hazylium: cinema/tv

Showing posts with label cinema/tv. Show all posts

Showing posts with label cinema/tv. Show all posts

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Cinema Watch

Now Playing in Singapore Movie Theatres:

MID-LIFE CRISIS: THE MOVIE

Not Playing in Singapore Movie Theatres:

Children of Men

Singapore cinemas do a good job of catering to real movie-lovers for the most part, but a decision like releasing Children of Men, the best science-fiction movie to come out of Hollywood this decade, direct-to-video is totally ridiculous. Besides being a truly excellent movie, it also has the most bold and innovative cinematography in years (300 ain't got nothing on this) and demands to be seen on the Big Screen.

Wild Hogs, on the other hand, doesn't deserve to be released at all. The trailer alone is cringe-inducing. If you listen carefully to the sound track, you can hear the flush of William H. Macy's career going down the toilet, the poor man.

Monday, April 09, 2007

Singapore Film Festival: What I'm Watching

The Singapore International Film Festival is one of the highlights of the year for the Singaporean cineaste, and I've been faithfully attending it for the past five. I'm especially looking forward to it this year's one because this is the first time that I won't be having exams close to or during the festival, meaning that I can actually watch every single film I'm interested in! Of course, I can't watch *everything*, so I've judiciously selected those that I think are most worth my time:

German Animation: A screening of 15 German animated short films. I know little about German animation; which, along with the intriguing screenshots of the shorts on the Film Fest website, is precisely why I'm very excited about seeing them.

Life in Loops: A Megacities RMX: This experimental documentary, a "remix" of the 1997 film Megacities- 30% re-edited footage from that film and 70% new footage- came to my attention a month ago when I was pointed to the trailer by a blog that I unfortunately no longer recall. It had the aura of something genuinely new and ground-breaking, and I resigned myself to never being able to see it in cinemas here. I'm very pleased that my instincts were wrong in this case.

Fay Grim: This one's a bit of an odd choice for me as it's the sequel to a comedy (by a director named Hal Hartley, who is apparently big in the American indie film scene) that I've never seen, but it stars the wonderful Parker Posey and is billed as part comedy, part film noir and part spy thriller. Sounds good to me.

Aachi N Ssipak: This Korean animated film has a plotline that can't be beat for sheer craziness: In a future where natural energy resources have run out, mankind has resorted to using human faeces as fuel. Gang wars over shit ensue.

What raises this to a must-watch is the film's exuberant animation, sharp character designs and totally rockin' soundtrack. Just check out the 5-minute intro sequence, which seems to take its inspiration from Full Throttle (aka the most bad-ass adventure game ever made).

KAFA Animation: I'm hoping to see some gems amongst these nine short animated films by students of the Korean Academy of Fine Arts. Korean animation has been going from strength to strength of late, with critically-acclaimed works like My Beautiful Girl Mari winning international awards; it'll be exciting to see the first works of young new talents from the country. It's worth noting that this is a free screening!

Freestyle: The Art Of Rhyme: I've heard really good things about this documentary, which traces the growth of freestyling, or improvisational rapping, in the 1990's. The film looks to be a rare glimpse (well, rare around here, anyway) at the artistic side of rap music and culture, and thus a must-see for a hip-hop fan like me. Plus, this is also a free screening!

I'm also interested in watching German New Wave director Rainer Werner Fassbinder's films, being screened as a retrospective marking the 25th anniversary of his death. While his magnum opus, the 15-1/2 hour long TV series Berlin Alexanderplatz, won't be screened (for obvious reasons!), 10 of his other films are being shown (many for free!) and should serve as a good introduction to the famously prolific director's body of work.

Finally, I'd like to watch the Danish animation Princess, an ultra-violent revenge fantasy where a priest, filled with rage and guilt over the death of his porn-star sister, goes on a mission to erase all evidence of her work in porn, along with the men who lured her into the industry. The movie looks both shocking and thought-provoking; the kind of challenging, adult work rarely found in animation. Perhaps too challenging and adult to be screened in Singapore, though- the fact that the Film Festival hasn't started selling tickets yet implies that they're having trouble with the local censors (who are notoriously tetchy about adult animation). I'm keeping my fingers crossed, though.

