Red band trailers remind me of those commercials for GoDaddy that always feature Danica Patrick wandering around in a towel. It’s like the filmmakers are essentially saying, “Yeah, our film sucks but hopefully, these boobies will keep you from noticing…”
Speaking of which, here’s the red band trailer for Ghost Team One.
For all of you folks who have been saying, “Why can’t someone combine Paranormal Activity with Project X!? WHY, GOD, WHY!?”, Ghost Team One will be released on October 11th.
When Dario Argento’s Dracula 3D premiered at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, the reviews were almost universally negative.
But you know what?
I don’t care.
When it comes to a film like this, the critics don’t matter. Does anyone seriously think that any mainstream critic is going to give a film directed by Dario Argento a chance? No way. Film snobs hate Argento but even Argento’s worst films are usually more entertaining than anything Michael Bay has ever come up with.
What’s important is that Dracula 3D is a vampire film that’s coming out in October and, judging from the trailer, it appears that it will feature Rutger Hauer going overboard in that wonderful way that only Rutger Hauer can.
Dracula 3D will be in American theaters on October 4th. See you there!
On the Road may get all the attention but Big Sur, in my opinion, is the best book that Jack Kerouac ever wrote. Telling the story of Kerouac’s attempt to deal with both sudden fame and his growing alcoholism, Big Sur is a meditation on existence that somehow manages to make even the contemplation of self-destruction seem life-affirming.
As for the upcoming film version of Big Sur, I can’t say that I’m hopeful. As last year’s film adaptation of On The Road demonstrated, Kerouac’s books have rarely gotten the film treatments that they deserve.
However, judging from the trailer below, the film adaptation of Big Sur does get at least one thing right.
Jean-Marc Barr appears to be perfectly cast as Jack.
Decade of last.fm scrobbling countdown:
24. Radiohead (1,176 plays)
Top track (35 plays): Knives Out, from Amnesiac (2001)
It should come as no surprise that Radiohead made it onto my decade top 50 chart somewhere. The dominant album on that list might be a little less common: Amnesiac (2001) took the title with a modest margin over Hail to the Thief (2003) and OK Computer (1997). This is no accident–no single weekend of Winamp stuck on repeat. Since pretty much the week it was released, Amnesiac has been my favorite Radiohead album.
It would be a bit silly to argue that Amnesiac is their best. Just as Radiohead are too unique to really be compared to any other band, pretty much every album they’ve released since The Bends (1995) has resided in a world of its own. OK Computer certainly offers the broadest appeal, and Kid A (2000) seems to get the most praise from the more eclectic, aesthetically minded fans, but it’s the consistent vibe of Amnesiac that grabs me most. From start to finish, it glides on a sea of glass beneath an inebriated night sky. While the individual tracks are stellar at every turn, the sum of its parts come nowhere near the whole, and I can rarely bring myself to listen to them out of their intended order. There’s some calming chill that sets across the whole 45 minutes, and a spirit of motion that I did not experience again until “Bloom” (The King of Limbs, 2011).
That being said, of course OK Computer and Hail to the Thief are unrivaled masterpieces, of course In Rainbows (2007) and The King of Limbs are worlds above the average for a band late in their career, and of course The Bends redefined the limits of rock in its day. The only album in their discography that you might justifiably find some fault with is Pablo Honey (1993), and that’s only when you measure it by the standard Radiohead set and maintained for the two decades to follow. In the most general sense, weighing all factors evenly, they might rightly be regarded as the greatest band to ever exist. That’s not lofty praise; it’s an opinion that a good many experienced music critics are prepared to agree with. But to the question of how Radiohead became my 24th most listened to band of the past 10 years, and not say, my 50th, I point without hesitation to Amnesiac.
“Let’s dance boys!” — Bayonetta
One of the most entertaining and fun games of this current generation of consoles that I’ve ever played came out in the Spring of 2010. The game I speak of is the hack-and-slash title Bayonetta from Platinum Games. It’s a game that was born from the hyper-kinetic action game series Devil May Cry. In fact, the game’s designer was also the designer for the Devil May Cry series and it shows in this heroine-led title.
As I had mentioned on a very early review of the title, Bayonetta is quite the over-the-top game with unique-looking visuals and imagery that combined Judeo-Christian art designs with the anime-inspired aesthetics that has been the design staple of the Devil May Cry series.
I was actually surprised that the game didn’t get an anime series right away to complement it the way some Japanese games tend to get when they become popular. Yet, despite waiting over three years to get one fans of the game will finally have their wish.
Bayonetta: Bloody Fate is an anime series due out this November from studio house GONZO. It looks to be an adaptation of the game’s storyline and will have Fuminori Kizaki of Afro Samurai fame in the director’s chair. The art design of the series will lean heavily on the game’s original character designs by Mari Shimazaki which should be good news to Bayonetta fans everywhere.
The trailer for the anime already hints at using the fan service moments from the game that made the title so popular but at the same time so controversial within some of the gaming community. The anime will be shown in a limited release in Japan this November with no word yet on whether it will make it over to the West in one type of release or another. I bet on it becoming a video release down the line.
