Wong Kar-Wai's Grandmaster

Yay! New Wong Kar-Wai film! /Film reports it's the story of Wing Chun master Yip Man who was instructor to Bruce Lee and has been chronicled recently in the films Ip Man an Ip Man 2. But Kar-Wai's adaptation stars Tony Leung, Zhang Ziyi and from the picture shown here, will probably be a marvel to watch. My excited is apparent I hope. Check out the /Film post here! And look out for the film.

Happy moviegoing!

What the F***? Iranian Flmmaker Jafar Panahi is jailed for trying to make a movie.

I cannot even believe this. Is the world really still in the barbaric mode? It's the holiday's!

I was reading David Bordwell's blog yesterday and saw this: "One of the finest of Iranian filmmakers, has been sentenced to six years in prison." What???? I said aloud...just what? Filmmaker Jafar Panahi is apparently being imprisoned for preparing a film. The Iranian government believes that he's making an anti-government peice and even though he was filming in his home they seized all the footage and equipment and jailed him and his colleague Rasoulof. This is so sad to hear. Censorship is still alive an well folks and we should really do something about it!  Check out the full Bordwell post here!

R.I.P. Irvin Kershner

It is a sad day indeed. At 87 that man who was handpicked by George Lucas to direct The Empire Strikes Back has passed away. Take a moment and watch it if you can....thoughts to his loved ones. 

Update: Baz Hires Carey Mulligan for the Lead in Gatsby

Here's a photo taken by Lurhmann of Mulligan as Daisy in his development of another screen adaptation of The Great Gatsby...Red Curtain Style of course. J'adore!

Keep and Eye Out for: Barney's Version

THIS LOOKS MARVELOUS!

Update: Zemeckis' Yellow Submarine Is Still Gonna Happen

/Film reported that, yes, a Zemeckis enhanced version of The Beatles' Yellow Submarine, is still happening. I cannot express how excited I am to hear this. Despite my lack of love for remakes, re-imagining etc, when I first heard about this project I got instantly happy.

Check out the /Film report here! Here's my post from a while back. And don't forget to keep an eye on the project! The cast is now as follows: Cary Elwes (George Harrison), Dean Lennox Kelly (John Lennon), Peter Serafinowicx (Paul McCartney), and Adam Campbell (Ringo Starr). Can't wait!

Happy moviegoing folks!

Things That Make Me Happy: Warner Bros. Gets More Animated

/Film reported on their site today that Warner Bros. is going to be taking from the plethora of animated characters, more and more out of the animation warehouses for development. This excites me to no end! So hence forward this will now be the start of new segment on my blog that I'll call Things That Make Me Happy. Although I've posted things that make me happy many times before it will now just have an official title and tag.  Check out the article from /FIlm here!

/Film says "There’s a live-action/CGI hybrid Bugs Bunny film in the works, and a Pepe le Pew film with Mike Myers planned as the voice of the romantically aggressive little skunk. And now the studio has bought a pitch for a film that would revolve around the ACME Warehouse"

Sounds like so much fun! Can't wait to see how everything turns out. 

Happy moviegoing folks!

Alejandro González Iñárritu's Biutiful

From the genius who brought us Amores Perros, 21 Grams, and Babel. Alejandro González Iñárritu's newest film, Biutiful, stars Javier Bardem and looks just absolutely stunning.  Javier Barden won best actor at Cannes for this role and it should be very apparent by the trailer itself that this will most likely earn him his second Oscar. Apple describes the film as a love story between a father and his children. Like seriously!? Just via that alone it should be a comfort to all moviegoers that there are still filmmakers out there. Watching a trailer for a film like this just makes my heart swell. I must point out how reassuring it is to see that the traditions of auteur filmmaking are still in full force and Alejandro González Iñárritu is apart of that. Check out the trailer below! The film come out in limited release December 29th so make sure you find that little art house theatre (in your downtown area most likely) and go watch it!

Happy moviegoing!

