Twitch

Neil Gaiman has a resume to die for. As if he hadn't already cemented his place in geek-culture history as the writer of the classic Sandman graphic novels he has also built a loyal following of readers for his fantasy novels and, more recently, children's fiction. And now there is a simply massive buzz building around MirrorMask, the feature film scripted by Gaiman and director by Sandman artist Dave McKean.

Gaiman is riding hard on the PR trail for MirrorMask and we were fortunate enough to land a twenty minute interview slot with him earlier today. Read on for a complete history of MirrorMask and a whole lot more.

Continue reading "Twitch Interviews Neil Gaiman"

It never rains but it pours ... it seems like just a few days ago we were posting those pictures for Kiyoshi Kurosawa's loft and now here comes news of ANOTHER new project from the Japanese master. This from Tommie, currently attending the Rotterdam film festival:

"Today I attended the International Film Festival Rotterdam and picked up a daily festival paper. In it was a small article about the cinemart.This is where filmmakers can pitch new projects to investors and do some networking. Anyway,the article mentioned a new film project by Kurosawa Kiyoshi!!!

Hope you find this interesting."

Interesting? You bet! Particularly so because this thing's already 20% of the way to having it's budget in place! Sweet!

Before I commence with the review let me drop this little bit of advice: If you happen to live in the LA area plan on spending some time at Golden Apple Comics on Wednesday. Ray Harryhausen will be there signing copies of this new DVD release from 4-6 pm. All the details are at that link above.

Commercial over, on we go. Ray Harryhausen is one of a handful of men who can justly be termed a living legend. His best known works - Jason and The Argonauts, Clash of the Titans - has pretty much always been available in some form or another but the man also had a vast catalog of older, lesser known material that has slowly gathered dust. No more. Sparkhill's Early Years Collection is, quite simply, the definitive edition of the man's early work, immensely valuable both as a cultural document and a work of art.

Continue reading "Ray Harryhausen Early Years Collection Review"

How does Uwe Boll keep making films? It's a mystery of the universe. Maybe it has something to do with karmic balance. To quote Nick at CHUD : "Of course, I'm biased. I've never seen a Uwe Boll film. I've also never covered my genitals in peanut butter and straddled the face of a lion."

Couldn't possibly sum things up better than that ... click here for the pain. Ben! Michael! Never do anything like this again!

They're not citing a source for the news, so I have no way of commenting on its accuracy, but Comic Book Resources are reporting that Edgar Wright - he of Spaced and Shaun of the Dead fame - has signed on to helm an adaptation of the Scott Pilgrim comic book. Enquiries are being made and I'll let you know what I find out, but I know all the principal Shaun people are hard at work prepping Hot Fuzz, so even if this turns out to be true it won't be happening for a little while yet ...

A quick note (courtesy of Ecranlarge) that Arsen Lupin is to be released this May 19. The film will be presented in two versions: a single disc and a double collectors set. Specs for the single disc are the same without the extras ... No info whether or not English subs will be provided.

DVD 1
Le film en version DD 2.0 ou 5.1 et DTS
Commentaires audio de Jean-Paul Salomé et Laurent Vachaud

DVD 2
Making of (31 min)
Essais maquillages commentés par Jean-Paul Salomé (40 min)
Essais maquillages commentés par Jean-Paul Salomé (17 min)
Casting de Romain Duris commenté par Jean-Paul Salomé (10 min)
Comparatif film/ storyboards commentéspar Jean-Paul Salomé (20 min)
Documentaire exclusif sur Arsène Lupin (40 min)

[an update from Todd]

You can hit the official website here and check the trailer here. If this thing's got subs I am so there ... looks amazing ...

Continue reading "Arsene Lupin DVD to be released in France on May 19"

This pretty much speaks for itself:

(01-30-2005) The Who's 'Tommy' to Become Most Expensive Animation

--contactmusic

Evidently by "right" Stigwood means "insanely bloated and expensive". Four hundred million dollars!?! Forget most expensive piece of animation ever, that's got to be the most expensive FILM ever. What on earth are they going to spend all that money on? Gold plated toilet paper at the production house? Zowie.

Thanks to Reneedo, who spotted this at U2interference.com because she's an obsessive fan. Bono's already married, Reneedo. Let it go.

Some new details trickled out yesterday that confirmed preview discs of the show had fallen into some peoples hands (not mine, so that label doesn't read this site!). Then Al_Sex_Gore, main man at SexGoreMutants posted info today that says all the episodes have indeed been passed uncut by the BBFC for release in the UK.

For those wondering why this might be an issue, well there are two odd things about the show and the Japanese discs. Firstly, as on a couple of occasions in the past, but this time more predominantly, Miike used intentional optical fogging / pixelation and other self-censorship techniques for style. Secondly, the uncensored scenes were included as extras on those discs, and they could have been contentious for the BBFC.

Well, the extras or rather the uncensored footage wasn't supplied for the UK release licensees, so you get the show only, as Miike intended it to be seen and in a way that can't be taken as anything other than visual style or technique in operation. Unfortunately, the BBFC haven't updated their listing to put the show on there, but play.com have it listed in stock and someone else from SGM has managed to buy the disc at MVC, so i have reordered it from play.com myself for £11.99. For 2 hours or more off Miike, it's great value.

Whilst gushing about the goodness that is Analife yesterday I commented on how unusual it was to find a Japanese film website that included a fully translated version of the entire site, not to mention an English language trailer. Well, here's the reason why ...

I sent an email to the site's contact address, fully expecting that it would vanish off into the ether not to be heard from again. Shockingly enough this morning I received a response straight from the director. Seems Goda's got his eye on the international market with this film and is currently hard at work prepping an English language version which he will then start promoting in the global market. He doesn't specify what's entailed in his English version, so it could range from a simple subtitle job up to some large scale reworking, but we are definitely going to be seeing this film hit the international stage in some English language format in the near future. Todd is a happy boy.

You should have watched the trailer twenty or thirty times by now. Get to it.

Dreams, the unofficial but so thorough it may as well be official Terry Gilliam fan site, has scored themselves a mitt full of images from Gilliam's Tideland. The new shots are a mix of film stills and behind the scenes stuff and they all look pretty sweet ... check 'em here.

Via AICN

Glory! I've been champing impatiently waiting for season two of Little Britain to hit DVD but it looks as though I won't have to wait quite so long for new stuff from the twisted minds of DavidWalliams and Matt Lucas. It seems the duo have a Comic Relief DVD slated to release in mid-February. I question whether it'll stand up nearly as well as the proper episodes as the general point of the Comic Relief stuff is to jam as many celebrity appearances in as possible rather than write something cohesive but I have to admit that I giggle a little at the thought of George Michael visiting Lou and Andy, Robbie Williams cross dressing with Emily and Elton John paying a visit to Daffyd.

