solace in cinema : A vast wasteland of movies

.. more than possibly.

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via Mike_2.0

Without wanting to go all Al Pacino.. FUCK YOU WEINSTEINS!..FUUUUCKKKK YOUUUU!!

Here’s the news as simply as I can put it without breaking out in some kind of tourettes style outburst. Due to the Weinstein’s influence; Momentum (the UK distribution company for Grindhouse) will not only be splitting the film into two separate pieces, but they’re not releasing Death Proof until September the 21st, and Planet Terror has no release date as yet.

You can read their bullshit press release over at variety if you so choose (via filmstalker)

OK… here’s the thing, I was cool waiting until June (the original slated release date when it was all in one piece), I really was. I wasn’t happy about waiting and having to attempt to avoid youtube clips, reviews and smug stateside people on message boards until that date… but I was going to try and give it a go. If for nothing else just for the cinematic sanctity of taking in the new Tarantino film, and the new Rodriguez film, ..together…unspoilt and in one sitting.

I can’t have this film dangled over me like filmick whitebait anymore, I’m already sick of waiting, and i’m sure as hell not going to hang around until September just to see the film in a state it wasn’t designed to be shown in anyway… AND… PAYING FUCKING TWICE FOR THE PLEASURE!!!!

Here it is, straight up… I’m not waiting until September. I will be downloading Grindhouse, either that or i’m going to walk down the road and buy it on dvd from a Chinese guy in Tesco’s car park.

I rarely download films, and I’m a more than frequent cinema-attendee, which considering the prices in London where I live (It averages about £9 a ticket.. that’s.. well considering the low-dollar at the moment, about US$20) isn’t something to be scoffed at. I just can’t wait another five months for something I’ve already been waiting a year for.

I could cry about It a bit more, call for boycotts, but I’m sure people can make up their own minds how to deal with the situation. I know what I’m doing.

I think I probably mentioned before that some of these spy photos from the various Batman sets around Chicago weren’t that interesting, and honestly most of them aren’t. Lots of pictures of the ‘Gotham City Bank’, lot of pictures of lights and more than a couple of yellow school buses. That being said I still look at them, and I guess it just that anything related to ‘The Dark Knight’ gets me all sugared up like a 12yr old on a Saturday morning.

A couple of people sent me emails earlier today directing me towards videos on youtube of the jokers gang entering the bank, and them making their getaway in a school bus. They’re not hugely exciting… but I think it’s still cool to see.

Check out the gang entering the building here, and their getaway from a distance here.

Then I was browsing the imdb message boards and came across a link to this much more interesting video over at revver, featuring some close-ups of the Jokers gang zip-lining onto the bank and then cutting the power. You get a good view of the gang in their masks and you can also see Christopher Nolan strutting around (pictured). Check it out here

The article that accompanies this image over at USAtoday is also pretty interesting, just talking about how Robert Downey Jnr has been getting in shape and generally preparing for his role as Iron Man, and some interesting comments from Favreau:

“We didn’t want to just go with a safe choice,” Favreau says from the set of the film, due in theaters May 2, 2008. “The best and worst moments of Robert’s life have been in the public eye. He had to find an inner balance to overcome obstacles that went far beyond his career. That’s Tony Stark. Robert brings a depth that goes beyond a comic-book character who is having trouble in high school, or can’t get the girl. Plus, he’s simply one of the best actors around.”

Check out the full article here

Just the 4 photos, but an official set of stills none the less. I’ve talked a bit about the film already and it’s definitely something that’s on my radar. Hopefully it’s a return to the old-school for the Coen brothers.

Check out the stills in our flickr account here

I don’t normally write posts that relate to me personally, but I feel this one has been a long time coming and as I’m sort of in the middle of a redesign (which will make it’s debut in about a month… possibly) I’ve been attempting to refine what Solace is about. It’s not come from any outside prodding in particular but rather myself reading back through and dissecting a lot of my writing to date.

I think it’s stemmed from a Bafta discussion I attended back in March titled “The role of the film critic in the digital age”. At one point during the debate they asked if anyone in the room ran a film blog, I raised my hand thinking there would be a couple of us. There wasn’t. I stood and was bombarded with questions from the audience and the panel (which consisted of some people I highly respect including Peter Bradshaw from the guardian and Nick James editor of Sight & Sound), I don’t even really remember what I said, I think I had some form of space-odyssey style trip and passed out as people and critics beamed passed me as streaks of colour.

The one small piece of the whole debacle I do remember is that I was asked “Do you consider what you do to be criticism?”… honestly I don’t remember what I said in reply, I think I might have mumbled something about ’starting discussions’… and then just trailed off. Since then it’s been playing on my mind, not only the criticism debate, but also just Solace’s role in general, and what If anything I can do to keep Solace on track and also possibly step up my game…

I try to keep up with all the developments in the movie world but only report on 1 or 2 every day as there’s just too much going on for me to cover it and there’s a million sites that do the job with much greater depth than Solace ever could. I decided when I started what it was just going to be the stuff I was interested in, if other people wanted to get involved and write about their cinematic interests they can happily have their say. I also don’t really think of what we do here on the site as criticism, since I only really write small news items, and it’s only really ever the things that catch my eye. When I do write reviews it’s generally only for the films that initiated a strong reaction from me… I either loved it… or hated it.

This came out of left field for me, but after the luke warm ‘For your Consideration’ it’s nice to see Spinal Tap back together. The 15 minute video is a promotional piece for Microsoft’s SOS ‘Live Earth’ concert in July, which will include a Spinal Tap performance.

As always it’s a fine line.. between clever.. and stupid.

Check out the short here

via Filmick

I’m not a Harry Potter fan.. but I can’t deny this looks good.

Hi-Res trailer (17.5Mb)
Hi Def 480P (43.6Mb)
Hi Def 720P (103Mb)
Hi Def 1080P (155Mb)

Shia LeBeouf is all over Hollywood like casting-couch stains at the moment, the guy is the lead in ‘Disturbia’ which is currently the number 1 film in the states, and has the (human) lead in what is sure to be the blockbuster of the summer ‘Transformers’. With projects like this already under his belt, LeBeouf is already settled into the hollywood A-List, and is constantly being touted for new projects.

It’s been confirmed he’s going to be in Indy 4, and now according to Joblo he’s expressed interest in taking the lead in the excellent comic property ‘Y: The Last Man’:

Y: The Last Man is Brian K Vaughan’s attempt to subvert the classic male fantasy of being the last man on earth. In the series, something (speculated to be a plague) simultaneously kills every mammal possessing a Y chromosome - including embryos, fertilized eggs, and even sperm - with the exception of Yorick Brown, a young amateur escape artist, and his Capuchin monkey, Ampersand.

LeBeouf I don’t mind, he’s young and goofy, yet slightly suave, kind of a young Tom Hanks. He’s also not your standard high-cheek boned disposable hollywood fluffer, I think he could actually carry off some pretty hefty acting roles. Well if ever there’s a good test for that it’s casting him in a post-apocalyptic version of ‘Any which way but loose’ ….I say bring it on.

I can always get into epic-battle movies, and with the high calibre of actors they seem to have on board this film, i’m certainly interested in giving it a look. Jet-Li moving away from Chinese martial-arts films and into more serious roles, the always excellent hawk-faced Andy Lau, and pretty-faced in too many films to list Takeshi Kaneshiro (who incidentally is currently filming John Woo’s ‘The battle of Red Cliff’ alongside Tony Leung).

When this comes out I might have to back-to-back it with the new Russian film ‘Mongol‘ about Genghis Khan, and hopefully pick up some tips on how to become an evil overlord.

Trailer via twitch and kfcc