According to this trailer, All The Boys Love Mandy Lane is “finally” going to give horror fans “what they’ve been asking for.”
So, I guess the question now is — what exactly have we been asking for? Myself, I know that I just want a genuinely scary film that features interesting (and occasionally, even intelligent) characters and is intense enough to be get under my skin without descending to the level of torture porn. I also know that I’ve been asking for more films that are not a part of the whole found footage genre. Also, as far as slasher movies are concerned, I prefer female characters who fight back as opposed to just running and screaming.
If All The Boys Love Mandy Lane can deliver on that, then it’ll definitely be what I’m waiting for. It’s a little hard to tell from the trailer. However, this has been a year of good horror films and therefore, I’m going to take a chance on All The Boys Love Mandy Lane and hope for the best.
Today’s dance scene that I love comes from 2000’s Center Stage.
Center Stage is one of those films that can be fairly criticized for a lot of reasons but — oh my God, y’all — I used to love this movie so much! Actually, I still do because every time I watch it, I feel like I’m 15 years old again and I’m just so in love with dancing and performing that I can’t even begin to put it into words. I think everyone has a film that they irrationally love because it reminds them of a certain time, place, or state-of-mind. For me, Center Stage is that film.
The scene below is a long one and the video is not the best quality but I still love it because it captures the excitement of both dancing and of being on stage. Add to that, I’d love to be in that show… (I look good in both black and red.)
I was thinking that the Marvel Universe is in dire need of a new villain instead of constantly rehashing mega events with the same old people or promoting villains like Norman Osbourne to a world wide threat.
I believe Dr. Midas from Grant Morrison’s Marvel Boy series would fit the bill for a major world wide threat. He’s a ruthless perversion and amalgam of Iron Man and the Fantastic Four. Everyone from his minions to his own daughter are mere stepping stones to him. Sure he *spoiler*ended up on some immaterial plane of existence at the end of the miniseries*spoiler* It’s comics so there’s always a way to bring him back.
My Idea:
Auric Midas is the cloned son of Dr. Midas. He is the designer baby developed in information-rich nutrient artificial womb and programmed with the memories of the original Doctor Midas. He was awakened after the death of his “father” and before he could reach physical maturity. Kid Midas resumed control of the Atlas Corporation and used a Ghost Box to acquire the vast technological resources available across the Multiverse. He is eager to end Noh-Varr’s life for the shame that he has brought the Midas name in addition to retrieving his original cosmically enhanced self from the Mindless One’s home dimension. Kid Midas will be shocked to discover that Dr. Midas has moved pass his petty pursuit of power from his time in the Mindless Ones’ dimension and is now reformed (along the lines of Kang mellowing out and become the philosophical Immortus). There will be a mind switch and Kid Midas will gain the Cosmic Man body. Skills:
Adept in multiple human and alien martial arts.
Proficient in the use of mechanized armor.
Fluent in numerous Earth and alien dialects. Technology:
SMGH is a variant of Mutant Growth Hormone created from cellular samples extracted from deceased and captured Super Skrulls. It temporarily grants the user shape shifting abilities in addition to post human abilities.
The Midas amulet is based on Darla Deering’s Thing Ring and contains the Midas Suit in its unstable molecules state.
The Midas Suit is an unstable molecule variation of the Thing Exoskeleton derived from a damaged sample of Dr. Midas’ cosmically irradiated and enhanced flesh. Its design is based on Anthony Stark’s Iron Man Armor Model 42. Its molecular template retains the Cosmic Earth properties, its Cosmic Fire properties are stabilized by Pyronanos circuitry, and its Cosmic Air property was replaced with ghost technology derived from Omnisapient Systems. It is powered by a Kirby Battery, a portable derivative of The Marvel’s Kirby Engine.
Midas Suit Properties:
It greatly magnifies the user’s strength, durability, stamina, and sensory perceptions.
The repulsor beam system has been modified to discharge fiery cosmic flames.
It propulsion system has been enhanced by the Pyronanos and grants hypersonic flight. Its stealth technology grants invisibility and intangibility.
A concealed alien weapons array consists of Badoon particle rays, Skrull Photon Blasters, Nega Missiles (projectiles containing explosive Negative Zone energy), Shi’ar Raptor Armor concussive cannons (containing darkforce energy) and self-repair functionality.
So, when I saw You’re Next last weekend, I also saw the second trailer for Machete Kills.
The audience I saw seemed to be really excited about the trailer but I have to say that, after seeing it, I’m actually a bit worried about Machete Kills. The first Machete was a parody of grindhouse filmmaking but it was an affectionate parody. As over-the-top as it was, it still felt like it could have also been a genuine grindhouse film.
This trailer for Machete Kills, however, feels like the exact opposite. Instead of celebrating the excesses of the grindhouse, this trailer feels more like it’s inviting us to mock the films to which it claims to be paying homage.
This trailer almost feels like it’s for a film that was made by somebody who has never seen an actual grindhouse film but who has seen plenty of YouTube videos.
This trailer has been around for a little while but, seeing as how I’m really looking forward to seeing this film, I figured I’d go ahead and share it here on the site.
Inside Llewyn Davis is directed by the Coen Brothers and it stars Oscar Isaac! Seriously, what else can you ask for?
The son of German immigrants, Rudolph Zirm was born in New Jersey. Though he never had any formal artistic training, Zirm pursued a career as a freelance artist after the print shop he worked at closed in 1933. Though he only worked as an artist for 6 years and was never acclaimed during his lifetime, Zirm’s work is now highly praised and sought by collectors.
Titanfall is really turning out to be one of my most-anticipated game titles of 2013.
