Magnet Releasing is fast becoming one of my favorite distributors and the Six Shooter series, which launches on October 24, 2008 in Los Angeles and New York, only cements their place in my current genre movie crosshairs. I’ve known for some time that they were handling the US releases of Let The Right One In, Timecrimes and Big Man Japan, three movies that I am very much looking forward to but I didn’t know what they had in store for the releases.
As I mentioned, October 24th kicks out the Six Shooter series which is six quirky genre films representing a different nation. The series kicks off with the Swedish vampire flick, Let The Right One In about the mayhem that ensues when a bullied 12 year old hooks up with his new neighbor and only friend, a child vampire. The movie has gotten a ton of press since it started showing at various festivals.
Following Let The Right One In will be the US entry, Special, about a meter maid played by Michael Rappaport who has a psychotic reaction to some medication administered to him in a clinical trial and believes that he has super powers. This opens on November 21.
From Spain comes Nacho Vigalondo’s “mind-bending” time travel flick that is getting a shit ton of positive press at this time, Timecrimes, which I personally cannot wait to see. I’ve read so much about this, mostly through the nonstop reporting on it from Twitch Film. It’s slated to be remade by David Cronenberg so we’ll have an opportunity to get a look before it’s Americanized (Canada-ized?). After that is the French Sci-Fi flick, Eden Log followed by the UK’s Doney Punch and the series winds up with the faux-ducomentary about daikaiju and the dude who fights them, Big Man Japan (aka Dainipponjin).
This is a staggering line-up of movies that the press has been drooling over since they began making the rounds at film fests. Eden Log actually makes it’s North American debut at the upcoming Toronto International Film Festival. I’m out here reporting to you from the sticks where the movie theaters don’t book this sort of stuff, so I’ll have to wait a little longer for DVD releases, but those of you in larger markets will get a chance to see some of the world’s finest genre stuff from this year and last. What begins on a bi-coastal scale showing only in LA and New York will eventually widen
I’ve never really been a fan of Nine Inch Nails. Something about it just doesn’t connect with me. I think the only album I ever liked was Pretty Hate Machine and it probably has something to do with managing to keep one foot in that late 80’s industrial sound characterized by common Waxtrax artists which I always had a thing for. However, I kept an eye on the Year Zero alternate reality game as it went down instead of taking part in it (because I just don’t have the time or the cognition to notice the details that push those games forward) and I will say this: Wow. THAT’S how you do an ARG. Leaked tracks left on thumb drives at concert venues, images in the music when viewed through an audio spectrometer, an actual live music event for those who took it all the way only to be raided by a SWAT team. That is some ambitious shit right there.
At some point I may need to give Year Zero a listen because I’m a sucker for a concept album. In spite of their mediocre rock posturing, an album that I take out every now and then is Queensryche’s Operation Mindcrime because it’s a bad ass story and the music is pretty okay. Year Zero sounds like it follows suit with a story about a near future dystopia, the US under strict government lock down and a devastating war with Iran. Sounds like pure Cory Doctorow. The LA Times is reporting in an interview with Reznor that the concept album/fucking incredible alternate reality game, Year Zero has been pitched by Reznor to HBO to become a two season TV series”
I just pitched it to HBO two weeks ago in L.A. It went great. Ideally, we’re trying to get them to do a two-year limited series. I prefer that over a film. We would have a second ARG tying into the second album and ties into the series and they all happen together with a budget needed to pull that all off. There would be a tour down the road. The record completes the story, the ending that no one knows. I know what happens. I knew when I started it. And it’s not what people think.
I’m fairly convinced that Worst Case Scenario is going to come out on the eve of December 21th, 2012 and the joke will be on us. So while we wait for the eschaton we might as well indulge in some Nazi zombies that will hold us over. Looks like Norway is going to step up to the plate. Twitch Film repoted that filmmakers in Norway are readying a zombie stomp on those motherfuckers everyone (except white supremacists) loves to hate.
I’ve made my zombie fatigure pretty well known in these parts but way up around that arctic circle of ours, I haven’t explored too much in terms of movies so I’ll give these guys a little of my time. Plus, they have some kick ass watercolor posters to pimp the flick. Norway is also the official home of black metal and I loves me some black metal.
Not much else to go on but here’s the official website for the movie.
I know two things about Nigeria and that’s about it. It’s in Africa and there seems to be a lot of royalty there with money tied up in red tape. One thing that I didn’t know was that Nigeria is home to the world’s third largest film industry and that they release between 500 and 1000 movies a year. That’s a shitload of movies! Particularly from such a poor country. What’s even more impressive is how quickly this industry has sprung up. Since 1995, the Nigerian film industry exploded and they continue to crank out films today that deal with a huge variety of topics that are relevant to what seems like Nigerians and Nigerians alone. To quote the Michael Stevenson article that I will inevitably link to:
The aesthetic is loud, violent, excessive; nothing is said, everything is shouted.
