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No one is ever going to believe you
Been spotting this great Bill Murray anecdote in a few places recently:
There’s an urban legend that’s gone around until no one is sure who it happened to, or if it happened at all. It was late one night, a few years ago, when a young man was walking through Union Square Park. He suddenly felt someone behind him, their hands over his eyes. When he turned in surprise, there was Bill Murray, his creased face leaning in close. Bill whispered, “No one is ever going to believe you,” and then just walked away.
Via: Reax Quotes
4th Jun 2009 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
New Toy Story Character Hidden In Up
nice piece on the easter eggs hidden in Pixar films over at Slashfilm
4th Jun 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Where The Blog Things Are
nice work-in-progress site for Spike Jonze's Where The Wild Things Are
3rd Jun 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Moon
(dir. Duncan Jones)
Great debut from Duncan Jones. Sam Rockwell is coming to the end of a three year solo ops mission on the moon, looking after a Helium-3 mining operation that's supplying the earth with a safe and efficient fuel source. He's kept company by Gertey, a happy-faced robot voiced by Kevin Spacey (apt name for this role), and regular video messages from his family. Of course, there wouldn't be much of a film if we just watched him going about his daily routine for too long without something going wrong up there...
Feels like it's been a while since we had a decent indie sci-fi to enjoy and it's not hard to see why: thanks to juggernaut franchises like The Matrix, Star Wars and Terminator, the genre as a whole has become the preserve of multi-million $$$ operations, relying on huge FX budgets and ear-crushing Dolby to make you believe we're in the future or in a galaxy far, far away from the one that gave us films like Dark Star or Silent Running. Even the original Terminator was a relatively low-budget affair when you look back from the perspective of Terminator: Salvation.
From the start you can tell that Jones hasn't forgotten that sci-fi didn't always equal huge budgets. That's not to suggest that Moon is held together with bits of string. Far from it. Instead, this is a film that's used its bucks wisely - reviving the use of models and carefully constructed sets to create a satisfying, lived-in feel to the lunar base. They've used CGI where needed as well, and the combo is great. From the fonts they've used for Lunar Industries, the corporate space mining operation, to the ceiling tracks that Gertey runs around, you can tell that Jones has distilled a lifetime of space-love into the look and feel here - without forgetting to write an interesting - and relevant story.
This is a film about corporate greed and industrial cynicism as much as it is about personal revelation, loneliness and freaky space oddities - exactly the sort of depth and reach that's been missing from sci-fi for a long time. If you've seen the trailer ("The last place you'd expect to find yourself...") you'll have some idea of the arena its heading into - if you haven't, this would be an ideal film to watch cold; we won't go into the mechanics of the plot here other than to say that the ping-pong scene is a treat, and that Sam Rockwell does a really impressive job as the lunar lander here. Perfectly pitched trippy soundtrack too from Clint Mansell, ex-Pop Will Eat Itself singer.
A highly enjoyable indie sci-fi that's more than the sum of its references - well worth a trip.
3rd Jun 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Read more 4 star reviewsSearch
Trailer Park: Toy Story 3D
More from Woody and Buzz in 2010: Toy Story 3D trailer up.
2nd Jun 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Michael Mann's New Deal
Interesting article up over at Creative Review about the type used in Michael Mann's upcoming Dillinger flick Public Enemies (trailer here).
The designers focussed on the depression-era styling of FDR's Works Progress Administration and came up with a whole new font, title 'New Deal'.
"The interesting thing is that the posters were not always completed by professional designers, so occasionally the typefaces and typography are quite crude and unrefined."
29th May 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Trailer Park: Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
Werner Herzog + Nic Cage + Abel Ferrara - Harvey Keitel = Crazy bones.
Trailer up for Werner's re-imagining/sequel - Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans.
28th May 2009 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Beastie Boys: Hot Sauce Committee
The Beastie Boys were on the Jimmy Fallon show this weekend, discussing their recently completed album Hot Sauce Committee. That title comes direct from their mailing list, but I'd keep that as unconfimed for now, knowing these jokers.
Live clip of So Watcha Want below.
26th May 2009 - 2 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Promo Promo: Little Joy and BSP
Nice Super-8 promo up for Little Joy's new single Next Time Around, and an excerpt from the British Sea Power soundtrack to that Man Of Aran restoration, that we have talked about before.
22nd May 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Skate or die: Days Of Their Lives
Two nice day-in-the-life videos for you. The beautifully filmed Tom Knox clip is set in London and shot by his film-maker brother Josh Knox. The clip below features smooth-skating from Parisian artist and skater Soy Panday.
#WellerTime
#Film
#Skateboarding
21st May 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Inglorious: Inglorious Basterds
Word is trickling in from Cannes on the new movie by that guy that made Death Proof.
'Don't hold your breath' seems to be the underlying theme. The Guardian are giving it one star, the BBC quite like it - but note that it's not a patch on Pulp Fiction. Even this fanboy rave from AICN notes that Brad Pitt is miscast and it's way too long.