The DVD is due for a February 14th release but is not yet available at any of the major online retailers. We'll keep our eyes open.

Via Digital Spy

*** UPDATE ***

Just found some more info about this over at davidwalliams.com - which is also floating a film rumor! Apparently the BBC is willing to fund a feature - the Comic Relief thing is a new twenty minute episode produced as part of Comic Relief's Red Nose Day. Details are here.

So, I'm still making my way through that massive Eiga list of Japanese film links that I posted yesterday and, if today's big update over there is any indication, Stauffen is doing the same thing. They've found some good stuff - including the next film from the young star of Nobody Knows - but two stand out ...

First is Zoo. Logboy actually sent me a heads up on this a couple days ago, but I never quite got around to it. A guy's got to sleep sometime, right? This is one brilliant looking horror project that looks to be made up of at least three smaller segments and includes some anime. If someone who reads Japanese wants to read the website and fill in some details, we'd appreciate it. But regardless of what the thing says the film looks fantastic. Six trailers, and every one of them's a keeper. Vampirism, rotting corpses, forced imprisonment, very long falls ... all sorts of happy things shot with a fantastic sense of style. Definitely one to watch for.

Second is Analife. I may have entirely missed this if not for the link at Stauffen and that would have been just a huge loss ... where to even begin with this? This looks as though it will fall into that elusive magical-realism category of films - 3 Iron, Last Life in the Universe and Lost in Translation are all recent examples of the type - but more extreme than most in both directions. The entire website has been translated into English, which is incredibly rare,and the trailer ... man, be prepared to just fall right into this thing. Absolutely one of the best thing I have seen in ages. No joke. No exaggeration. Stunning, pure and simple. If I'm reading things correctly this is only the second feature film from writer / director Kenji Goda and I'll say right now that we're about to witness the emergence of a very major talent in the international film world. Run, don't walk.

**** UPDATE ****

We just had a reader send in a translation of the Zoo site. Click below to check it out.

Continue reading "More Good Things From Japan: Zoo and Analife *UPDATE*"

Here's a bit of a viewing heads up to everyone with access to BBC America. Watch out for Green Wing. Apparently BBC America picked up rights to it a week or two back so it should be coming along shortly, though they've not yet listed it on their website.

Continue reading "In Praise of Green Wing"

There are four of 'em and they are beautiful ... click away for all four all big and purty.

Poster One
Poster Two
Poster Three
Poster Four

Number two is definitely my favorite of the lot. Got a bit of the ol' BVM action going there ...

I got 'em via Filmacco, who apparently found them on the KFC forum.

Here's some happy news Logboy stumbled across in the KFC Cinema Forums ...

If you missed out on that big eight disc Infernal Affairs box set that came out of Hong Kong late last year and you've been kicking yourself ever since, well, it's time to give those shins a rest. Korea's Enterone is doing a similar release with one exception: the packaging here might actually be even better. No word yet on price but it's due for a March release, so more details should be coming soon. Click here to see a larger version of the image above and click below for the full specs.

Continue reading "Miss Out on That Big Infernal Affairs Box Set? You're Getting Another Chance ..."

Going ion to the Sundance Festival this year one of the big question marks was Brick. The film is a modern high school drama, whih is familiar enough territory. But where things get interesting is that it is also a classical film noir. Apparently this thing gets all Bogart on you. It's an interesting fusion if done well - if nothing else the stark imagery and buried emotions of film noir make for a fantastic re-imaging of the high school experience - but it definitely had the potential to crash and burn on a massive scale.

Well, judging from the critical response the film is a massive success. Sadly the trailers have been removed from the website but there's plenty there to nose around in. And can I say that I'm happy to see Lukas Haas working again? Great actor who always does interesting stuff ... rest of the cast looks good, too ...

Great site, Midnighteye.com. Anyhow, some noteable stuff in relation to what has generally been obviously going on in Japanese cinema from most fans points of view, and some surprises to be found (as always). Firstly, their review of Izo by Takashi Miike is up here

Secondly, a nice interview with Japans master of the nasty film, Teruo Ishii is here, as is a review of his 1969 film "The Horror of Malformed Men" here.

Thirdly, the writers have put up their best and worst of 2004's films. Vital, Doppelganger, Nobody Knows, Izo, Innocence, Mind Game, Howls Moving Castle, Appleseed, Memories of Murder, Last Life In The Universe, Running on Karma, Breaking News, Paranoia Agent, and Blood & Bones are many of the top selections most will be familiar with, with some surprising nominations for films like Casshern and Steamboy amongst the worst. See the fill list here and find some new films we've all completely missed it seems.

I am so glad there are a couple of really high-ranking mentions for Mind Game, which some people have begun to pick up on now (still selling well at Yesasia.com) - for me not only one of THE best films of 2004, but one of the best blind-buys I've ever had, and they're 95% of what i go for. Jasper Sharp says, "...the relative disappointments of Steamboy and Howl's Moving Castle were more than offset by the astounding Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence, and Studio 4C's flabbergasting Mind Game, a magical work that appeared as if from nowhere.".

For the top of Midnighteye ...

Saw the banner ad for this over at AICN, the official site for Danny Boyle's latest, Millions. Nick and I saw this at TIFF last September and we both had very good things to say about it. And is so happens that the rest of you will be able to see this on March 11th. It appears to have a full release on this date.

Can't wait until March 11th? Live in New York or L.A? Then by a stroke of marvelous luck you can go to a free screening on one of two dates in those areas.

Tuesday, Feb 01 7:00 PM AMC Empire 25, New York
Wednesday, Feb 02 7:00 PM AMC Burbank 16, Burbank
Thursday, Feb 17 7:30 PM AMC Santa Monica, Santa Monica
Thursday, Feb 24 7:00 PM Irvine Regal Spectrum Theatre, Irvine

Read my review of Millions from TIFF here.

Todd and everyone else at Twitch are probably sitting seeing this thinking "Prince Of F**king Tennis? Has He F**king Lost It?". Hmmm... Maybe, but the thing is the animation is by Production I.G and they don't get involved in many things, and what they have touched has been top-notch.

Anyhow, even though i've seen the site before, you can go over there are check out the trailer to at least look at the masters of animation in action.

The film opened yesterday in Japan.

With all the well deserved hype around Tony Jaa claiming the international martial arts star throne there's a pretty major risk of overlooking some significant talent a little closer to home ... I've had some readers prodding me to look into a DVD release of the Besson-produced Banlieue 13 (no word anywhere on a French release yet, my hunch is that we'll see a Russian DVD first, and the Russian stands a better chance of being subtitled) and has just pointed out the stellar websites for Banlieue stars Cyril Rafaelli and David Belle.