Observations on Film Art: One of the Best Film Blogs on the Net

I subscribe to a lot of blogs. Some photo, some journal, some funny, some film. One of my favorite film blogs, though it is written mainly by David Bordwell and Kristen Thompson, is David Bordwell's Observations on film art. These two glorious people were the folk that wrote Film Art: An Introduction, which was my intro to film bible in my first year of Cinema Studies. This morning I came to the newest post, written by Bordwell, named Seduced by structure, and the beginning read:


"If you’re hungry to learn about the ways films can tell stories, a festival provides a feast.  A huge array of narrative strategies is spread out for your delectation. You won’t like every movie you see, but thinking about the mechanics of each one can deepen your experience of it, as well as your appreciation for just how wide cinema’s resources can be. You also get to see how more unusual approaches to storytelling are often imaginative revisions of more traditional strategies." 


*sigh* Sometimes I miss writing papers and doing research. This minor portion of the full post is just so reminiscent of when my days were filled with film theories, discussions and all things wonderfully scholarly about film. I just hope that you have read the above and this has incited your imagination enough to click this link and understand just why David Bordwell's Observations on film art is a must see for any film lover. Definitely one of the happiest moviegoing blogs out there. Check it out here!


Happy moviegoing!

Check it out! Films From the South

So last week I posted about Films From the South Festival in Oslo, Norway. To my surprise & excitement they've added this blog's post to their press page. Woo! Check it out here! I'll say it again. If you're in Oslo, get over to the festival cause it's going to be magic.

Happy moviegoing!

OH MY! Baz Lurhmann to Direct Great Gatsby with DiCaprio

Just saw on /Film that Baz Lurhmann is set to direct a version of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby with Leonardo DiCaprio. For the record I love Baz. Apparently he made a statement at The Social Network premier saying:


"I’ve got two [pictures] going. One is a musical and one is a period work, both based in New York City, and I’m about to make that decision. I’ve got the script for both of them and I’m making that decision in four to six weeks, no longer than six weeks…’Gatsby,’ it is the Fitzgerald book and I’ve been working on that quite a lot. The other one is also New York based and music-driven and it’s just a question of … what is the next right step for me."


Ummm YES AND YES.  I don't care just do something already. Cannot wait to hear what he chooses. 


Happy moviegoing!

Check it out! Films From the South

On October 10th this year Film From the South, which is celebrating 20 years, is Northern Europe’s leading festival dedicated exclusively to film from Asia, Africa and Latin America. The Festival runs from 7-17 October, 2010. This year they will be honoring The World Cinema Foundation, which Martin Scorsese founded, with a World Premiere of 1931 film Limite by Mario Peixoto's with live accompaniment. They will also be honoring 12 of the World Cinema Foundation's restored film all at the same time! 

They festival's release states that:

Established by Martin Scorsese, the Foundation supports and encourages preservation efforts to save the worldwide patrimony of films, ensuring that they are preserved, seen and shared. Its goal is to defend the body and spirit of cinema in the belief that preserving works of the past can encourage future generations to treat film as a universal form of expression. 


How marvelous no? It's nice to see people around the globe supporting other national cinema's and above all the preservation of those cinemas and their masterpieces. 


Check out what Variety had to say!


If you're in Oslo, Norway. I say get your ass over to this festival pronto!


Happy moviegoing! 

For more information, press inquiries and hi res photos, contact:

In Norway: Alexis Matos, alexis@filmfrasor.no; +47.47.83.44.59

In U.S.: Gary Springer, gary@springerassociatespr.com; +1.212.354.4660

Never Let Me Go

Well shit sake you know! It's a thursday night and I am in ruins because of this movie. It's wonderful. I wish I would have read the book before, but seeing as the collaboration between Mark Romanek and Kazuo Ishiguro, the novel's author, is what produced this film I think it's safe to say it stayed true to form. This is a sci-fi film of the ages, and a love story to be studied. It's stunning, sincere and just astonishing. I can't help it but, it made me cry and I can't stop thinking about it.

Looking at the film you would never pick out the sci-fi element to the whole story but it's amazing how subtle it is and ever so present at the same time. It haunts the film to an extent and yet the aesthetic is organic and natural, lots of greenery, wool, wood, rolling landscapes. The performances are great, it's all about the subtly here. Kiera Knightly is actually good here, Carey Mulligan is too amazing I cannot wait to see what she does next, and Alex Garfield is quite astounding (not sure about spiderman but I guess we'll see) But getting every wince, and eye flutter, allowing us to see someone being stripped emotionally is what is captured so well. But it's so gradual and yet you know the outcome from fairly early on in the film. The pace, the pauses, the looks; everything is given due attention and is executed so well. Please go see this film. It will definitely leave you in a certain state but jeeze this is what film is about. It's not about what you see but what you make others see...no?