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Tokyo Godfathers Review

Tokyo Godfathers is director Satoshi Kon's third animated film, after the highly-acclaimed films Perfect Blue and Millenium Actress. Coming after the heels of those two films, mature, psychologically-complex works that pushed the boundaries of animated storytelling, Tokyo Godfathers, a Christmas movie loosely inspired by John Ford's 3 Godfathers, could arguably be considered the director's slightest work; but that would hardly be doing it justice. Wiser men than me have pointed out that creating great comedy is as a hard as creating great drama. Tokyo Godfathers has both in spades, and is deft enough to go from one to the other, sometimes in the same scene, without once missing a beat.

The film revolves around the titular godfathers: Gin, a middle-aged homeless drunkard who lives for his next bottle of alcohol, Miyuki, a cynical teenage runaway, and Hana, a sharp-tongued transvestite fallen on hard times who is both the source of the best lines in the film as well as its heart and soul. The characters are unusual (how often do we see grimy homeless men as heroes in a film?), but the story is standard: this motley trio comes across an abandoned baby in a trash heap and sets out on a journey across Tokyo to find its parents, surmounting various dangers and bonding with each other in the process.

The same premise you see in a dozen syrupy, sentimental Hollywood Christmas films, each more disposable than the one before it- but what elevates Tokyo Godfathers above and beyond that dross is the way it grounds its string-of-coincidences plot in its characters, who are more more vivid and real, more three-dimensional (hehehe), than most characters in live-action films, and its setting- the city of Tokyo, so meticulously captured as to be a character in and of itself. The film shows us a Tokyo that we rarely see, not the glowing neon-lit city of the future popularized in films like Lost in Translation, but Tokyo as it is experienced by the outcasts of society, a city of back-alleys, public parks turned slums, and rotting tenements. It gives the film a sense of weight and verisimilitude that is rare to see today.

The question that remains is this- why is the film an animation? There's nothing in the film that couldn't technically be achieved in live-action (though some scenes would play out as markedly more absurd in such a setting). Indeed, some critics have taken this up as an issue, while failing to appreciate that the film's achievements- its wonderfully expressive characters and its carefully-controlled mis-en-scè ne- are precisely the result of it being an animation. Satoshi Kon gathered some of the best animators in Japan to make this film, and it shows. One of the film's most memorable scenes (I won't spoil it, but you'll know when you see it) is a monologue, delivered with passion and animated with equal intensity. In this one scene, an animator's ink, together with superb voice-acting, produces a performance on-par with an Oscar-winning actor. It's a validation of animation as a theatrical artform, and to me puts to rest the question that began this paragraph. Indeed, a better question would be this: why aren't there more animated films like this (or even live-action films, for that matter)?

I originally wrote this review in 2005, after seeing Tokyo Godfathers at the Singapore International Film Festival (it's quite sad that local distributors didn't see fit to give it a wider release, despite the film being very well-received at its two sold-out festival screenings), but since lost it in a dark and dusty folder of my iBook. Upon re-discovering it today, I felt compelled to re-write the entire thing before posting it. The film deserved better than the short three paragraph (and a line) treatment that I gave it. It's a superb example of the best of Japanese animation, and a wonderful Christmas movie (a phrase I never thought I'd say/write) as well.

Thursday, March 29, 2007

Shell's amazing Ferrari ad

Shell's new commercial for the 60th anniversary of their partnership with Ferrari is, without a doubt, one of the sexiest car commercials ever made. Directed by the very talented Antoine Bardou-Jacquet (the man behind the brilliant Honda 'Cog' ad) of Partizan, the ad shows off a number of classic Ferrari F1 cars tearing through the streets of Rome, Sydney, New York and Hong Kong, Rio de Janeiro and Monaco. An awesome sight in and of itself, but what makes the ad truly extraordinary is its soundtrack. No music, just the powerful roars of the cars' engines. A joy for the eyes AND the ears.

