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Trailer Park: Ikarie XB 1
Second Run DVD are delighted to announce that our next release will be JindÅ™ich Polák’s pioneering 1963 Czech sci-fi film IKARIE XB 1 on September 23.
JindÅ™ich Polák's much-imitated feature is one of the cornerstones of contemporary sci-fi cinema. Adapted from StanisÅ‚aw Lem's 1955 novel The Magellanic Cloud, and predating Gene Rodenberry's Star Trek and Kubrick's 2001, Ikarie's influence can be seen on both
16th Aug 2013 - Add Comment - Tweet
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Trailer Park: Kick-Ass 2
Contents: more ass-kicking, some Jim Carrey .
14th Mar 2013 - Add Comment - Tweet
Trailer Park: To The Wonder
Terence Malick is knocking them out at the moment... Although Javier looks like he could be piling on the jamon as usual in this one. Via @thefilmstage
19th Dec 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet
Argo
(dir. Ben Affleck)
Trenchcoats, crazy CIA plans, beards and a gripping true life hostage situation - there's a lot to enjoy in Ben Affleck's latest. Following The Town and Gone, Baby Gone, this is another assured directorial job from Affleck, here channeling the spirit of 70s classics like All The President's Men and Klute to craft an intelligent, grown-up thriller that doesn't have to resort to shoot-outs to ratchet up the tension. Bonus points for Van Halen and Led Zep on the soundtrack.
Tehran 1979: Ayatollah Khomeni's revolution is in full swing, the US embassy is stormed, 52 hostages taken - but six staff members manage to escape in the confusion and seek refuge in the Canadian embassy. Back in Washington, Carter-era spooks concoct "exfiltration" plans - with "the best bad idea" being a fake Hollywood production company scouting middle eastern locations for a Star Wars rip-off.
The film keeps the potential for any "Hollywood - so CRAZY!!" stuff to a minimum - managing to contrast it with the intensity of 70s revolutionary Tehran without resorting to Get Shorty wackiness. Max graininess in the cinematography (shot with an Arri Alexa, fact fans, as well as "on film, cut in half, blown up 200%" according to IMDB trivia) combines with actual news footage to build convincing period atmosphere.
Affleck plays Tony Mendez, the CIA agent leading the plan, a role that plays to his strengths. The rest of the casting is spot on - Bryan "Breaking Bad" Cranston, Tate "Damages" Donovan, John Goodman as Hollywood make-up expert John Chambers (responsible for Planet Of The Apes' apes and Spock's ears), Alan Arkin, Victor Garber, Rory "Dazed And Confused" Cochrane, Titus (Lost's Man in Black) Welliver, Scoot (Monsters) McNairy and a cameo from Adrienne Barbeau in the goofy Argo cast's table read.
For more background, here's the Wired article on the actual CIA operation and the real-life fake movie. It's a great read, though obviously it's pretty much the entire plot. One nice detail that gets a little lost in the film - Captain America co-creator Jack Kirby did the original comic strip-style production drawings.
24th Oct 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet
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Trailer Park: How To Make Money Selling Drugs
interesting look at drugs in America, with 50 Cent, David Simon, Eminem etc
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29th Aug 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet
Zappa on iTunes
Frank Zappa's vast* back-catalogue is now on iTunes
(*we're not kidding, there's around 80 albums on there. Well, one is a "Karaoke Hits" single, but you get the idea)
21st Aug 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet
Bob Dylan Rehearsing We Are The World
love the way Diana Ross is just casually walking by as Bob gets Stevie Wonder to try and help him get the notes
21st Aug 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet
RIP Harry Harrison
The great SF writer died yesterday. Loved the Stainless Steel Rat series as a kid. Here's Neil Gaiman's tribute
16th Aug 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet
The Lego Story
Still love a good brick session. Here's the history of Lego, narrated by Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen, grandson of Lego founder Ole Kirk Christiansen
14th Aug 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet
RIP Joe Kubert
Comic book artist Joe Kubert, one of the DC greats who worked on Sgt Rock, Hawkman and most recently on the Nite Owl Watchmen prequel with son Andy. 1926-2012
13th Aug 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet
Wishmountain - Tesco
Matthew Herbert revives Wishmountain for an album based on Tesco's top 10 selling items. Rack up those Clubcard points here (sadly it's not actually on sale via Tesco's online music shop, although these two Wishmountain tracks are)
13th Aug 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet
Elizabeth Fraser - Song To The Siren
Shakycam footage from last night's Royal Festival Hall comeback. One of the great covers of all time
7th Aug 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet
The Dark Knight Returns - As A Cartoon
After the entertaining but ultimately a bit "hang on what about ... " finale to Christopher Nolan's big screen trilogy, here's another Batman film that might be more satisfying (or totally frustrating) - an animated version of Frank Miller's Dark Knight Returns. Pt1 is out in October, Pt2 in 2013. There's a longer trailer here, or you could just read the 1986 comic. It's quite good.