We've linked to these before, but it's worth doing it again ... Rafaelli and Belle are two of the originators of a new form of martial arts that fuses traditional fight styles with gymnastics. They like to jump off buildings and generally defy gravity a lot. If you've seen the Yamakasi films - and if anyone has solid news on subtitled releases of either Yamakasi or Les Fils Du Vent, I'd like to know about them - you know what I'm talking about. Both of the artist sites above contain extensive video archives ... click and be prepared to scrape your jaw off the floor ... the videos don't appear to load properly with Firefox, so if you're having problems try IE ...

Just realized that whilst linking to the League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse trailer I had neglected to include the poster. So there you have it. All big and pretty, even.

People have been buzzing about this film ever since the first images turned up online. If you're a mech-geek at all, there's an awful lot to like about that robot design ... unfortunately nobody's been able to see it move or see anything to give any kind of clue about the general tone of the film until now. The trailer has just released and it's intriguing, although flawed ... if the film comes in at the bottom end of the possibility spectrum we're looking at Short Circuit with better robot designs. If it comes in at the high end, though, it looks as though it could be pretty exceptional ... check the website out here ...

Go ahead. Try it. Go get a stick and just you try. Your arm will get tired long before you run out of links to peruse. Trust me. I just tried getting through them all and bailed about a third of the way through. Too ... many ... films ...

Want to know what's happening in the Japanese film industry? Go here. Yeah, that just went straight into my bookmarks file ...

There's an awful lot of stuff in there ... the Bayside Shakedown spin off flick and the Azumi sequel that people have been talking up for a little while, a ridiculous modern army vs Samurai war picture, and a sign that KSS Films have finally realized that no budget need not equal no story and lousy film work. That's just on first perusal, though ... click around and let us know what you find ... I gotta stop before my head explodes ...

MonkeyPeaches has been busy the past couple days. Yesterday they reported that Rogue Pictures released the Unleashed trailer on their web-site and it comes in glorious freaking awesome Quicktime! We've seen it hundreds of time and think about it when we sleep at night.

Then today they link to 44 images from the movie over at the fan site Jet Li Online. That and the North American poster, neither of which I had seen yet. Click here to see a full sized image of the North American Unleashed poster.

I think they're nifty. And so should you. Or I will take my collar off and there will be hell to pay. Like it. Like it now.

This past week the S Korean entertainment industry had been rocked by a 113-page report in a Microsoft Power Point file, dubbed the "Entertainers' X-Files,". Created by Dongseo Research for Cheil Communications the file was a research document which would be used to determine the value of potential models and minimize risk factors for advertisers. [Ed note: Dongseo interviewed 10 reporters, who were given vouchers worth 200,000 Won each for their information - Approx $500 CDA]

The report first scores "present position", describing how entertainers became known and what they do as well as their "prospects". Other categories, "Attractions/talents", "self-management" and "rumors" are scored in a separate table.

The "rumors" category has become especially troublesome. There are unconfirmed and potentially defaming rumors. Keywords and phrases like "bisexual," "scandals involving the sons of a certain business tycoon", "love affairs with entertainers", "sponsors have recently changed", and "had a friendly relationship with a certain Cabinet minister" appear in the report.

Sadly, attention has mainly focused on the “rumors” category. Comments and posts on message boards about this file and categories are mostly nasty than supportive. The contents of the file have been expressed in crude fashion. Many ridicule the rumored sexual tendencies of some of the stars in very colorful language. Others claim to be of a higher moral standing and resort to expressing their disgust with the poor personal morals of some of the entertainers. Of course this is something that is so much easier to do with the anonymity of the internet. They’ll never know who you are so go ahead and slander them!

Since Monday, 55 of the 99 celebrities mentioned in the document have filed a class action suit against Cheil Communications and Dongseo Research. Also, 359 people from the show business industry have expressed their intentions to boycott Cheil. "This incident isn’t just about the entertainers, but about the violation of an individual’s privacy," said Hong Jong-goo, a representative of the entertainers’ group. "We’re going to take every action and see this to the end."

Kwon Sang-woo [Volcano High/My Tutor Friend], a Twitch favorite, said in recent interview that because of the break-out of the file he has seriously considering quitting show business altogether. Quite sad news since he is set up to work with Yuen Wo-Ping and is also rumored to be up for a role in John Woo’s The War of the Red Cliff.

A total of 368 entertainers, including such names as TV stars Bae Yong-joon and Kwon Sang-woo, belonging to 45 talent agencies announced later in the week that they will refuse to work with Cheil Communications.

Define Irony: This file is leaked and it will likely ruin some amazing entertainers' careers in Korea. A talentless hack like Paris Hilton becomes even more popular in America after her sex video is released online.

Via english.chosun.com and The Korea Times.

The crazy bastards at CHUD.com have gotten their paws on some images of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy merchandise and we have what appears to be the first image of the Vogons. Huzzah! Along with a couple Vogons we also see Arthur, Zaphod, Trillian, Ford and Marvin plush dolls. Arthur and Zaphod action figures and other collectible goodness.

Follow this link to see images of Vogons, hitchhikers, moody robots and the likes.

'On no account allow a Vogon to read poetry at you'.

Anyone who has followed the Dogme movement will tell you that Anders Tomas Jensen is a genius. As the author of Open Hearts, The King is Alive and Mifune you could argue that Jensen is actually a more important figure in the movement than are the directors simply because he's been the source of the very best scripts. What Dogme fans may not be able to tell you, however, is that Jensen is a very funny man. Funny in a bleak, Scandanavian sort of way, but very funny nonetheless.

Enter The Green Butchers, a film both written and directed by Jensen which is just getting a limited theatrical run in North America now. I missed this one when it played the Toronto Film Festival opting instead for another fantastic Jensen offering (Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself) which impressed me so much that I immediately went on a quest to find The Green Butchers on DVD. Thanks to Denmark's restrictive export laws this was more difficult than you might think, but it was well worth the effort. Very bleak, very funny, with an incredible cast and very tight writing.

And now Apple has posted the North American trailer. And it's horrible. Not only is the video bleached and bled out but it's been subjected to a horribly cheerful soundtrack and irritating text panels. The only thing they didn't do is lay Mr. Movie Voice on it. Making matters worse the old Danish website has been taken over by an actual butcher shop so I can't even point you to a GOOD trailer. Sigh ... don't let the crappy trailer fool you. This is a very good film. Check it out if you're lucky enough to have it playing in your neighborhood.

It actually IS a new one this time, much longer, and no irritating Mr. Movie Voice. A healthy load of new footage ... click here for happiness ...