21st May 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Snatch Wars
Don't worry, Snatch Wars is not quite what it sounds like - but it's not far off. Star Wars, starring Brick Top from Snatch as Darth Vadar. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.
19th May 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Trailer Park: Sherlock Holmes
Trailer up for Guy Ritchie's cocknified version of Sherlock Holmes. It looks like a Sherlock Holmes movie directed by Guy Ritchie.
19th May 2009 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Trailer Park: The Road
Trailer up for The Road, based on No Country For Old Men writer Cormac McCarthy's apocalyptic book. Aint-it-cool are confident the blurb at the start is just marketing waffle and that the film will stay dark.
15th May 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Latest in Christian Bale News
Mumbai Council urged to bulldoze the Batman Star's house .... one can only dream.
15th May 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
On Location With The Apes
We already covered those excellent Magnum snaps from the original Planet of the Apes set - but here's some more on-set snaps, from the Apes wiki page.
14th May 2009 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Trailer Park: Taking Woodstock
Crouching Tie-dye, Hidden Draggggggg maaaan - Ang Lee's freaking out with this Woodstock drama
13th May 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Promo Promo: Pink Mountaintops
Hot on the heels of last night's show at The Borderline (review tomorrow), check out the Pink Mountaintops' new promo for While We Were Dreaming, from Outside Love (review).
12th May 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Trailer Park: Whatever Works
Larry v Woody - one neurosis too far?
12th May 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Trailer Park: Mega Shark Vs Giant Octopus
Deborah (aka Debbie) Gibson, Lorenzo Lamas and a huge shark jumping out of the water to bite planes?! what's not to love?
12th May 2009 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Trailer Park: Terminator Salvation
Another mega-trailer up for Terminator: Salvation. Still looking pretty badass, but I can't help feeling that they've told me too much already and might have to kill me. KC has already seen it. Feedback TBA.
Director McG has been throwing a few red herrings onto the fire of possible spoliers for the movie and is already sniffing around T5.
11th May 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Film Misquotes
'Luke, I am your father' from The Empire Strikes Back tops a poll of memorable movie misquotes
11th May 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Trailer Park: Thirst
Trailer for Park Chan-Wook's new vampire horror Thirst, set to play at this year's Cannes festival
8th May 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Promo Promo: Desecration Smile
A little out of date now, but I'm loving this promo for Desecration Smile, from RHCP's Stadium Arcadium (review).
7th May 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
JJ Geeks Out
JJ Abrams on the new Trek (quite good by all accounts), Lost and writing to Speilberg as a kid...
7th May 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Trailer Park: The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus
not quite a trailer, but a first look at Terry Gilliam's new fantasy
7th May 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Trailer Park: Hisss
Twitch have got the trailer for Jennifer Lynch's bonkers-looking Bollywood snake horror Hisss
6th May 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Trailer Park: Tetro
New Francis Ford Coppola drama Tetro starring Billy Walsh Vincent Gallo. Looks like he's going arthouse again.
Update: surprisingly lucid interview with Gallo here.
6th May 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Trailer Park: District 9
Trailer up for Neill Bloomkamp's South-African Sci-fi movie District 9 - a feature film re-working of the short film Alive In Jo'burg that we reported on back in 2007. Looks a lot slicker, but still a pretty interesting concept.
4th May 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Promo Promo: Madness vs The Horrors
Two new promos up - the entertaining Dust Devil from Madness (read Creative Review's article here) and the non-Chris Cunningham directed Who Can Say, from The Horrors' latest album Primary Colours.
1st May 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
The Christian Bale Circle of Trust
The lovable Christian Bale speaks out about his infamous rant on the set of Terminator Salvation.
1st May 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
6,000,000 FPS
If only Douglas Gordon and Mogwai had waited a little longer, they could have filmed Zidane at 6,000,000 frames per second for some proper slow motion, thanks to this new camera tech.
30th Apr 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Did Alec Guinness Use His Jedi Mind Powers On James Dean?
spooky. but would it be so convincing if it was Ewan McGregor?
30th Apr 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
JJ Abrams gets Wired on Mysteries
JJ Abrams has guest-edited this month's Wired
30th Apr 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Matthew McConaughey's Next 10 Movies
good photoshop skills from Cracked
30th Apr 2009 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
The Hunt For Gollum
Fan-film The Hunt For Gollum is playing at this year's Sci-Fi London festival. Could keep everyone going while we wait for Peter Jackson to get it together. Trailer here
30th Apr 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Danny Dyer.com
it's good to know that the Danny Dyer Hammock Mouse Mat is "suitable for all types of mouse." Not sure if the Danny Dyer Logo Mug is suitable for all types of coffee or not though
29th Apr 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Bananaz
Probably not as pro-Gorillaz as I should be as a writer for Chimpomatic, but still mildly interested in the Bananaz documentary, covering the rise of the imaginary band. You can watch the whole thing over at Babelgum.
