solace in cinema : A vast wasteland of movies

This is old news by now (it came out yesterday, and there were stills from it the day before….therefore…old news). Michael Bay is directing, and Spielberg is producing is that a sign that it'll be good? no, but one thing it does mean is it will be big, expensive and a lot of shit will blow up, and that's good enough for me. This teaser is barely even that, shadow's of an autobot/decepticon is all you get … but still it's better than nothing.

Check out the teaser on the the official siter here

Also check out the stills in our flickr account here 

Well, i've avoided posting about this film long enough, and a new trailer just showed up on yahoo, so it's worth taking a look to see what the the fuss is about. Check it out here, see Sam Jackson fire spear guns, use fire extinguishers and smile at air hostesses. awesometown.

There's three main reasons I want to see this movie.

1) It's called 'Snakes on a Plane'. Ironic or otherwise there is no better title for a movie. It has it all, it's brash and it doesn't mess around… look right, there's a plane… and there's some motherfucking snakes on it. done deal

2) I read an interview with Sam Jackson that said the studio had tried to remove a lot of the swearing to get a lower age classification, and Sam had said… if they were to do it, he would quit. Sam Jackson has always been cool, but the man is obviously smart aswell, he knows this movie is going to be stupid, a lot of snakes are going to get killed, there's going to be a lot of snake-related one liner puns, and a lot of shit is going to blow up.

3) The studio wanted to change the title to something more 'commercial', once again Sam steps in. The amount of hype this film is getting around the net..from the name alone… how can it be wrong? I've even heard people use it as an adjective…"yeah it was crazy… totally 'snakes on a plane'"

As a side note, you know a film will be popular when straight to video titles rip it off.. check it out 

I wish I knew what Christopher Walken was supposed to be here. His Characters name is 'Fang' and these pictures do little to shed any light on the subject.

'Balls of fury' is a new film currently filming, set in the world of high-stakes underground ping-pong. I think i've said enough. Check out a bigger version of the image to the left here, and another one here.

It's no secret i'm a big fan of Will Ferrell, and i'm really looking forward to 'Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby'. A teaser trailer has been out for a while but now the full trailer has also just come out. Any film that appears to be a combination of 'Days of Thunder' and 'Anchorman' has to have something positive about it. 

"Rebel NASCAR driver Ricky Bobby (Ferrell) faces stiff competition in the form of his new teammate, Jean Girard (Baron Cohen). Bobby partners with his buddy Cal (Reilly), to form Thunder and Lightning, the most feared duo in the game."

Hopefully it won't be too long between this and Ferrell's next 'blades of glory'

Check out the full hi-res trailer here (low and medium also if you want them)

Also read an early review over at fish bowl films here

"TOM CRUISE USE YOUR WITCHCRAFT TO GET THE FIRE OFF ME!!!" 

Over on the partizan site I just stumbled across a promo reel for the film 'Mouth to Mouth', the first feature from canadian/brit director Alison Murray. I watched the trailer over on apple a couple of days ago, and its worth checking out, but the promo reel contains all of the same footage and more. The dusty bleached look reminds me of 'George Washington', I like that vibe, like they used old degraded film stock or something.

Here's a synopsis
"Mouth to Mouth" unfolds as Sherry, played by rising star Ellen Page (Hard Candy) meets the radical street collective SPARK - Street People Armed with Radical Knowledge – while she is living on the streets of Europe. They introduce her to an amazing and radical life as they travel towards the vineyard compound that will be their home. Manipulation abounds and Sherry comes of age realizing that individuality has its costs.

I have vague memories of seeing one of Alison's earlier films 'train on the brain' on late night tv ages ago, and being really captivated by it. Mouth to Mouth looks set to be equally compelling and beautiful (although there's no sign it will be released over here in the UK..screwed again…sob.)

Check out the promo on Partizan's site here (or a direct link is here)

Check out Alison's site here

Babel is the new film from Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, the man behind 'Amores Perros' and '21 grams'. The film is split into three seperate stories told across Morocco, Japan, Mexico and Tunisia and stars Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett and Gael Garcia Bernal ammongst a host of other international stars.

