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Oh dear lord. TOKYOPOP has signed actress Melissa Joan Hart [Sabrina the Teenage Witch] and screenwriter Dan Gordon [The Hurricane, Wyatt Earp and don't forget the stellar Surf Ninjas] to take one of their properties Samurai Girl: Real Bout High School to the big screen.

Continue reading "Sabrina the Teenage Wuxia?"

Another review, another opening disclaimer. Lars Von Trier is an enormously divisive film maker. People tend to either love his work or absolutely loathe it, there are very few taking up ground in the middle. Personally, I fall into the love camp. If you've seen his earlier work and thought it was overwrought, pretentious crap you'll think the same of this one and you may as well stop now because there's nothing in this film that'll change your mind and you may as well find a more constructive use of the next few minutes than spending it sitting and reading this. If you think a little more kindly of the man continue right on in ...

Continue reading "The Five Obstructions Review"

Fangoria is reporting that Chan Wook Park's Old Boy will be hitting US theaters in February 2005 while Ji-Woon Kim's Tale of Two Sisters will be hitting in mid-December. You need to see these films. Yes. You do. Trust me. In the mean time check out the Old Boy trailers on this page and the Tale of Two Sisters trailer here.

Media bias? What media bias?

LA Weekly has just run an article detailing how Sony has been refused ad space for the DVD release of Fahrenheit 9/11 by ABC, CBS and NBC. Sony didn't even bother to ask Fox. All three major networks refused to sell them ad space during the news hour - peak time for advertisers wanting to hit an adult audience - citing proximity to the coming US federal election. Damn those media leftists always giving Bush a hard ti ... oh wait ... maybe Fox News is gonna have to find something else to rant about for a while ...

Via Greencine.

Variety reported today that computer animation studio Wild Brain has reached a deal with Miramax / Dimension to bring their animation projects to both the big screen and DVD and project number one will be a film based on Berkeley Breathed's Opus. You know, the penguin from Bloom County, Outland and now his own eponymous strip. I have three complete distinct and wildly opposed reactions to this news.

Reaction One:
Hurray! Opus on the big screen! And Berkeley's already hard at work doing character designs! Whee!

Reaction Two:
Hmmm ... Miramax moving into the CG animation world just as Disney's contract with Pixar is dissolving in a sea of unhappy feelings. Coincidence? A shot at Michael Eisner? I'll take door #2.

Reaction Three:
Sheer, abject terror. Why? Script by Craig Mazin. Craig who? Craig "I wrote Scary Movie 3" Mazin. Yeah. I see why someone would think the author of Scary Movie 3 was up to bringing a Pulitzer winner to the big screen.

More terror comes from these quotes and discriptors of the business arrangement between the two companies: "family fare"; "viable product for a reasonable price"; "family fare" (again); "family films"; "family entertainment is the biggest seller in DVD"

Uh, boys? Bill the Cat? Frequent drug use? Sex and violence? Political satire? Brilliantly surreal social criticism, yes. Cute and fuzzy children's entertainment, no. If you try to make Opus into a cuddly plush toy to sell to my three year old son you will, in the process, destroy everything that makes the character great.

First in an irregular series. I wanted to put some info together about finding posters for old and new Japanese films and western films issued in Japan. I love Japanese design and I have tried desperately to get hold of posters for some of my favourite films. Here's what I know... anyone have any more guidance?

Option 1. Buying full-size posters from Applet-J. He has two sites : otaku-j.co.jp and Applet Co. He is best conctated through emailing via his ebay account as "jjoe-nippon". His english may be broken, but he does special deals according to how many you buy and will find things for people. Posters are always packaged in very, very hard plastic tubes. His pages look unkempt but there's stuff there he still has in stock. Navigation is awkward too.

Option 2. Buying "Chirashi". A4 (8 1/2 x 11) size exact reproductions of poster designs in convenient and cheap versions. Promotional leaflets for films essentially, they're still highly collectable in Japan. I use Citaya Collectables, an English man living in Japan : superb service, everything always packaged and protected well. He will also find OOP DVDs for you on request and sells film programmes, too.

There's also eBay - search for "chirashi" or "japan film poster" but they're nearly always overpriced or caught in auctions with plenty of people competing. Other site-based options for chirashi are : Magazine Queen and JMShop, the latter have extensive illustrations of those in stock, which are updated regularly. The former only lists titles it seems.

I've seen pieces online about shops in Japan but after much searching I can't find one with a site, either in Japanese or English. I would love to know of more sources if anyone else has had more success finding posters online.

*EDIT* adding this great site posted in comments by iamNataku : Twinkleonline. For HK mostly, some Japanese stuff etc.

It's been almost a year since the Japanese DVD for this Studio Ghibli masterpiece, "Nausicaa in the Valley of the Wind". I preordered it back then and it's got a cherished place alongside every other Japanese release of Ghiblis' work on my shelf. It's so rich, original, stylish - and the animation is second to none. Really: if you consider yourself a film fan (as the saying goes...) you've simply got to see it.

No longer do i have to endure the cut VHS version, retitled "Warriors of The Wind", which is long out of production. Instead, this 1984 masterpiece is remastered in its extended, complete version, in such glorious quality that it is difficult for me to remember a better disc ever being put out.

You should get the delayed USA disc next year, but this issue was my favourite of last year... do yourself a favour if you haven't seen this, or anything of Miyazaki's beyond the Oscar winning "Spirited Away", and get this disc - now!

There's a late, but great review from one such person here.

I've seen all of the Lord of the Rings films at the cinema. I've bought all the extended DVDs so far. Will be getting the final one, too. I'm not obsessive, but I do love the production values, the story telling, and I think that it's great Peter Jackson finally gets chosen for a project that shows his wonderfully unique style off so well.

So. Would you like me to link you to some pictures of the boxe(s), the menu(s) and some grabs from the added scenes from the extended "Return of The King"?. I know, it comes in at around 250 minutes ... I may have to watch this one over two nights as the film has one major flaw - the ending just seems to keep arriving and then there more and more stuff happening.

Falls dangerously between "cure for insomnia" and "absolute masterpiece" and could seem either at any point in time, even if you're a huge fan I reckon. Check out the full specs too, over here.