28th Apr 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Hobbit 2
The much-delayed Hobbit movies seem to have hit another hurdle, with the initial plan to create an all-new story bridging The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings being shelved, in favour of a two-part Hobbit-only movie. Sounds like this cash-in may be heading for a meltdown.
28th Apr 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Reverse Dylan
Just finished watching Todd Hayne's underwhelming Dylan biopic I'm Not There - and while the great visual style of the movie may be smothered by the sense of actors-doing-impressions, the range of coverage it gives Dylan's career is impressive.
Anyway, here's a Spotify playlist I've knocked up to reverse-code the songs featured on the soundtrack back to Dylan's original where possible (with the exception of I Can't Leave Her Behind, which Spotify didn't have). You've got to figure that these band's will have covered some of their favourite tracks, which can't make a bad compilation.
Read my original review of the sound track here.
27th Apr 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
X-Men Origins: Wolverine
(dir. Gavin Hood)
Fox
Another does-what-it-says-on-the-tin Marvel outing. It's Wolverine, and the story of how he got to be Wolverine. You know he won't die in the process because he made it all the way to X-Men 3: The Crap Stand, so there's no need to worry about any of the scrapes he gets into along the way. Anyone you've heard of from the others will also make it, with a good chance that any newbies we encounter along the way won't. If you can get over that, it's fine.
As in the other films, Hugh Jackman's early Clint charm pulls the whole thing along. He's got the chops and the sideburns, the claws and the cigars, and enough personality to make the film work. There are long passages where this is totally all you need, and it's quite fun seeing him acquire his jacket and chat about his life-long love of motorbikes etc.
It's efficient stuff, ably directed by Gavid Hood (Tsotsi, Rendition) until the obligatory blow-out ending - another one that suffers from the "hang on bad guys, just wait there while I do this thing over here for a moment and um, yes, ok, I'm ready for you to come and fight again now" syndrome that affects so many of these films. It's fine for them to ask us to believe in a chap with a metal skeleton and super-insta-healing and all that, but really, it sucks when films fall apart with basic lapses in logic. We get all the way to Stryker's evil scientist hideout - but then there's no-one there with him apart from some lab coat henchlady - he's in the US Army! Come on! Where's all his super secret soldiers or whatever?!
Liev Shrieber is a decent foil as Sabretooth (although all he and Wolverine seem to do is run at each other every 20 minutes or so); Danny Houston makes a decent Colonel Stryker and there are various other mutants along the way to please Marvel fanboys: Gambit (magic cards), The Blob (super blobby dude), Bolt (power over lightbulbs - played by Lost refugee Dominic Monaghan), Deadpool (chatty assassin), John Wraith (played by will.i.am - seems to be a bit like Nightcrawler except with a cowboy hat) etc etc.
It's nowhere near as lame as X3, and is all fairly entertaining, but it's hard not to wonder when we're going to get a whole new set of characters or worlds to get into, rather than fleshing out long-established franchises.
27th Apr 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Read more 3 star reviews
In The Loop
(dir. Armando Iannucci)
"To walk the road of peace, sometimes we need to be ready to climb the mountain of conflict..."
Great big screen translation of TV's The Thick Of It's TV (aka Yes, Minister? Fuck The Fuck Off). The mighty Peter Capaldi returns as Malcom Tucker, the spin doctor's spin doctor in a transatlantic tale of dodgy dossiers and chicken-arsed political manoeuvres that bites into the whole Iraq build-up in a scarily convincing way. MP Tom Hollander's ambiguous statements about the possibility of war land him in trouble as he finds himself being courted by hawks and doves on either side of the Atlantic, with predictably disastrous results.
This is a brilliant take on the madness of our modern political world, with all the usual suspects back from the TV show (some in slightly different roles which is a bit confusing, but fine after a while), and the added bonus of James Gandolfini in his first post-Sopranos role as a US army general caught up in the Washington political flak. Watch out for a decent Steve Coogan cameo too as a pissed-off area man back in the UK trying to get his wall fixed.
It's packed with so many great one-liners and inventive insults that you start out trying to remember them all to use in conversation later, until the sheer volume of them forces you to give up and to just sit back and enjoy the barrage of language at its fullest. It's also worth pointing out that this is a British film that's not a geezer heist, a shitcom with a punfull title or written by Jane Austen.
Giving it 4****s here in honour of the outstanding contributions to the art of swearing - it's ****ing great.
27th Apr 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Read more 4 star reviews
Super slo-mo Metallica
The Discovery Channel's Time Warp team turn their high-speed cameras up to 11 to show Metal legends Metallica thrashing in super slo-mo.
A few preview clips here
#cnrth
#Film
#Music
#Photography
#TV
25th Apr 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Woody vs Larry
Are Larry David and Woody Allen the perfect double team? New movie Whatever Works should answer the question.
24th Apr 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Ad Nauseum: Gucci
Nice ad up for Gucci perfume, directed by former bad boy Chris Cunningham. It's a pretty mainstream ad, but nicely retains some of Cunningham's signature strangeness.
23rd Apr 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet