What Horror?! Japanese Film Festival

Unimpressed by the affectionately coined J-Horror, being the self-proclaimed daredevil that you are? Well, we'll see what you are made of. Go be awed by the pioneers and truly, the masters of horrors who inspired the current ever-so-copy-friendly J-Horror stereotype, at the Japanese Film Festival in Singapore this year from 25th to 30th August 2009 exclusively at the Singapore Museum with half the screenings up for free admission. Featuring Onibaba, a 1964 noir classic made in Japan, that had always remained an unseen film in my never-fulfilled to-watch-list and was released in its most appreciated condition in the Criterion Collection DVD that displayed brutal humanity in all its raw beauty and ugly facet. All kinds of frustration already ran wild here for missing out "House", a 1977 film that was written by the director's then 7-years-old daughter, with all kinds of timely weirdness in the late 70s. Check out the official site for more screening details and information pertaining the event. Be disturbed, I'll say. That's the single most unspoken element in modern horrors.

The Storm Warriors 風雲II Preview

With the summer blockbusters season behind us, the general cinema-loitering public can only look forward to the Christmas season for big budget blockbuster. And it's not just the Hollywood. Scheduled to open this Christmas, The Storm Warriors (風雲II) (see my previous entry) had just released their full trailer, in an untimely coincidence with its box office rival, Sherlock Holmes, which will also be released on the 25th of December 2009. Looks decent, what with the very much graphically pleasing shot of Nameless Wu Ming (無名, with 何家勁 Kenny Ho brilliantly cast)'s sword moves and relatively cool (but otherwise very much reeks of 300) film tone, check out the full trailer. For the fans: This last screen is here just so you know how dedicated the film is following the source.

"I Find Your Lack Of Humour Disturbing."

Unbeknownst to the general public, and more importantly the Star-Wars fanatics out there in particular, Disney actually organized their very own Star Wars Weekends event amongst employees. And to the absolute horrors for the fanboys, they actually created sets of posters on an annually basis to promote awareness of the events, away from the eyes of the public!!! Very much tongue-in-cheek ones, though... Check it out.

Robert Downey Jr Is Sherlock Holmes

Coming your way later this year, are the Sherlock Holmes Double Bill, with Guy Ritchie at helm on the serious re-imagined version featuring Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law as Holmes and Watson, respectively, while the whacky version will reunite Sacha "Brüno" Baron Cohen and his Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby co-star Will Ferrell as Holmes and Watson in an unsurprisingly comedic version. Check out the first character poster featuring Robert Downey Jr as Holmes himself.

Johnny Depp Is The Mad Hatter

Yes, it's Tim Burton's magnum opus, Alice In Wonderland, set ten years after the original adventures with Alice almost a full-fledged adult now. And yes, that's Johnny Depp alright. You would kinda half anticipated a probable romance between Alice and the good ol' Hatta by looking at that cast.

CHANGE... Into A Truck

Just in time to "coincide" with "Revenge Of The Fallen". We all knew back then that this pop art portrait of Obama gonna be iconic. And in this time and age, getting parodied, spoofed or what ever you want to called it, is just part of the trial for any pop culture remnants to reach iconic status. This cheeky image done by Tom Doyle is available for sale as an art print here.

Attack Of The Killer Bs

Rejoice yet, yer faithless, heartless (a prerequisite for any known fans, I'm afraid) fan of the infamous B action flicks! (If you have a problem recognizing this genre, think Steven Seagal with his 60s' Batman moves (yes I know he's a black belt master...doesn't make any difference to the lame & tame action sequences) and Jean-Claude Van Damme and his body of works, of whom absence here is best explained by the very much self-parodied JCVD, where he plays himself caught in an actual B Action Flick situation. Well, all in all, another story for another time.) A gathering of the B Flick stars, directed, written and starring in a lead role by the Undisputed Emperor of Bs, Sylvester Stallone himself! Let's roll with the ensemble... Jason Statham... Forget Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson or Vin "The Pacifier" Diesel, the one true heir to true blue B... Jet Li... A bone fide grade star in Asia, but sadly, made to suit B' Flicks in the West, but nonetheless beats good ol's Jason Statham when it comes to top billing... Dolph Lundgren... If Stallone is indeed the Emperor, he is the Darth Vader...with his terrifying horrendous work rate at churning out the Bs.. Stone Cold Steve Austin... Not much Bs to offer, what with his mediocre offer to Hollywood, headlining the WWE film, The Condemned and, uh not much else. Here's the poster. A Vintage...B poster, I must add. Watch for it!

Antichrist

Lars von Trier. Almost synonymous with weirdo art house flicks. Now picture this: He actually just churned out a movie on one of the favourite niche repeated ad nauseam by Hollywood. The Antichrist. Cue Slayer's metal classic's riff.... Uh no, it's not Satanic. It's Lars von Trier. So it can only be worse than that. It's probably more evil than Satanic. And that, is good. Watch for it. Agreed that the poster above was pretty nifty? Check out the trailer then. Lars von Trier's Antichrist - Official Trailer from Zentropa on Vimeo.

Blood: The Last Vampire

Aside from its slightly awkward title, "Blood: The Last Vampire", an original anime feature film produced by the impeccable Production I.G back in the year 2000, an aspiring time in anime industry where the western otaku crowds had finally started marching out in hordes (and many in their mostly pathetic cosplay get-up), was quite a mini phenomenon so to speak, spawning a fifty episode anime series (Blood+, set in an alternate reality mirroring the film), some Japanese novels, the obligatory video game, and inevitably now, a live-action feature film. The official site seemed to be under the title of "Last Blood" (probably in lieu to the earlier mentioned awkwardness in the original title) but it has been confirmed that it will remained as "Blood: The Last Vampire". The opening of the trailer seemed like a blast from the past right out of the Shaw's 70s kungfu flicks with the funky ninja types but gets pretty promising (for an actioner bill, that is) as it moves on, what with the extended gratuitous gore and the cool moves by Koyuki (famed in the west for her role in "The Last Samurai") as the very cool-looking villain. Incidentally, the film will be staying true to source by being filmed primarily in English, though marketing probably had more to with this decision, if you ask me.

What A Basterd

The tagline on the poster could have been just what the tabloids had been telling you(in their pseudo semi-hypnotic way), but then again, it is not Brad Pitt that made Inglourious Basterds one of the can't miss flick of this pathetic movie year.

Mace/Off

Really should stop yakking about how awesomely brilliant Empireonline.com is with their "50 Greatest Movie Finisher Moves", as I already had my shot in the earlier post. Too bad this one's way too neat to be left out. Part of the all-consuming hype for Attack of the Clones focused on the dust-up between Samuel L. Jackson’s Mace Windu – at last getting something to do other than nod meaningfully – and Temeura Morrison’s Jango Fett, father of Boba. Finally, it was on. Jango – he bobs! He weaves! He shoots! Mace deflects! Jango shoots again! Mace deflects again! Mace cuts off Jango’s head! Interesting move – what will Jango respond with? Oh, nothing. Damn, that was short – yet, in establishing Mace’s tough guy credentials, the brevity of the fight is all-important. Then comes the kicker. Especial kudos to Lucas for the blackly comic image of a distraught Boba picking up his dad’s helmet. Hands up who wanted Jango’s head to fall out, scarring the young lad for life? Shame on you!

Mercy Is For The Weak! The 50 Greatest Movie Finisher Moves

Heath Ledger’s Joker had already made his entrance in The Dark Knight, in that opening bank heist. But in terms of establishing his fearless psycho credentials, this moment is priceless. Having gatecrashed a meeting of mobsters – whose money he’s just stolen, remember – The Joker bamboozles everyone by ramming a pencil, point down, into a table. "I’m going to make this pencil disappear," he says and, as one of Michael Jai White’s goons approaches him, he stays true to his word by grabbing him and smashing him face-first onto the implement. "Ta-daaaaa!" cries The Joker, and suddenly everyone is taking him very seriously indeed. Rumour has it that Paul Daniels is thinking about doing the same thing in panto Just one of the many entertaining reads from the ever-resourceful Empireonline.com, "The 50 Greatest Movie Finisher Moves". Worth your puny little time browsing through.