(thanks to Autoblog for the production information)

Thursday, October 05, 2006

Jon Stewart on Habeas Corpus

The United States Senate has passed a bill that will deny suspected terrorists the right of habeas corpus (aka the right to seek release from unlawful imprisonment). Here's what comedian Jon Stewart has to say about all this, along with an educational (:p) look at the English justice system 900 years ago:

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

State of Shounen Anime: 2006

Shounen anime used to constitute the bread-and-butter portion of my anime diet. While my tastes have shifted to anime with experimental animation and/or unusual and mature storytelling (FLAG, Kemonozume, Mushishi and Ayakashi are good examples from this year) I STILL enjoy a solid shounen-style anime every now and then. Here's what I've been watching lately:

Naruto was for a long time my favourite shounen anime. More than just a faithful translation of it's source manga, the show proved it's worth with excellent production values and beautiful animation. The highlight of the series was surely the climatic episode 133, where master animator Norio Matsumoto showed off his skills in a virtuoso fight sequence that is already considered by animation connoisseurs to be one of the greatest fight scenes in a shounen anime, ever. Sadly, the series dove from that high point into filler hell, where it's remained for the past year! I'll start watching Naruto again as soon as it resumes the manga storyline, but not an episode before.

Bleach started out pretty strong when it debuted in 2004, with an interesting premise, engaging characters and a nice mix of action and humour. However, the series suddenly switched gears in it's 2nd major storyline, which introduced a massive cast of superfluous supporting characters (beloved by fans because of their admittedly gorgeous character designs) and a plodding, overly-complex plotline designed to impress those who mistake complexity for depth. I stopped watching it after the 60th or so episode as it'd just become another example of everything I hate about mainstream anime.

Yakitate!! Japan, on the other hand, is an example of a great show that, despite hewing very closely to the standard shounen anime formula, managed to consistently be wonderfully entertaining. I took a break from watching it early this year as my sister, who I watched every episode with, went off on an overseas trip. She's back, but we haven't gotten around to catching up with the show just yet I was pretty surprised to find out recently that the series ended with it's 69th episode! I'm kind of disappointed- wacky, unique and fluffy-fun series like Yakitate!! Japan don't come around very often (or rather, they do but they're frequently not that good).

Eureka 7, which launched in 2005, was a surprisingly heartfelt show about growing up, young love, freedom, responsibility and giant surfboard-riding mecha. A weird combination, to say the least, but somehow the series (directed by Tomoki Kyoda of RahXephon fame) managed to make it work. I'd fallen way behind on my viewing and sure enough, the show seems to have ended! By all accounts, it was pretty good til the end. I can't wait to see what I've missed.

Noein is probably the most interesting new shounen anime I've seen this year. The first episode is all I've seen so far, but what I saw was really gorgeous! The animation was delicious, with loose, sketchy drawings (that probably made loads of regular anime fans recoil in horror) and beautiful movements. The fight scenes are truly a marvel. Disappointly, the second episode seemed to revert to a "normal" anime look, with detailed characters that lacked the free-flowing sense of movement that they had in the first, but Ben Ettinger (who has a keen eye for good animation and runs the very cool Anipages Daily blog) mentioned really great work done by the animators on later episodes so I'm really looking forward to seeing the rest of this series (which ended earlier this year).

I was really looking forward to Blood+ as I thought the movie it's based on was an excellent mood piece and relished the idea of it being fleshed out. However, the best part of the series turned out to be it's first ten minutes- a stylish extended introduction animated in a similar style to the original Blood movie. The rest of the show, which took the safe route with typical-looking character designs and animation, just alienated me. The storyline of the show turned out to be just as prosaic as it's look and by the 5th or 6th episode, I'd lost all interest.