Go see this film.

Happy moviegoing!

Keep an Eye Out For: Mark Romanek’s Never Let Me Go

It's getting outstanding buzz right now. The performances are supposed to be astonishing. Just check out this trailer. It looks just beautiful. It's rather intriguing given the trailer's bleak and vague glimpse at the picture. Gosh darnit it looks like it's going to be a good one. It's nice to know people are still making movies.

American Beauty (1999)

 Now I haven’t watched this in quite a while. But due to the recent surge of examples being given from this film in my academic classes, reminded me to watch it again. Subsequently the film didn’t cease to floor me just as it did when I watched the first time.

There is something strangely beautiful and tragic about the mundane, or I should say the mundane on the edge of a nervous breakdown. Mendes really did something here and it’s truly wondrous. The screenplay itself is astonishing and it’s these little key moments that screenwriter, Alan Ball, allows into the drama that gets to the beautiful tragedy about the human condition. You can see it's something Mendes takes great interest in. It's amazing to see. It’s these little moments, these brief glimpses into someone’s soul that is amazingly captured in this film. 

Which brings me to cast, let’s get serious here. Kevin Spacey, Annette Benning, Thora Birch, Mena Suvari, Wes Bently, Chris Cooper, Allison Janning and Peter Gallagher(who’s eyebrows are a marvel). What’s important is that each of these roles doesn’t serve the same purpose as the other but they’re all acted strongly. Providing these moments, these glances, I spoke about above. Each role, however small, has a moment where we see this glimpse of utter tragedy in their hearts. Mendes watches, he waits, watches the silent vulnerability that leaves their souls bare to us, and it’s beautiful. For example, in a scene with Allison Janning’s character she sits alone at a table; we just sit with her and watch. She’s empty; we can see the void in her eyes and it’s completely breathtaking.

With moments like these we get a chance to peek inside these human beings while they’re on the edge of reason and sanity. It’s so thoroughly compelling and wonderful. It’s sad, but it’s true to form and allows us to get a glimpse of the human condition.

If you haven’t seen it, I don’t think I need to say go watch. Just do it.

Keep an eye out for Mendes' new film On Chesil Beach. Based on a novel written by the awesome Ian McEwan and the screenplay will be written by him also. The film is set in the 1960s and revolves around a couple on their honeymoon. Much much to look forward to!

Happy moviegoing!

Quills (2000)

If you haven't seen this you should. I am not sure why Philip Kaufman isn't making more movies like this anymore. Mind you he hasn't made much since this.  However, the film is masterfully done and has performances to astonish you. With a cast that includes, Michael Cane, Geoffrey Rush, Kate Winslet, & Joaquin Phoenix you think it would surely be a mere performance film. But the film, despite it's perverse nature, is stunning with a color palette that only has muted creams, greys, and beiges powering ever scene. It was nominated for both costume design and art direction at the academy awards and it shows.

Now regardless of the fact that this could have turned to a performance film the actors cannot be wiped aside. Firstly, and most important the scenes that are filled with other characters then the above mentioned are riddled with performances that are brilliant also. However Cane, is devilishly creepy. Kate is mild, but she stays true to form an complements both Joaquin and Geoffrey's performances beautifully. Joaquin is wondrous and it's too bad he isn't focused anymore because giving more performances like these would make him a force to be reckoned with. Geoffrey Rush, Oh! Geoffrey Rush; I don't think I've seen anything with him where his performances was just so, so. He's brilliant. Truly you could should see this movie just for his performance and you should enjoy it just as much because of it.

Now I must remind you the film is about the Marquis de Sade, the man that the word Sadism comes from, and is set during his thirteen year stay at an insane asylum. So prepare yourself for something out of your usual viewing but definitely worth a look. "But in order to know virtue, we must aquanaut ourselves with vice, only then can we know the full measure of man." - Doug Wright Screenwriter and Playwright of Quills.  