Yes, we have Robots, Shark Tale, Shrek, Toy Story, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles... now it's the one i have been waiting for, "Madagascar".

Looks incredible, and it's Dreamworks at the mouse this time. It features some famous voices, too.

It's due to open May 27 next year in the USA. So, that's about the same time as "Revenge of the Sith" then isn't it?... see the trailer in various formats through this page at Yahoo Movies.

The trailer for Robots is now online over at Yahoo! Movies. Go here to watch the trailer. And please write your thoughts down for everyone to read. Especially me. I am in the process of upgrading my internet service and my present one is causing problems with the media player on the Yahoo! site. Curses!!!

But just look at this cast: Ewan McGregor, Halle Berry, Robin Williams, Mel Brooks, Greg Kinnear, Drew Carey, Amanda Bynes, Dan Hedaya, Jim Broadbent, Dianne Wiest, D.L. Hughley, Jamie Kennedy, Paul Giamatti, Amanda Bynes, Stanley Tucci, Harland Williams, Jennifer Coolidge. This is why I only briefly considered pursuing voice work. I wouldn't have a chance against this talent. But remember when animation was about the movie and not the actors supplying the vocal talent? :::sigh:::

Faced with the stark reality that Asian American youth are the least likely demographic in the United States to vote this November MTV's Choose or Lose campaign is teaming up with Asian celebrities to try and turn the tide. This short but a lot of fun to watch PSA stars Kelly Hu , Maggie Q , Ming-Na , Russell Wong , Tamlyn Tomita , and always funny, but not quite funny in this one, John Cho.

You can watch the PSA here.

Kudos to Rotten Tomatoes for hosting the site.

Story via KungFuCinema.

Honest, I'll stop ranting about this show sometime soon. But not before you go and watch this. A trailer for the brilliant Spaced, put together to promote the coming three disc special edition ... whee!

Not particularly work friendly, by the way ...

Link by Logboy®

I've just come across a quartet of video clips from the upcoming Day Watch, the sequel to Night Watch, which is reviewed in the next post down. My first impressions are that the camera work and lighting looks to be improved somewhat and I'm pleased that the first clips released are devoted to some quieter, character developement moments although that's most likely due simply to the film still be in post production with the 'whizz-bang' not yet inserted. Happy to see that Kostya not only returns but receives second billing.

Anyway, check them out here, here, here and here.

Let me get this out of the way right off the top: if you're thinking, "Oooh! Ewan MacGregor! Nick Nolte!" stop reading right now. I'm not talking about that film. I'm talking about this one, the Russian fantasy blockbuster that out performed the almighty Lord of the Rings films in its homeland and has been picked up for a domestic release by Fox Searchlight, who are also chipping in funding for the sequels. That one, Ewan MacGregor surrounded by corpses. This one, some Russian guy fighting the undead. Not so different, really.

Continue reading "The Night Watch Review"

Neil Gaiman has just posted another stunning still from the upcoming Mirror Mask - his feature film collaboration with Sandman illustrator Dave McKeon - here. Any chance of a trailer sometime soon? Please?

Ah, the world is a very strange place ...

The Storm Theater in New York will be premiering a live musical version of The Last Starfighter from October 15 - 30th. No, I'm not making this up. It even sounds as though they're sticking close to the film's plot - check out the synopsis from Storm's site:

An 18-year-old with an uncertain future, Alex becomes the master of a video game only to discover that it was put on Earth as a testing ground by Centauri, a huckster trying to save his vulnerable galaxy and make a little money in the process. Centauri offers Alex membership in an elite cadre of space pilots charged with protecting the universe.

Alex must find a way to reach his potential, while a great danger looms out in space, waiting for him....

Via Tagliners, where they also have a link to this song from the Silence of the Lambs musical. Really. I'm not making that up either.

Finally! After four years Wong Kar Wai's 2046 hit theatres in China today. No more going back and re-editing. No more reshoots. Just give us the goods! Well... you know... once China's had it's fill. Please?

Even Tony Leung got fed up with the lengthy drawn out process. An excerpt from an article running in ChinaDaily.com...

"I heard Wong was going to shoot more scenes with Gong Li and Faye Wong, so I shaved my moustache immediately," Leung, who starred in 'In the Mood For Love' and 'Happy Together', told Britain's Guardian newspaper. "You just can't go on shooting like that; you have to stop."

Read the full article from ChinaDaily right here.

And things apparently aren't going very well for the uber-hot Zhang Ziyi at home. Read reports of fan unrest here.

Now. If you'll excuse me I have a couple Wong Kar Wai's sitting on my coffee table to get to so I am up to speed on the man's films.

Just a friendly heads up here ... if you, like me, pre-ordered the French edition of Enki Bilal's Immortel you might want to cancel that order. Got a call from fellow Twitch-er Nick today telling me that he'd just rented the film from the local cult video store. This was a bit of a surprise because as far as I knew there was no legal version of this available anywhere in the world yet. I was wrong. The version he rented is an Asian release, I believe either mainland China or Taiwan. I haven't been able to turn up a retailer of it yet, but I will, and I can guarantee it will be a good bit cheaper than the French edition. Yes, it does include English subtitles. I can't read a word of it - a little help? - but I believe that this is the spec sheet from the Asian manufacturer. There's also a Russian edition floating around out there but I have no clue if it's subtitled.

There is always the possibility that this is a high grade bootleg but I won't know more until I hear back from the retailers that I've contacted about it ...

Well, I am not a huge fan of HK films, but I have watched a fair number of Jackie Chan movies over the years. Ever since the Police Story Boxset from IVL was announced earlier in the year I've been looking forward to it. I've been temporarily sidetracked by other DVDs, but at $38USD / £20 or so, i can't avoid it for long.

The films have been totally remastered, but appear not to be the apparently extended versions seen in Japan, apart from Part 2, and the subtitles come from the UK "Hong Kong Legends" range of DVDs, except for those in Part 3.

The picture is obviously sharper, and the aspect / framing seems to be spot-on. I'm not sure about the sound.

Anyone got or seen this set yet? Theres a thread over at the "asiandvdguide" forum containing comparison shots of the remastered version and earlier releases.