If you're an anime fan, you'll have noticed that none of the above are anime from 2006! Disappointingly, none of the shounen anime released this year have been very good.

A friend of mine recommended Air Gear, citing it's similarity to SEGA's thoroughly hip Dreamcast classic Jet Set Radio (aka Jet Grind Radio). Unfortunately, the show tries it's darndest to ape JSR but fails completely. The music sucks, the animation is totally boring and the storyline and characters just grate (to my horror, there's even a loli character). BORING. 'Nuff sed.

I do have a couple shows on my to-watch list that might be cool:

XXXHOLic & Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle- I really liked the first volume of CLAMP's XXXHOLic manga and it's sister manga, Tsubasa Chronicle sounds pretty interesting too, so I figure I'll check both anime adaptations out.

Tokyo Tribe 2- Santa Inoue's manga Tokyo Tribe 2 (released in English as Tokyo Tribes by Tokyopop) has fast become one of my favourite manga with it's epic story about warring street tribes on the streets of an alternate Tokyo- one that's rife with crime and corruption. Santa takes his cue from the great Hollywood gangster movies by centering the story around two characters- Kai and Mera, ex-best friends, now members of rival gangs and embroiled in what's about to become the biggest gang war to ever go down in Tokyo. The anime is being produced by the always reliable Madhouse Studios and will be directed by Tatsuo Sato, who made the surreal and experimental Cat Soup, amongst other things. Pretty exciting!

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Korgoth of Barbaria

On the strength of it's pilot episode alone, I'm declaring Korgoth of Barbaria the best new American animated series of 2006. Yep, even better than The Amazing Screw-On Head, which was cool, but nowhere near THIS cool. Korgoth of Barbaria is an action-comedy that parodies Conan the Barbarian, Heavy Metal comics and well, the swords-and-sorcery genre of fantasy in general.

It's created by Aaron Springer, who storyboarded Spongebob Squarepants (and even wrote and directed some episodes), and the pilot episode's animation was directed by none other than Genndy Tartakovsky (the genius behind Dexter's Lab and Samurai Jack). With animation bigshots like that, you expect quality and Korgoth delivers in spades.

The show looks great, with unique character designs, excellent animation and surprisingly lovely painted backgrounds (done by Bill Wray, according to Cartoon Brew). It's also gust-bustingly funny, thanks to some killer dialogue (people will be quoting this stuff everywhere on the web by year-end), deft comic timing and the totally over-the-top heavy metal music used in the show. I can't wait for the show to debut in September (sadly, Cartoon Network Asia sucks SO MUCH that we don't even get Adult Swim in Singapore, but there's always Bittorrent!).

So check out the pilot episode on Youtube (part one, part two and part three) or download the torrent and know the awesomeness that is... KORGOTH!
*cue wailing guitars*

Note: I forgot to point out that Korgoth is, true to it's sword-and-sorcery roots, a really violent show- blood and limbs fly everywhere during fight scenes. Suffice to say, it ain't for the faint of heart. You've been warned.

Friday, July 21, 2006

It's the 80's all over again- TMNT trailer!

Wow- movie studios are really milking 80s nostalgia for all it's worth. First Transformers (with it's very underwhelming teaser trailer) and now everyone's favourite pizza-eating amphibian ninjas get their own trailer for their upcoming big-screen comeback. Surprisingly, it looks really good!

Love their new look!

The upcoming CGI feature film (directed by Kevin Munroe, a veteran animator) is set after the first two live-action films, much like the recent Superman Returns. Another similarity with that movie is that both look to set new standards in depicting the way their title characters move by utilizing the wonders of computer animation. The flying scenes in Superman Returns were nigh-incredible and the acrobatic way the turtles run and jump across the rooftops of New York city is far above and beyond anything the first two movies, with actors clad in clunky full-body turtle suits, could offer.

