Immortals

Tarsem Singh's The Fall is one of my favorite films, and almost unequaled in visual panache. Part of that is because so much of the movie is filmed on location in astounding places in multiple countries around the globe. With his new movie Immortals, it seems he's going the 300 route. From what I can tell from the first trailer that's been released nearly all the locations are computer generated. This is an obvious choice from a budgetary standpoint, and not entirely out of step with Tarsem's previous film, The Cell, which was cold but visually impressive.

I'm hoping Immortals manages to keep some of the warmth and emotion of The Fall, despite having the heavily stylized CGI venear of The Cell and 300. I'm glad to see Tarsem's taste for wacky costumery seems to be intact here, at the very least.

Selene

Selene is a hip hop concept album based on the movie, Moon. It's one of my favorite science fiction movies (featuring a full on double Sam Rockwell!), and these tracks sample the film's atmospheric soundtrack.
The music may contain some spoilers, so don't listen if you want to experience the movie as it's intended. Which you really should have done by now.
Selene by Max Tannone
I suggest they follow this with an EP based on Primer. That would be rad.

[via io9]

The Legend Of Zelda (1987) Movie Trailer

"I gave her my heart, she gave me a jar."


[via Boing Boing]

The Wicker Tree Trailer

Just to be clear, this is the upcoming sequel to the Wicker Man. That's the original British Wicker Man, not the American remake starring Nicolas "NOT THE BEES" Cage. It's from the original director, and has Christopher Lee returning. So while it's less likely to become another YouTube sensation, it might actually be good. Here's hoping.


[via io9]

It's Showtime!

[via Nerdist]

Axe Cop...The Movie!

Here's a fan film adaptation of the sensational webcomic (also, book comic) Axe Cop). Hopefully there will be more.

Axe Cop: The Movie - Part 1 from Peter Muehlenberg on Vimeo.

[via io9]

Hanna

Few movie trailers take me by surprise any more. Usually by the time I get around to seeing a movie all the previews are for something I'm not interested in at all, or something that is already on my radar. So I was pleasantly surprised to see this trailer for Hanna in front of Black Swan the other night. Hanna looks so very cool I can't believe I haven't been reading about it online for months already.

Can't wait to see it!

Fight The Foot

Here's a pretty nifty little fan-made film in which some gritty Foot Clan goons get the grit beat out of them by a gritty ninja turtle. Gritty.


I would love to see the Turtle franchise rebooted. The animated film, TMNT, that came out several years ago was a lackluster attempt. 2010's made-for-television flick, Turtles Forever, in which the modern turtles join forces with the 80's turtles and the black and white comic turtles, was actually quite entertaining though.


Fight The Foot [via io9]

This Is An Actual Movie

Genre: Horror-ish
Premise: Possessed car tire rolls around, explodes people's heads.

Trailer:



Genre: Horror-turned-unintentional-comedy
Premise: Wooden actors wave their hands in the air, overlaid with animated clip art birds.

Trailer:

R.I.P. Satoshi Kon

One of my favorite directors has died. Satoshi Kon was the creator of the incredible visionary anime films Perfect Blue, Millenium Actress, Tokyo Godfathers, Paprika, and the series Paranoia Agent. All of which are required viewing for fans of animation or Asian film and television.

Most of his work deals with a blurring of dreams and reality. His movies capture the nature of dreams in amazing and visceral ways, at a level Christopher Nolan's Inception never comes close to.

Tokyo Godfathers is the one exception to this theme. It is the story of three homeless people on the streets of Tokyo who discover an abandoned baby, and their adventure to find the baby's parents. It's basically a heartwarming Christmas miracle story, turned on its head.

Satoshi Kon marries whimsy with the darker aspects of life and human nature in a way I don't think I've seen anywhere else. At least not to such an extent. But his movies also tend to suggest that no matter how bad things might get, the human heart can persevere.

[via A.V. Club]

The Fabulous World Of Jules Verne

I discovered the delightful trailer for The Fabulous World of Jules Verne while watching the DVD 42nd Street Forever 5 with my friend, Dr. Lao. I immediately wanted to go out and find a copy of the film.

Fabulous World is a 1958 Czech film based on the Jules Verne book, Facing The Flag. What makes the movie so cool is its gorgeous production design and stop motion animation. Everything in the movie is made to look like old fashioned engraving illustrations like those found in the original editions of Verne's book. And the live action, animation, and other special effects are meticulously integrated.

You can watch the entire movie in pieces on YouTube, but the quality of the print is pretty lousy and you don't get to see a lot of the detail that went into it (the trailer found on 42nd Street Forever is much better looking). It's a great example of how innovative filmmakers could be on a tight budget, and long before CGI became available.