Well, I was going to leave this one alone but it's picked up so much steam on so many film sites that I figure I ought to throw my two cents in.

In a recent interview Shaun of the Dead's Simon Pegg let it be known that he's read the Watchmen script and would love to play Rorschach, which has people hyped up all over the place. As far as I can see this is a simple case of the producer of one of the most anticipated comic adaptations ever passing along the script to a comic obsessed actor friend as a favor and said friend saying - as ANY actor would - that he'd like the plum role for himself. I really wouldn't read any more into this. Don't get me wrong, I've met Simon and I like him a lot. I'm a big, big fan of his work and I think he's enormously talented. But he's not going to get the part. Here's why. Beyond any other considerations Rorschach is a violent sociopath who likes to beat people down with his hands and is very good at doing so. He's also masked a healthy majority of the time. That means that whoever plays him absolutely must be able to carry a sense of physical menace about himself based purely on body type and Simon's just not that large.

Where do I see the casting going? It's all speculation, but read on for my picks ...

Continue reading "Twitch's Take on These Watchmen Casting Rumors"

Now that my Casshern angst has ebbed somewhat thanks to my having the DVD on order it has been replaced by the absolutely delirious Survive Style 5 as my most anticipated film coming out of Japan.

This baby looks absolutely surreal thanks to some way stylized camera work, a garish color scheme and a cast that includes Tadanobu Asano (aka Ichi the Killer's Kakihara), Sonny Chiba (70's film icon most recently seen as Hattori Hanzo in Kill Bill) and Vinny Jones (former pro soccer player turned big screen goon thanks to Lock Stock and Snatch).

The site's just had a major face lift and had a stack of new material added. Fire up your Windows Media Player because you absolutely DO NOT want to miss the trailers (here, here, here and here), a series of what I can only assume are VERY surreal tv spots for the film (here, here, here, and here) and a lengthy behind the scenes clip here.

There's more but I'm so smitten by that tiger headed codpiece that I'm going to stop there. I gotta find out where I can get me one of those ...

Now, I'm not actually that big a Mel Brooks fan, but I have an enormous weak spot for Spaceballs - quite possibly one of the funniest stupid movies ever made. There have been sequel rumors floating around forever but here's one straight from the man's mouth. As quoted in Aint it Cool Brooks is writing the sequel now and sees the best case scenario for release as "a week before the new Star Wars opens." Brooks has confirmed he'll be back as Yoghurt and I can only hope and pray that Rick Moranis returns as Dark Helmet. Moranis has been out of the game for a long time now and I miss him. This would be a prime opportunity for him to make a triumphant return ...

Good Lord, no ... Aint it Cool is reporting that Pitof - the man behind the Catwoman debacle - has been tapped to direct the live action adaptation of Akira for Warner Brothers.

A note to studio heads: a large budget bomb should not be considered a positive when deciding on a director for an enormously complex, certain to be very high budget, film. What are you thinking!?! What!?!

How's this for a mind bender: Russia just may be the new breeding ground for the world's premiere genre cinema. They're certainly taking a good run at it. Strange, but true. Here's proof.

While looking around for information on Evil Dead 4 - supposedly now greenlit, see below - I turned up a listing for a Russian film just entering the early stages of production called Glubina, with a cast list that apparently includes Bruce Campbell, Rutger Hauer and Christopher Lee. The English working title is Depth and the film is based on a novel from the author of the Russian blockbuster The Night Watch - a copy of which I have sitting here waiting to be viewed and reviewed.

Here's a synopsis of the very Gibson-esque novel:

This book immediately became a cult book for the Russian web dwellers. In this book we encounter the world of the nearest future, where the Internet technologies, coupled with a "deep-program", produced the internationally shared virtual world - the Deeptown. Of its population , the most mysterious are the Divers, who can at will resist the deep-program and see not only the display picture as it is (where everyone sees an illusion of a very real world) but also programs with all their "holes" as images, and do things which the best hackers could never dream of.

Night Watch did better business in Russia than the Lord of the Rings films and has generated enough buzz that it, along with a pair of in the works sequels, has been picked up for North America by Fox. Sharing an author, key production people and some actors with Night Watch, along with western cult stars in key roles, Depth should be generating significant buzz among cult film fans any day now.

The IMDB listing is here.

**** UPDATE ****

Hauer has apparently said he doesn't know anything about this and his name has been removed from the listing.

One of the more acclaimed films of the past few years Hou Hsiao-Hsien's Millennium Mambo is a film I've been wanting to see for quite some time and now, thanks to it finally getting a domestic release via Palm Pictures, I've finally had my chance. Solid performances all 'round and brilliant cinematography make this a landmark film.

Continue reading "Millennium Mambo DVD Review"

I've said in an earlier post that I am excited that Jackie Chan has returned to Hong Kong to do more movies. It's good for him and it's good for the movie industry back home. Though for someone who is tired of being typecasted as a police officer in hollywood movies you gotta wonder why he would do it again his first movie back on his native soil. That's neither here nor there. We'll keep an eye on his current project The Myth and see where that leads him.

I will say this though. Having read this review of New Police Story over at MonkeyPeaches.com it looks like his desire to take a more dramatic turn will reach realization sooner than later. New Police Story sounds darker and heavier than anything leading up to it. But you should read about it for yourself.

The New York Times has just posted an excellent, and lengthy, article on Wong Kar Wai and 2046 here. It gets into the man's unorthodox filming style, relationships with his cast and crew and details on the film itself. Fantastic stuff. You need to register with the Times to get access to their articles, but it's free and there's nothing cheaper than free. Well worth the moment or two it'll take to get in ...

Thanks to iamNataku for the heads up.

This is big, big news if it turns out to be true ... Creature Corner has just posted this article from someone who claims to have just wrapped a project with Robert "Freddy" Englund claiming that both Freddy Vs. Jason Vs. Ash and Evil Dead 4 have gotten the go ahead. Apparently the deal for FvJvA was conditional on Evil Dead 4 also getting the go ahead.