6th Aug 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet
Sticky Situation
Voices of East Anglia come up trumps with this collection of 70s sticker art
3rd Aug 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet
On Location, Location
Love a good on-set pic. Here's a selection from Flavourwire
1st Aug 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet
Mark Of The Bat
Interesting piece on a rare bootleg Batman comic by Josh Simmons that's resurfaced as Mark of The Bat in Fantagraphics collection The Furry Trap
27th Jul 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet
Giant VHS Tube
Wish I'd thought of this before decommisioning my VHS archive: artist Zilvinas Kempinas has created a giant VHS tube by stretching the tapes into an 80ft walkway, for the 53rd Venice Biennale in 2009. More at Design Milk
26th Jul 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet
How To Slap Like Flea
Flea's new solo EP Helen Burns is available here
25th Jul 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet
Skate Or Die: The Epic & The Beasts
Directed by Sebastian Linda with a Red Epic
25th Jul 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet
Rewind: Sonic Youth - Bull In The Heather
Sonic Youth playing Letterman in 1994 with Bull In The Heather from Experimental Jet Set, Trash And No Star
24th Jul 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet
Promo Promo: Sigur Rós - Ég Anda
Sigur Rós have handed over the tracks to their latest album Valteri to a selection of directors with a free rein to shoot promos for any of them. This one's from Rahmin Bahrani - check the other Mystery FIlm Experiment results here
24th Jul 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet
Trailer Park: Beck - Sound Shapes
trailer for Sound Shapes, a Playstation game that features 3 new Beck songs
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23rd Jul 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet
Trailer Park: The Master
Like the look of Paul Thomas Anderson's new drama with Philip Seymour Hoffman as a Ron L Hubbard-style writer/cult leader and Joaquin Phoenix his bruiser sidekick
23rd Jul 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet
The Art Of The Title
Some great moments in film history here in this trailer for a well-put together site; love a good title sequence. More here
20th Jul 2012 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Micachu - Never stream
Micachu's new album is streaming over at Beggar's. Never is out Jul 23
20th Jul 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet
Trailer Park: Something From Nothing - The Art Of Hip Hop
heard good things about Ice-T's new doc
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19th Jul 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet
Shoegaze / Trip Hop Rewind
Party like it's 1994 with this Portishead remix of Ride's Moonlight Medicine, featuring Deep Purple's late keyboard player Jon Lord (via Factmag)
18th Jul 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet
Promo Promo: Django Django - Love's Dart
Enjoying the Beta Band-style feel to the Django Django album. Here they are in a field.
17th Jul 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet
MPFree: Hello Skinny - Smash + Grab Mixtape
Been enjoying this mixtape from Hello Skinny (via Audio Overdrive). Here's the er, Hello Skinny skinny:
Hello Skinny is the brainchild of drummer Tom Skinner, who's other current involvements include Sons Of Kemet, Mulatu Astatke, Matthew Herbert, Finn Peters and The Owiny Sigoma Band amongst many others.
The project is Skinner's first as bandleader, composer and producer [playing most of the instruments] and sees him exploring areas around and between psych-dub, electronics, downtown jazz and folk stylings.
The Smash + Grab Mix Tape features contributions from Shabaka Hutchings, Trudie Dawn Smith and Rowdy Superstar.