The Storm Warriors 風雲II

The Storm Warriors (風雲II), sequel to the 1998 film The Storm Riders (風雲), AKA the semi-disastrous comic-to-movie adaptation that helped to usher in even more freakish HK comic-to-movie adaptations like "A Man Called Hero (中華英雄)" and the one that finally dropped the ball on the genre, "Dragon Tiger Gate (龍虎門)". The above sentiment might prove to be debatable to many, as common consensus dictates that sacrifices to the source material are somewhat mandatory while conducting the transition, with examples like Peter Parker developing his webshooter as another manifestation of the radioactive spider effect or Wolverine having his claw laced to his knuckle in a distinctly different manner. On both accounts, I agreed and thought of it as stylistic indifference. However, in the case for these Chinese Manhua adaptations, the alteration seemed to fit no one but probably the Costume Designers (to justify his existence) , the Writers (for exercising his forte by running wild with their creativity on the source materials) and the Directors (for banking on the source material's existing fanbase to cash out the cheque). It's 2009, and we have seen "Sin City", "The Dark Knight", "Ironman" and "Watchmen". With the Pang Brothers at helm (right after their abysmal Hollywood outings) and a seemingly sound plot line to follow, can HK's adaptation of their proud culture relic, Manhua, keep up? Judging from the snippets, I'm afraid to say that keeping fingers crossed seemed to be an optimistic way of looking at it. The trailer seemed okay notwithstanding the fact that it 's not really showing much, but the snippets are indeed worrying, to say the least. A cheap knock-off of 300 if you ask me. Nevertheless, with stroke of genius like the casting of the Nameless Wu Ming 無名 (何家勁 Kenny Ho, who successfully portrayed Hero Hua in the 1990 TV Drama adaptation of "A Man Called Hero (中華英雄)" and its 1991 sequel) and one of the best storyline in Hong Kong's Manhua history, Let's keep that finger crossed.

Behold...The Coblah Commander!

And yes, it is ugly. As usual, many thanks to toy industries' seemingly magical top hat where they legitimately spoil all conceivable spoilers (in terms of character's design, Que The Dark Knight's Joker, etc)...The Cobra Commander, from the upcoming “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra.”, courtesy of MTV Movies Blog.

Detroit Metal City: The Movie

Seems like the Japanese Movie Scene does indeed had a lesson or two to impart, to Hollywood and the World Cinema at large. After churning out several brilliant film adaptations from TV Series (the likes of Bayside Shakedown, Hero and the latest Galileo: Suspext X; so eat yer hearts out, the "X-Philes"), they are now cornering the market of film adaptation from Manga/Anime, with hits like "Death Note" and this entry in particular. Looks like fun, especially when you get Gene Simmons as the antagonist known as Jack ill Dark, the Demon God of Rock and Roll, which is fittingly in an ironic sense since the original manga name were actually a variation of Detroit Rock City, one of the many Rock Anthem from Gene Simmons' former band, KISS. Check out the trailer.

I Will Be Watching The Watchmen

High Kick Girl

You seriously just can't get more literal than this. Presenting to you what Warren Ellis called, THE GREATEST FILM TRAILER EVER.

Who Watches The Watchmen? We Now Know That The Japanese Will.

A truly interestingly alternate (in every sense of the word) take on the trailer for the upcoming "Watchmen", courtesy ofTrailerAddict, featuring many sequence that is unseen on the official trailers and teasers like, for starters, the death of Hollis Mason, the first Nite Owl, if I guessed/remembered correctly.

The End Begins...

With the divergent continuity explores itself in all its glory (in TV's Sarah Connors Chronicles), will it still interests you on whatever happened to our good ol' original suppposed messiah, John Connors in the story proper? Probably, you should, with the TV series dropping subtle nods to the movie's ongoing continuity and that reportedly, the latest sequel gonna drop some not-that-subtle nods back.

Why So Serious Shirt

A Dark Knight Tee I got from the DC Universe. A cool reversible tee that served as a homage to both The Joker and the late great Heath Ledger.