I really don't like the idea of putting Ash into anything with Freddy, Jason or pretty much any other slasher icon. Really don't like it. At all. I just think the feel is completely wrong and that you'll end up doing some major damage to what makes the character great by trying to jam them together. That said, if this is what it took to get the money for Evil Dead 4 - which I'm positively giddy about - then I suppose it's a necessary evil that I can live with ...

Via FilmRot

DVD Fanatic has listed a full set of specs for the four disc, extended edition of The Return of the King. Due for release December 14th the four-disc set will follow the pattern of the previous extended Rings sets. The film itself - a 250 minute cut - will be split over two DVDs, which will also include four commentary tracks, with an additional two DVDs crammed with documentaries and behind the scenes features. The two things that leap out to me are the cast commentary including some split personality Gollum / Smeagol chatter, and the "Abandoned Concept: Aragorn Battlers Sauron" feature. Yeah, that was a good concept to abandon. I applaud your abandonment.

Check the full feature list here.

Monsters and Critics has posted a pair of set photos from Peter Jackson's King Kong. Both shots are of Venture - the boat used to transport the big ape - and have a decent amount of detail. If nothing else they give you a good idea of the scale he's aiming for ... Check them out here.

So ... you've got more money than you know what to do with, you're a big fan of Spider-Man and you think tossing a bit of cash towards cancer research would be a good thing. Well, here's a deal for you ...

The original Alex Ross Spider-Man paintings used in the title sequence of Spider-Man 2 have been put up for auction with all proceeds going to the Women's Cancer Research Program at UCLA.

If you want one of these be prepared to pony up some major coin. One painting is already over twenty thousand dollars. The auction site's here.

via FilmRot

So ... you couldn't make it to Toronto for the film festival but you've got this film fixated girl you want to impress. Well, don't you worry. We've got your back. What follows are capsule reviews of every film us Twitch folk got out to see, scored and ranked using our own obscure formula. Thirty nine films. Sixty two screenings. Who's at the top and bottom? Read on ...

Continue reading "TIFF Report: Our Big Festival Wrap Up"

I guess it was about ten years ago when Todd, Canfield and I got together and went to see Rumble in the Bronx. Canfield was visiting us from Chicago and we needed to kill some time between some lectures he was doing about film at our college. Who knew it would help kindle my love affair with Asian cinema.

Continue reading "Jackie Chan interview: New Police Story"

So, I keep an eye out on forums for strange films that suddenly pop-up on DVD. Admitedly they're often in European countries, and so it's often almost impossible to find decent information on them.

One film that caught my eye a while back is "Maladolescenza". Yes, It's potentially a highly-controversial film. Yes, you might have heard some naughty things about it : but it is a completely legal certified film production.

I found a couple of sites which might help some who've also read little bits find out some more. The pages contents though are "not safe for work" as they say. The sites are here and here. For fans of the very strange and unusual.

So, the boy was asking to check out some cartoons on the computer this morning and since we'd caught up on our Homestar Runner yesterday I opted to head over to Weebl and Bob since I'm a bit behind there as well ... Beyond the cartoony goodness I discovered that Weebl's coming to DVD! It looks as though they may have to alter the title to avoid lawsuits from the people who made those old Weeble toys, but the lads are hard at work sprucing up the old cartoons for the DVD and say the disc will have all cartoons in anamorphic widescreen and that it will be narrated by "the greatest Englishman alive today".

For those not in the know Weebl's the man behind the stangely compelling Badger, Badger, Badger and also publishes a regular web toon here. Check out the news here and the latest Weebl and Bob offering - it's a good one - here.

As I am wont to do from time to time I present here a list of notable films out of Asia that are now available to either purchase or pre-order. Consider it a bit of a heads up as far as what's happening on the international scene. New Twins Effect, classic Jackie Chan, killer Korean wire-fu ... we got a bit of everything ...

Continue reading "Let's Go Shopping ... A Stack of New Hong Kong DVDs Up For Pre-Order ..."

The cast list is building for George A. Romero's Land of the Dead. John Leguizamo [Ice Age, Moulin Rouge], Canadian Robert Joy [Joe Somebody, The Shipping News], and Simon Baker [Red Planet, The Ring 2] join Dennis Hopper who just oozes cool. And they do a fine job of setting the bar on the babe factor very high in zombie movies by bringing in Asia Argento [XXX].

Canadians may also recognize Boyd Banks who already looked like death warmed up in Harold & Kumar go to White Castle and starred in the remake of Romero's institution Dawn of the Dead. He's listed as 'Featured Zombie' at imdb.com

The movie marks Romero's return to the Dead series of films. The release date in 2005 is yet to be announced as the film is still in pre-production stages.

via Empire Online.

Here you go. For all those who shelled out hundreds of dollars, or £150 or so (as i seem to remember), for the uncut Japanese Kill Bill V1 deluxe boxset, cos it had a FREE TSHIRT! and a PLASTIC SWORD! - you can get the uncut asian edition of Vol.1 with Vol.2 and the SAME free SWORD! For $58 plus shipping.

Really, this is a massive pet hate of mine. People buying DVDs for any other reason than the film contained on the shining silver disc. There is loads more to buy : food for instance ... There are even more films out there that money could go on. You probably won't use the t-shirt, you can't use the sword: plastic doesn't cut too well. You probably will not make a profit on eBay, and you're going to sit and look at it gathering dust on the shelf.

What kind of DVD buyer do you consider yourself to be? Films? "Free Gifts"? "Collectors Editions"?

Like most people I originally heard of Shinya Tsukamoto thanks to his compelling but very, very strange Tetsuo: The Iron Man - an experimental film about a Japanese salary man slowly transforming into some sort of organic / metallic hybrid organism. It's beautiful to look at but quite disturbing and as a result I wrote Tsukamoto off as basically a talented freak show for quite some time. The film that changed my mind about the man was Bullet Ballet. Shot in gorgeous, high contrast black and white the film tells the story of a man driven to the brink of despair and obsession when his girlfriend commits suicide by shooting herself.

Still the most linear and straight forward film Tsukamoto has shot from one of his own scripts - he's got a couple fairly conventional director for hire jobs under his belt as well - Bullet Ballet has also strangely been the most difficult Tsukamoto film to find. That'll be changing in Januray with the release of Artsmagic's DVD release of what I consider an overlooked classic. I was sent a batch of about fifty still shots from the film, from which I've culled my favorites and posted them here. Check 'em out.