17th Jul 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet
Total Recall: Arnie's View
We're hoping Colin Farrell referred to Arnie's insightful Total Recall DVD commentary before taking on the remake. Thanks to @forksandtorches for remembering this one
16th Jul 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet
Promo Promo: Planet Rock And Other Tales Of The 808
808 doc coming soon - Arthur Baker, Diplo, Fatboy Slim, ?uestlove etc all featured
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13th Jul 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet
Re-Enter Sandman
Neil Gaiman (aka @neilhimself) sent this over to Comic Con to announce the return of Sandman later in the year. Really enjoyed reading (and re-reading) the series the first time around (can't believe it's the 25th anniversary though...). Here's the first new Sandman art from JH Williams III (who did a great job on Alan Moore's trippy Promethea series)
13th Jul 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet
Promo Promo: Justice - Newlands
Rollerball-style future sports video for the Justice track
13th Jul 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet
Undercity
Amazing film from Andrew Wonder exploring some of New York City's hidden architectural gems. More at Undercity. Thanks to Dr Chimp for digging this up
12th Jul 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet
Trailer Park: Jay And Seth Vs The Apocalypse
trailer for a short from Seth Rogen and Jay Baruchel that they've since worked up into a full-length feature The End Of The World, set at James Franco's house
12th Jul 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet
Board To Death: Tall Guys Don't Skate
Thurston Moore talking skating, meeting the Gonz, finding Spike Jonze and hearing Sonic Youth songs in skate vids - over at Ride channel
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12th Jul 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet
HARDtalk - Alan Moore
an interview with the comics legend - still available on iPlayer (via @serafinowicz)
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11th Jul 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet
Trailer Park: Calvin & Hobbes Documentary
A promising Kickstarter project. Love Calvin & Hobbes.
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11th Jul 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet
Promo Promo: Abe&Tell - This Man's Brighter Days
an iPad stop motion video can take you quite far
11th Jul 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet
Korg Monotron-Delay
new family of analogue micro (120 mm x 72 mm x 28 mm) ribbon synths from Korg
10th Jul 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet
MPFree: Foxygen - Waitin' 4 U
In the mood for some loose Stonesy 70s rock? New Jagjaguwar band Foxygen are making a good job of filling that space at the moment. Here's Waitin' 4 U and Make It Known
10th Jul 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet
MPFree: Frank Ocean - Sweet Life
"my TV ain't HD - that's too real..." New D/L from Wolf Gang's R&B man via @Pitchfork
9th Jul 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet
Rewind: Bobby Parker - Watch Your Step
Interesting short on Bobby Parker's track Watch Your Step, which inspired The Beatles' I Feel Fine (and Led Zep's Moby Dick)
6th Jul 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet
First Look: Pacific Rim/ Elysium
Twitch have got pics of Charlie Humman, Rinko Kikuchi and Idris Elba in Guillermo Del Toro's upcoming mecha-robots v monsters sci-fi Pacfic Rim; and a look at Matt Damon getting all Bruce Willis in Neill "District 9" Blomkamp's Elysium (a future where the rich live on a satellite orbiting Earth). Like the sound of both, intrigued to see what Del Toro does with a plot that sounds very close to late 70s/early 80s anime classic Gundam.
6th Jul 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet
Merz - No Compass Will Find Home
happy to see Accidental are releasing Merz's album No Compass Will Find Home later this year; he's also guesting on two tracks on the new Dan Le Sac album out Jul 15 - Zephyr and Long Night Of Life
5th Jul 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet
Ahoy There SeaOrbiter
looking forward to some Jacques Cousteau/Steve Zissou/SeaLab 2021 style adventures coming from the SeaOrbiter marine research submarine/skyscraper once they've built it
5th Jul 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet
Board To Death: Dark Side Of The Lens
beautifully shot, multi award-winning surf video from Mickey Smith (via this Atlantic piece in praise of Vimeo as the place to find director-led online videos)
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4th Jul 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet
Rewind: The Minutemen - Felt Like A Gringo
Great acoustic version from the masters, circa 1985. Via Verbicide
4th Jul 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet
Mac Skull
demonstrate fierce pirate individuality with this skull* sticker from Frenchstickers
*sure we've seen that somewhere before
2nd Jul 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet