Last Post

So this is it. As usual visitors noticed from the lack of the posts in the last weeks, the inevitable finally happened and this blog is coming to its creative end one year after I started it. Soon I will be leaving the hospitality of United States and heading back to my home country with many nice memories, which means this blog will be frozen and shelved. I will not close it completely, but there will be no updates after this.
I don't know if or when I will do something like that again, but it probably won't happen on this blog. So it was fun, I was happy to see different people all around the world coming here to read all the silly things I write and leave me their responses, I am glad you all liked it.
Not much of a farewell guy, just want to say that it was nice period in my life, now it's time to move on. And remember, as someone once said, Cinema is not a matter of life and death, it's much more important than that.

Booooooo!!

After I am done booing Oliver Stone (just because), here is some nice looking photos, taken by Annie Leibovitz for Vanity Fair. Not her best work but it will do.

This is of course Stone's new movie Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, a sequel to his classic from '87.

Story and short video from the photoshoot - here.

Hearing is believing

Here is trailer for Tekken, live action adaptation of popular fighting game. After so many "based on video game" terrible films we have witnessed over the years, I think this one could finally bring the redemption to the fans of such sub genre. Apparently you just need to make sound effects of the punches real enough, and slow motion of course.

Coco No Gogo

As much as I am on team Conan in this show biz mess (hell, the whole Internet is on team Conan), I am also a bit confused. It's only 30 minutes, Coco, what is the big fucking deal? Things change, this is how it is with everything in the world. Abandoning the show just because "The Tonight Show always starts at 11:35" is not much of excuse, the damage of Conan getting out is worse than the damage of moving the show 30 minutes later. And to hell with Fallon, his show is extremely lame anyway.
US viewers are not the only people watching the show, Conan is the reason viewers in many countries over the world watch it. You are international symbol of comedy, Conan, it's not the time to be selfish. No one gives a fuck when the show starts in US, we just want to watch it. People don't care about reasons and power struggles, they only ask "Where is Conan? Why he is not on our TV like he always is?"
And I get it, almost 50 years of tradition, Johnny Carson, blah, blah, blah. Get over it Conan, take control over your ego and just go with it. You never know, six month later NBC will cancel Leno all together and it's back to 11:35 again.

Horrorfest is coming, prepare to be scared

After Dark Horrorfest usually brings obscure horror films, not suitable for the wide theatrical release, and most of the time it's for a reason. Because Horrorfest films are largely not good, gently speaking, they suck. Boring stories, bad acting, incompetent directors, you name it. And for most they are already available on DVDs, so why even bother.
But out of eight movies there is always a hope to find one, maybe two, that you can actually appreciate. Last year it was surprisingly nightmarish The Brøken, which I really liked, and my bet this year is on the Hidden (Skjult), Norwegian film that seems to have very unique visuals. The rest seem to be regular violence and torture porn, with crazy rednecks, sadistic killers, brutally slaughtered groups of college kids, pretty girls with big boobs, and some weird ghosts. There is also a nice looking zombie film, so maybe it's the second one.
The trailer for the Horrorfest looks attractive and interesting, this is what happens when you combine all eight films together, but don't expect them to be any good individually.



Few individual trailers are below.

Plans come together for the A-Team

It's the second Liam Neeson item in a row, that must be a... Liam Neeson day. Ha! I am so clever (Seinfeld fans will get it).
The trailer for the upcoming The A-Team leaked online in bad quality last week, but now much better HD version is available. It looks mostly good, realistic and gritty, up till the end. That ridiculous tank thing suddenly takes everything to the whole different place. Too early to judge but it's a warning sign for me.



For some reason that footage didn't bring any nostalgic memory of the original series, that I used to watch every freaking day after school. Maybe it's for the best.

Amanda Seyfried fans rejoice. Trailer for Chloe is here and she shows some skin!

Amanda Seyfried's stunning looks got her into the fast lane to the Hollywood stardom, constantly growing and dedicated fan base is only helping her to reach there. And now they have even more reasons to admire her. New anticipated thriller Chloe, directed by very well known arthouse director Atom Egoyan, was making festival rounds last year, receiving great reviews and building expectation. Now first trailer appeared on some French website, and so far it looks very good. You can count on Egoyan to deliver credible characters and great drama, and sexual tension in this trailer is just overflowing, jumping from the screen.
The trailer is pretty much self-explanatory, Julianne Moore, Liam Neeson and Seyfried are caught in romantic triangle with unpleasant consequences. Enjoy.



The film is coming out in March.

The Spiderman is dead. Long live the Spiderman.

I guess this deserves a separate "this just in" news item. Official press statement was released by Sony Pictures, announcing that Spider-Man 4 will proceed to production without these three.

This may sound surprising, but thinking again this was in the air and about to happen for a long time. Although I have my sympathy for Sam Raimi, I never understood why did he even enter the franchise, this was clearly not for him from the get go. And as for other two, I had no doubt they were incredibly bad choices, and there are no sentiments for them at all. All three were the reason Spider-Man movies sucked beyond simple suck. Boring and predictable movies, awkward conversations and embarrassing situation, unnatural and cartoonish special effects and anemic, below mediocre actors as leads, without a single drop of charisma or attractiveness, is not how you do epic and pompous superhero summer movie, because even extremely superficial pop product for the masses has its own rules.

So the departure of this group into history's oblivion can only make me happy, but after first reaction of relief, comes next reaction - so what now? As evident from the statement, the franchise will get a reboot, sending Peter Parker back to high-school, which means younger teen actors and suitable "teenagers with problems bigger than life" story line. And I naively though that the light was the end of the tunnel.
Apparently we are headed into much darker times, where Twilight style fandom of screaming teenage girls with unstable hormones is what producers are looking for. Saying that, I kinda beginning to develop strong nostalgy for the original Spider-Man cast, because at least for them I had some kind of opinion. The life experience shows that the future always looks scary, but when it actually arrives it seems less dramatic. In the case of Spider-Man 4, I would say apathy is the only logical outcome. Look, I don't care already.

Short Animation - The Terrible Thing of Alpha-9 (2009)

Directed by Jake Armstrong, visit his blog.

Horror forecast: more blond chicks are expected to die

While nobody expects anything good to come out of the studio headed by Michael Bay, I am still hoping that somehow the re-imagination of the cult A Nightmare on Elm Street will be strong enough to overcome the expected lack of the good script and believable characters, if only due to the presence of iconic Freddy Krueger. But the logic and previous experience with Platinum Dunes production company dictates, that this movie will suck big time, so I am afraid that my hopes are probably for nothing.
In the meantime, here is a behind the scenes look at the upcoming remake.



The poster was created by a fan, you can see his other posters for the movie here.