Its director, Vijay Krishna Acharya, makes his debut here after writing the scripts for the mega-successful Dhoom franchise. Its headline cast is pretty stellar, starting with Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor (reteaming here after a stellar showing in Omkara), and rounded out by Akshay Kumar (the man who is Khiladi) and Anil Kapoor (Bollywood’s resilient, jowly ham). The all-important songs are by the venerable Vishal-Shekhar team. The promotion is everywhere, though cleverly it has mostly focused on the soundtrack. Actual footage of the film has been scarce prior to release. There’s a certain swagger to this tactic, a confidence borne out by a recent interview with Khan, in which he called it “similar to the way Led Zeppelin released their fourth album.” The recently beleaguered Yash Raj production house, and the Indian press, saw this as the surest thing for miles.
No such luck. The critics have been less than kind, but popular opinion has been positively venomous. Comments on IMDB have ranged from the disappointed to the utterly murderous (a kind sample: “Tashan sucks from top to bottom”), and a poll on Planet Bollywood has 60% responding unfavorably. But what of the receipts? Bad news there as well. On a cost of 40 crores, the film has thus far failed to recoup even half. In short: a trainwreck on every level.
Here’s the dirty secret, though: Tashan is, though flawed, hugely enjoyable. Imagine if Tony Scott cleaned up his editing act and decided to make a musical. Tashan would be the result. That’s actually a recommendation.
More after the break.
Continue Reading "Bollywood Review: Tashan"...
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Recently we got a nice mainstream genre (yes, they exist!) surprise in the cinemas with the horror movie “The Ruins”.
Doesn’t automatically sound like the best of movies, does it: obnoxious American students on holiday in Mexico visit an uncharted archaeological dig and encounter something which starts to pick them off one by one.
A rather lame set of trailers didn’t exactly help…
But what made it actually a nice surprise was the amount of detail lavished upon characterization, acting and the general portrayal of how a small group of people (might) react in an extremely stressful situation.
All these things were fleshed out to the extent that, in general, people were shocked to discover that this wasn’t just a funny B-movie but a pretty serious drama.
It might even have been one of my all-time favorites if not for some big issues I had with the “monster”, but I digress.
Anyway, I don’t think it’s a big spoiler when I tell you the big threat in the movie is (beside human nature) a big flesh-eating member of the “flora”, instead of the traditionally popular “fauna”.
Which brings me to my top 5 movies featuring extremely aggressive plants.
Read on!
Continue Reading "When Plants Attack!"...
We first wrote about Sanjay Leela Bansali’s Saawariya all the way back in August and with the film about to hit DVD worldwide - the North American release strikes tomorrow - we’ve got three copies of the American release from Sony to give away to you, the Twitch faithful. The film is an adaptation of a Dostoevsky short story and in Bansali’s hands it becomes a lush, sumptuously designed thing. I have yet to watch my own copy of the film but the trailer for this - which you can find below the break in the Twitch Player - is flat out gorgeous, eye candy of the highest order. Very nice.
Want one of these to call your own? Simple enough. You have until May 15th to . Saawariya doesn’t count. The three people who send the most words get the DVD.
Continue Reading "SAAWARIYA DVD Giveaway!"...
Rock on! The first trailer went up on the official site for Detroit Metal City this week. And a full cast photo, including Gene Simmons, was revealed yesterday. Looking good so far.
So close. So very, very close. The latest film from Malaysia’s Mamat Khalid is a sort of spiritual cousin to Wisit Sasanatieng’s Tears of the Black Tiger, both of them loving returns to the cinematic roots of their respective countries. But while Sasanatieng went back to the Technicolor loopiness of the classic Thai westerns of the sixties Khalid goes back even farther, fusing hard boiled noir with elaborate musical numbers, slapstick comedy and a heavily Hammer and Universal influenced take on the typical Asian ghost story. The opening act of the picture is sheer genius, a glorious mash up of styles and influences loaded with sumptuous photography, clever writing, a creepy ghost, hysterically funny sight gags and a sense of play that never fails to engage and surprise. The second act, however, sags badly under the weight of far too many unnecessary sub plots before the film rounds back into form for a strong – albeit far more seriously toned – conclusion.
Continue Reading "Udine Report: KALA MALAM BULAN MENGAMBANG Review"...
I’ve been meaning to comment for weeks now on the crisp new design of SF360. They’ve done away with the graded green-to-orange color scheme (thank you!) and are now bylining their features. Congratulations to Susan Gerhard and her SF360 team for the fresh new look!
This is as good a time as any to tip the hat because it’s also when SF360 really shines with its coverage of the San Francisco International. Along with her initial report from the SFIFF51 press conference, Susie has organized her writers to focus first on Bay Area filmmakers and their contributions to SFIFF51. These include:
Chuy Varela on Cachao: Uno Mas.
Michael Fox’s interview with Johnny Symons, director of Ask Not.
Michael Fox’s interview with Renee Tajima-Peña, director of Calavera Highway.
Susan Gerhard’s interview with Dawn Logsdon, director of Faubourg Tremé.
Susan Gerhard’s interview with Logan and Noah Miller, co-directors of Touching Home.
Michael Fox’s interview with Craig Baldwin, director of Mock Up On Mu.
Cross-published on The Evening Class.
Malaysian director Mamat Khalid will have two films premiering in Europe at this year’s Udine Far East Film Festival in Italy. They are the horror spoof Zombi Kg Pisang and noir thriller-comedy Kala Malam Bulan Mengambang. The director will be in attendance.
