Wonderland

Source and interview: Wonderland Magazine

Say your Prayers

Red band trailer for the much anticipated Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day has arrived. The film is, of course, a sequel to the cultish The Boondock Saints from '99, with relatively small but loyal fan base worshiping the movie, and these hard core fans are notorious for being extremely aggressive when it comes to defending their sacred creation.
Original movie didn't make any noticeable impression on me when I first saw it, I think I need to re-watch it because I remember it very vaguely.



The film will hit the theaters on October 30, limited release.

Fantastic

Interesting behind the scenes featurette of Fantastic Mr. Fox shows how thing were done. Looks like a big effort, especially I like how they recorded the voices on locations with actors actually performing the actions.



Second trailer:



Watch more clips and featurettes on Apple Trailers and on the official Youtube channel of Fox Searchlight.
Nicely done official website also available.

Armed and Dangerous

And more Japanese crazy goodness.

First is new Japanese TV series called The Ancient Dogoo Girl, and it was created by Noboru Iguchi, that responsible for The Machine Girl and this piece of bizarreness, that I mentioned before on this blog. But it seems that he has reached new limits of absurd storytelling and costume fetish. Again. Watch this ridiculously hilarious trailer and tell me if his is not the dumbest thing you've ever seen.



The series stars pop idol Erika Yazawa and is about ancient girl, who’s revived after 10,000 years to fight evil in modern-day society, while capturing the heart of a misfit teenager named Makoto.
This is her, and the reasons for her popularity are quite obvious, no? She is over 18 on the pics, so no complaints.

More trailers for other crazy projects - below.


Second is live action adaptation of the long running manga and one time anime Iketeru Futari, translated as The Hot Couple, and it's about sex-obsessed high school 16-year old boy who loves to fantasize about young beautiful women. 'Nough said.

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Young girl in high school uniform running around with sword, decapitating heads, splashing blood. Oh yeah, it's Japanese. This is another live action adaptation of manga and anime - The Abashiri Family. The production seems extremely cheap, but what the hell. Set in the near future in Japan, the movie tells a story of a clash between gangster families, with some kind of experiments in mind control or something ridiculous like that.

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And the last one is a little different than all the above, called Assault Girls, and it's a product of imagination by acclaimed Mamoru Oshii. It is about the aftermath of global thermonuclear war, when the Earth’s surface has been turned into a desert battlefield. Three beautiful female hunters travel across the burnt landscape armed with powerful assault rifles to fight a group of deadly sand-dwelling monsters.
This one looks pretty amazing and stylish, despite the low-tech effects.



Everything was found via Nippon Cinema.

Earth, Wind and Fire

New trailer and two clips from The Storm Warriors appeared lately on the web and I didn't even notice it. Well, it's better late than never, right? So here it is. Not much of a quality, but it really can't hide the awesome fantasy visuals and ideas of this film.



Previous posts about he film - here. Two new short clips - below.

Lady Vengeance

Nicely edited and well presented trailer for new Russian crime thriller Intimate Enemy, previously known as Kill the King, is up, and it looks surprisingly attractive. With estimated budget of 4.5 million dollars, this film seems to have high production quality and good potential for international success, no wonder Colombia/Sony Pictures are involved.

One day the life of a young woman, Polina, is ruined. Somebody killed her beloved husband, causing her infinite sorrow. Mourning her loss, Polina starts to feel strong and compelling thirst for revenge. She decides to find the people responsible for the death of her husband and punish them.



Later I will update the post with translation. I've attached the subtitles to the video, just select CC option in the menu, in case it's not displayed automatically.

The Honorable Enemy

Classic anime series Space Battleship Yamato is getting new sequel in form of full length feature film, scheduled to be released in upcoming December in Japan.
The original anime told a story of a Japanese battleship Yamato, converted by humans into advanced spaceship with the help of alien race, to fight another evil alien race that slowly destroying Earth by radioactive bombs. The series was dubbed into English version for US under the name of Star Blazers, and it was very popular all around the world as well, expanding later into series of full length movies. The saga ended in 1983 with Final Yamato, so the upcoming film is the first appearance of the battleship in 26 years.
In addition to that, back in 2006 it was announced by Hollywood production company Benderspink, that they will be adapting the anime into live action film with possible release in 2010, but I am not sure if they are still behind it. There were some additional recent confirmations for this project, that it's in development, but no solid details so far.

Trailer for Space Battleship Yamato: Rebirth was just released on the official website of the film, and here it is.
The story of the movie is set in the year 2220, 17 years after the events of the last film, and will focus on efforts to evacuate the Earth due to the dangerously expanding moving black hole. The fleet of spaceships with refugees is being attacked, and Yamato is there to defend them.

As wikipedia article amusingly indicates: The Space Battleship Yamato series generally involves themes of brave sacrifice, noble enemies, and respect for heroes lost in the line of duty. Lets hope the current film will be a little bit more cynical.



And second trailer:



Few months ago, a 9 minute promo for the film appeared on the web. You can watch this CGI buffed footage here.

You can also visit English fan site of the space saga for more info about previous films and comics.

Movies - Last Seen

Short reviews of these films - below.


