Author Archives: Arleigh

The Walking Dead finally gets it’s Rick Grimes

Posted on by Arleigh

The good folks over at The Hollywood Reporter have reported that Frank Darabont’s tv series adaptation of Robert Kirkman’s award-winning comic book, The Walking Dead, have finally found the actor to play the series’ lead protagonist, Rick Grimes. The actor chosen came out of left field as his name was never even one people were clued in on. Fan favorites like Peter Krause and Mark Pellegrino were not even seen or heard having tried out for the lead role. Other names like Jamie Bamber (Battlestar Galactica’s Lee “Apollo” Adama) and Johnny Lee Miller (Eli Stone and Hackers) were also mentioned as having tried out for the role with the latter seen as the front-runner.

So, it’s seen as a surprise by many following the production of The Walking Dead to see the name Andrew Lincoln come up as the actor chosen to play Rick Grimes. The UK actor has worked in mostly shows and films in his native UK w/ Love Actually being the more recognizable of those he’s worked on. I think the choice was, and is, a good one. This is literally an unknown actor to US audiences so it will be easier for suspension of disbelief to be achieved for those watching.

While the reaction to this news is mostly one of guarded optimism there’s a very tiny but vocal group that seem to cry foul at this choice just for the fact that Andrew Lincoln will be a British-actor playing an American from the South. I think fans at times just think that dream choices for roles in their favorite stories should be the only ones chosen to play those roles whether they actually want to take on the role or not, or if they’re even good for the role.

For the detractors I say give the man a chance to get into the role before you put the man down. Oh yeah, one other thing…just be glad the show is actually being down and with strong creative people behind it. Put the fanboy/girl hat into storage.

Source: THR

Hottie of the Day: Rosie Jones

Posted on by Arleigh

ROSIE JONES

For our newest hottie of the day we travel from the Land of the Rising Sun over to the United Kingdom to meet the lovely Ms. Rosie Jones.

Ms.  Jones was born in July of 1990 in her hometown of Middlesex, UK. Rosie Jones is the latest in a long line of British Page 3 models who have gained quite the large fan following. Ms. Jones is still very young and still new to the game of glamour modeling over in the UK, but she has already been compared to past popular and successful British glamour models such as Keeley Hazell, Rhian Sugden and Lucy Pinder. Rosie has been busy modeling not just for the Sun as a Page 3 girl, but also for UK men’s magazines such as Loaded, Nuts and Front.

While her claim to fame is still her modeling work (most of which are topless) she’s got room to grow and her fast rising star in the glamour modeling world has many seeing her becoming one of the most sought after. It is more than likely that we will see her heavenly figure and natural beauty become more prevalent not just in the UK but in the US and the rest of the world.

LisaMarieBowman: Welcome!

Posted on by Arleigh

I am pleased to announce the arrival of a new contributor to the site. The lovely and smart LisaMarieBowman. Her love for foreign films and especially grindhouse films of the 70’s and 80’s match my own thus she’s automatically one of the coolest people on this planet. She’ll be posting her thoughts on foreign films and other things entertainment which catches her fancy.

So, for the regular visitors to the site plesse make her feel welcome and wish her good luck.

The Human Centipede Official Trailer

Posted on by Arleigh

2009 Fantastic Fest had one specific film which had a visceral effect on that film festival’s attendees. The fact that it won that festival’s Best Picture in the horror category gave it a boost in the buzz department. I am talking about the film directed by Tom Six titled simply, The Human Centipede: First Sequence.

Just watching the trailer and the sample clip below would be enough to sell the film for someone or just outright make them run straight to the bathroom. Either way it looks like this is one film which will not have a middle-ground when it comes to people’s reactions. If this film was released 25-30 years ago it definitely would be an example of what makes a grindhouse flick.

The A-Team: Official Full Trailer

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Finally, we get the first full trailer for his summer’s upcoming film adaptation of the popular 80’s action tv series, The A-Team.

The first trailer was a teaser version which didn’t seem to elicit much excitement from people when it was first shown. It was short on any sort of details and didn’t really introduce the characters to people who may not have seen the series. That teaser trailer was also lacking in any action sequences to tease the public into wanting to see more. Well, that is until the very final sequence with the palleted tank free-falling from tens of thousands of feet and Bradley Cooper’s character “Face” popping out of the commander’s hatch, prime the Ma Deuce and firing it while doing said tank free-fall.