Source: Anime News Network
This year, we can look forward to two royalty-based films being released just in time to get some Oscar attention.
Unfortunately, neither one of them is about my favorite royal in-law, Pippa “It’s My Sister’s Wedding And I’ll Wear White If I Want To” Middleton.
Instead, Diana will star Naomi Watts as Diana, the late Princess of Wales and has already managed to inspire some amazingly negative reviews in the UK.
Meanwhile, Grace of Monaco, will star Nicole Kidman as the legendary Grace Kelly. Judging from the trailer below, Grace of Monaco looks like it could at least be trashy fun. If nothing else, I’m looking forward to seeing it for the costumes and the decor.
Decade of last.fm scrobbling countdown:
25. Cracker (1,162 plays)
Top track (52 plays): Big Dipper, from The Golden Age (1996)
Featured track: One Fine Day live, originally from Forever (2002)
Most people my age have heard Cracker, but they might not remember the name. You know, Cracker, that two-hit wonder from the early 90s that wrote “Low” and “Teen Angst (What the World Needs Now)”. Like most of you, I never bothered actually picking up a Cracker album while they were popular. They only stumbled into my discography through an impulse buy when I saw their first Best Of compilation, Garage D’Or (2000), near a checkout register in Best Buy. I thought, “Oh, greatest hits? I thought they only had two,” and I picked it up to see what I was missing. For a while afterwards I was convinced that they must have had a dozen radio singles that I was just a little too young to remember, but the truth of it sank in over time: One of the greatest rock bands of my generation had slipped through the cracks.
Well, my obsession with Cracker ran for a year or two before I eventually forgot about them, and they might have been lost to me forever if I hadn’t happened to find myself in San Antonio, Texas, with a car for the first time in two years and nothing better to do with it. I did a last.fm search on upcoming gigs in Austin, saw Cracker were playing that evening, and took off. Any band would have sufficed, but these guys blew me away. Their performance defied anything you might expect out of aging rock stars. With an intimate connection to the music and the audience, it was as if they had just recorded the material yesterday; They were overlooked American legends in their prime playing in a venue small enough to make eye contact. To top it off, they even offered a tip of the hat to a semi-local country legend. (They covered Ray Wylie Hubbard’s “Up Against the Wall, Redneck Mother”.) I’ve gone out of my way to catch Cracker live every time they’ve played near me since, and I’m never disappointed.
I will never know why Cracker were not as successful as Pearl Jam or Tom Petty or any of the other rock legends I grew up with, because I honestly think they’re on par. David Lowery’s lyrical whit and sardonic vocals pair up perfectly with Johnny Hickman’s tasteful blues rock guitar to create one of the most readily identifiable and creative duos in the business.
The Wind Rises aka Kaze Tachinu is the latest anime offering from Studio Ghibli and will be getting an Oscar-qualifying run later this year. It’s the latest from acclaimed Japanese director Miyazaki Hayao (My Friend Totoro, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away) and, most likely, his final work as he’s announced that he’s retiring.
The film is a fictionalized account of one Jiro Horikoshi. It’s a decades-long retelling of Jiro’s early life as a boy through his post-war life. Those who know their history will recognize the name of Jiro Horikoshi as one of the engineers responsible for the development of the legendary WWII fighter most commonly-known by the name given to it by the Allies during the war, The Zero.
While all of Miyazaki’s films have always have had the mature element in addition to the whimsical nature of the story he’s telling in his anime it look like The Wind Rises may just be Miyazaki’s most mature offering to date.
The Wind Rises has been making the film festival rounds of late and hopefully gets limited release dates announced before year’s end.
Jerome Rozen was born in Chicago and grew up in Arizona, where he first took art classes from a local teacher. After serving in the army during World War I, Rozen visited the Louvre in Paris and was inspired to pursue a career as an artist. Upon returning home, he studied at the Art Institute of Chicago. He was eventually hired as an instructor at the Institute. He also found success painting covers for pulp magazines like The Shadow, Battle Stories, Wu Fang Mysteries, and Western Story. During World War II, Rozen also designed several patriotic posters and magazine advertisements.
A small sampling of his work can be found below.
ROXANNE MCKEE
Game of Thrones is a series about power, and it has never been inclined to tone down the sources from which power is derived. With that in mind, David Benioff and D. B. Weiss were tasked with the not so unpleasant challenge of recruiting a number of highly attractive women willing to take most or all of their clothes off. Canadian-born Roxanne McKee was one such cast member, playing the role of servant and seductress Doreah.
Before the lovely Ms. McKee was conspiring with Xaro Xoan Daxos to steal Daenerys’ dragons, she graduated from Royal Holloway, University of London, and won a talent contest which landed her a spot in the British soap opera Hollyoaks. Her acting career has since landed her a variety of supporting roles, including a handful of horror films. Like our last featured hottie, Michelle Ryan, McKee has also played a role in EastEnders. She seems to have a bright future ahead of her.
PAST HOTTIES
Through the Shattered Lens 