Feb 27 2009

Echelon Conspiracy is set to release this Friday, its a film that was sadly made before the thunder stealing implausible Eagle Eye film of last fall. Made outside the Hollywood hoopla Echelon Conspiracy looks like a great thriller. Instant cult classic Director Greg Marcks (11:14) takes on a script by Kevin Elders (Iron Eagle) about a mysterious phone that can’t be controlled by any government.

[youtube width="625" height="544"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJnmdui0teM[/youtube]

What looks like  chapter out of North by Northwest and Enemy of The State it looks to have a grounded style and sophistication. The trailer reminded me of the book Daemon which has a computer that controls the world and it people my master manipulation.

So forget about seeing Jonas Brothers 3D this weekend and plan on seeing Echelon Conspiracy.

The curiosity factor is too high, the risk is so low. Check the Trailer for the Donnie Darko Trailer. 

[youtube width="625" height="544"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtgPQs_vU-8[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZ9vcNJ_Ros[/youtube]

Today is Valentine’s day. Why give a crummy card or predictable flowers and chocolates to your special one… why not tell them how much they mean to you in a song. Now that would be a Valentine’s to remember

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94cYXJre8uk[/youtube]

I love my Weimaraner. So you can image how I reacted when I saw this video by William Wegman. I had tears running down my face from laughing. I found a bunch of other videos that I will be posting them after the jump. I never even knew they existed!

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This new film from Henry Selick is jaw dropping film making. At every turn there are explosive amounts of creativity, design and intrigue. I almost didn’t want the film to end. The story sucks you in as she weaves her way through an alice in fucked up land alternative universe. 

I saw this film at 11am on a saturday, and I was regreting my choice of time because I hate kids and I was going to an animation film. But, I counted only 2 persons under the age of 12 in the whole sold out theater. This is an adult theme film. Its safe for kiddies, but there is no bullshit cute monsters singing, “I like to move it move it”. But there is plenty of gross out images to keep you awake at night. I take that back, there is a mouse circus, that is truly amazing, you’ll want one of your own. 

Coraline has all the sophistication you hope for in a young adult film. It never holds you hand through the rough times, it fucking slams you down and pulls you in.  Its Pan’s Labyrinth for young adults. 

I give a standing ovation to this film and give it 5 madex’s out of 5. 

A must see in 3D. Go now. Do not wait for home video. 

(I’d also like to mention, with my excitment of this film, the folks around me in the theater didn’t like, and said loudly as they left the theater, “I’M NOT A FAN”.)  They looked like people who eat paste and boogers though. and had bad skin, really bad skin. 

When I love something, it usually does horribly at the box office, so please go check it out.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Js7wxoqeVK0[/youtube]

Recently, I had the pleasure of going to the LA premiere of CORALINE. Lemme tell you, it is a visual extravaganza – eye candy in your face. Neil Gaimon, author of the original story said that after his first draft, he sent it to Henry Selick because he had to get it to the director of THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS and he knew that because he actually read the credits. They partnered with LAIKA, a stop-start animation studio in Portland so it was made outside outside of the studio system – you can tell they were able to make the movie they wanted – “out of lo-fi technology that is almost as old as filmmaking itself.”

The entire thing is hand made – in a 4-inch cat, you will have about 100 parts.   All of it has the creepy aesthetics that made Nightmare wonderful, Elfman didn’t do the soundtrack, but the score almost sounds as if Joanna Newsome composed it in the circus.  They Might Be Giants have a song in it and considering I am a giant nerd, my head nearly exploded. YOh and Um. It’s in 3-D.

Yeah. Stop-Start Animation in 3-D bitches.

GO SEE IT. GO SEE IT THIS WEEKEND. ON A BIG SCREEN. IN 3-D.

P.S. The Mouse Circus nearly blew my mind.

This 1954 film from legendary film maker Robert Wise is a well made ideologist look at corporate America from the 50′s.  When the CEO of Tredway Corporation dies with no clear successor, it is up to the board to appoint a new leader.  While a film about business sounds boring on its own they tried to make it more interesting with skinny blond ladies sprinkled throughout.

The film casts a good shadow on how businesses are disconnected from what they make and how they act on wall street. William Holding plays the get your hands dirty designer who stands for the ideals of the workingman. He goes up against the corrupt and soulless board members.  I liked this movie, I wish the turds in the middle of this current US economic crisis would look at it. Maybe they’d stop giving the money to the turkey’s in the tall towers and give it to the workers to build something worthwhile, give us something we can build that we cn have pride in,  believe in and hopefully that will stimulate our economy.

For those with no patience to watch films anymore, the clip below is the heart of the film, and a great scene. When William Holden smashes the shitty table, I just pictured someone smashing the shitty American made cars of resent years.