Happy moviegoing!

Inception & Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: Let's Talk About Alternate Filmic Realities

Even though I think it's obvious, I am going to start off by stating there is no comparison going to be made between Christopher Nolan's Inception and Edgar Wright's Scott Pilgrim vs. The World in this post. What I want to talk about is each films use of alternate filmic reality's or more specifically making a reality unto itself. Furthermore I want to suggest that these alternate realities are why both these films are outstanding and and how they work successfully in the film.

As I said, what works so successfully in these films are that the worlds in which out protagonists inhabit is entirely alternate to the reality in which we know and live in outside of the theatre.

So let's talk about Inception first. Nolan Nolan Nolan, how I love thee Nolan. I can't help but love this film. Some people think it's exposition heavy, but with a film with such complex nature it become essential to audience enjoyment. Now we know we're in for something when a film dares to tackle the dream world, let alone allow our characters and our narrative inhabit this world for almost 90% of the film. So when we begin to watch the film we've already placed ourselves in a state of suspended belief and allow ourselves to accept more of what we're going to see. But what makes this special also, is that the world in which the characters inhabit outside of the dream, also lives within an alternate reality. The process of extraction in the film, is where our characters enter into the dream of a subject to gain information. This process is something that is known and accepted within the film world outside the dream and so we as an audience accept it straight away. And furthermore once we're in the dream we know anything is possible just by knowing this. Now there is something to be said about an audience knowing the film deals with dream before seeing it. Because as I said we know we're in for something and so our beliefs are suspended before we enter the theatre. Overall to have this alternate reality allows the audience's expectations to be suspended and to allow for a more enjoying experience.

SPOILERS BELOW: Stop reading if you don't want to have the film SPOILED for you.

Now when watching Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, there is a expectation that the film will fall into a reality that is similar to what we know and live in outside the theatre. However as the film begins we are introduced to the alternate reality. What is clever here is that the director knows that once this reality is introduced the audience's beliefs will be suspended and furthermore plays with this once it's set in place. When we first meet Scott, he and his friends are introduced with text boxes, explaining age, or key traits, and character anecdotes. But this is something we've seen before, so Wright goes further and begins to have sounds have text associated with them. So the ringing of the phone, the shutting of a door etc. have text associated with them, usually protruding from the sounds origin, like in comics.(like picture above)  To go even further he begins to associate actions with video game visuals. For example, a moment when Scott has to go to the bathroom a level bar appears in the top right hand corner saying pee and as he pees the level goes down. Now what's special here is, despite all this Wright plays with our audience. So once they've suspended their beliefs and accepted the format of the film's alternate reality the audience begins to be toyed with. A scene that stands out is Scott coming home, he's in a great mood and he's excited about a date he has. As the scene plays out and Scott tells his roommate about his day, an audience track can be heard, they laugh at his jokes, and clap at his triumph etc. However what happens is that Scott's roommate then turns off his wall radio and the audience track stops. Firstly we've melded the lines between diegetic and non-diegetic sound, and then furthermore what the audience thinks is just another feature of our alternate reality is really just a coincidental radio playing within the diegetic space of the scene. To play with diegesis like that so fluidly is quite something to see and I believe this shows just how strong a director Wright is.

Overall both films are great! Each film plays to each of their audiences expectations and deliver. They suspend their beliefs and allows their audiences to wade within an alternate reality where all is wonder and awe. Allowing for a great moviegoing experience. Hope you have a chance to see the films! If you're a film lover they're something to see even if you don't have much interest in the subject matter.

Happy moviegoing!

Adaptation of Will Eisner's Contract with God!?

Why oh why? Like damn I'm intrigued, but my intrigue is mostly from worry. In my brain all I can think is "How are they going to screw it up?" I do hope they are very careful with this text, because it is the grandfather of a medium, the graphic novel, that I hold dear to my heart. Please oh please do something stunning, something outstanding. No stars, no celebrity directors, be fresh and innovative. Don't forget Eisner during this because he should be able to teach you a lot about how this material should be handled.

Good luck and happy moviegoing!

TIFF Announces Program!