This movie is begging for a restoration. And with the popularity of steampunk these days it wouldn't even be that hard to market. Here's hoping someone will pull this out of obscurity and put it on DVD or Blu-Ray where it belongs (ahem, Criterion).

Paranormal Activity

I saw The Blair Witch Project way after all the hype had died down, and was completely underwhelmed. Paranormal Acitivty wasn't very high on my radar for this reason. Generally when something starts to get hyped as the SCARIEST MOVIE EVER, I tend to tune out. But I ended up going, and was fairly surprised.

I found Paranormal Acitivity to be a pretty successful attempt at the faux documentary style. And it was genuinely scary (something which Blair Witch was not), and gradually built the scares up in a very effective way.

There are a lot of familiar elements at play, including characters that are so thick headed you want to throttle them. There are a lot of don't-investigate-the-creepy-sound! moments, but at least the stubbornness feels like a character trait rather than poor writing like it does in lesser horror films.

There are some very startling and disturbing moments, and everything is heightened by the convincingly natural performances. This should become a classic rental or purchase for people looking to creep themselves and their friends out.

Where The Wild Things Are

I really enjoyed Where The Wild Things Are, but wasn't blown away by it. I loved the style of it. The special effects were very impressive (props to the Jim Henson Company, and the CGI crew).

I always appreciate kids movies that aren't afraid to have real emotion, or be scary occasionally. Some of my favorites growing up were movies that terrified me in certain parts, like The Dark Crystal and The Secret of NIMH. Wild Things has a lot of serious stuff going on. It really captures the range of conflicting emotions that young children have to deal with. And splitting those different emotions into the different characters of the Wild Things was really clever.

There was also enough quirky humor to keep things from getting too bogged down in angst and grief. Bob and Terry were a particular highlight.

Great performances, direction, soundtrack...All around terrific movie. The only thing that kept it from being a classic for me was the general lack of story. But it's hard to fault it for that since it already has more story than the book. It's hard to create conflict in a movie without real villains. But it's still a great adaptation.

xkcd - Movie Narrative Charts

The latest xkcd strip is both an exercise of supreme geekery, and a wonderful work of art. Click for the largeness.

I want a posterized version NOW.

Zombieland

There is an aspect of zombie stories that is about wish fulfillment rather than horror. It's fantasy for people who like to imagine the complications of life being stripped down to its basic elements, where the rules no longer apply. Or in the case of Zombieland, have simply been replaced with a different set of all important rules.

Zombieland is another zombie comedy, but one that sets itself apart from previous ones like Shaun Of The Dead. Whereas Shaun is often about paying homage to classic zombie movies, Zombieland takes the zombie concept and just goes to town with all the wish fulfillment stuff. While the characters are often in peril, they don't spend most of their time cowering or running away. Rather, they seem to make the most of things. A huge section of the plot revolves around two of the characters making their way toward their favorite amusement park. Because if the world has ended you may as well ride a roller coaster or two.

And everyone seems to enjoy killing zombies for the most part. They even keep track of who had the best "Kill of the Week". Zombieland is generally an apocalyptic movie for optimists. In this world the geek can get the girl, you can hang out with your favorite celebrity (I won't reveal the amazing cameo, although it's unlikely it hasn't already been ruined for you), and you can smash and loot to your heart's content. The only downside seems to be that there is never a Twinkie around when you need one. Oh, and all your loved ones are dead (but let's not focus on that, shall we?).

Zombieland is an incredibly entertaining film (with a ton of potential sequels, apparently). I'm a huge zombie fan, and it's great to see such a fun, original take on things.

Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs

Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs was one of my favorite books growing up. When I heard about the film adaptation I was more than a little worried that another piece of my childhood was about to get dragged through the studio muck, stripped of its soul, and stuffed with needless pop culture references. Then I noticed that it wasn't being produced by Dreamworks and my fears ebbed...a little. The trailer revealed my worst fears: the animation looked nothing like the illustrations, and the plot and characters from the book were completely replaced. How could this not suck?

Then along came Keith Phipps' review, which restored a glimmer of hope. I've now seen it, and what can I say - sometimes the studio gets it right.

The movie only vaguely resembles the book, taking the premise and abandoning pretty much everything else. But the new characters and plot are fantastic in their own right. CWACOM is an irreverent, subversive, action-packed celebration of geekery. It's as if the filmmakers made a movie for themselves, and if any kids happened to enjoy it that was fine too.

The story is basically about a geeky kid who grows up to be a nutty inventor (Bill Hader), tinkering away in his elaborate treehouse/laboratory. One day he invents a device that converts water into any food you want, one thing leads to another, and suddenly hot dogs are raining from the sky. Throw in a greedy mayor desperate for tourist dollars, and you have a formula for zany shenanigans. Along the way he teams up with a hyperactive police officer (Mr. T), an amateur weather girl (Anna Faris), and a talking monkey. Bruce Campbell, Neil Patrick Harris, James Caan, Benjamin Bratt, and Andy Samberg are also featured.