With director Kevin Munroe saying that the tone of the film will hearken back to Eastman and Laird's original comics (by far the coolest version of the turtles), this movie looks to have quite a bit of potential. Colour me excited.

Friday, July 14, 2006

Trailer for Chris Nolan's 'The Prestige' is a Must-See!

I hadn't even heard of Chris Nolan's (who directed a small indie flick called 'Batman Begins' last year) 'The Prestige' until I saw the trailer down at the Apple Trailers site, but it's just shot up to the top of my Must-Watch list. One of the best trailers I've seen all year (right up there with Spider-Man 3's scintillating teaser), the movie promises to be one hell of an exciting ride.

Based on the acclaimed novel of the same name by Christopher Priest, the film is about the rivalry between two magicians in Victorian England. Said magicians are played by Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman (Wolverine and Batman together in the same movie- will you fancy that?). It also stars Michael Caine and my favourite young actress Scarlett Johanson. Everyone looks to be at the top of their games in this. Superbly compelling stuff, really. October 27th (the film's release date, in case you're wondering) can't come any sooner for me!

Spider-Man 3 gets a sexy 3D poster!

Superherohype.com, that fine purveyor of all superhero-related filmic goodness, has brought us this first image of the new lenticular (that snazzy 3D effect where a picture changes as you walk past it) poster for Spider-Man 3. Check out the twisted emblem for Spidey's black costume! It looks totally evil- but in a good way. ;-)

Symbiote suit!!!

The funniest, coolest ad of the year comes from Thailand!

A 4-part series of ads for Smooth-E Babyface Foam is by far and away the most hilarious advertisement I've seen all year. Heck, it's funnier than most films released this year. It's just totally entertaining. There's a Youtube version here but I'd recommend you watch the high-res versions of the ads at the Cannes Lions website (here's the links to Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4 of the ad), where the ad won Gold in the Film category. Personally, I think it should've gotten the Grand Prix 'cos it's way cooler than the actual winner- a big budget CGI-fest made for Guiness. But that's neither here nor there. What's important is that you watch these ads, laugh merrily and then go out and buy some face wash so you can find true love. :P

Genius animator Makoto Shinkai is making a new film!

In 2001, an artist began work on an animated short film. He worked alone, using his Macintosh G4 PC to produce the animation. The film premiered in 2002 and went on to win no less than six awards as well as the adulation of the Japanese animation community.

The artist was Makoto Shinkai. The short film: 'Voices of a Distant Star." Unerringly beautiful, poetic and heartfelt, the film was unlike anything that had ever come out of the Japanese animation scene. 'Voices' used what could have been a standard science-fiction scenario- a soldier leaves Earth to fight a war in distant space while leaving his (in this case, her) lover behind- to tell a deeply personal, emotionally-charged story about love and seperation. It really is a brilliant work- one of the few anime that could possibly be considered a work of art.

Having established himself as one of the finest animators of his generation, Shinkai then proceeded to make his first feature-length animation- 'The Place Promised in Our Early Days.' This time, he worked with a full production staff and the results show in the increased technical quality of the work. Once again, the film melded science-fiction with a personal story of friendship, love and loss. Once again, the film earned much praise, winning four awards. However, a criticism often made of the work is that the pacing suffered with the longer length- perhaps unsurprising given Shinkai's inexperience at making feature-length films.

It is interesting, then, that his next animated film, '5 Centimeters per Second,' will consist of 3 short stories, centered around a boy, that take place in Japan from the 1990s til today. Dividing the film in this way should allow Shinkai to play to his strength in creating short stories, while also allowing him to create a rich, deep work. He's also decided to eschew the science-fiction trappings of his previous works, instead focusing on making the story and setting as realistic as possible.

However the story turns out, one thing's for sure- the film will be utterly gorgeous, if the trailer on the film's site is anything to go by. Both streaming or HD-downloadable versions of the trailer are offered and I highly recommend the latter if your PC can support it. Fansubbing group The Triad has also kindly released a translation of the trailer on their BitTorrent tracker.

