Twitch

"ZONAD Has Been All Over The Galaxy. He's Staying In Jimmy's Room."

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 23:38:26 -0500

Yes, please.

The full trailer for John Carney's latex-clad comedy Zonad is freshly arrived on the scene and I want more.

Simon Delaney stars as a man who escapes from a rehab facility on the night a comet passes close to the earth and hides out in a small rural town, convincing the gullible local residents that he is actually an alien from another world.

This is just smart, funny stuff, the sort of fish-out-of-water (but not really) story that could very well become a word-of-mouth cult hit. Check the trailer below!

How Do You Like Your IP MAN? With Sammo Versus Donnie Or Sammo Versus Yuen Biao?

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 23:21:04 -0500

If you find yourself confused by the sheer volume of Ip Man related projects in the works right now, you're not the only one. There is, of course, the original Wilson Yip directed Ip Man, in which Donnie Yen stars as the legendary martial arts master. That film was so successful that director Yip was immediately brought on to shoot a sequel, which is wrapping up right around now. Then there's Wong Kar Wai's rival Ip Man project, titled The Great Master, announced years ago but just getting started now. And then, from the same producers as the Yip feature there is Herman Yau's The Legend Is Born: Ip Man. No Donnie Yen in this one but Sammo Hung and Fan Siu-Wong - who both appear in both Yip films - are here along with the iconic Yuen Biao.

The trailer for this one quietly appeared a couple days back and is looking quite good, actually. Production values are solid for a Herman Yau film and the caliber of martial arts looks quite high. Check it below.

Tentacles! Teeth! Breasts! No, It's Not Hentai, It's Aussie B-Throwback EL MONSTRO DEL MAR!

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 23:10:02 -0500

Ah, the Aussie film resurgence gets right back to its exploitation roots with Michael Simpson's El Monstro Del Mar. You'll see a healthy Russ Meyer influence in there along with a good dose of Roger Corman and while I generally find the whole intentionally-bad acting thing quite grating after a while right around the time the trailer gets to that point the giant tentacle monster appears with nary a speck of CGI to be found. This pleases me far more than it should.

Three gorgeous but deadly hired killers, Beretta, Blondie and Snowball, hole up in a small beachside community to keep a low profile. But this town has a dark secret. The local old sea baron, Joseph, tries desperately to warn them to never go into the water. But these crazy vixens listen to no one, especially no crazy assed old fool. So the Kraken awakes! Now, along with Joseph and his beautiful grand daughter, Hannah, they must fight for their lives against this furious creature of the deep as the sea rises in a tidalwave of blood.
Check the trailer below!

Grace Zabriskie Quiz

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 21:28:18 -0500

Grace Zabriskie is ready for her extreme close-up, Mr. deMille!

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 21:17:37 -0500

Prolific, creepy, and just plain delightful character actress Grace Zabriskie is perhaps best known as the emotionally estranged mother of Laura Palmer on the iconic television show Twin Peaks. She remains a collaborator with director David Lynch and is sure to pop up hither and yon in his strange universes. However, this lady who hails from New Orleans, from a bar on Bourbon Street no less, has well over 100 acting credits, from daytime soap operas to Seinfeld to Academy Awards bait like An Officer and A Gentleman.

Her specialty is that slightly unhinged mother or mother-in-law that would as soon stab you in the face as bake you an apple pie. Her eyes alone can speak volumes, and she has a peculiar and compelling body language that often does more work than dialogue in her screen time. Can you name all five of the film (actually, one is from a pretty magnificent TV show) stills in the Gallery below?

Grace Zabriskie Quiz

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 20:49:27 -0500

Poster Alert: It's Swarez's first ever print!

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 20:10:03 -0500

We're proud parents around the site this week. One of our own, Swarez, has just released his first ever print! Already an accomplished movie poster artist it is long overdue that the man, the myth, the legend, release a print of his own and we couldn't be happier for him. Titled 'Just say NO to the Bollocks' it features that ever lovable combo of Sid Vicious and Nancy Reagan. Get it? Sid and Nancy? Eh? EH!?!

Those lads with impeccable taste at Nakatomi are the ones to thank for releasing this. Buy it. Buy it now!

Contest: Win a HARD REVENGE MILLY Poster and DVD! Updated!

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 19:13:00 -0500

[Update: The winners have been chosen and will soon be notified by e-mail. 10 grand prize winners will receive a poster and a DVD and 3 alternates will receive a DVD . Thanks to everyone who participated.]

Well Go USA is releasing a Region 1 DVD of the Japanese action films Hard Revenge Milly and Hard Revenge Milly: Bloody Battle on January 26th, 2010. Twitch readers have shot at winning a copy of the DVD and a poster. E-mail contest@wellgousa.com with "Twitch Film - Hard Revenge Milly Contest" as the subject line to enter (U.S. residents only). Winners will be personally notified by e-mail.

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 18:10:50 -0500

IFFR 2010: ALAMAR Review

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 16:27:24 -0500

"Alamar", the second film by director Pedro González-Rubio, deceived me. From a distance it seemed something superficial. A film that grabs its audience by merely setting it in a location many would like to spend their holiday; an idyllic coral reef. However, that would have been too easy. The fact that it took home a Tiger Award and placed number 10 at the audience award (with an average of 4.365 out of 5) at this year's International Film Festival Rotterdam hints that preconception had to be quickly adjusted.

Imagi Studios Closed Down. Say Goodbye to GATCHAMAN?