I wish I was going to the Toronto International Film Festival so badly. One of my favorite events in Toronto ever. The whole city is just cinema cinema cinema, it's glorious. Now with the opening of the official headquarters for TIFF, the Bell Lightbox, it's going to be a really exciting year. One of the things I am sorry to miss is the Essential Cinema program. They wont be showing all of the 100 films on the list but they will be a display and pieces of some of these films in the Bell Lightbox for moviegoers and tourists to enjoy. The list was decided by an expert panel of TIFF curators, it is as follows: 


1 THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC (Carl Theodor Dreyer)
2 CITIZEN KANE (Orson Welles)
3 L'AVVENTURA (Michaelangelo Antonioni)
4 THE GODFATHER (Francis Ford Coppola)
5 PICKPOCKET (Robert Bresson)
6 SEVEN SAMURAI (Akira Kurosawa)
7 PATHER PANCHALI (Satyajit Ray)
8 CASABLANCA (Michael Curtiz)
9 MAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA (Dziga Vertov)
10 BICYCLE THIEVES (Vittorio De Sica)
11 ALI: FEAR EATS THE SOUL (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
12 8 ½ (Federico Fellini)
13 BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN (Sergei Eisenstein)
14 RASHOMON (Akira Kurosawa – 2)
15 TOKYO STORY (Yasujiro Ozu)
16 THE 400 BLOWS (François Truffaut)
17 UGETSU (Kenji Mizoguchi)
18 BREATHLESS (Jean-Luc Godard)
19 L'ATALANTE (Jean Vigo)
20 CINEMA PARADISO (Giuseppe Tornatore)
21 LA GRANDE ILLUSION (Jean Renoir)
22 LAWRENCE OF ARABIA (David Lean)
23 PERSONA (Ingmar Bergman)
24 GONE WITH THE WIND (Victor Fleming)
25 SUNRISE (F.W. Murnau)
26 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (Stanley Kubrick)
27 VOYAGE IN ITALY (Roberto Rossellini)
28 AMÉLIE (Jean-Pierre Jeunet)
29 CITY LIGHTS (Charlie Chaplin)
30 STAR WARS (George Lucas)
31 SHERLOCK JR. (Buster Keaton)
32 RULES OF THE GAME (Jean Renoir – 2)
33 THE LEOPARD (Luchino Visconti)
34 LA DOLCE VITA (Federico Fellini - 2)
35 L’ARRIVÉE D’UN TRAIN À LA CIOTAT (Frères LumiereLouis Lumière and Auguste Lumière)
36 THE WIZARD OF OZ (Victor Fleming – 2)
37 LA JETÉE (Chris Marker)
38 VERTIGO (Alfred Hitchcock)
39 NIGHT AND FOG (Alain Resnais)
40 PULP FICTION (Quentin Tarantino)
41 THE SEARCHERS (John Ford)
42 SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE (Danny Boyle)
43 THE CONFORMIST (Bernardo Bertolucci)
44 CITY OF GOD (Fernando Meirelles)
45 TAXI DRIVER (Martin Scorsese)
46 APOCALYPSE NOW (Francis Ford Coppola – 2)
47 SALÓ, OR THE 120 DAYS OF SODOM (Pier Paolo Pasolini)
48 THE SEVENTH SEAL (Ingmar Bergman - 2)
49 LE VOYAGE DANS LA LUNE (Georges Méliès)
50 METROPOLIS (Fritz Lang)
51 THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS (Gillo Pontecorvo)
52 IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE (Wong Kar Wai)
53 VIRIDIANA (Luis Buñuel)
54 LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL (Roberto Benigni)
55 THE SORROW AND THE PITY (Marcel Ophüls)
56 PAN'S LABYRINTH (Guillermo del Toro)
57 THE EARRINGS OF MADAME DE… (Max Ophüls)
58 BLADE RUNNER (Ridley Scott)
59 THROUGH THE OLIVE TREES (Abbas Kiarostami)
60 LES ENFANTS DU PARADIS (Marcel Carné)
61 BRINGING UP BABY (Howard Hawks)
62 SINGIN' IN THE RAIN (Stanley Donen)
63 JOHNNY GUITAR (Nicholas Ray)
64 A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (Stanley Kubrick – 2)
65 MEMORIES OF UNDERDEVELOPMENT (Tomás Gutiérrez Alea)
66 M (Fritz Lang – 2)
67 SCORPIO RISING (Kenneth Anger)
68 PSYCHO (Alfred Hitchcock – 2)
69 DUST IN THE WIND (Hou Hsiao-Hsien)
70 SCHINDLER’S LIST (Steven Spielberg)
71 NASHVILLE (Robert Altman)
72 CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON (Ang Lee)
73 WAVELENGTH (Michael Snow)
74 JULES ET JIM (François Truffaut – 2)
75 CHRONIQUE D’UN ÉTÉ (Edgar Morin and Jean Rouch)
76 THE LIVES OF OTHERS (Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck)
77 GREED (Erich von Stroheim)
78 SOME LIKE IT HOT (Billy Wilder)
79 JAWS (Steven Spielberg - 2)
80 ANNIE HALL (Woody Allen)
81 THE BIRTH OF A NATION (D.W. Griffith)
82 CHUNGKING EXPRESS (Wong Kar Wai - 2)
83 LA NOIRE DE… (Ousmane Sembene)
84 RAGING BULL (Martin Scorsese - 2)
85 THE MALTESE FALCON (John Huston)
86 CHINATOWN (Roman Polanski)
87 ANDREI RUBLEV (Andrei Tarkovsky)
88 WINGS OF DESIRE (Wim Wenders)
89 VIDEODROME (David Cronenberg)
90 WRITTEN ON THE WIND (Douglas Sirk)
91 THE THIRD MAN (Carol Reed)
92 BLUE VELVET (David Lynch)
93 THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY (Sergio Leone)
94 BREAKING THE WAVES (Lars von Trier)
95 A NOS AMOURS (Maurice Pialat)
96 CLEO DE 5 A 7 (Agnès Varda)
97 ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER (Pedro Almodóvar)
98 EARTH (Aleksandr Dovzhenko)
99 OLDBOY (Park Chan-wook)
100 PLAYTIME (Jacques Tati)