It’s been a couple months since that teaser’s release and there hasn’t been much from the film’s studio to help increase buzz on the film. But it looks like this official full trailer might have fixed the problem the teaser caused. This full trailer actually makes The A-Team look like it could be a fun, action flick. There’s some of the humor from the series and the full trailer gives a quick intro of the team’s four members (I liked Murdock’s best). There’s even a subtle reference in the trailer about how give the team an hour and they’re practically invincible. This is in reference to the tv show where the team literally MacGyver’s their way through no-win situations save the day. I hope that becomes part of whatever last reel climactic action sequence the film may have.

The A-Team is set for a June 11, 2010 release. It’s directed by Joe Carnahan (Narc, Smokin’ Aces) and starring Liam Neeson (Hannibal), Bradley Cooper (Face), Quinton Jackson (BA Baracus) and Sharlto Copley (howlin’ Mad Murdock). I know I’ll be there on Day One of it’s release to watch and knowing some of my older uncles and my dad, they’ll be there as well.

The Daily Grindhouse: The New York Ripper (dir. by Lucio Fulci)

Posted on by Arleigh

I’ve decided to share my love of grindhouse films by posting periodical daily grindhouse choices. To inaugurate this new feature I’ve chosen a favorite early 80’s grindhouse flick straight from the mind of the maestro himself, Lucio Fulci.

The New York Ripper is one of Fulci’s contribution to the Italian cinema genre of gialli films. Giallo (gialli – plural) films have a colorful, no pun intended, history in Italian filmmaking and it’s Golden Age last from the 70’s all through the mid-80’s when the public’s appetite for them started to wane. This  Lucio Fulci entry into the giallo genre was not his first but it was one of his most infamous one’s for the fact that many people thought it’s depiction of women and their deaths on-screen was labeled as extremely misogynistic and cruel. The New York Ripper wasn’t even one of the better films in Fulci body of work, but the label of misogynism and having been banned from many countries or being shown only as a X-rated feature film brought it attention and made it a staple in the so-called “grindhouse” cinemas that were prevalent in the 70’s and 80’s.

The film liberally lifts its ideas from the famous “Jack the Ripper” true-crime investigation and transplants it, where else, but New York City. The killings were brutal to the point that I understood the outrage many had over them. What made this film a favorite of mine is not the controversy revolving over calls of misogynism or the near-pornographic scenes of violence, but the killer himself. As you shall see in the attached trailer for the film the duck voice and quacking you will hear is not a joke added into the trailer but part of the film’s titular character’s personality.

Yes, ladies and gents…Donald Duck is the New York Ripper!

Hottie of the Day: Ikeda Natsuki

Posted on by Arleigh

The newest hottie of the day is the one and only Ms. Ikeda Natsuki.

Ms. Ikeda was born in Kanagawa of the Chiba Prefecture east of Tokyo. She is an up and coming gravure idol at the age of 21. While her popularity is still not on the same level as the those of the so-called super-gravure‘s like Ai Hoshino, Anri Sugihara and Takizawa Nonami is it getting there. Natsuki’s early career has been well-known for several popular modeling calendar and album photoshoots. One of her albums, Queen of the Soul, has been quite popular inside Japan and has gotten her noticed by Western gravure fans as well. Ms. Ikeda also has several DVDs of her photoshoots with the first titled, Taiyo no Hitomi.

Still quite young, Ms. Ikeda enjoys her career as a gravure idol and plans to continue her said career for the forseeable future. When asked why she liked this particular career she replied that she enjoyed shooting photos of every aspect of her body. That it made her feel quite sexy. Thank God for that!

AMC’s The Walking Dead gets KNB EFX

Posted on by Arleigh

It looks like Frank Darabont’s TV adaptation of Robert Kirkman’s award-winning comic book title, The Walking Dead, just got closer to it’s production start. Shock Till You Drop has confirmed with Greg Nicotero of KNB EFX will be part of the AMC horror tv series. Nicotero (w/ co-founder Howard Berger) and the KNB visual effects house has done many of the horror, sci-fi and action films of the past decade. They last worked with Frank Darabont in the 2007 film-adaptation of Stephen King’s novella, The Mist. They’ve also been the premiere visual effects house when it comes to bringing the classic Romero zombie look and gore on the big-screen. Romero’s last three zombie films having  been done by KNB.

This news makes me even more hyped to see how The Walking Dead translates onto the small-screen. With zombie films starting to reach a plateau when it comes to quality (Romero’s latest Survival of the Dead being mediocre at best) it will be interesting how a series centered around a zombie apocalypse and the travails of the survivors would be seen by the general audience. Having KNB EFX will at least appease the zombie fans who will flock to see this series. The question now is whether AMC will allow enough of the graphic violence from the comic book series to be shown. I’m guessing they will if their other critical-darling drama series Breaking Bad is a way to measure how far AMC will go.