Continue reading "Still Shots From Shinya Tsukamoto's Bullet Ballet"

While there is no confirmation that Governor Schwarzenegger will return for the fourth installment of the Terminator series the screenwriters of Rise of the Machines have gone ahead and written a script and Jonathan Mostow is clearing room on his schedule to film it. And as there is no word that AH-nold is coming back there is no word that Nick Stahl or Claire Daines have agreed to reprise their roles either.

via Empire Online.

So here it is. Thankfully its the largest version of the trailer I've seen. It has the "added bonus" of english text. It's going to be cut differently though isn't it?

I will wait for the U.K DVD then, whenever that may be released.

Here you go. A short while after the first blurred on-set shots and newspaper scans of decent images, we get the real thing.

They can be seen in bigger versions by clickin the previews over at Dark Horizons.

Personally, the moment i saw The Thing as a man in a rubber suit i got worried. Don't expect this to turn out a classic comic book to film adaptation, but it's great to see they're giving it a go. I hope i am proved wrong when it comes out.

I took a quick look at the Rotten Tomatoes rating for Shaun of the Dead yesterday after the early reviews started to come in and was encouraged enough by that that I planned to write a little article labelling the film the genre's best since Army of Darkness. Well, the full slate of reviews are out now and after taking another look at the Tomatoes listing the scope of the article has expanded just a bit. After doing a quick survey of all the major zombie related titles I could think of, and after sending Mack on a quest to dig up anything I may have forgotten about, Shaun of the Dead's rating is bested by only two directors: Sam Raimi and George Romero.

I think that now makes it fair to make this pronouncement: Shaun of the Dead is an instant classic. It is the most acclaimed genre film in roughly twenty years. Go see it. Right now.

The complete list of films, listed in descending order based on Rotten Tomatoe rankings, follows. Feel free to chime in if I've left anybody out.

Continue reading "Shaun of the Dead: One of the Genre's Greats?"

I'm just going to go ahead and say this: Unleashed will prove to be, by far, the best western produced film Jet Li has ever been involved in. That's not saying so much, really, but I'll go one better and say that based on the footage I've seen so far it looks to be a very, very good film. The first bit of footage to release was very underwhelming but the international trailer - which seems to have disappeared sometime recently - changed my mind in a hurry and now IGN Filmforce has gotten their hands on the Rogue Pictures trailer for the film and it's even better than that international one was.

Li stars as Danny, a man who has lived his life imprisoned by a thoroughly creepy Bob Hoskins and forced into the ultra violent life of an illegal pit fighter. He escapes his captor and is taken in by a blind man - Morgan Freeman - and some seemingly random teenage white girl. Random teenage white girl still figures to be quite annoying but this thing scores large on all other fronts. Check out the trailer here.

Not much there yet but Sony has launched a website for the North American release of the stellar House of Flying Daggers here. For some strange reason there's no link to the Sony trailer for the film but here it is in all it's Quicktime glory. The color seemed a bit washed out when I looked at it, but still ...

Via FilmRot and AICN

If you're jonesing for more information on the Toronto Film Festival head over to Kurt's Film Blog. Thirty four capsule reviews, plus a stack of photos, covering similar ground to what we hit here though he hit a few good ones that we missed. Good stuff.

What can I say ... I'm a sucker for Aardman animation in general and the work of Nick Park in particular ...

The BBC Children's network has just inked a contract with Aardman Animation to produce a forty episode tv show based on Shaun the Sheep, a character from the Wallace and Gromit cartoons. I'd spotted some rumblings about animator Nick Park doing a series of silent, black and white shorts featuring Shaun over on the Aardman site a while back but based on the official BBC announcement it looks as though this will be something a little more conventional than that original idea ... I'd still like to see those B&W shorts get made, but in my book any Park is good Park.

It has just been announced that Jean-Pierre Jeunet's A Very Long Engagement - easily one of my most anticipated films this year as I'm a huge fan of the man's work - is slated to receive its North American premiere at the AFI Festival in Los Angeles in early November. Personally, I'm still a little bitter that this one didn't make it to the Toronto festival, but such is life. Check out the French site for the film here to see some ridiculously gorgeous behind the scenes footage. Seriously, this guy's rough behind the scenes stuff is better than most people's proper work ...

This is purely speculation on my part, but from an outsider's perspective it certainly appears that Harvey Weinstein is having his ass handed to him on a plate by Michael Eisner and Disney in his ongoing struggle with Miramax's corporate overlords.

First came word of budget roll backs, a stalled production slate, Disney putting the kibosh on Fahrenheit 9/11, and then a round of layoffs. About halfway through this year's Toronto Film Festival I realized that, in marked contrast to last year's fest where Miramax was ubiquitous, I had not seen a single Miramax related film nor had I heard of them picking up rights to a single buzz film, and that was a trend that continued through to the very end of the Festival. And not only did I not see a single Miramax related title but I'm pretty sure that NOBODY from Twitch saw anything that Miramax had rights to, unless they've got their hooks in Millions. A major film festival that Miramax wasn't cherry picking the best properties from? Unthinkable even a year ago. And now this. Another fifty five Miramax employees - thirteen percent of their current work force - have been handed their pink slips. This follows a previous layoff of what was a similar percentage of staff a couple months back.

For the better part of the past decade Miramax has been the undisputed lord and master of the art house in North America, holding rights to virtually everything and propelling a stack of now hugely influential directors into the limelight. Nobody worked the Oscar vote better than Weinstein and co. but it appears that their reign is coming to a rapid, whimpering close. Between Disney evidently looking to make an example of Weinstein with slashed budgets forcing stalled production and the firing of over a quarter of their staff and the rise of companies like Newmarket and Focus it looks as though, barring a sudden and dramatic turnaround, Miramax is done as a major tastemaker in the film world.

Today's issue of Screen Daily includes gushingly positive reviews of Shinya Tsukamoto's Vital - a film I also like a little bit - and Steven Chow's Kung Fu Hustle - a film I'm just aching to see. Check out the Hustle review here, and Vital here.