There are some very good messages thrown in for the kids about healthy eating, and being true to yourself. But none of it is heavy handed. Mr. T never explicitly tells kids to eat their greens, but the message is there. There are also some great scenes where the inventor encourages the weather girl to be herself after he catches her willfully acting dumb. He even gives her an anti-makeover, having her wear the glasses she usually hides, and putting her hair in a pony tail. I think it's a positive scene for young girls to see, and it's a nod to all the guys in the audience who appreciate geeky girls.

The story is fast paced, and the jokes come with frequency and often hit to some degree. It's one of the funniest movies I've seen all summer, and (dare I say) more entertaining overall than Up. I hope I haven't offended the animation gods by saying that. Both movies garner jokes from animals talking with electronic voice boxes, but CWACOM spreads it's humor out a bit more. There are more characters to enjoy, and the pathos isn't as overwhelming. It's simply more fun. (Again, I bow to Pixar, and all that she has given us. Always.)

I highly recommend this movie to anyone. I would say it's almost more fun for the adults than the kids. Also, I saw it in 3D, which definitely looks marvelous, but probably isn't necessary if you want to save a few bucks.

District 9

I went in to District 9 with my expectations lowered as much as possible. I thought I would like it, but there was enough uneven feedback to keep me from getting my hopes up too high. It turned out to be one of my favorite movies of the year.

This was an interesting year for science fiction. On one end we had Moon, a heady suspense film about the meaning of individuality and humanity. And then there was Transformers 2, an amazing social experiment to see if large crowds of people would pay to have hot pokers jammed into their skulls for two hours (I'm assuming, since I'm one of the alarming few who didn't). District 9 rests comfortably in between, with a fortunate lean toward the Moon side of the spectrum. It's an action movie, but it's also got some subtle social commentary layered throughout.

I don't want to give too much away, because I believe going into it with less knowledge of the plot is better. But it is basically the story of a man who gets caught up in a predicament with aliens stranded in South Africa. The story was often surprising, and I was completely absorbed throughout the movie. I really have no complaints about it at all. There was a lot of very intense action, and the special effects were fantastic. Even compared to movies with much larger budgets.

This was easily one of the type five most entertaining movies of the year for me so far.

Inglourious Basterds

I'm a big Tarantino fan. I look forward to everything he does, and haven't disliked one of his movies yet. I've been following the Inglourious Basterds rumors for years, and have been dying to see what he would do with a WWII film. Now that I've seen it I'm not really sure what to make of it.

On the one hand Basterds features some of Tarantino's best writing and direction. But at the same time the movie seems to be lacking something. Like Kill Bill, the tones and styles of Basterds come from all over the place. But they don't seem to gel quite as well as they did in Kill Bill. Some of the stylistic flourishes are jarring. Most of the scenes are deliberately slow, building tension up to a sudden (usually violent) climax. And because the scenes are so drawn out, whenever Tarantino decides to insert a quick cutaway, usually for a laugh, it disrupts the flow in a very awkward way.

The scenes that work in this movie work very well. The lengthy opening scene, or "chapter", is the best example of the slow buildup that Tarantino re-uses multiple times throughout the movie. It's a scene almost entirely of dialog between two men, one of whom is one of the best villains I've seen in a movie ever. My other favorite scene comes later, and has pretty much the same effect, only with more people thrown into the mix. Neither of these scenes focus on the Basterds themselves.

The trailer for this movie is pretty misleading. This is not just a movie about a group of American soldiers running around Nazi-occupied France and collecting scalps. That's only about half of it. The other half centers on a Jewish French woman who runs a movie theater that has been chosen for the premiere of Joseph Goebbel's latest propaganda film. The two stories of the film are barely connected, but they converge at the theater for the film's final conflict.

With the exception of maybe Brad Pitt's character, none of the Basterds are ever fully developed. A few of them get a single moment to shine, but for the most part are relegated to the background. Their story has some really great turns, and most of the movie's fun comes out of their scenes, but again it feels like something is missing. Perhaps two major plot threads were just to much to sustain in such a slowly paced movie. I'd be interested to see if there is much deleted material, or is this was Tarantino's vision from the start.

Both stories are revenge fantasies, neither one quite as satisfying as the one in Kill Bill. But it's a fun movie, more about WWII films than the actual war itself. I feel like I need a second viewing now that I know what to expect. I could see this one growing on me over time. I just don't feel it's quite up to snuff with the rest of Tarantino's work.

James Cameron's "Avatar"

Yeah, I'll watch that.

"Legion" Makes Armageddon Fun Again

Legion could do for Armageddon what Slither did for alien apocalypse:

You had me at "demon granny gets blasted off ceiling with shotgun."