Here are some of the films KNB EFX have worked on.

  • Kill Bill, Vol. 1-2
  • Land of the Dead
  • Hostel
  • Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe
  • Bubba Ho-Tep
  • Vanilla Sky
  • The Faculty
  • Sin City
  • The Cell
  • Men in Black
  • Ray
  • Casino
  • Pulp Fiction
  • Reservoir Dogs
  • Serenity
  • From Dusk til Dawn
  • Dances with Wolves

Source: Shock Till You Drop

Bloodshot Big-Screen Adaptation?

Posted on by Arleigh

The gents at Latino Review have reported that Matthew Vaughn may have another superhero project in his future. This time it looks like Vaughn may bring to the big-screen a live-adaptation of Valiant Comics’ very own Bloodshot. This title was part of the Valiant Comics resurgence of the early 90’s during the Golden Age of Comic Book Speculation. Bloodshot was one of the more popular titles of that particular comic publishing line which also could be seen with its total sales number of 7 million. An unheard of number for a title not part of the Big Two (DC and Marvel).

Bloodshot the character was an assassin by the name of Angelo Mortalli who was killed then resurrected using advanced nanotechnology. It was these very nanites who brought him back to life who also imbue him with powers like enhanced reflexes and strengths, a healing factor, increased perception and cyberkinesis. During the process of Mortalli being revived with the nanites he loses his memory and the character now known as Bloodshot goes on a journey to find out who he was and how he got to where he is now.

To say that the comic book was violent would be an understatement. With Kick-Ass already being talked about as ultra-violent both in its print form and it’s upcoming film-adaptation it is only logical to conclude that Matthew Vaughn will keep the ultra-violence of the Bloodshot comics intact. If that is the case then I am definitely putting a watch on further developments on this potential project.

Source: Latino Review

Song of the Day: Can You Stand the Rain (by New Edition)

Posted on by Arleigh

I had to go old-school RnB with my next pick for Song of the Day. Being a child of the 80’s I was a fan of New Edition, but it wasn’t until the start of the 90’s that I really got into them as I was in high school at that time. High school meant girls and girls meant dances, dates, slow dances and everything else in-between and afterwards.

It was hard not to go to high school dance and prom and not have New Edition ballads in the DJ list. While New Edition’s Can You Stand the Rain was released in 1989 it definitely got major airplay in 1990 and beyond. This was the first true ballad from the group with their new member Johnny Gill who had replaced Bobby Brown who had left the group to go solo. To say that I still love this song even 20 years after I first heard it would be an understatement. This is the jam for couple who have hit a rough patch but who endure to stay together.

Just listening and watching the music video sadly reminds me that RnB ballads are not the same now as they have been in the past. To say that they sure don’t make RnB music like this would be an understatement. Y’all youngings can have your Chris Brown, Ne-Yo and all the new RnB upstarts. I say they still can’t hold a candle to New Edition and this song definitely makes my point for me.

Can You Stand the Rain

(Johnny)
On a perfect day I know that I can count on you. When that’s not possible, tell
me can you weather the storm?

(Ralph)
Cause I need some body who will stand by me through the good times and bad
times she will always, always be right there.

Chorus
Sunny days everybody loves them tell me baby can you stand the rain? Storms
will come, this we know for sure(this we know for sure). Can you stand the rain?

(Johnny)
(yeah yeah) Love unconditional I’m not asking just of you. and girl to make it
last I’ll do whatever needs to be done.

(Ralph)
But i need somebody who will stand by me, when it’s tough she won’t run she
will always, be right there for me.

Chorus
Sunny days every body loves them, tell me baby can you stand the rain? Storms
will come (Ricky) I know I know all the days won’t be perfect (this we know for
sure) but tell me can you stand it, can you stand the rain?

Can you stand the rain (4x)

(Rick)No pressure, no pressure from me baby (this we know for sure) cause I want
you and I need you and I love you girl.

(Ralph) Will you be there for me?

(Mike) Come on baby lets go get wet.

Can you stand the rain (10x)

(Ralph)
Can you stand the rain?
Will you be there girl?
Storms will come for sure.
Can you stand the rain?

(Johnny)
Yeah it’s hard but I’ll know I’ll be right there baby yeah yeah yeah.