Here's the first review I've found of the lovely UK Hellraiser cube-shaped boxset. It's over at DVDTimes.co.uk which is a great place for daily news and announcements for UK and USA discs.

I would be tempted by it myself but : a) its a bit delicate-looking, don't you think? b) I am not that interested in more than the first two films.

From the grabs in the review the discs look nicely mastered. Enjoy.

Here's little challenge. Todd suggested I throw up my Juon review. Seemed like a good idea with the remake on the way. It was originally published on Imagine 'Dat! and was intended to be part of a larger article I wrote on Asian Horror.

But the other reason I'd like to reprint it here is because I think it raises some worthwhile questions about the nature of horror.

How about a little dialogue?

Continue reading "JUONNA TALK ABOUT ASIAN HORROR?!"

Only one film at VIFF interests me. IZO.

Maybe there's more showing to interest me, but right now any showing of IZO is interesting : no, i can't afford to fly over. No, I am not going to win the National Lottery this Saturday. But it is Takashi Miike.

Visit the VIFF site or the IZO site for more info or encouragement.

Ooh. A short but sweet interview with anime legend Mamoru Oshii popped up yesterday over at Midnight Eye. Plus, there is a smack of other features about other anime and manga related movies on the front page for you to look through as well. Your next couple hours are pretty much set now. Your welcome.

Is it new news?? No, no. But I think it's news until everyone I know that considers themselves a fan of horror cinema sees Uzumaki. This Lovecraftian, hurdy gurdy of a movie does anything but dance around it's central premise of cosmic dread and delivers screams, laughs and stomach churning visuals in about equal portions. The extras aren't much to speak of but the movie is unforgettable.

Continue reading "UZUMAKI HITS REGION ONE DVD!"

Here's some news that's been bubbling away just below the surface for a while but has just now become official ...

Stop motion animator Henry Selick - the director responsible for James and the Giant Peach, The Nightmare Before Christmas and the stop motion bits in the upcoming Life Aquatic - will be scripting and directing a stop motion feature based on Neil Gaiman's Coraline for Vinton Studios. These are good days for fans of Gaiman between this film and the coming Gaiman / McKeon collaboration Mirror Mask due to hit theaters soon and also good days for Vinton with Coraline joing the Tim Burton produced Corpse Bride on the production slate.

Read the Fangoria story here.

Yahoo Movies has just posted links to the trailer for John Waters' A Dirty Shame along with a trio of interviews with the writer / director himself. They stalled out and wouldn't work properly for me - it is Yahoo, after all - but you can check them out here. My review of the film from the Toronto Film Festival is here.

According to Davis DVD Napoleon Dynamite will be hitting DVD on December 21st. So, while it may not be quite as good as a delicious bass, you now have one more quality gift choice. For me. I like it when people give me things.

The disc will include both widescreen (for the clever folk) and fullscreen (for the not-so-clever folk) options as well as a commentary track from the director and star, deleted scenes and a featurette. You can see the cover art here.

Ah. The perfect date movie. A boy, a girl, stymied love and wave upon wave of the undead. Huh? Welcome to Shaun of the Dead, the romantic zombie comedy from the creators of cult classic britcom Spaced. After drawing rave reviews in his native Britain and making vocal converts of the likes of Peter Jackson, Guillermo Del Toro and George Romero, Shaun finally hits local shores on Friday. Is it as good as the advance hype? Put it this way: Shaun of the Dead is to this decade what Sam Raimi's Evil Dead / Army of Darkness films were to theirs. Shaun is an instant classic, the sort of film that will define geek culture for years. Yeah, it's that good.

Continue reading "Shaun of the Dead Review"

One of the better things about the festival experience - whether it be the just completed Toronto Film Festival or one of a few musical festivals that I've hit in the past - is the chance to connect with people who share your own particularly skewed view of the world. I have a few good friends now based purely on the fact that we just ran into each other so often at these sort of events that we bowed to the inevitability of it all and went and started planning ahead. Opus is one of those friends, so I was more than happy to host him at my place through the Toronto Film Fest and even happier to have him blogging about the experience here. If you enjoyed Opus' writing - and there's a LOT there to like - you may want to swing by his own website here where he's just posted even lengthier and more detailed reviews of all the films he caught at TIFF.

Russ Meyer - owner of the most flagrant large breast fetish in the history of the planet - has died at the age of eighty two. Whatever else you may have thought of the man there's no denying that he cast a large - and curvaceous - shadow over Hollywood. Roger Ebert, who penned a script or two for the man back in the day, has posted a lengthy obit here.

Okay ... this one caught me by surprise ... Variety is reporting that Michael Moore has signed on with Miramax as a production house for Sicko, his next film which targets the American health care system. Uh, Mike? You do remember what happened last time you worked with Miramax, don't you? All I can say is that I hope you've got some iron-clad guarantees this time round ...

Sony has just launched the North American website for Steamboy. The site itself is nothing to get all worked up over, but it does include a healthy variety of clips and the film's official trailer. This is just a brilliant film ... check out my review from the Toronto Film Festival here and check the website here.

The first images of the Fantastic Four surfaced yesterday in USA Today and ComingSoon! was kind enough to scan all four images for everyone to look. See the team here.

Pesonally, I hope Jessica's Sue Storm doesn't go invisible that often because that would be a crime against humanity. I'm sort of 'meh' about the Ben Grimm makeup. Not what I was expecting but my attitude may change. First impressions though are... well... meh. And until we see stretching and fire it looks like they've done well with Reed Richards and Johnny.

What do you think? This is open for discussion folks. Here are the first images. Are they what you expected? Let us know.

Good news Los Angeles and New York. You get to see House of Flying Daggers after me but before everyone else. It is set to release in those two cities on December 3rd. Unfortunately it still looks like December 17th for the full release. The agony of waiting continues.

For now you can view the teaser trailer in glorious Quicktime in Hi or if you must, Low.

So, many will have seen the various versions of the trailer at sites across the globe. Now the official site has gone live you can hope to see more info, pictures and so on over there. I wouldnt mind a wallpaper with a picture like the one shown in a small version here.