'5 Centimeters per Second' is set to debut in Spring 2007- it'll surely be one of the animation highlights of the year! I await it's arrival eagerly.

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Pirates 2 smashes box-office records!

Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest raked in an incredible $135.6 million dollars in it's opening weekend, setting a new box office record for the highest three-day opening, ever(Spider-Man was the previous record holder, with it's $114.8 million opening weekend)! Wow. I knew the film would do well (you'd have to be a right curmudgeon not to love Captain Jack Sparrow) but this is astonishing. I don't think even the guys who made the film predicted it would do this well. I can't wait to see it for myself this weekend (oddly enough, it's not out just yet here in Singapore)!

Monday, July 10, 2006

Amazing Screw-On Head Debuts Online on July 13!

The Sci Fi Channel's animated adaptation of Hellboy-creator Mike Mignola's weird, wonderful and hilarious one-shot comic 'The Amazing Screw-On Head' will be premiering on the networks's Pulse broadband channel in just 3 days! According to Newsarama, viewers will be given a survey to fill out to help the network's executives decide whether to green-light the series or not. Given the show's unique premise and well-known cast (see above picture!), I think this fantasy-adventure-comedy series has a good chance at capturing viewers.

Don gets an uninspired first poster- plus SRK's costume from KPBW remake!

The upcoming Bollywood film Don is one of my most highly-anticipated movies of the year (over and above even Superman Returns and Pirates 2!) for 2 reasons:

1: It's a remake of the 1978 movie of the same name- one of the most superbly entertaining Bollywood masala-films ever made, starring Amitabh Bachchan at the height of his coolness. The song Khaike Paan Banaras Wala (abbreviated in the post title for length), an ode to India's favourite snack (and mild intoxicant!), alone is worth buying the movie for.

2: It's directed by Farhan Akhtar, whose 2001 movie Dil Chahta Hai is still, for my money, the best mainstream Bollywood film of this decade. Judging by this interview, he's as much of a fan of the original Don as I am- which hopefully means his remake will be far from a soulless retread of the original.

Oh and it also happens to star Shah Rukh Khan- by far and away India's most famous leading man. If anyone can fill the mighty Amitabh's shoes, it's this guy.

So suffice to say, I have very high hopes for this film!

However, the film's first poster is completely underwhelming.

Ripping-off 'The Matrix' in 2006? Way to bore your potential audience! Where's the fun in this?

On the bright side, Farhan Akhtar has stated in an interview that his Don will deliver a new version of the 1978 Don's highlight sequence- the delightful Khaike Paan Banaras Wala song and dance sequence.

Heck, SRK even wears a similar outfit to Amitabh's, as seen in this photo of SRK on the set of Don (posing with a fan):

(Photo from IndiaFM)

Well, he's got the look. But can he beat Amitabh's funky performance? We'll find out when Don comes out on October 21, 2006.

Meanwhile, check out the original Khaike Paan Banaras Wala song, courtesy of Youtube:

Update: Newer Snakes on a Plane trailer and a new poster!

Samuel L. Jackson on a plane full of snakes- what beautiful insanity! Check out the new trailer here.

Update: There's another trailer up here (in the crappy Flash video format that's all the rage these days).

I just love this new French poster for the movie. That crazed look in Samuel L. Jackson's eyes is priceless!

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Meanwhile, India gets it's own superhero

On June 23rd, Bollywood's first superhero movie (correction: Wikipedia claims he's the sixth- but nobody remembers the first five anyway), Krrish, will hit cinemas in India. Krrish is the sequel (a rarity in Indian cinema!) to "Koi... Mil Gaya," an 'ET-meets-Forrest Gump' science-fiction movie that made oodles of money in it's homeland and swept quite a few awards, too. I thought it was kinda crap but I couldn't get past the pseudo-ET stuff, frankly (though I have to admit, star Hrithik Roshan- who's daddy directed both movies- wasn't too bad in it).