[youtube width="625" height="344"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7ONBkmc_pQ[/youtube]

3.5 madex’s out of 5. Its a good classic, but the heart of the film waits till the end.

Rent it.

Or you can set your DRV to record it on TMC this week.

[youtube width="625" height="344"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTihsJQHt48[/youtube]

This rant showed up yesterday from the set of T4 where Bale let loose on the films DP.

One day later, we have the remix. Enjoy

donno looks like a lot of explosions but i do have to admit snake eyes looks pretty bad ass. i’ll still probably go see it regardless, i loved this as a kid. thank god the visual effects look better than the mummy.

movie site

Director William Wyler (BEN HUR) directs this amazing award winning film I had never heard about. It stars a then hot Shirley MacLaine and toohpick Audrey Hepburn. ( Is it me or are only girls excited by Audry Hepburn, she has a nice face, but the body of Mr. Burn’s) The two ladies are Best friends from high school and they own a private school for girls in New England. A young student I like to call hack face is a spiteful, angry and super ugly child, is caught in a lie and punished. The whore cunt hack face tells her grandma that the two woman are “unnatural.” The term unnatural was used because in 1961, you couldn’t make films about homosexuals. The whore bitch’s Grandma believes her and pulls hack face out of school. The word spreads like whoop there it is and within a day they are faced with empty classrooms. Only to have the local men showing up in droves to see some scissor action.

This film was excellent, it was a rear view look at how homosexuality was viewed in those days, and how it still is everywhere but LA, SF and NYC.  It was such a curse that a rumor could kill your whole career, dreams and relationships.  I was astounded at Shirley’s performance in this film and would recommend it to anyone left with the patience to watch a  feature film.

Even with Hollywood’s strict production codes on homosexuality, this film passes censors because it still upheld the pain and suffering it should cause to be “unnatural”.

In a film interview Shirley states that even on set in those days, there was no discussion about the films hinted subject manner, it just wasn’t done.

The film was an adaption from the famous play of the same name by Lillian Hellman.

Check it out.

5 out of 5 Madex’s.

Rent it

Director Russel Mucahy (Resident Evil: Extinction) brings his ass kicking skills to lifetime’s films to watch with a tissue box. Sigourney Weaver plays  christian mother who has the picture perfect family. That is until it is infected with a Gay.  This was a cut above most made for TV preach fests, it had some horror film imagery with a young bobby dreaming of being caught in power lines while flying, and the only thing that kept this true story grounded was Ms Weaver’s performance. Sure, she cried and trashed and withheld sex from her husband, like all lifetime films, but she brought the realness of bat shit crazy Christians to the small screen.

I still don’t get why gay films for straight people have to kill the gay first so they can then understand. I know young gay suicide is a hug problem, its touched me a few times in my life with people I’ve known and the subject deserves some light so hopefully families can embraces their children and not push them to suicide.

Besides the story being too rushed, and bobby’s Christ like suicide. The film was at least a good entry level to gayness for stuck up suburban witches who neglect to accept they have gay in the family.

3 out of 5 madex.

NOTE: (having gas and farting during all the emotional scenes really makes it fun).

Check out all my past Movie Reviews. I plan on doing more this coming year. Like every fucking movie I see, so watch out for it.

we hardly give a thought to the things we use everyday. if it wasn’t for good industrial designers we would be surrounded horrible tacky products. its these people that think about every detail in the way a product is made. the shape of things, the color of things, how they feel in our hands, all the things that we normally don’t think about but if they weren’t there we would probably all notice. objectified is a new documentary film by gary hustwit who also directed helvetica. being a little bit of a design nerd i truly enjoyed helvetica. it was an insightful film that was well paced and filled with good choices from top notch typographers, great visuals and good music . i recommend it to anyone who hasn’t seen it. objectified looks like an equally interesting film about the process of industrial design and manufacturing of the things we use in everyday life. the film is set to debut at this years sxsw festival and screen in selected cities.

links:
objectified
helvetica

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAi-5FVpf7E[/youtube]

And if you think that’s embarrassing, check out his big exit after the jump…

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Forgive me for I haven’t seen everything yet, So I might revise this as the new year approaches. But from what I have seen, this is the list.

1 – LET THE RIGHT ONE IN
2 – WALL-E
3 – SON OF RAMBOW
4 – THE DARK KNIGHT
5 – MILK
6 – TROPIC THUNDER
7 – THE FOOT FIST WAY
8 – HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY
9 – DOOMSDAY
10 – BURN AFTER READING

#1 DISSAPOINTMENT- X-FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE

I still need to see theses films all the critics have been spilling over:

THE WRESTLER

SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
HAPPY GO LUCKY
GRAN TORINO
THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON

Is it really happening?  According to Ron Howard and Jeffrey Tambor…  YES!

Read full article (plus video) on Paste Magazine.