Tuesday, May 22, 2007

We are all subject to the fates.



Click the pic of Eva Green as Serafina Pekula to watch the first trailer for THE GOLDEN COMPASS.

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

I need a Region 0 dvd player: Reason #2

SURVIVE STYLE 5+

I don't know what this film is about, and I don't care... I want to see it! Unfortunately I'm going to miss this screening because I'll be WAY up north in a cottage for the long weekend.

The Canada Japan Society of Toronto is hosting a screening of Gen Sekiguchi’s 2004 cult favorite “Survive Style 5+”. The all star cast of Tadanobu Asano, Vinnie Jones, Sonny Chiba, Ittoku Kishibe (and a cameo by Rinko Kikuchi) interweave five manic plot lines.

May 18th, 2007 @ 7:00 pm
National Film Board Theatre
150 John Street (NW corner of John & Richmond)
Admission: $8.00 ($5.00 for CJST members)


Also, there doesn't appear to be a Region 1 dvd available :(

Wednesday, May 9, 2007

Tuesday, May 8, 2007

"Whatever I photograph I always lose."


I just watched the film PEEPING TOM, the British psychological thriller by director Michael Powell. Utterly despised by critics and audiences upon initial release in 1960, it was quickly yanked from theatres and practically buried until Martin Scorsese resurrected it by sponsoring revivals and restorations of the film in the late 1970s. It also practically ended Powell's film career. I think it's a brilliant meditation on voyeurism, especially in the way it implicates it's own audience in watching the gruesome acts of the protagonist.
Often compared to Alfred Hitchcock's PSYCHO, which was released 3 months later, it's said that after hearing the negative press reaction to PEEPING TOM, Hitchcock decided to release PSYCHO without a press screening.



The Grinding Continues...


Sure, it was a dismal failure at the box office, taking in to date only $24,283,797 on a budget of 67 million, but the GRINDHOUSE aesthetic has certainly resurfaced in pop culture. Check out these movie posters recreated in the grindhouse style at Something Awful.

Friday, May 4, 2007

"There is no doubt in my mind that (Narnia) is one of the most ugly and poisonous things I've ever read."


My favourite 'young adult' fantasy series is getting the big-budget Hollywood treatment, here is the first official teaser one-sheet.
The HIS DARK MATERIALS series also includes the books 'The Subtle Knife' and 'The Amber Spyglass' which will no doubt get film versions of their own if 'The Golden Compass' does good box office.
The quote above is attributed to author Philip Pullman, whose series has been considered the antithesis of The Chronicles of Narnia.

Tuesday, May 1, 2007

"You are about to be hurled..."


The trailer for STARCRASH (1979) makes me giddy! I'm impatiently waiting for Rogers to deliver the dvd rental to me. Until then this comprehensive fan site will have to suffice.



And it's not like I have a little crush on Caroline Munro :p