Inarritu is a director I admire a lot, he seems to be able to give his characters weight, sincerity and substance that others directors would kill for. Admitedly he's always uses some of the best character actors around, but still it takes a great director to pull that performance out of them. There's not many filmmakers around that can produce movies that make grown men cry, but Inarritu is one of them. Watch 21 grams and tell me i'm wrong.

There's an early review over at fish bowl films here

Some clips here

Some stills over at Rope of Silicon here

and a bigger version of the poster here 

The trailer for Michel Gondry's latest film 'The Science of Sleep' has finally cropped up on the french releasing site 'Gaumont'. The trailer is in french with bits of english here and there.

I'd carry on writing but I know all you want is the link, so check it out here

It looks to have captured that innocence and humour that made 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind' so popular. Even if you don't like Gondry's work (although I don't know anyone that doesn't) you can't help but admire his style.

The poster has also hit online, aswell as some clips also on the Gaumont site

Check out the larger version of the poster here

That trailer link again here in small, medium, and large

Some exclusive clips here

The official site here 

'Bug' is the latest from William Friedkin. In Friedkins career he's had as many misses as he has had hits, but that said when he's good… he's very, very good. The Exorcist, The French Connection and Blue Chips are films difficult to ignore. So anything he produces, i'm willing to have a look at, even if he was responsible for 'The Hunted'

So this year Friedkins throwing us 'Bug', here's a synopsis:

'A lonely waitress with a tragic past, Agnes rooms in a run-down motel, living in fear of her abusive, recently paroled ex-husband. But when Agnes begins a tentative romance with Peter, an eccentric, nervous drifter, she starts to feel hopeful again - until the first bugs arrive.'

If nothing else, it has my attention. Check out the clips and the bigger version of the poster.

3 clips from bug here at allocine

A bigger version of the poster over at impawards

File under 'Nerdy, but interesting'. The early word on Superman Returns is good, so far I haven't read a bad review. Personally…I can't wait. It appears to be satisfying the critics and fanboys alike… not an easy job, but if there was ever a dorky jewish kid from New Jersey that I would have picked to do it…. it would have been Brian Singer.

Over on the official Superman site (currently Hijacked by Lex Luthor no-less), there's a really interesting little making-of about how they used a combination of the original footage, and cgi to get Jor el (Marlon Brando) to give a new speech, and make him say the things Singer wanted him to say. Check it out here

The Brando footage was filmed for the original Richard Donner Superman, and Bryan Singer was granted full permission (by Donner himself) to use the footage  however he wished. A large proportion of the footage that was filmed was never used, mainly as I undertsnad it because Brando's contract stipulated that he would recieve $400,000 for every minute he was on screen. But hey now he's dead, so the studios can do what they like. har de har har…

Also at the end of the clip there's a nice little 'build-up' of inside the fortress of solitude, putting brandos face into the ice. It's worth sticking around just for that.

If they ever release this technology publicly, i'd like a Brando desktop toy, so I can make him talk to me and say thing like 'Hey… come on… turn that frown upside down. Do you want to go dvd shopping at the weekend??' or atleast get him to give me Godfather speeches.

I've been keeping up with the progress on this 'korean monster epic' over at twitch, where they're always good at sniffing out the latest and greatest from the asian market. There had been some teasing clips before, and a cracking poster released, but now there's a whole heap of stuff. Bong Joon-ho the director behind the fantastic 'memories of murder' looks to have made something special with this.

If nothing else have a look at the first youtube clip, for some shots of the monster marauding. They've captured that same wicked realistic vibe as war of the worlds had, with bits like the people seeing the monster from the train, they just bring it to life for me.

The Host - Official Website

The Host - Posters and clips 

The Host - Theatrical Trailer (Streaming, 300k, WM)
The Host - Theatrical Trailer (Streaming, 700k, WM)
The Host - Teaser Trailer (Downloadable, 6mb, WMV)

The Host - YouTube Clip 1 (flash)
The Host - YouTube Clip 2 (flash)

The Host - Making Of (Downloadable, 8mb, WMV)
The Host - Sina Report (Monster Included) (Streaming, 128k, WM)
The Host - Sina Report (Monster Included) (Streaming, 350k, WM)