It’s been almost 7 years since Alfonso Cuarón had directed a film. His last one, Children of Men, was such an underappreciated piece of scifi filmmaking. Now, after all these years, he returns to the scifi genre for his latest film due out later this fall.
Gravity stars George Clooney and Sandra Bullock as a pair of astronauts who have become stranded in space after their space shuttle explodes and takes out the space station they’ve been sent to. The film literally is about just the characters Clooney and Bullock plays. It’s quite the sparse cast, but should also make for an interesting drama about two individual who must find a way to save themselves after being stranded in space with no way to contact Earth.
The film will be filmed fully digital with the 3D coming by way of post-production conversion. Even from the sequences put in the teaser it gives hints at 3D that looks to wow and immerse rather than annoy.
Gravity is set for an October 4, 2013 release date.
It’s finally going to happen. A film adaptation of Orson Scott Card’s sci-fi novel Ender’s Game is going to be on the bigscreen. This was a property that was often talked about becoming a film, but years upon years of talk never amounted to much other than fan casting and never getting past the concept stage.
I knew that the film adaptation had gotten the greenlight over a year ago, but I just assumed that something will derail it once again and leave Ender’s Game as another case of film vaporware. The fact that there’s now a trailer released by Summit Entertainment means that the film will come out. Now whether the film adaptation satisfies the book’s legion of fans and still entertain those who never read a word of Card’s novels still to be determined.
Ender’s Game is set for a November 1, 2013 release date.
Earlier today came news that one of the legends of cinema passed away at the age of 93. Ray Harryhausen has been such an influential figure to many of the filmmakers, authors and artists working today. His stop-motion work and films were the fuel that fired up the imaginations of uncounted kids. I am one of those kids and even decades since I first saw my first Harryhausen film I still consider some of his works all-time favorites. His fantastical work will continue to fire up the imaginations of future children to come and maybe someone from those will grow up to be the next great fantasy filmmaker, author and artist.
There are so many scenes created by Harryhausen that it would be difficult to choose one for the latest “Scenes I Love”, but I will go with the scene I love best from the very first Harryhausen film I ever saw. I speak of the now classic “Skeleton Fight” sequence which provides the climactic scene for Jason and The Argonauts.
Lisa Marie were talking tonight and the conversation went from her hurting herself dancing to our love of musical films. Yeah, our minds tend to go off on such predictable tangents. Well, for us at least it makes sense I don’t know about the rest of you people.
One such musical that we both seem to agree on was our love for the Gene Kelly-directed and starred musical film classic, Singin’ In The Rain. It’s from this musical that the latest “Scenes I Love” comes from. It’s a sequence that’s become an icon of a bygone era of Hollywood. Sure, there’s been musical films even up to the last year or so, but never in the same style, extravagance and joy shown in the musical films of the Freed-era of the 50’s and the following Golden Age of the 60’s.
It’s Gene Kelly singing the signature title song while dancing in the rain. There’s not much else to say other than it’s a scene that even the most cynical and elitist film snob can’t deny for it’s utter joy.
Today marks a sad day for the metal world as Jeff Hanneman, guitarist and founding member of the metal band Slayer, passed away at the age of 49.
He now joins other metal gods (Burton, Dimebag, Bonham and Dio just to name a few) who were taken too soon up in Valhalla where, I sincerely hope, they’re starting up a jam session to create the metal supergroup of supergroups.
To commemorate and memorialize Hanneman’s impact on the metal scene these past 30 or so years I’d like to share my favorite Slayer song: “Seasons In The Abyss”.
R.I.P. Jeff Hanneman…
“Lo there do I see my father, Lo there do I see my mother, my Sisters and my brothers , Lo there do I see the line of my people, back to the beginning. Lo, they do call me, they bid me take my place among them, in the halls of Valhalla, where the brave may live forever.”
Seasons In The Abyss
Razors edge Outlines the dead Incisions in my head Anticipation the stimulation To kill the exhilaration
(chorus:) [part 1] Close your eyes Look deep in your soul Step outside yourself And let your mind go Frozen eyes stare deep in your mind as you die
[part 2] Close your eyes And forget your name Step outside yourself And let your thoughts drain As you go insane… [go] insane
Innate seed To watch you bleed A demanding physical need Desecrated, eviscerated Time perpetuated
Close your eyes Look deep in your soul Step outside yourself And let your mind go Frozen eyes stare deep in your mind as you die
Close your eyes… and forget your name Step outside yourself… and let your thoughts drain As you go insane… [go] insane
Inert flesh A bloody tomb A decorative splatter brightens the room An execution a sadist ritual Mad intervals of mind residuals
Close your eyes Look deep in your soul Step outside yourself And let your mind go Frozen eyes stare deep in your mind as you die
Close your eyes… and forget your name Step outside yourself… and let your thoughts drain As you go insane… [go] insane
First we had the WonderCon Exclusive trailer for Pacific Rim drop a couple days ago. Now we have the CinemaCon Exclusive trailer for the upcoming The Wolverine which looks to be an improvement from this film’s first trailer.
This trailer for The Wolverine looks to emphasize the action in the film instead of the film’s story. We get many scenes of Wolverine doing what he does best. For fans of the character this storyline and setting should be recognizable as being based off of the Chris Claremont and Frank Miller mini-series about the character that helped create one of this character’s better backstory.
The Wolverine drops in the theaters on July 26, 2013.
With all the hoopla over this weekend’s release of Iron Man 3 one shouldn’t overlook the release the following weekend of a little horror film coming in under the radar called Aftershock.
The film has Eli Roth producing and starring in it with Nicolás López directing it. The film is a fictional account of a group of Americans with their Chilean friend trying to survive the aftermath of the real-life massive 2010 earthquake in Chile.