Consider me immediately fascinated. I think I’m going to have to do some real research and track some of this Nigerian cinema down. I know I’ll wind up with some cheap action and horror movies but would you expect anything else? I usually don’t care much for a particular nation’s culturally significant movies. There’s something to be said about the lower end of their cinematic spectrum. What a bunch of effete intellectual filmmakers are doing with storytelling and imagery represents nothing to me. What does is what the average people are going to see which is why I tend to gravitate to gun-porn and martial arts in the East and ghetto action from France.
Anyway, for some really striking photography that represents common elements and stereotypes of Nigerian movies drop by Michael Stevenson’s page for a quick exhibit of photos by Pieter Hugo. In the meantime, I plan on tracking down Welcome To Nollywood as an introduction.
Jesus. First Bernie Mac, now Isaac Hayes. Yesterday, the 10th of August, Isaac Hayes was found dead in his home. The cause of death is not known at this time.
Over the last ten years of his life, Hayes was probably best known for being the voice of Chef on South Park, who crafted more smooth soul means for laying down with ladies than Hayes did in his entire real-life career but it shouldn’t be forgotten that he was also responsible for what is probably the best and best-known blaxploitation soundtrack ever (he also won an Oscar for it). Spend ten minutes with the Shaft soundtrack and dispute me. I dare you. Aside from that, Hayes is also credited with roles as Truck Turner and The Duke of New York (A #1!) in my personal, all-time favorite movie, Escape From New York.
In the days of my youth, back when I was filled with hopes and dreams and unsightly boogers, the local neighborhood convenience store was where my friends and I would hang out and discuss the intricacies of life. We’d also spend our lunch money on sugary foods, high-calorie carbonated beverages, and, occasionally, cheap knock-off G.I. Joe figures encased in flimsy cardboard containers. As I tore away the colorful packaging to interact with my latest molded plastic purchase one sunny summer afternoon, my unfortunate investment’s arms and legs immediately fell away, leaving only his head and torso to answer for this unsettling crime. And while I can’t recall the exact name of this ultra-cheap cash-in, I do remember the overwhelming sensation of sadness when I discovered I’d been completely ripped-off by a shady corporation looking to make a few bucks off skinny little suckers like me. Bitterness, I’ve found, never really goes away.
Instead, it lies dormant, waiting for the opportunity to live again.
Not surprisingly, this debilitating series of unwelcome emotions came screaming to the surface after viewing Scott Wheeler and Davey Jones’ opportunistic adaptation of Jules Verne’s classic novel Journey to the Center of the Earth. In true Asylum fashion, the film makes it direct-to-video debut around the same time New Line Cinema’s Brendan Fraser 3-D extravaganza dances its way into cineplexes all over the entire world. There are, however, a number of significant differences between this low-budget nonsense and the source material, though I seriously doubt that anyone who purposely rents this drek knows how to read. No offense to those who simply have absolutely no taste in film, as I’m sure your ability to comprehend the written word is outstanding.
Turns out that I had heard about Albert Pyun’s Streets of Fire project before. I saw something on Twitch Film a while back about it, I guess they’re all big-ass fans of Albert Pyun (I had the balls to knock him in their comments and took some flack for it). I hadn’t made the connection between the two, though. I think the furthest my mind went with it was, “Wow, Michael Pare is still acting? Good for him.” Before I moved on. I think I remarked briefly about the Sin City qualities of the poster design. But this is it. I got some hits from Road To Hell website yesterday and it turns out that Road To Hell is the next in the Streets of Fire series, if they’re even pursuing it as part of that canon. Details at the Road To Hell website.
I’ve been following the news about Ong Bak 2 and the trials of Tony Jaa over at Twitch Film since the earliest news about Tony retreating to a cave and practicing black magic started circulating. The story has a real Dave Chappelle quality to it where it’s fraught with crazy rumors and conjecture but the very foundation of this story is about Tony Jaa’s inability to finish shooting Ong Bak 2, a reported nervous breakdown and legendary production problems (like going way, way over budget). The latest rumors out of Thailand were that after a press conference where he broke down into tears on TV, he was whisked away in a car having been kidnapped. I don’t think he has been kidnapped, but he did issue a list of demands in order to finish Ong Bak 2.
He wants a lot of money to finish it, he wants Panna Rittikrai involved, a bigger share of the profit and an end to his contract with Sahamongkol. His production company, apparently, was not pleased and how they dealt with it is a mystery but Jaa turned up in a police station reporting that he was being followed by a car full of guys in safari suits. Sahamonkol head, Sia Jiang, turned up at the police station to talk to Jaa, who then promptly dropped the demands and agreed to finish the movie.