Magic no? WOW! I hope to possibly by some stroke of divine intervention, get sent over to TIFF this year. At least I shall enjoy the festival through my friends and movie lovers over back home in Toronto this year.


If you're in Toronto this year, between September 9th-19th, go make some time to see this exhibit or see a movie at least. TIFF has a great midnight movie program and obviously a really exciting group of films this year. Check out more information over at the website. 


Happy moviegoing! 

Disney's Press Release for Haunted Mansion. Guillermo Del Toro to direct!

Guillermo Del Toro was at Comic-Con and spoke to the fortunate people who could attend about his newly spawned adaptation of Haunted Mansion. He says:

"It is going to be in 3D. And we’re making the Haunted Mansion the most haunted place on Earth. And we are doing it by being true to the spirit and the art and the aesthetic of the original Imagineers that created the mansion.

We are not returning Eddie Murphy’s calls."

That's what I love to hear. Can't wait! After I heard this though, I went to look at Del Toro's IMDB, he has SO much in the works. The ones that stand out are Pinocchio, Frankenstein, & The Witches. The Witches!? AHHHHHH stoked! Firstly I just want to see. I just want to see what he will concoct for this. Real excited. I hope he gets Angelica Houston to come back. Frankenstein, I'm not too excited, since there have been SO many adaptations, but I'm intrigued nonetheless. Pinocchio I think will be exciting too since it will finally be the scary story it was originally written as. Should be interesting. Very exciting stuff. This man is a marvel. 

Happy Moviegoing!

Inception: Update

This is proving to be really difficult. I'm trying my hardest not to read any reviews. I need to watch this movie ASAP. Damn six day week schedules. Though can't wait to see it on Sunday!

Happy moviegoing!

Wicked Film Adaptation?

Ah Hollywood, how you fascinate me. This is the newest lineup for possible directors for the film adaptation of the widely popular stage musical, Wicked. Check it out: J.J. Abrams, James Mangold, Ryan Murphy and Rob Marshall. Ya I know. This is a little sad. This was already an adaptation of a book and luckily the musical went on to garner numerous awards and accolades. But do they really think that can happen again? All I can say is please no Rob Marshall. After he reduced Nine to a racist copy of Italians and a copy of 8 1/2 by Fellini, all I can say is NO ROB MARSHALL.