Check out the links for Udine’s Paolo Bretolin’s synopses for both films, plus my review of Kala Malam.
Oof! Ouch! ... ... Sonnuvabeesting! You’ll have to excuse me. I just read news that made me fall out of my chair!
It was just a matter of time when our prayers would be answered and a member of the rock band KISS was asked to appear in a cameo role in the Japanese ‘makeup and metal’ movie Detroit Metal City. And the most popular member of the band these days is easily Gene Simmons.
I was thrilled to be asked to play the Demon God of Rock and Roll—what else? ... Once there, I not only had to shoot the Japanese movie (which is being released in August—only in Japan), our GENE SIMMONS FAMILY JEWELS tv crew were also there to record some of the fun and games ...And, here is what I look like in one of my get ups in the movie. You’ll see the results in a future GSFJ episode.
It took a good while but Lloyd Kauffman’s Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead is finally ready to be unleashed on the public. After a long and well documented production process - check the archives for trailers and things - and a successful festival run Poultrygeist finally opens in New York City on May 9th with Kauffman himself on hand for the May 9th screenings.
If you, by chance, walked out of Tim Burton’s Sweeney Todd thinking, “You know, that was okay but it needed more singing”, then by god does Darren Bousman have a film for you. Paul Sorvino, Tony Head, Bill Moseley, Sarah Brightman (!), Alex Vega and Paris Hilton star in the screen adaptation of the cult musical and while Burton leavened his musical outing with extended bits of regular dialog word is that this one is all singing all the time. Word is also that Paris is actually reasonably good, that former Spy Kid Alex Vega is waaaaaaaay over the child actor curse, Bill Moseley is a demented genius and Tony Head is, well, Tony Head, which means that I’d happily pay to watch him read a phone book, never mind paying to watch him sing his way through a story set in a dystopic future where organs are mortgaged and frequently repossessed by force.
Anyway ... all this to say that the official website launched today and it’s loaded with good stuff, from Geneco propoganda posters such as the one to the left, to the trailer - which you’ll also find below the break in the Twitch Player - to audio samples and notes on the transition from stage to screen. This is a weird one, folks, give it a bit of love ...
Continue Reading "Official Website Launches For Darren Bousman’s REPO! THE GENETIC OPERA!"...
It is no big secret around here that we positively adore Cory McAbee’s The American Astronaut, a retro-sci-fi-musical-western-comedy filmed in stylish black and white and featuring a fab soundtrack from The Billy Nayer Show. And since 2005, we’ve been anxiously awaiting for the promised followup feature Werewolf Hunters of the Midwest. It turns out that that project is on the hunt for new financing, so, someone step up please and make a few of us around here very, very happy. Right now we are sad.
As a consolation though, dancing cowboy clones - Dancing. Cowboy. Clones. - will have to suffice. The Sundance Institute recently uploaded the McAbee’s short film-slash-music-video, Reno.
You’ll find it in the Twitch Player after the Jump (or linked directly to the house that Redford built, below)
Continue Reading "For Werewolf Hunters of the Midwest, be prepared to wait a little longer…"...
There are a handful of names in Japanese cinema that get us Twitch folk all twitter-pated and weak in the knees. One of those names that causes us to swoon so is Kudo Kankuro [left]. With a pedigree that includes Maiko Haaaan!!!, Mayonaka no Yaji-san Kita-san, Zebraman, Ping Pong and Go you can understand why we love this man so. You know, in a manly cinema love kind of way… ... ahem.
Back in February his lead actress Aoi Miyazaki [NANA] would play the role of Kanna, a record company scout. We can also tell you that Ging Nang Boyz’s Kazunobu Mineta will be playing the vocalist of one of the bands she recruits. Koichi Sato, Yuichi Kimura, Tomorowo Taguchi, and Hiroki Miyake will play a punk band whose members are all over the age of 50. The band gets accidentally discovered by Kanna when she comes across 25-year-old footage of the band. Also appearing in the film are Yusuke Santamaria as the gay president of Kanna’s record company and Ryo Katsuji as Kanna’s boyfriend.
A punk band with members all over the age of 50? Yes please.
Say it with me. Japanese. Death. Metal. Mmmmmmmm. That’s rich metal goodness right there folks.
Filming began last Saturday, a couple weeks later than expected as was reported in our first posting about this project; the live adaptation of the manga series Detroit Metal City. A couple days ago Sankei Sports published promotional pictures [left] of star Matsuyama Kenichi as both Soichi Negishi and his alter-ego, Detroit Metal City member, Johannes Krauser II. Nice.
Other casting was also announced. Akiyama Ryuji, from a comedy trio called Robert, will portray the drummer Camus, Hosoda Yoshihiko is playing the bassist Jagi and Matsuyuki Yasuko plays the domineering manager of the band’s label.
Toho Studios is aiming for a summer release.
Following up on his anticipatory remarks at The Evening Class, Michael Hawley offers the Twitch readership his exploration of some of the films from the 26th San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival ("SFIAAFF08"), which opens in San Francisco this coming Thursday, March 13, 2008, and continues through Sunday, March 23, 2008. From there the program continues on at its Berkeley and San Jose venues. Now that we know how SFIAAFF is officially pronounced ("sfee-aahf"), I’m looking forward to hearing how it’s mumbled and mangled with misplaced accents and undue emphasis. Oh, and I’m looking forward to some of the films too. Take it away, Michael.
Continue Reading "SFIAAFF08—Michael Hawley’s Preview"...