I couldn't see any info on whether it has English subtitles or not, so anyone who knows Thaid VCD / DVD suppliers other than ethaicd.com should nose around and see.

Having said that, it's the most hopeful sign of the possibility of a English subtitled DVD coming out anywhere soon. Personally, I just plumped for a factory-pressed bootleg from eBay incase there wasn't one for ages, and then the eBay ones might start disappearing too. Anyhow, look at the Thai listing here.

Other Miike news : according to AICN, Miike has a small cameo in "Rinjin 13" aka "Neighbour No.13".

Finally, Dreamworks has launched a replacement program for those unhappy with the subtitles track on the 'Innocence' R1 USA DVD which including captions for the deaf and hard of hearing.

If you are in the USA or Canada, go here. If you are outside the USA, the company that sold you the disc should be able to replace the disc on your behalf through the same scheme, so tell them the URL in that link i just did, and send the disc back to them instead. It may take longer that way, but you will get it done.

Dreamworks said this, "As you know, we have discovered that the Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence DVD was presented with English SDH (Subtitles for the Deaf & Hard of Hearing) closed captions instead of English subtitles on the film.

As this has now been corrected, DreamWorks Home Entertainment is offering consumers who are not satisfied with the original subtitle options the opportunity to replace the DVD with a version that includes English language subtitles."

So, In time you should get your new disc with a hopefully perfect English Subtitles track.

Hopefully many that know me from forums will be aware I like more than Japanese Cinema... I've been a fan of Dario Argento for about 15 years, and that was my initial aim when DVD came along : see all the Argento films uncut and in decent quality.

The man himself has long been called "The Italian Hitchcock" and has admitedly been influenced, but ultimately he is something very different. Now Argentos' new TV work "Ti Piace Hitchock" (aka "Do You Like Hithcock?") has finally shown its' fruits in the form of the first pictures of the final product. Darkdreams.org, the stunning site dedicated to the Maestro, has put them up in their news section here. They have some set-report pictures and background info on the project here.

Glory, hallelujah!

The first glimpse of finished footage from Tom Yum Goong - the new film from the director and star of Ong Bak - has turned up online and we've got it! People over on the Tony Jaa forums found a video clip from a Thai news show that includes around a minute of finalized footage from the film - as well as a snippet of an upcoming Tom Yum Goong video game - in both streaming and downloadable versions, but both servers frankly sucked. So, after spending a half hour or so downloading and re-downloading until finally getting the whole file we're opting to host the thing here at Twitch so people can see just why we're convinced that Tony Jaa will be the world's next major action star without having to gnaw their own limbs off in frustration thanks to the download continually crapping out.

Click here for two and a half minutes of press-conference goodness! The film footage starts at about the one minute mark.

No footage to speak of, but it still makes me giggle like a little girl ... the teaser for The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse has turned up online here. The correct answer, for those who don't know, is 'yes'.

Thanks to Joel and Roraz for the heads up ...

First of all i spotted the UK cinema release date for Casshern : it's February 18th 2005. So, if you have already seen it, or if you've been unwilling to shell-out the cash to see if you like it (because the Japanese disc was expensive) you can try and track it down this way.

Coming in at a slightly cheaper price, and released slightly earlier, is the newly announced R3 Hong Kong DVD. That's out February 8th, and is also listed for sale at cd-wow.com now, so click for Casshern R3 HK ! It's a good price with free worldwide shipping : £8.99. It is also listed at DDDHouse.com, should turn up at Layoyo.com and Yesasia.com also soon.

So, when are we going to get tired of talking about this film? Probably never. Just got a note from Sony pointing out that the North American trailer for Kung Fu Hustle is now available in Quicktime format here. I love this trailer. Snappy, very funny, and it sells the film without giving much of anything away. Plus it's a good time just to dig through it and spot the familiar faces from Shaolin Soccer ... found the wannabe singer from the food stall this morning ...

A couple weeks back we posted a link to the website for Rinjin 13, a live adaptation of a violent Japanese manga. Well, Logboy just turned up that official poster you see to the left and a quick perusal turned up a major site redesign, including a full length trailer. The poster I love, the website I love, the trailer .... not so much. There are parts of it that look quite nice, but there are others that just look incredibly low budget, and not in a good way. It's like there are at least two films competing to get out here ...

The good people over at Narnia Web recently posted a still shot from the film featuring the four children cast in the lead roles ... it disappeared from their site fairly promptly, but a regular reader passed it along to us. No idea how these kids are as actors but they certainly look the parts. Click here for a larger version of the picture and here if you need convincing as to why you should care.

Thanks to Tracy.

Okay, the information is fifth or sixth hand by now, but it appears solid ... word at the H2G2 fan site is that the full length trailer - with actual footage and all - for The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy should appear sometime in February. All the details are here.

Here's a little something good courtesy of Stauffen's Japanese Film blog ... we linked to the website for Ryuichi Hiroki's L'Amant a little while back and Stauffen is now pointing the way to a fantastic trailer for the film. Hiroki rose to international prominence with the release of Vibrator, a film that could easily have slid into crass exploitation territory but instead elevated itself into a pretty compelling character study. If the trailer for L'Amant is any indication it looks as though Hiroki is looking to build on the ideas he introduced in Vibrator and I'm very much looking forward to seeing it ... the trailer is here, the website here.

A film that very definitely DOES move into exploitation territory - and I mean that in the best possible way - is Sodom No Ichi. I knew nothing of it until I came across the link on Stauffen, but check this out. Seriously. Check it out. Evil nuns! Satanists! Necromancy! All kinds of good stuff! If not for all the Japanese people I'd think this was made in Italy back in the seventies!

The get some details wrong and strangely opt to treat the film more as a Henson product than a McKean / Gaiman collaboration, but The Hollywood Reporter has a hugely positive review of MirrorMask here. They stop just short of labelling it a classic but as buzz continues to grow around this I just keep getting more and more excited to see it ...

Less than a week now until I'll be talking with Gaiman, so if you've got any questions, speak up!

Okay ... here's a film that just leapt way up to the top of my 'to-watch-for' list ... music video director Mike Mills' feature debut just got a glowing review in Screendaily - seriously, they love it - and it sounds like something right up my alley. I mean it's the guy's first film and they're already putting him in a class with Spike Jonez and Sofia Coppola. Fun cast, too ... it'll be interesting to see how the shape-shifting Vincent D'Onofrio presents himself here. Nice. Check the review here and the Sundance info page here.

Remember, Mr.Gervais has written an episode of The Simpsons? OK, now we know that the voice he will himself provide, is that of a character and not of himself (like other guest stars).

Also revealed today is that the recording will not take place until June this year, so Todd get your pencil sharpened and dial that phone! Finally, it has also been announced that Gervais' character will sing to Marge during the show, a love song of course, but nothing more than that has been rsaid.