State of Play, USA (2009)

Average and pretentious thriller about political corruption and journalism integrity. The movie starts strong, but as the time pass it becomes more tedious and exhausting, maneuvering itself between the subplots and trying to look more complicated than it really is. The problem is that I guessed the final twist 20 minutes into the movie, so nothing really surprised me, all plot elements were quite predictable and obvious. In the end there was an opportunity for really surprising twist, that would turn the whole thing around, but writers didn't take it.
Nice to watch, despite some forced plot holes, superficial story with fake righteousness and occasional bad acting.
Special credit for Rachel McAdams for being so damn cute.

7/10


Dead Time: Kala, Indonesia (2007)

Strong film noir influences in this one. Beautifully shot, with great use of light and darkness, what makes this film visually impressive and stylish. The story mixes horror and mysticism and it's really not hard to follow.
Bunch of people are looking for a hidden treasure, that apparently guarded by supernatural beings, and only one person should know its location. Anyone else, that exposed to that information, will be brutally killed.
The film creates good sense of paranoia and fear, and despite bad acting and rubbish ending it's very nice to watch it.

8/10


Miss March [Unrated], USA (2009)

Another movie glorifying Playboy and Hugh Hefner's legacy, whatever that means.
Poorly written, vulgar and includes scenes like a person that soils himself. And, of course, it is not a teenage comedy without naked chicks, lesbians an rude sex jokes.
Still, it has its moments and sometimes even funny, but eventually it is what it is - mindless teenage comedy for drunk college students.

5/10




Duplicity, USA/Germany (2009)

One of these movies that fun to watch, but when it's over you just say "meh, so what?".
This movie is all about pretending and misleading, it is not as smart and intelligent as it pretends to be, the story is not as complicated as it's presented, and the twist is so predictable it's actually disappointing when it finally happens.
The chemistry between the leads, Owen and Roberts, is weak, with many unnecessary scenes between the two and with too many dumb conversations about trust and love, frozen pizzas and whatnot. But they still manage to hold the film together, and flow with he story, so the result is watchable, but not really satisfying.

7/10


Che: Part One, USA/France/Spain (2008)

Straightforward storytelling without unnecessary emotions and drama. All the politics aside, this is great movie on its own, without even considering that it is based on a real life person. There is no point to look into historical accuracy and biographical details of this portrayal, I think fictional Che Guevara is solid, full and complete character, perfectly played by Del Toro.
Without going deep into ideological beliefs and convictions, the film presents practical side of the Cuban revolution. There is no political debates and moral justifications, there is no attempt to judge anyone's actions, there are just real life events and real life people, walking day by day on the course they have chosen.
Steven Soderbergh once again shows what a great filmmaker he is, and what great understanding of the medium he has. No sentiments, no emotional manipulations, just a piece of history with almost documentary quality.

9/10


Che: Part Two, USA/France/Spain (2008)

Less impressive than Part One, and not that good of a film in general.
Being completely different from the first film and taking out most of his famous tricks and techniques, Soderbergh makes here some questionable decisions. Whether it's weird casting choices (Matt Damon? And how exactly Franka Potente ended up in this?) or too much shootings without any essence behind it, he is clearly going off his usual path here, not being able to create compelling structure for the plot, which makes the whole thing a bit dry and stiff.
Trying not to insult anyone and show objective point of view, Soderbergh doesn't realize that this is the biggest weakness of the film.
People fighting alongside Che in this movie are not driven by ideology or political views, most of them are just mercenaries or criminals, looking for the way to become rich. They have no real interest of changing anything, and their only motivation is exactly what motivated all kind of mercenaries since ever - promises for the spoils of war, plunder and pillage. And instead of emphasizing it, instead of showing that this was the main reason for Che's failure, the movie mostly ignores it, maybe because it would make his heroic figure a bit naive and his general struggle futile.
Too bad, because Soderbergh had a real opportunity here to say something really important. But he decided not to get involved or be direct by pointing out the flaws. As result the movie is pointless, and like a dog that finally caught his tail, but has no real idea what to do next.

7/10

Don't play with food

Another scene from Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. I imagine on the big screen in 3D it will look quite impressive.

Not just Oranges

Here is trailer for Israeli movie Ajami, that was already proclaimed as Israeli answer to Crash.
The film was already at different festivals around the world, winning special prize at Cannes and main prize at Jerusalem, and will be also shown at the upcoming Toronto festival this month as part of Contemporary World Cinema competition. Displaying rough and violent reality in the Jaffa's neighborhood Ajami, the movie tells a story of multiple characters and how accidental murder and a drug deal spur uncontrolled violence in a Arab community in the city.

Jaffa's Ajami neighborhood is a melting pot of cultures and conflicting views among Jews, Muslims and Christians. Sensitive 13-year-old Nasri and his older brother Omar live in fear when their entire family is in danger after their uncle foolishly wounds a prominent clan member. Naive young Palestinian refugee Malek works illegally in Israel to help finance the surgery that will save his mother's life. Affluent Palestinian Binj dreams of a bright future with his Jewish girlfriend. Jewish policeman Dando becomes obsessed with revenge when his brother is found dead in the West Bank...



Shorter teaser, with similar footage, was also released. You can see it here.