Fun, Fun Times alla Disney

Beginning August 2, ArcLight Cinemas will present the Disney classics selected by D23, Disney's official fan club, every Monday at ArcLight Hollywood, Tuesday at ArcLight Sherman Oaks, and Wednesday at ArcLight Pasadena.


Ya, I just wrote that. Cool huh!? Gotta love it. 


Check out this schedule:

The focus is on Disney science-fiction and fantasy films at ArcLight Hollywood, with the following schedule:

•Monday, Aug. 2: Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983)
•Monday, Aug. 9: The Rocketeer (1991)
•Monday, Aug. 16: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954)
•Monday, Aug. 23: The Black Hole (1979)
•Monday, Aug. 30: Escape to Witch Mountain (1975)

Disney animated classics are in the spotlight at ArcLight Sherman Oaks all throughout August:

•Tuesday, Aug. 3: Cinderella (1950)
•Tuesday, Aug. 10: Pinocchio (1940)
•Tuesday, Aug. 17: Alice in Wonderland (1951)
•Tuesday, Aug. 24: The Jungle Book (1967)
•Tuesday, Aug. 31: Peter Pan (1953)

ArcLight Cinemas in Pasadena will be home to tune-filled Disney musicals every Wednesday in August:

•Wednesday, Aug. 4: Newsies (1992)
•Wednesday, Aug. 11: Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971)
•Wednesday, Aug. 18: Pete’s Dragon (1977)
•Wednesday, Aug. 25: Mary Poppins (1964)

Amazing Inception Comic on Yahoo! Movies

The story line leads right up to the beginning of the where the movie starts. Really cool shit! Check it out here!

The Last Airbender

Despite its really slow start I kinda liked it and I am excited to see it counterparts. Mind you I went with fans of the T.V. show.

Some things:
A. This movie really made me want to see the original T.V. show. Super cool story line. Mind you I've always had an affinity for far away lands and people with powers.

B. Really made me want to take on Tai Chi. Really cool stuff. Look into it!

One more note: When this was getting ready to open on July 2nd the theatre in front of my school had protesters marching out front. People were complaining about casting still. Saying it was racist that certain characters were casted differently from their "likeness" to the animated characters. What people don't seem to realize is this was an American animated T.V. series so all this garb about it being racist in casting is garbage in my books. Animation and film, if it's about one thing, it's about imagination, wonder, awe and reaching people despite their color or creed. People need to find something better to do with their time. Everyone did well and overall I liked it. Could have seen it on DVD and would have been fine too, but I did enjoy it.

Favorite things:

This creature was magical, it's supposed to be a flying bison named Appa. It flies and has six legs. All I know is I want one.

I also liked Uncle Iroh, he was throughly into his character.  Nothing like the animated character. But very fun.  Love the dreads.

Be good folks and keep that vision out of the tunnels.

Happy moviegoing!

My Birthday Gift

Since it's coming out on July 9th. I'm considering it my birthday gift from the industry. 

Thank you!

Happy moviegoing!

I'm Just Saying...

The Fraggle Rock movie better be awesome. AMAZING! You hear? I'm just saying...

Happy moviegoing!

It's Here! It's Here!

The official international trailer for Sylvain Chomet's The Illusionist. Take a look. I'm dazzled right now. So excited for this! Just watch:



Happy moviegoing!

Keep an Eye Out For: Sofia Coppola's Somewhere

Oh how I love thee. Sofia is on a whole other level right now. It's so great.  Really looking forward to watching this. You must watch out for Elle Fanning. She already light years beyond her sister. Watch Phoebe in Wonderland for proof. This looks so great!




Happy moviegoing!

Magnolia (1999)

I just re-watched Magnolia. What a movie! Can't even begin to describe how well executed this film is. The structure, so sound. Watching it again now is making me love PTA more. It's futile to really try to give credit to this film in words. Just something you have to see to believe. The performances that are rendered are so outstanding it's unbelievable. Here's the trailer so you can get an idea of what I'm talking about.


Watch it, I doubt you'd be disappointed.

Enjoy!