Okay ... the observant will note that I killed the previous post about Kung Fu Hustle being up for pre-order at CD WOW. Why? Because I'm a whore, that's why. YesAsia's just added all three versions of Steven Chow's latest opus for decent prices and since we've got an affiliate account there and the only income this site generates is from affiliate links, here they are:

The stripped naked, but nonetheless alluring edition.

The slightly fancier edition.

The 'good lord, I need to change my pants' edition. That'd be it in the picture above.

But wait! That's not all! There's more good stuff! Koi No Mon, the Ryuhei Matsuda (of Blue Spring and Nine Souls fame) starring flick revolving around manga otaku and featuring cameos from Takashi Miike, Shinya Tsukamoto and Hideaki Anno, among others, has also been announed for an April release in both standard and excessive editions and, yes, it is english subtitled. Midnight Eye's review is here.

And for the more budget conscious, Andy Lau star vehicle A World Without Thieves is also coming down the runway ... nummy ...

The Austin Chronicle has paid a visit to the animation studio hard at work on Richard Linklater's A Scanner Darkly and they've got the pictures to prove it. They've also got word that the production needs more animators, so if you've got the skills and want to work on something very, very cool then you've got two reasons to check out the article. This article. Go now. Pictures good.

Via Greencine

Okay, I have nothing to base this opinion on but a gut feeling, but it says here that this one is a case of wishful thinking and / or a game of Broken Telephone on the original reporter's part, buuuuuut ...

Crienglish is reporting that Dustin Hoffman will appear in Zhang Yimou's next film. I doubt this one based both on what's in the article and its general vagueness ... First, it bases the rumor on a meeting between the two men at the recent Golden Globe Awards. Given that Yimou is already deep into production on Qian Li Zou Dan Ji there's no way that this could be the film in question unless Hoffman were to fly out to China for a glorified walk-on. I don't see that happening. Could they be referring to Yimou's planned film after Qian Li Zou Dan Ji? I very much doubt it considering that the stated plan is for Yimou to make another martial arts film next and Jackie Chan has been floated as a surprising, but possible, star.

I'm betting what happened here is that Hoffman simply said that he admires Yimou's work and would like the chance to work with him and this, in the reporters mind, translated to a firm committment. It could pan out - stranger things have happened - but I really doubt it.

Yeah, we were fairly mixed on the film around here - Canfield loves it, I'm in the middle ground, Mack and Nick are less forgiving - but Logboy just came across the Japanese website for The Machinist and it's sweeeeeet. Seriously, just go and poke around for a while. If nothing else, it's got the hands-down best trailer for the film that I've seen anywhere in the world thus far ...

Screendaily and The Hollywood Reporter have both just run a reviews of Adrien Brody starring head trip The Jacket ... the Screendaily review is a bit mixed but there's more than enough in there to convince me that this is a film that I really, really want to see and the Hollywood Reporter one just gushes about it. The trailer aint so bad, either. Check the Screendaily review here and The Hollywood Reporter here.

Well, golly. Here's something major for fans of Ray Harryhausen and animation in general. Sparkhill DVD will be releasing a 2 DVD set of Harryhausen's early works on February first and, juding from the spec sheet, this thing is going to be pretty much a compulsory purchase. Check it out:

Disc one features nine Mother Goose and classic fairy tale shorts; four early films, one of which appears in three distinct versions; eleven shorts labelled 'Tests and Experiments'; a making of featurette; a commentary for The Tortoise and The Hare, and an alternate ending to How To Bridge a Gorge.

Disc two gives you nine more featurettes, a series of tributes to the legendary animator and an image gallery.

Sparkhill's website for the release gives you all the details as well as a pretty sweet selection of images. Now everybody stand back and watch as Canfield's head explodes as he realizes that the screener for this is coming to me and not him.

So some of these are kind of obvious, some are new titles announced for American release, and some i know nothing about. Please let us me know about the ones i put a star next to. Otherwise, I am assuming people are familiar with them.

Firtsly, Media Blasters (in its' various guises) have announced :

March 15: MATANGO: ATTACK OF THE MUSHROOM PEOPLE (Tokyo Shock).
March 22: THE MYSTERIANS* (Tokyo Shock). Looks like an old monster B-Movie Thing.
April 12: ONE MISSED CALL (Tokyo Shock). Takashi Miikes' appaling "Chakushin Ari".
April 26: CURSED* (Tokyo Shock). Read the synopsis, might be retitled, dunno really...
May 10: VARAN THE UNBELIEVABLE* (Tokyo Shock).
June 14: SAMURAI RESURRECTION* (Tokyo Shock).
June 28: NIGHTMARE* (Korean; Tokyo Shock).
July 12: DOGORA* (Tokyo Shock).
August 16: THE SISTERS* (Tokyo Shock).

Now : Lions Gate Home Entertainment :

May 17: INFECTION* (J-Horror).
July 12: PREMONITION* (J-Horror).
August 16: THREE: TRILOGY OF FEAR. The original Three Anthology, followed by :
November 8: THREE: EXTREMES. A Year after the perfectly good R3 HK Disc. by Park / Miike / Fruit Chan.

Via Fangoria.

Award season in is full swing and it's only fair that when you celebrate the very best [read most popular] in cinema that you also celebrate the very worst as well. Thank god for the Razzies.

Starting with an Oscar Night ceremony so small it was actually staged in a living room alcove, The Golden Raspberry (RAZZIE) Awards have grown into what E! On-Line recently called "the foremost authority on all things that suck on the big screen".

Nominees were determined by mailing ballots to more than 650 film professionals, film journalists and film fans from 40 U.S. states and 15 foreign countries. Often called Tinsel Town’s tackiest Trophy, the RAZZIE Award itself is an intentionally cheapjack tchotchke featuring a golf-ball-sized, handcrafted RAZZberry atop a mangled Super 8 film reel that’s spray-painted gold and has an estimated street value of $4.97. Ceremonies will be held the now-traditional 24 hours BEFORE That Other Award Show: 7:30pm/PST Saturday, February 26 at the historic Ivar Theatre in Hollywood. - Razzies.com

Both Catwoman and Alexander lead the pack this year with a respective 7 and 6 nominations, and with good cause to. Though I was very impressed with Ben Stiller getting the Worst Actor nod for his roles in an incredible FIVE films this year. Good for you Ben. And of course the other Ben, Mr. Affleck, offers some competition with his roles in Jersey Girl and Surviving Christmas. My vote for Worst Screen Couple would go to George W. Bush & EITHER Condoleeza Rice OR His Pet Goat / FAHRENHEIT 9/11. Yay pet goat.