I wasn't very interested in the sequel given it's pedigree but I must admit to being piqued after reading this New York Times article about the movie. Since the Times tends to block access to their content after a while, I'll just cut and paste the relevant bits (emphasis is my own).

Rakesh's biggest concern was making Krrish look sufficiently world class. After all, audiences that have lapped up Western heroes — "Spider-Man" and "Spider-Man 2" are the No. 3 and No. 2 Hollywood releases in India, after "Titanic" — would have little patience with cheesy special effects. So Mr. Roshan turned to the Hong Kong-based action choreographer Tony Ching, acclaimed for his work on "House of Flying Daggers" and "Hero."

This Bollywood-Chinese martial arts combination presented some distinctive challenges. Because Mr. Ching speaks no English, Mr. Roshan narrated his script via an interpreter. In an e-mail interview (also translated by interpreter), Mr. Ching said that what attracted him was the story, which "was very romantic and touching."

"Their ideas of the action were beautiful and exactly fit my style," he said. "Everything just matched well."

To fit Bollywood's comparatively smaller budgets, Mr. Ching slashed his fee — though even that bargain rate, Mr. Roshan said, was more than the paychecks of India's biggest stars. Last January, Hrithik went to Hong Kong and trained for 30 days, learning how to wield sticks and swords and adopt the correct postures for the harnesses. At the end of the daily six-hour sessions, Hrithik said in an interview in Mumbai, he "barely had enough strength to crawl into bed."

The action sequences, which Rakesh described as poetry, were filmed over 90 days, mostly in Singapore. To perfect the visual effects, Rakesh imported two experts from Hollywood, Marc Kolbe and Craig A. Mumma, who worked on "Godzilla" and "Independence Day" (and also on "Koi ... Mil Gaya"). The orchestration for the film's background score was done in Prague.

That's quite a team they got there- though it must be said that good action choreography and visual effects does not equate to a brilliant movie.

Will this be India's Spider-Man or it's 3 Dev Adam (i.e. so baaaaad that it's good!)? More importantly, will it rake in the big bucks? 3 more days 'til we find out! One thing's for sure- this movie is going to usher in Superhero Season into Indian cinemas (Superman Returns on June 30th!).

Monday, June 19, 2006

The advance buzz on Superman Returns is hot, hot, hot!

Superman Returns is by far and away my most anticipated movie of the year, simply because of the trust I place in director Bryan Singer. His first X-Men movie was amazingly non-sucky- the second one was just flat-out brilliant. Still, the question remained: Was this man up to the Herculean task of creating a Superman movie that could possibly live up to the collective expectations of audiences around the world?

Judging by the first few reviews that are trickling out, he's succeeded magnificently. Time Magazine loved it. As did Newsweek. Variety.com's fairly-glowing review of the movie predicts that it will "pull down stratospheric B.O. around the globe."

Perhaps the most encouraging sign of all is the reception the movie is getting from the geek crowd. Harry Knowles', head geek of Aint It Cool News, ecstatic review of the movie. Now, the man does occasionally display questionable taste in movies, but where comic book movies are concerned he's been right on the money every single time (at least for my money :P). Aint It Cool's Massawyrm has a similarly positive review. Comic Book Resources' Jonah Weiland claims "with total confidence that it was everything a comics fan - and movie fan - could hope for."

So far, the movie's garnering praise from both the mainstream press and the geek set! A backlash is inevitable, but I dare say that this movie might turn out to be the Lord of the Rings of comic book movies. What I love most about is the sentiment echoed in every review I've seen: that Bryan Singer has, in Superman, made a summer blockbuster that's filled with heart (the one element that is notably missing from his otherwise excellent X-Men 2). My froth-meter for this movie is redlining. ANTICIPATION OVERLOAD!

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Twitchfilm reviews 3 Dev Adam & Seven Swordsmen!