It's probably the only horror from the USA to really catch my attention this year, if not the only one in the past five years.

But it has one downside : Danny Glover. Great actor, very underrated... just too familiar somehow.

First thing: Read that title closely. Note how it says League of Gentlemen and most definitely NOT League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Big difference.

Second thing: The League of Gentlemen is the creation of four utterly demented and equally brilliant Brits with a major fixation on classic horror films, particularly of the Hammer variety. The show is appallingly hilarious - seriously one of my favorite things ever - and has run for three seasons in the UK, also producing a brilliant Christmas special and a fantastic performance DVD. It was picked up for a season on some specialty channel in the US - Comedy Central, I think - where it mostly confused people by being so unrepentantly dark and absurdly funny simultaneously. Most people don't really get it, but those who do get it hard.

Third thing: You've seen all the ranting and raving about how great Spaced and Shaun of the Dead are, yes? You can't really take a step on any of the major film news sites without running into someone raving about how good it is. Well, these guys and those guys are good friends and for good reason. The two shows are quite different but there's a good chance that if you care for Spaced at all you'll feel the same way about the League.

Fourth thing, and the point of this increasingly long-winded post: The long rumoured League of Gentlemen feature film - tentatively titled Royston Vasey - is a go, and is in production now. Logboy emailed me to say he'd seen a note about it on AICN but I couldn't find anything there either on their main page or via their search engine - meaning that either he's hallucinating, they've removed it for some strange reason, or I'm a stupid git - but I have turned up solid confirmation here. Those kind folk are even offering to help connect people with both the London and Dublin production offices to be considered as extras. You can email them about that here. If I lived anywhere close to the UK I would be so there ...

The Monkey Peaches has posted links to a pair of proper trailers for the much anticipated 2046 - the long, long, long delayed new film from auteur Wong Kar Wai. One is a low grade Real Media file that plays out of synch and is thus not worth the time of day. The other, however, is a full two and a half minute Quicktime job. And it's gorgeous. Check it out here.

The mighty MP has also picked up on the rumors saying that the next Wong Kar Wai film will be set, once again, in Shanghai. Principal cast will revolve around Nicole Kidman and "Beat" Takeshi Kitano. I know I should be more intrigued by Kidman, but ... Kitano in a Wong Kar Wai film? Damn. That's hot.

Sony has given the website for The Grudge - the Sam Raimi produced, Takeshi Shimizu directed remake of Shimizu's brilliant Ju-On - a complete overhaul. The site now includes the ability to roam about the cursed house ... I love the original Japanese Ju-On films and I'm itching to see this ... make sure you check out the trailer while you're there ...

The official website for Oxide Pang's Abnormal Beauty is now online here and it includes a brand new trailer ... even the worst Pang films are gorgeous to look at and I have a feeling that this is going to end up being one of the good ones ... you can check out the previous trailer here ...

via KFC

The superb site Melon Farmers has recieved an email informing them that the BBFC, the U.K censors, have passed Oldboy in an apparently uncut form for cinema projection.

The questionable moment for censorship purposes would be a very disturbing scene involving seafood and narcolepsy - a sequence that would normally fall foul of U.K. censorship rules. The BBFC has strict rules regarding cruelty to animals that you would think applied here - the animal scenes in Cannibal Holocaust, for instance, would be completely out of the question - but apparently not. And that's a good thing.

*** originally posted by Logboy, edited by Todd to make it a bit less spoilerific. blame anything you don't like about it on me ***

Alright, this is where I get my revenge on all the brother's in Toronto (which I was supposed to to be able to go to!!). Starting today I'll be giving you coverage of the Chicago International Film Festival

Tonight is the media party and I'll have to abide by whatever rules govern the info we're given but yours truly will post as much as I can about the event and, if I'm able, the schedule.

I know that our reviews of "Ghost In The Shell 2: Innocence" have been a bit lacklustre, due in large part to the shallow characters and somewhat abstruse plot. However, it totally succeeds as a visual spectacle, offering up some of the most stunning sites you're likely to see in anime... which should be obvious from the various trailers that have surfaced in the past. And now you can see even more of it for yourself.

AnimeNation is reporting that the first 8 minutes of the film are now available, in several resolutions and formats (yay QuickTime), on IFilm. The first 8 minutes includes the movie's first action sequence, between Batou and a renegade android, and the stunning opening credits sequence. Needless to say, this is something that really needs to be seen on the big screen, but hey... this is better than nothing.

Click here to see Batou in action...

In our opinion Donnie Yen (HERO, Shanghai Knights, Blade 2 and Iron Monkey) deserves much more attention than he is getting in North America. His skills at the martial arts clearly rival the likes of Jet Li, Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung.

So we will do what we can to promote him. Yesterday afternoon KungFuCinema.com posted an interview Donnie did with a local Boston television station last month with the opening of HERO. It also features his mother, Master Mark, who can clearly beat up all our moms. Go here for the post to link to the television spot.

Keep in touch here for updates on Donnie's latest project with Sammo Hung, Sha Po Lang. Some stills on MonkeyPeaches.com to keep you salivating for more. Here.

Here's the first review I've come across for the Criterion issue of "Les Yeux Sans Visage", the 1959 George Franju horror masterpiece. It's over at the superb mondo-digital.

Helpful to those who have heard the buzz around this great release, but haven't seen the film.

Here it is. Seems to have first gone up at DVDAnswers.com in a larger form than i can put up here.

Specs for the disc (out 30th Nov 2004 / rrp is $30). anamorphic 2.35:1 widescreen. DD 5.1 and 6.1. Chinese with English Subtitles and Dubbed in English. Making of Featurette. Storyboards to 4 scenes. Interview with Tarantino.

We're hard at work digging up details on Marebito - the latest from Takeshi Shimizu, best known for the Ju-On films - And we've managed to turn up some fantastic cast and author news and our very own Logboy has also turned up some screen shots and one very nice behind the scenes shot.