Read on to see who is up for the Golden Raspberry this year and let us know who you would vote for. And go to Razzies.com for the complete press release and more categories of the worst in film.

via FilmRot.

Continue reading "25th Annual Razzie Award Nominees announced"

Well, it seems like "Pas sur la bouche"/ Not on the Lips will make it to R1 after all. After being released in Europe some time ago this well made musical will receive its R1 debut on March 22. Should appeal to those interested in A.Tautou. In addition, it should be noted that Alain Resnais' production won three Cesar Awards- Best Costume Design, Best Sound, and Best Supporting Actor (Darry Cowl).

Regards,
Pro-B

It wasn’t until I read the liner notes for the Palm Pictures release of Pen-Ek Ratanaruang’s 6ixtynin9 that I realized that the man had four films to his credit rather than three. I had been under the impression that 6ixtynin9 was Ratanaruang’s debut, but that is not correct. His debut is an earlier film titled Fun Bar Karaoke and a quick scan online turned up an English subtitled VCD of the film.

Continue reading "Fun Bar Karaoke Review"

So, I'm sitting here watching my newly arrived copy of Pen-Ek Ratanaruang's Fun Bar Karaoke - very good film, very bad VCD - and, for some reason, decided to check my mail while grabbing snacks after disc one ... good thing ... some happy soul just sent me a link to five new production stills from Chan Wook Park's Sympathy For Lady Vengeance! These look to have been taken on the same day as the first leaked shot - at the very least lead actress Lee Young Ae is sporting the same costume - but we get some wider shots here, including some of director Chan Wook Park working with his actors. Nice! Click the link above (happy, web-monkey?) to check 'em all out ...

Via Filmacco, who I'd not heard of before but who have just been added to my bookmarks ...

As Todd prepares his interview with the mighty Neil Gaiman we should make it known that the trailer for the movie MirrorMask is now online through the official site. And while I may not be the best person to give this trailer props, given that I have never dipped my big toe into the Gaiman universe, I will say this...

What the hell was that?!!?

Don't get me wrong. It looks very interesting and the visuals look spectacular. Quint at AICN says this, it's like they combined SKY CAPTAIN with LABYRINTH with a hint of BRAZIL thrown in for good measure. But I am almost unsure if I should delve into Gaiman's works or not before seeing this. Do I read some of his stuff before going or do I enter the theatre a Gaiman virgin?

Click here to go to see the Mirrormask online trailer.

via AICN.

A couple of short pieces relating to "Howls Moving Castle". Firstly, various people are now reporting that "Oceans 12" has managed to finally knock the latest Ghibli film from its' No.1 spot in Japan. It opened on November 21st 2004 : so that's a very long run that surely has outstripped many records. It continues to do well at the cinema in Korea and France, and should open in other countries throughout the year.

By the time it makes its' now "firmer" June 10th USA release date, we should be very close to seeing a DVD release in Japan; all Ghibli films released there so far have contained English Subtitles, and if that's not the case this time, expect a mini-revolt online... started by me for one.

The poster art for Yasuaki Nakajima’s After the Apocalypse happily invites comparisons to David Lynch’s Eraserhead. Whoa, there! That’s dangerous ground to be treading … you go putting a name like Lynch on your PR material and people will indeed go ahead and compare, and woe to you if you fail to live up to those lofty standards. Well, here are a couple more names for you. Not only does Nakajima’s stark photography evoke Lynch but there is also a healthy amount of Shinya Tsukamoto and Chris Marker (La Jetee) in there as well. Shot for no money with minimal cast and crew After the Apocalypse is nonetheless a remarkable first feature driven by a striking visual aesthetic.

Continue reading "After the Apocalypse Review"

Man, how sweet is this ... if you happen to be in New York City in February I hope you have a lot of time available to watch movies ... Henrik from KitanoTakeshi.com just sent me the link to the Film Comments Selects screening series and it's just a scary good line up ... Old Boy, Clean, Vital, Der Untergang, Izo, Turtles Can Fly, Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance, Ma Mere, Los Muertos, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeosie, Memories of Murder ... the list just goes on and on.
The series runs February 9 - 24 ... check the site out here.

Well, the House of Flying Daggers soundtrack CD giveaway has wrapped up. Thanks to all who entered. To be considered for this one you had to correctly identify the actor who did NOT appear in House of Flying Daggers but who HAS starred in at least one other film with each of the Daggers three main stars and identify at least one film he appeared in with each. That actor is Tony Leung. There were a couple of different possible responses for Zhang Ziyi and Andy Lau as far as co-starring films, but the most common responses were either Hero or 2046 for Zhang Ziyi, Infernal Affairs for Andy Lau and Chungking Express with Takeshi Kaneshiro. These are all very good films. You should go watch them right now.

Anyway ... the names have been drawn out of the hat and we've gone all old-school with our winners. A bunch of original readers represented here ... congratulations go out to:

Kurt Halfyard
Raquel
Travon Boykins
Geert Jan Alsem
Tracey Powell

Though he is not yet well known in the western world Japanese genre-auteur Kiyoshi Kurosawa looms large in the Japanese industry. Getting his start with low budget straight to video fare Kurosawa quickly built a name for himself with his deconstructionist takes on horror and yakuza films and is now considered one of the top three or four directors in his home country. It’s only a matter of time before word gets out world wide … his ghost apocalypse Kairo was purchased for a western remake, atmospheric supernatural serial killer flick Cure won critical raves world wide, and his aimless youth film Bright Future is currently winning widespread praise in a limited US theatrical release. And now the fledgling US arm of the Tartan Asia Extreme DVD label is bringing his latest – Doppelganger – to our home shores.

Doppelganger stars Kurosawa regular Koji Yakusho – perhaps best known for his role in the original Japanese Shall We Dance – as Hayasaki, a high strung medical technology researcher who begins to be haunted by a doppelganger, an exact physical replica of himself.

Continue reading "Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Doppelganger Review"

Director Toshiaki Toyoda, best known for his violent high school drama Blue SPring, is a master of the bait and switch. He has an uncanny ability to lull you into believing you're going one way while all the while he's actually leading you somewhere else, an ability that he uses to full effect in his latest film.

The story of "9 Souls" begins with Michiru, a troubled youth most likely suffering from some sort of mental illness and whose world is a dark, bleak and hopeless place. Michiru kills his own father and is sent to prison where he must share a crowded cell with nine other convicts. Shortly after one of their cellmates - a forger who often bragged about having a large amount of money stashed in a student time capsule at Mt. Fuji Elementary School - is dragged off to solitary confinement, the remaining nine make a break for it and, of course, hit the road in search of the hidden money.