Twitch, that font of news about indie, cult and world movies, has posted 2 reviews that rather pique my interest. Both of the reviews are by Todd, Twitch's founder and editor, who's a true movie buff and has great taste too (or so I gather from his reviews and posts).

The first is for the Turkish cult film 3 Dev Adam- which I wrote about 3 posts down. Sounds like Todd liked it:

3 Dev Adam is essentially the equivalent of the Dozier produced Batman TV show on acid. Played resolutely straight faced it is nonetheless a monumentally ridiculous film loaded with goofy action sequences, bizarre set pieces and absolutely littered with plot holes. The script is the flimsiest of things, existing only to get these three unlikely co-stars from fight to fight. It's as camp as camp gets, a film that aspires to B status, and appreciated on that level it's great fun.

Mmmm... sounds tasty! I'll be placing my order for a copy of the 3 Dev Adam DVD.

The second review is for the Tsui Hark-produced TV series Seven Swordsmen- based on the same story as his movie Seven Swords, which I reviewed quite positively for Aint It Cool News here. Mind you, that review should be taken with a grain of salt- I really did enjoy the movie but I glossed over it's many, many faults in my review. Now, it's main problem was that Tsui Hark was trying to cram too much story into too little screen time. Todd describes the problem well:

The edit was rushed and cramped and far too many supposedly key figures – including most of the titular heroes – slipped by the wayside doing little more than poking their heads on screen to remind people that they were still around.

Now, the Seven Swords TV series is 39 episodes long- ample time to tell the long, convulated story of the Seven Swordsmen of Mt Tian (who give both the and the movie and TV series their titles). Todd gives Seven Swordsmen a pretty positive review overall, though he didn't like it's soap operatic tendancies (unavoidable for a Chinese wuxia series, really). Here's his final word:

While it stops short of being a classic or essential viewing and is not without some serious shortcomings Seven Swordsmen represents a significant step forward over the theatrical Seven Swords in the area where fans felt it needed it most: in the story. Very similar in tone to the theatrical release this version gives fans far, far more in terms of characters. While Swords often felt cramped and rushed Swordsmen has ample space for everyone to stretch out and get their moment.

As a fan of the movie who really wanted to see more of the intriguing story it told, I can't want to see this series!

Friday, June 09, 2006

Ratatouille trailer is online... again!

UPDATE: You can watch the trailer, in English this time, at Apple's trailer website here.

The French trailer for Pixar's next big animated feature film, Ratatouille, leaked onto the net a couple weeks ago but was quickly taken offline. Well, a quick search for Ratatouille on Youtube uncovers 5 videos of the trailer- I guess they can't stop every single uploader. Also, blogger and animator Bartek Kujbida has kindly mirrored the Quicktime version of the trailer on his site. It's a lovely trailer- the visuals are gorgeous, as always with a Pixar movie, and the animation is great! I really like the main character's design. This movie's being (co-)directed by Brad Bird (The Incredibles, The Iron Giant), so I've got high hopes for it.

The trailer's in French, but here's a rough English translation, courtesy of Ain't It Cool News:

[Beginning]

And tonight before dessert, for your enjoyment, we introduce the cheese plate. We have this delicious goat cheese bell, real lite, real sweet. Then, an ewe that will satisfy you with its generous perfume. But, last but not least, a real old and real special...

It's a rat!

[freeze]

- And there I am. I think I have to reconsider my life. There's nothing I can do, it's over my strength, I love good food, ok? And good food is very hard to find for a rat.

- You would find I you weren't so requiring.

- I don't want to eat in dustbins, dad... What's that?

- I have no idea.

- You have no idea, but you eat it anyway, don't you?

- You know, if you can close the exit after you throw up, you have a whole lot of possibilities for food.

- Voilà! That's exactly what I meant.

(Over the movie title) Nothing of this would have happened I we did not live in Paris! And it's sooo easy to find good food in Paris! But... it's dangerous. [un-freeze].

- You have to reconsider you life!

- You know, he is right!

- Dad, it's enough!

[End]

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