You know? I was really looking forward to this movie and at one time I was calling Tony Jaa the new Jackie Chan what with the high energy martial arts movies and his acrobatic skills that had the ability to thrill even the most jaded martial arts fans. I’m not so sure we’re going to be seeing much of Tony in the future.
Edit: Scratch that. I’m still looking forward to this. Look at this promo reel!
I realize that I’m probably the only guy on earth who actually likes this movie and I spend way too much time trying to legitimize it to people that challenge my opinion but I’ll never back down. I love this fucking movie. I read some really strange news today over at Ain’t It Cool News about what may or may not be a sequel to Walter Hill’s rock and roll box office bomb.
It would seem that schlockmeister supreme, Albert Pyun, is taking a break from his scabby post apocalypse productions for a feature that looks suspiciously like Streets of Fire. From AICN:
A soldier who has been fighting a long war is driven mad because he no longer believes in any purpose or righteous truth behind the killing. He comes home to a surreal world looking for his first and only love from his youth, believing she will rescue him from his demons. On the road to Edge City he encounters two seductive spree killers who oppose his efforts to find his love and the redemption he desperately seeks.
No big deal, right? Check it: Michael Pare stars as the lead, a character named Cody. Deborah Van Valeknburgh is there as his sister. There’s a woman named McCoy as Cody’s sidekick and a woman named Ellen who will probably turn out to be a rock star belting out studio outtakes from Bat out of Hell. Pretty strange, if you ask me. Still no title. Can’t say I’m disappointed. The original Streets of Fire was supposed to be the first in a trilogy of musical neo-noirs. I can only hope that Lee Ving shows up and that Dave Alvin and Jim Steinman supply the music.
I have to tell you, I’m such a snobby bastard and I hate CG animated kids movies. I really do (not really). I haven’t really seen one in a while and I can’t remember the last one I watched but to me they always seem like they’re multi-million dollar hyper-marketing ads to sell your children t-shirts and pajamas and toys and bed sheets and just about anything they can slap the logo on. Take a walk through Walmart sometime and tell me how many of these you see. I can’t believe it, but they’re still marketing the hell out of Cars! Well, enough bitching. I can admit this: Monsters vs. Aliens, though doomed to live in the shadow of its own marketing hype looks extraordinarily funny. I’ve been seeing posters for it for a while on this feed or that but until now I wasn’t sure what it was. It’s Dreamworks’ latest CG Animated feature. You get Reese Witherspoon, Seth Rogen and Will Arnett (who I can’t get enough of), monsters, aliens and the ever-so elusive funny.
I’ve never really been a fan of Nine Inch Nails. Something about it just doesn’t connect with me. I think the only album I ever liked was Pretty Hate Machine and it probably has something to do with managing to keep one foot in that late 80’s industrial sound characterized by common Waxtrax artists which I always had a thing for. However, I kept an eye on the Year Zero alternate reality game as it went down instead of taking part in it (because I just don’t have the time or the cognition to notice the details that push those games forward) and I will say this: Wow. 
I’m fairly convinced that Worst Case Scenario is going to come out on the eve of December 21th, 2012 and the joke will be on us. So while we wait for the eschaton we might as well indulge in some Nazi zombies that will hold us over. Looks like Norway is going to step up to the plate. 
Jesus. First Bernie Mac, now Isaac Hayes. Yesterday, the 10th of August, Isaac Hayes was found dead in his home. The cause of death is not known at this time.
In the days of my youth, back when I was filled with hopes and dreams and unsightly boogers, the local neighborhood convenience store was where my friends and I would hang out and discuss the intricacies of life. We’d also spend our lunch money on sugary foods, high-calorie carbonated beverages, and, occasionally, cheap knock-off G.I. Joe figures encased in flimsy cardboard containers. As I tore away the colorful packaging to interact with my latest molded plastic purchase one sunny summer afternoon, my unfortunate investment’s arms and legs immediately fell away, leaving only his head and torso to answer for this unsettling crime. And while I can’t recall the exact name of this ultra-cheap cash-in, I do remember the overwhelming sensation of sadness when I discovered I’d been completely ripped-off by a shady corporation looking to make a few bucks off skinny little suckers like me. Bitterness, I’ve found, never really goes away.
I realize that I’m probably the only guy on earth who actually likes this movie and I spend way too much time trying to legitimize it to people that challenge my opinion but I’ll never back down. I love this fucking movie. I read some really strange news today over at Ain’t It Cool News about what may or may not be a sequel to Walter Hill’s rock and roll box office bomb.