From the look of this official red band trailer the film looks like it’s going to be quite bloody and gory. If there’s anything that Roth seems to know it’s blood and gore. Whether this film and its director will bring something else to the table will be determined upon the film’s release.
Aftershock is set for a North American release date of May 10, 2013.
What else to follow up a guilty pleasure than with a classic southern rock song that I still consider one of the best examples of what made 70’s American Rock an equal of the huge British invasion that was currently happening in the US with mega bands like Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and The Who. It’s this song from one of the preeminent Southern Rock groups of the 70’s, The Allman Brothers Band, that arrives as the latest “Song of the Day”.
“Midnight Rider” is a great Southern rock tune which successful melds not just blues guitar playing but country and gospel songwriting and vocalizing. It’s well-known for Greg Allman’s powerful vocals and Dicket Betts lead guitar work. Yet, I consider this song as reaching “one of the greatest” status because of the rhythm guitar (with an acoustic guitar no less) work by one of the greatest (call it hyperbole but I truly believe him to be one of the best ever) guitarists who ever picked up the instrument whether one’s genre of music was jazz, flamenco, rock, blues, metal, rock and everything in-between. Duane Allman’s acoustic guitar work makes this song what it is. It’s a rhythm that he sets which everyone else in the band orbits around with their own talent rising to meet it on equal footing.
For some people this song was first experienced as the opening track to Rob Zombie’s underappreciated “grindhouse road flick” The Devil’s Rejects. Others of more recent time probably heard it as part of the GEICO insurance company’s 2013 ad-campaign. It doesn’t matter where one has heard it. The more people who hears it and experiences just why this song continues to be a staple of what made 70’s American rock scene such a great one the better people will be for having heard it.
Long live, Duane Allman.
Midnight Rider
Well, I’ve got to run to keep from hidin’, And I’m bound to keep on ridin’. And I’ve got one more silver dollar, But I’m not gonna let ’em catch me, no, Not gonna let ’em catch the Midnight Rider.
And I don’t own the clothes I’m wearing, And the road goes on forever, And I’ve got one more silver dollar, But I’m not gonna let ’em catch me, no Not gonna let ’em catch the Midnight Rider.
And I’ve gone by the point of caring, Some old bed I’ll soon be sharing, And I’ve got one more silver dollar,
But I’m not gonna let ’em catch me, no Not gonna let ’em catch the Midnight Rider.
No, I’m not gonna let ’em catch me, no Not gonna let ’em catch the Midnight Rider.
No, I’m not gonna let ’em catch me, no Not gonna let ’em catch the Midnight Rider.
Time to put up a new guilty pleasure that goes way, way back for me. This flick came out a year after the ultra-violent, thus equally awesome Red Dawn. As a very impressionable young boy that film had me and my brother and a select group of friends coming up with ways to form our very own Wolverines. While our plans were really just an excuse to play war games in the playground it was the following year in 1985 when this latest “guilty pleasure” had my brother and I moving up to a new level doomsday prepping.
That film was the Chuck Norris classic bloodbath: Invasion U.S.A.
Instead of the Soviet military invading the U.S. mainland this time around it would be Latin American communist guerrillas led by a Rogue KGB agent who would be doing the invading. Well, invading the suburbs and malls of Florida at least. Just like in true exploitation fashion the film would use the fear Americans had of foreign terrorists (this was the era of the airline hijackings, hostage takings and cafe bombings) finally putting it in their heads to strike at the American heartland.
But who would stop them if none other than the poor man’s Sylvester Stallone. He was no Rambo, but his name has become even more feared in popular culture. He is Chuck Norris and he’s the country’s only savior against hundreds of well-armed terrorist guerrillas and the rogue Soviet leaders. For a pre-teen set this was a flick that opened up the imagination to new levels of violence (thus awesome playground wargaming afterwards) and epic action. It’s not a surprise that it would be the Cannon Films group led by Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus (proprietors of some of the 80’s best and most violent action films of the era).
This film has become a sort of cult classic amongst action film aficionados. It’s literally a film that puts on the action gas from the start and doesn’t let up. Even has grindhouse stalwarts like Richard Lynch and Billy Drago to give it some exploitation creds.
They sure don’t make action flicks like this anymore. Which really is a damn bloody shame.
On a side note: this is one flick I hope Lisa Marie, Leonard and these Snarkalecs they seem to be hanging about it to view one night if it ever airs on TV.
July 12, 2013 will be the date that will go down in otaku history when anime and live-action finally come together to prove that dreams of a live-action versions of some of the most beloved anime titles can work outside the animator’s studio. Guillermo Del Toro may not admit it but this Wonder-Con exclusive trailer for his upcoming Pacific Rim is chock full of anime influences.
Giant mecha aka Giant robots piloted by humans: CHECK
Giant monsters alien or interdimensional in origin: CHECK
Humanity brought to the brink of extinction and living in fortified cities: CHECK
It sounds like the basic outlines for anime of the past 30 or so years. There’s a bit of Neon Genesis Evangelion. There’s definitely a healthy dosage of the Mazinger Z DNA in this film. We can’t forget the classic Voltron that introduced many young people in the West in the 80’s to the joy of ultra-violent anime. Outside of anime there’s the Ultraman versus kaiju live-action Saturday serials that continues to be popular in Japan to this day and was a staple of any growing boy’s entertainment agenda on Saturday mornings.
Whether this film lives up to the hype it’s been gaining since the first teaser was shown late last year is still an unanswered question, but for fans of action anime this film looks like a love-letter to us and everyone else should just hang on for the ride whether they want to or not.
Plus, for those not steeped in otaku culture it has something for you as well: Jax Teller, Luther, Clay Morrow and Charlie “Kitten Mittens” Kelly.
On July 12, 2013 will be the date to cancel the apocalypse.
Through the Shattered Lens