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 15:50:08 -0500

Hong Kong based Imagi Animation Studios has thrown in the towel in lieu of recent massive layoffs of over 300 employees. Back in 2007, the studio released its first CG animated feature TMNT and it became a moderate success at the box office. However, their second feature, Astro Boy fared poorly when it was released last year and consequently slams the final nail in the coffin, amidst of its earlier financial woes. The project it was planning to developed next was Gatchaman but unfortunately, I think its safe to assume its dead in the water, atleast for the time being.

...Imagi said it will continue to develop movie ideas and outsource the actual animation work to mainland China and other countries, where costs are lower.

It saddens me to see Imagi go out like this if this is truly the end. While I don't consider them on the same level of quality as Pixar or Dreamworks, I feel the studio has potential to progressively reach new heights and offer original genres of animation, namely edgy superhero action. My respect goes out to them for taking a chance in attempting something different in animation whereas most studios would not venture. Farewell, Imagi.

BLURAY THE NIGHT AWAY WITH BOOGIE NIGHTS!

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 15:48:08 -0500

This was a first time viewing for me. Firstly, if like me, you've avoided Boogie because of the subject matter you should know this, it is indeed strong stuff. But, it is R rated not NC-17 and it is also a very well made, very, very moving film that happens to take place in the adult film industry of the seventies and eighties. There is never a sense in this film that most of the characters are much more than irresponsible not very bright kids, but the incredible trick laid out is that we care deeply for them anyway, even when they can't find their way out of the awful holes they dig for themselves.

The many, many extras from the DVD are ported over here but the real reason to pick this up is the stunning upgrade in image quality. This is quite literally one of the best Blurays I've seen especially after having a chance to go back and compare t to the DVD release. Boogie Nights is also an interesting film in the career of Anderson as it shows him to be a filmmaker who has always travelled in leaps and bounds from effort to effort in terms of overall vision and execution. There's a hint of cuteness here that gets in the way at times of our feeling connected to characters rather than types. Then again in lieu of the film being about people unwittingly caught up in becoming plastic consumables some of the types ring awfully true.

BUY IT NOW

Hard Core Logo 2

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 15:34:25 -0500

Back when Pontypool was tearing up the festival circuit in late 2008, I managed to have a couple hour sit-down with director Bruce McDonald that started in his office and carried over into the bar across the street. While still in the office of Shadowshows, his production company, besides admiring a personal letter from Terrence Malick (holyshit!) that was framed on the wall, I noticed a script on the desk labeled Hard Core Logo 2 and I asked Bruce about it at the time. He was vague about the details, but Eye Weekly, a local (Toronto) entertainment paper, has a piece on all of the projects the iconic Canadian director is juggling, from his Broken Social Scene movie (This Movie Is Broken) to the recently announced Trigger, which apparently was inspired by Louis Malle's My Dinner With Andre.

The details on Hard Core Logo 2 are clipped below, but check out the full piece at EW, here.

For many years we've been talking about doing a follow-up. Hugh and Callum have both been super busy so we thought that while we were waiting -- and waiting to see if Joe Dick comes back from the dead -- we could take some of the minor characters from the first movie and put them in the foreground. So Bucky Haight, who is their mentor in the original, becomes one of the major characters. I become a major character, too -- I play the filmmaker who filmed the onscreen suicide of the unfortunate Joe Dick and who's wracked with guilt. Care Failure and her band Die Mannequin play themselves -- they're recording an album with Bucky and I'm documenting it. She's been channeling the spirit of Joe Dick -- he's writing songs through her. It's crazy but it's essentially the story of them making a record in this old dancehall in northern Saskatchewan or Kansas, depending on which country we embrace.

BLURAY RELEASE FINDS MAGNOLIA IN FULL BLOOM

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 15:32:08 -0500

Magnolia is a masterpiece of tone, filmmaking craft and moral observation offering up the despicable and redeemable in equal measure. It does this with a narrative full of extremes, people on the edge, desperation, and yet time after time it strips away their existential howling revealing what is really underneath. Encountering the films characters is like encountering an old enemy. Is he beaten down and repentant leaving us moved to extend compassion and forgiveness? When Magnolia does judge its characters it's a terrifying spectacle and you don't have a shred of doubt they deserve it. Starring Tom Cruise, the late great Jason Robards, William H. Macy, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Julianne Moore, Ricky Jay, Alfred Molina and John C. Reilly, and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, Magnolia is a film that will be watched as long as people watch film.

This Bluray edition is easily the best I've ever seen this film look in a home viewing format. Special Features are sparse in terms of anything that actually examines the film or its themes but they do include the Magnolia Video Diary which functions as a sort of shooting log, a seminar from character T.J. Mackey: Seduce and Destory, a Seduce and Destroy infomercial, the Aimee Mann Save Me music video and assorted trailers and TV Spots. Missing is the DVD edition Easter Egg of outtakes. Also missing in this reviewers opinion are any new features. This film deserves a little bit better even if this version of it is the one to get.

BUY IT NOW

IFFR 2010: "R" Review

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 12:53:08 -0500

With all the (deserved) media attention "Un Prophète" has been getting you'd almost think it is the only prison drama worth watching this year. But even at the International Film Festival Rotterdam it wasn't isolated in its genre, as the Danish documentary filmmakers Tobias Lindholm and Michael Noer presented their first narrative feature film: a prison drama called "R"...

Yet though both films give a gritty and none-too-favorable view of prisons as gangster academies instead of as places for rehabilitation, their storylines have little in common.

While "Un Prophéte" tells the extraordinary tale of someone becoming a successful career criminal through his time in jail, in "R" the opposite is true. With disheartening realism Lindholm and Noer show the daily life in a high-security prison ward where for most newcomers the only way is down.