Continue reading "9 Souls Review"

Okay, I filed away the recent news that David Fincher was in negotiations to helm a film about the Zodiac killer with a grain of salt. I love the guy, but he hasn't had a whole lot of success getting things made of late and, if the rumors are true, he's largely been the author of his own demise thanks to excessive budgetary demands. But this whole Zodiac rumor just got a whole lot more interesting ...

They're not citing a source so I have no way of confirming this or commenting on the reliability of the information, but Dark Horizons has just posted a one line blurb stating that Frank Black (aka Black Francis, aka Charles Thompson aka front man for the greatest rock band that ever lived) is in talks to play the role of the serial killer in question. Does he get to do the soundtrack, too? Please?

I posted about this Haruki Murakami adaptation a couple days back and, lo! A reader just dropped a note pointing out the trailer over at Apple Japan and Indiewire is reporting that the film is the first to land distribution at this year's Sundance Festival, with indie distributor Strand Releasing taking the plunge. That trailer's looking pretty nice, too ... now if only someone would take a good run at A Wild Sheep Chase or another of Murakami's more surreal moments ...

And on an entirely unrelated note: if you have an aversion to cleaning up vomit, or to being vomitted upon, I recommend against having children. Almost four years old now, and no end in sight ...

Thanks to Fannyslacks for the pointer to the trailer.

The Assassination of Richard Nixon carries the perfect tagline The Mad Story of A True Man. Based on real life it finds the heart and soul of a historical event through a devastating character study of it's prime participant Sam Bicke played with breath taking complexity by Sean Penn. It's a performance than in any genuine assessment of the years performances should garner him another Oscar nomination.

Continue reading "THE ASSASSINATION OF RICHARD NIXON FILM REVIEW"

Get yer hands on Sideshow Toys you @#$%& dirty collectors?! Any Planet of the Apes fans left out there after Tim Burton's ahem...interesting 2001 re-envisioning?! There must be if the response to Sideshow's 12' figure line is any indication. I recently got a few of these in the mail and they are well worth your time especially considering the information I was able to pry out of them about their plans to add more figures to the collection.

Continue reading "SIDESHOW TOY PLANET OF THE APES 12” FIGURES REVIEW"

Who is Andy Millman? Well, that's the name of the character Ricky Gervais will be playing in his new series "Extras" - that's hot off the press, as this is the first mention of that you will probably have been able to read online.

What else is new? Well, Gervais has managed to secure a couple more names who make cameo appearances in the show : Ben Stiller and Samuel L Jackson.

Anything more? Yes, apparently each star who appears in the show effectively plays a twisted version of themselves, and the whole episode seems to revolve around a different guest appearance. No wonder Madonna apparently turned Gervais down, saying she wanted a character written especially for her; she is already, to some extent, a parody of herself anyway.

Well, I gotta say that this is one trailer that snuck up on me ... I wasn't expecting to see anything from this film for a good while yet, but I'm glad I did. Things are looking sweeeeet ... click here for all the Tim Burton / Henry Selick stop-motion goodness ...

Yep. This is the second music video post of the last week. Sue me. This one is from Napoleon Dynamite director Jared Hess, for the new single by The Postal Service, who are apparently finally working on a new record. Check the video here.

via IFC.

Shuffled over to the Media Blasters site, notoriously difficuly to navigate, and looked through the upcoming releases. It must have been updated recently, as no one yet has obviously picked up on this one. Yes, finally we get the Teruo Ishii masterpiece "Jigoku" released in American under the title "Japanese Hell". Make sure you note that title change when prebooking it online.

It's the later remake that Ishii Directed, as the original seems to have been done by Nobuo Nakagawa. Looking forward to this one either way.

Continue reading "Jigoku. by Teruo Ishii. R1 USA DVD. April 12th 2005."

Yes, it's true : but only one source (so far) has picked up on Media Blasters fixed release for "Sky High", which although it had mixed reviews, still has some fans. Ofcourse, it's based on a Manga, and ofcourse it recieved a subtitled DVD release in Japan earlish last year. Now those not willing to fork-out for the expense of Japanese discs but who a) like Kitamura, and b) want to see it for themselves can do so.

The one thing you get in the USA which you didn't in either Japanese edition is this : the 132 minute Director Cut (with English Subtitles)... it was there on the Japanese Special Edition, but without Subtitles if i remember correctly. Click down below (on this post, not to go to the source!) to read the press release with full specs and synopsis.

Source : Anime News Service

Continue reading "Sky High. by Ryuhei Kitamura. R1 USA DVD. March 29th 2005."

Twitch readers may remember that we had a little problem with our domain a little while back - namely that our old host decided to shut their doors and take everyone's registered domains with them. Well, after bashing my head repeatedly against a wall in a vain attempt to try and get the rights to the old .com domain back our new host has done what I had come to believe impossible. They somehow did it. Despite a complete lack of cooperation from Bloghosts - our old web host - we are now back in possession of twitchfilm.com and the address is now pointing here. So ... .net or .com it makes no difference. As long as it says 'twitchfilm' in front, you'll find us.

And so, in closing, a hearty 'Screw you!' to Jace Herring and Bloghosts and a very, very sincere 'I love you' to Living Dot. Seriously, if you're in the market for a web-host, go there.

A little something I stumbled across thanks to the good folks at Greencine ...

I'm a big fan of Japanese author Haruki Murakami and unbeknownst to me - until about five minutes ago - there is a film based on a Murakami short story playing at Sundance this year. There's no trailer yet but I did find the official Tony Takitani website, which is chock full of gorgeous photography ... if anybody reading this happens to be at Sundance, check the film out and let us know what you think ...

Crispin Glover is a very strange man. Very. Remarkably. Quite unusual. And I've been hearing rumblings that he was making an equally strange film - titled What Is It - for quite a while. Well, the rumors are true, the film is playing this year's Sundance, it's got that very strange poster to the left and an equally strange trailer here. Be warned: it's not work-safe. Quite possibly not brain-safe, either. He's come a long way since McFly ...

via IFC and Low Culture

How do you follow up a string of bloody sword fights, physics-be-damned- archery and gravity defying martial arts work? If you're Takeshi Kaneshiro, you sing! Kaneshiro will follow up his role in House of Flying Daggers with a part in If Love, a musical featuring live stage star Jacky Cheung and directed by Peter Chan.

Cheung is currently winning critical praise for his touring live musical "Snow. Wolf. Lake." and there had been speculation that he would try and bring that to the screen, a possibility Cheung has been playing down due to the high budget required. For Cheung fans this should be the next best thing ...