As we reported yesterday the film will star Shinya Tsukamoto - best known as a director for Tetsuo: The Iron Man, best known as an actor for his role as Ichi's handler in Takashi Miike's ultra-violent Ichi The Killer. This in itself is enough to make the film a must see, but we've got more. The film is based on a novel of the same name written by Chiaki Konaka, a name anime geeks will recognize as the author of the HUGELY acclaimed Serial Experiments Lain.

Shimizu, Tsukamoto and Konaka all on the same project? Sounds like a sure winner to me. Continue on for the pictures ...

Continue reading "How's This For a Collision of Major Talents? The Director of Ju-On, The Director of Tetsuo: The Iron Man and the Writer of Serial Experiments Lain Meet For Marebito!"

I must admit I didnt expect it to come this soon but Fruit Chan's contribution to Three Extremes gets its own Hong Kong DVD release at the end of September, coming just in time for me to preorder it along with Takashi Miikes "One Missed Call".

Again, you can preorder it from reputable HK sites like DDDHouse.com. It has English Subtitles, 5.1 and DTS and works out at $80HK (about $10 USD / £6).

Also listed at Yesasia.com ($11.99) and Cd-wow.com (£7.99)

Each of the short films that make up the Three Extreme anthology - Takashi Miike and Chan Wook Park also contribute - were originally shot as full length features and then edited down for the anthology. This DVD of "Dumplings" is the extended 91 minute version of that part.

When you've just done some time at a major film festival you're always interested to see what other festivals have had to offer throughout the year. Given the depth and variety of viewing habits that we have here at Twitch there are some others that we could dream of attending. FanTasia is one that we got a small taste of for a couple years in Toronto before moving permanently to Montreal (John Woo's Taiwanese edit of The Killer is still a major highlight). And if we only had the money you can bet we would be at the Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival in Korea.

One of the voices in Korean cinema that I respect is Darcy Paquet over at Koreanfilm.org and recently he added his perspective on PiFan 2004 here along with reports from two other contributors to his site.

Again, if we had the money we would be there. Watching movies. And using our limited knowledge of Korean pickup lines on the ladies. Oh yeah.

That pretty three disc, tin case edition of Korean war drama Taegukgi is now available for pre-order at Yesasia with an expected release date of October 11th. Surprisingly cheap, too ...

A good few months back I posted this link over on The Movie Blog. It's all in Japanese, so none of us had a clue what it actually said but check out those pics ... those are a straight up, flawless real world version of the motor cycles from the classic anime film Akira. Naturally, speculation at the time was that there was a live action version of the story in the works ...

I've still got no clue who's actually behind it, but it looks as though that speculation was correct and anime director Katsuhiro Otomo has some sort of stake in the project. Dark Horizons is reporting that Otomo has just returned an early draft of the live action script for re-writes ...

Here's another case of 'ask and you shall receive' ... mere hours after posting those interviews with Shaun of the Dead director Edgar Wright, in which I do my very best to bully one and all into checking out Spaced - the absolutely brilliant TV show involving all of the Shaun principals - I came across this article proudly trumpeting that Spaced will be hitting US airways on the Trio channel. Seriously, if you don't already have the channel now's a good time to sign up. Spaced is pure gold. Check that link above for airtimes.

via Filmrot.

A couple days back I was wondering aloud if anyone knew anything about Marebito, the new film from Ju-on helmer Takeshi Shimizu. Maybe someone over at Fangoria was listening, because they just posted this. The film stars cult director Shinya Tsukamoto (Tetsuo: The Iron Man, A Snake of June, Vital) as a fear obsessed camera man who is drawn into a supernatural underworld. Sounds like a good time, in a very creepy sort of way. A trailer? Anyone?

via Filmrot.

I've known this existed for a while but didn't actually get around to actually watching the North American trailer for Infernal Affairs until just now. Let me say first of all that Infernal Affairs has a very well deserved reputation as one of the finest crime thrillers to release anywhere in the world over at least the past decade. In terms of plot, direction and acting this is simply an incredible film. Let me say secondly that something has, once again, gone horribly wrong over at Miramax.

One of two things has happened here: either someone who has never actually seen the film was assigned to write the dialogue for the trailer or Miramax has actually gone and changed the script of the film when it was in the subtitling / dubbing process, whichever route they've chosen to go. It wouldn't be the first time for either, or both, of these scenarios to come out of the big M, and both are equally odious. No matter which it is, though, something's wrong because that trailer is just plain wrong on some MAJOR plot points ...

Pixar good. Brad Bird good. Go watch now.

It's been a while since I had a Lynch fix so I swung by Dugpa.com today to see if anything was new - Dugpa and Lynchnet being the two best David Lynch resources on the net - and was there ever ...

The big news is that the region one DVD of Wild At Heart is finally coming down the line, and is apparently available for pre-order. Check the impressive list of specs over at Dugpa's site. I've been sorely tempted by the Korean edition of this a few times - the second disc with the Pretty as a Picture documentary has almost been enough to win me over - but it looks as though my patience is about to be rewarded ...

Also of note on there is that the world outside of North America - where the rights holders are having a bit of a tiff - can expect season two of Twin Peaks to hit DVD sometime in the spring of 2005. Thank god for my all region player ...

Now this is the best news I've had all day. It took a little more than a year but someone has finally realized that the delirious Korean genre-hopper Save the Green Planet is a work of insane genius and is bringing it to North American theaters. According to Screen Magazine Fox Lorber has purchased North American rights to the film and will be giving it a limited theatrical run starting in January 2005.

I can't even begin to summarize this film in any sort of concise way beyond saying it's about a mentally ill man who believes aliens are on their way to destroy the earth. And he may just be right. Read the review Opus wrote for it here and one I wrote here. The Korean trailers and a stack of screen shots are available here.

Via mhvf.

Ah, this happens every year ... I prep as well as I can for the Toronto Film Festival, catch a stack of films and then, as soon as everything wraps up, I start hearing about titles that I kick myself for not seeing. Case in point this time is a little film out of New Zealand titled In My Father's Den. What about it caught my eye? Well, when the folks at GreenCine start by describing a film as "Mystic River set in Twin Peaks" my blood pressure immediately starts to rise. The trailer's got the goods to back that description up, too ...

Ah, well ... it's financed by Mel Gibson's Icon Productions, so it should be hitting screens soon enough ...