It’s the very first title for Respawn Entertainment. A studio made up of the people who first created the Call of Duty studio, Infinity Ward, and who ended up being fired (or leaving to follow their fired leaders) by the powers-that-be who held sway over Activision. There was talk about whether Respawn Entertainment would ever get a chance to show Activision and it’s detractors that they still had what it takes to succeed in the first-person shooter market dominated by three titles (Call of Duty, Battlefield and Halo).
Titanfall looks to dispel such notions first with a triumphant return to this summer’s E3 where they revealed the title to everyone to much acclaim. Now we got to see more of the gameplay itself both in mechanics and graphics at this past week’s Gamescom 2013 over at Cologne, Germany.
The gameplay trailer pretty much dispelled whatever doubts I might have had about this title and now has my money ready to be exchanged for it when it comes out for the Xbox One (for some on the PC or Xbox 360) in early 2014.
Occasionally, I like to do a little thing that I call “Let’s second guess the Academy.” This is when we look at the films that have won Academy Awards in the past and we ask ourselves, “Should that film have won?”
For this latest edition of Let’s Second Guess the Academy, let’s take a look at 1993. The 1993 Academy Awards were dominated by Schindler’s List. Steven Spielberg’s powerful Holocaust drama won both best picture and best director. It remains the film by which all other Holocaust dramas are judged.
But did Schindler’s List deserve to win? Or would you have preferred to see one of the other four nominees win the title of Best Picture of 1993? Let us know by voting below!
Now, here comes the fun part. Let’s say that Spielberg never got around to directing Schindler’s List. And maybe The Piano never played in the states and The Fugitive bombed at the box office. Let’s say that none of the five best picture nominees had been eligible to be nominated in 1993. Which five films would you have nominated in their place?
Below, you can vote for up to five alternative nominees.
On January 1st, 2009, a young man named Oscar Grant was executed in Oakland, California. Grant was returning home from celebrating the New Year’s in San Francisco when he and several other young black man were pulled off a train by the Bay Area Rapid Transit Police. According to the police, Grant had been involved in a fight on the train. In a moment that was recorded by several cell phones (and later broadcast across the world), Grant was shot in the back by a BART policeman. According to the police, Grant had been resisting arrest and his executioner had meant to use his taser but had grabbed his gun by mistake.
The death of Oscar Grant made the news even down here in Texas and I can still remember discussing it with my friends. As a bunch of good, white liberals (and yes, believe it or not, I was once a little bit liberal, though even back then I was, at heart, more of a civil libertarian than anything else), we were all properly outraged by what happened. At one point, I declared that this proved that police hide behind the power of their tasers. We all agreed that it was a terrible thing that had happened and that the cop involved needed to be held responsible.
Only recently did I realize that, even as fashionably outraged as me and my friend were and even though we did feel that this was a classic case of police overreactions, we also automatically assumed that the cop was telling the truth when he said that he meant to grab for his taser. For all of our righteous indignation, we — as a bunch of white people who had spent most of our time living in white neighborhoods and white towns — still had a hard time accepting the idea that a white police officer had intentionally executed a black man. As outraged as we were, we were assumed that we were angry about an aberration. As such, we assumed that the shooter would be held responsible and we went on with our comfortably sheltered lives. Needless to say, we were incredibly naive. While the death of Oscar Grant made national news, it made far less news when the man who shot him was eventually sentenced to only two years in prison. (He was paroled after 8 months.)
I’ve been thinking about Oscar Grant (and the way that my friends and I initially reacted to the news reports of his death) ever since I saw Fruitvale Station, a devastating independent film that also marks the directorial debut of Ryan Coogler.
Starting in the early morning hours and ending in the first hours of 2009, Fruitvale Station follows Oscar Grant (played, in an award-worthy performance by Michael B. Jordan) as he lives the final day of his life. In between doing such every day things as buying a birthday card for his mother (played, in a luminous performance, by the great Octavia Spencer) and picking up his daughter from daycare, Oscar worries about how he’s going to pay his rent and struggles against the temptation to return to his former life of dealing drugs.
While we watch the film knowing what Oscar doesn’t — that this is the last day of his life — the film itself manages to be a lot more than just a recreation of a tragic event. There’s a vibrancy and sense of hope to the scenes where Oscar drives through Oakland or hangs out with his family. That vibrancy makes the film’s inevitable conclusion all the more powerful and devastating.
As for the actual shooting, Fruitvale Station leaves it to the audience to decide whether Oscar was intentionally executed or if he was shot by a cop who thought he was holding a taser. As the cop who shot Oscar, Chad Michael Murray is only on-screen for a split second. As the other cop on the scene, Kevin Durand (who played Martin Keamy on Lost) shouts and bullies as only Kevin Durand can do. If the film leaves it ambiguous about whether or not Oscar was intentionally shot, it’s not ambiguous about the fact that Oscar was killed because, as a black man, he was automatically viewed as being a potential threat by the white police officers. Whether the intention was to tase him or to shoot him, the ultimate goal was to reassert the authority of the police.
As Fruitvale Station makes clear, the shooting was both an individual tragedy and a piece of the larger tragedy that’s still being played out across this country. The film’s triumph is that it makes Oscar Grant into both a compelling individual and a powerful symbol of the struggle that many Americans face as they try to survive under a system that’s been designed to keep them down.
So, have you seen Fruitvale Station? If you haven’t, you need to. It’s one of the best films of 2013.
According to this trailer, All The Boys Love Mandy Lane is “finally” going to give horror fans “what they’ve been asking for.”
Through the Shattered Lens 