Via Crienglish

Well, the good news is that somebody's got the wheel's moving on a DVD release for Miike's Izo outside of Japan. The bad news is that it's happening in Germany. Rapid Eye Movies will be releasing the film for rental in April and for purchase in June. I would rate the chances of English subtitles about 50-50 on this. Some Rapid Eye releases have 'em, some don't. The fact that this is the first release of the film in the western world ought to bump the chances up a little bit as Rapid Eye will have a bit of an export market to cash in on, but that's pure speculation on my part ...

Spotted by Logboy on the AsianDVDGuide forum.

This is one check I wouldn't want to write ...

Stan Lee has won his lawsuit against Marvel comics and Marvel ordered to pay him a 10% cut of their income over the past seven years, including their share of the take from the Spider-Man movies. There are apparently still some lingering issues to be resolved in the courts, but the long and the short is that Marvel got caught out trying to shaft the man that created all of their key characters ...

Via The Hollywood Reporter

... and it's Sarajevo native Emir Kusturica. Now, people were wont to accuse last year's jury as being style over substance thanks to the presence of Quentin Tarantino as jury boss but this year I'm fairly confident there will be a healthy dose of both style and substance. Not only does Kusturica play bass in a rock band when not making films but he once attacked the leader of the New Serbian Right during a film festival and in 1993 publicly challenged Vojislav Seselj, leader of Serbia's ultranationalist movement, to a duel in the center of Belgrade at high noon using any weapon of Seselj's choosing. Seselj politely declined. Apparently the man feels strongly about his politics.

news via Screendaily, bio details via the IMDB.

The Sun, the biggest selling tabloid here in the UK, has apparently today reported that Matt Groening is now "courting" Matt Lucas and David Walliams, the creators and stars of British Comedy "Little Britain".

The suggestion is one of some of the characters from Little Britain appearing in The Simpsons as they already are, and not one of the two creating characters for the show which are new. Recently, Ricky Gervais of The Office completed writing his script for the show, at Groenings invitation.

At the moment this remains simply rumour, and i can't find the story at the site for The Sun. Television news shows however have actually bought the paper today and are reporting it themselves. Groening made it clear that he and The Simpsons team have a great love of British Comedy that goes beyond what is well known or currently popular.

h2g2movie.com has announced fresh news from BBC1 that Stephen Fry will voice ‘The Guide‘ in the upcoming "The Hitchhiker‘s Guide To The Galaxy" movie.

"As a friend of Douglas‘s and a besotted fan of "The Hitchhiker‘s Guide to the Galaxy", being asked to do the voice of The Guide is like having your birthday on Christmas Day, discovering a winning lottery ticket in your stocking and having chocolate poured all over you," Fry proclaimed.

I cannot imagine anyone else putting it quite that way. I've been a long time fan of Fry's since his days on Black Adder, Jeeves & Wooster and my paperback copy of '3 Bits of Fry & Laurie' [Hugh, pictured here with Fry, also of Black Adder fame], based on another tv show, is well read and worn. I am making my way through 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' so now I will have Fry and Alan Rickman's voices going through my head whenever I pick up the book.

Along with the others. Who tell me to burn things.

All you need to know about Leave Me Alone: it is aptly titled. Danny is definitely the less talented of the Pang Brothers and two Ekins plus half a script do not a good film make. The Pangs are now officially joining Ryuhei Kitamura and Johnnie To on my probation list ... you've got one more film each to prove to me that you haven't entirely lost it, boys.

On the other hand, Mind Game is pretty compelling stuff. A fantastic blend of animation styles that hang together shockingly well despite all the variation. It takes a hard left into purely metaphysical territory about half an hour in, but it's definitely worth a look and definitely one of the better pieces of pure animation I've seen in a good while.

The major source of joy tonight, though? The Cinema 16 DVD of international short films. Check out the list of names on this thing ... Lukas Moodyson, Jan Svankmajer, Krzysztof Kieslowski, Jan Kounen, Anders Tomas Jensen, Lars von Trier, Jean-Luc Godard, Tom Tykwer, and the list goes on. An incredible mix of virtually lost early films by established talents - the von Trier is his first film school short, Moodyson's and Kounen's pieces also rank among their very first works - and bright young talent and EVERY SINGLE FILM here includes commentary. It's fantastic viewing ... the brightest lights for me were Chris Morris' My Wrongs which I've almost picked up a few times only to balk at paying full price for a short film and which is absolutely fantastic, and Juan Solanis' L'Homme Sans Tete. Seeing some stunning still shots from the Solanis film and hearing him labelled the next Jeunet or Gilliam - both of which are VERY deserved comparisons - was what led me on the path to this disc in the first place. I've got a few solid short film collections kicking around here but this is by far the best ...

Because George Lucas doesn't have enough money, because we need a monument to how over the top and silly Star Wars has become, but most of all because we all know that Darth Vadar is such a ....spud Hasbro has announced the emergence of what will undoubtedely push the SW phenomenah even deeper towards becoming an actual religion. No word on whether other Star Wars vegetable figures will follow.

Right.

Ever since we here at Twitch had this little run in with KFCCinema.com over them plagiarizing some of our work I've had to deal with KFC loyalists sending me email and posting on the site accusing us of 'stealing' information from KFC.

Well, two things: First, KFC has greatly improved their editorial practices of late and it is now VERY rare to see a news piece running uncredited there. Which is a good thing. I acknowledge that they've dealt with the problem, and I'm in no way trying to slander their current behavior.

Second: I'm sick of all these stupid emails. So here's what I'm going to do.

The most recent irritating poster claimed that we took over fifty percent of our information from KFC. This is so laughably false that I'm going to issue a challenge and back it up with some serious coin.

I am so confident in our level of editorial integrity that if ANY reader can find 100 posts in the entire history of this site - that would be about ten percent of our content total, well below the fifty percent claim - that includes information available at KFC PRIOR to being posted here that is not credited back to them, I will pay that person five hundred US dollars out of my own pocket.

Note that I'm not even saying that this has to be uncredited information. EVEN IF WE FOUND THE INFORMATION VIA ANOTHER SOURCE - which is often the case - if KFC had it first, it counts towards the total. I am so confident that a) we credit our sources and b) we get there first, that I am perfectly confident that nobody will be able to claim the money.

In other words I am so confident that not only does Twitch NOT plagiarize KFC - or any other site, for that matter - and that we beat them to the punch on over 90% of our information that I am willing to front $500 of my own money to back that claim up.

And it is worth pointing out again that this really has nothing in particular to do with KFC other than the fact that it's always KFC people want to claim we're stealing from ... my issue here is with the idiot posters, not with KFC themselves. I would respond in exactly the same way if someone were to claim we were stealing from any other source.

So ... all you happy trolls, I'm putting my money where my mouth is. Get to it.

It appears that after being released in Denmark on an excellent DVD (sadly without English subs) RECONSTRUCTION is now coming to the US offered by Palm Pic