Monday, June 29, 2009
The Antlers
This album is a breathe of fresh air. Intimate and rockin' at the same time. Beautiful vocals/lyrics, layered over lo-fi indie slowcore, with shoegaze atmospherics. This is one of those that kinda sinks into your subconscious and stays there.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Clues
This experimental indie rock band sports former Arcade Fire and Unicorns members. Great start to what is hopefully a bright future for these guys. Take a listen:
Saturday, June 20, 2009
2012
Well this is some of the most beautiful apocalyptic carnage I have ever seen in a trailer...now bring on a story to match and this could be something special!
Zombieland
Looks like Woody Harrelson wants to put the fun back in killing zombies...and Bill Murray and the that kid from Adventureland are along for the ride. Oh Yeah!
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
John Carpenter's The Thing
Continuing on with my Carpenter fix, I recently rewatched one of my favorite Sci-fi/Horror films of all time 'The Thing'. This is Carpenter's second collaboration with Kurt Russell and came out right after 'Escape from New York'. However, while this film has some campy elements to it, it is much more scary than 'Escape'.
The film opens perfectly with a helicopter chasing a lone Husky through the snow filled mountainside. It becomes clear that the men in this helicopter are trying to shoot and kill this defenseless creature. Eventually the dog finds its way to a American research facility and when the men in the helicopter land, start yelling in a different language, and open fire, the locals, not knowing what's going on, shoot them down.
From there our cute dog is taken in by Kurt Russell and the gang only to find out that he is only an alien imitation. When the crew realizes this, it may be too late and it becomes a story of survival and distrust as any of the crew could have been imitated.
This film won awards for its creature effects, and it shows. This is the kind of film that makes you miss the days before CGI, when things looked more organic, real and frightening. Thats why I love directors like Guillermo Del Toro who still mixes tangible effect with computer generated ones.
The cast are all great at conveying the reality of the situation, this feels like it could really happen to everyday people, and that this is what it would be like. This is brilliant psychological horror mixed with its fair share of shock and gore. This is a must see...Highly Recommended!!! Oh yeah and the blood test scene is probably one of the most classic scene's in horror movie history!
The film opens perfectly with a helicopter chasing a lone Husky through the snow filled mountainside. It becomes clear that the men in this helicopter are trying to shoot and kill this defenseless creature. Eventually the dog finds its way to a American research facility and when the men in the helicopter land, start yelling in a different language, and open fire, the locals, not knowing what's going on, shoot them down.
From there our cute dog is taken in by Kurt Russell and the gang only to find out that he is only an alien imitation. When the crew realizes this, it may be too late and it becomes a story of survival and distrust as any of the crew could have been imitated.
This film won awards for its creature effects, and it shows. This is the kind of film that makes you miss the days before CGI, when things looked more organic, real and frightening. Thats why I love directors like Guillermo Del Toro who still mixes tangible effect with computer generated ones.
The cast are all great at conveying the reality of the situation, this feels like it could really happen to everyday people, and that this is what it would be like. This is brilliant psychological horror mixed with its fair share of shock and gore. This is a must see...Highly Recommended!!! Oh yeah and the blood test scene is probably one of the most classic scene's in horror movie history!
John Carpenter's Escape from New York
I've recently been purging my DVD collection at moviestop and buying myself the kind of guilty pleasures I would watch over and over. Escape from New York is one of those for me. This is one of the original post-apocalyptic masterpieces. The wacky premise is that in the future (1997!!) New York has become a walled off sort of prison for all the crazies and airforce one (piloted by a terrorist) crash lands in the middle of it. The president does eject before the crash, but is soon taken hostage by the locals.
Kurt Russell is pitch perfect as Snake Plissken, the X special forces turned condemned bad-ass whose only hope of release is to go in and get the President out. The catch is that those sneeky government people implant a small explosive that will kill him in 24 hrs if he does not get the president out and in turn get the device deactivated. Sounds awesome right?
This film is just pure campy fun, from its apocalyptic landscape to the ridiculous punk rock inspired outfits and one liners. All this doesn't diminish Carpenter's ability to still bring in a sort of under your skin creepiness as Snake explores New Yorks hazardous alleyways. I won't spoil all the fun, just go rent it for yourself. Check out this trailer to get you amped!
Kurt Russell is pitch perfect as Snake Plissken, the X special forces turned condemned bad-ass whose only hope of release is to go in and get the President out. The catch is that those sneeky government people implant a small explosive that will kill him in 24 hrs if he does not get the president out and in turn get the device deactivated. Sounds awesome right?
This film is just pure campy fun, from its apocalyptic landscape to the ridiculous punk rock inspired outfits and one liners. All this doesn't diminish Carpenter's ability to still bring in a sort of under your skin creepiness as Snake explores New Yorks hazardous alleyways. I won't spoil all the fun, just go rent it for yourself. Check out this trailer to get you amped!
Offline
Sorry I've been really busy lately working on a service project at a homeless shelter, but I am back now and hope to put up a few posts to make up for the down time.
Offline was apparently supposed to be a sort of promo reel for effects guy Matthew Santoro, who previously worked on films like AVP (I know, I know), but this cyberpunk concept seems to be turning into a full length project for him and I for one think it could be great fun! It was shot on a low low budget, but looks immensely creative and super slick. Take a look and let me know what you think.
Offline was apparently supposed to be a sort of promo reel for effects guy Matthew Santoro, who previously worked on films like AVP (I know, I know), but this cyberpunk concept seems to be turning into a full length project for him and I for one think it could be great fun! It was shot on a low low budget, but looks immensely creative and super slick. Take a look and let me know what you think.
O F F L I N E from Matthew Santoro on Vimeo.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Up - Review
Ever since Toy Story Pixar has become the most reliable group of storytellers in the film industry. They often find ways to portray the most human of emotions out of their animated characters, often more so then the majority of actors are able to. Their newest film, while certainly not their best, is no exception. Right from the beginning we are given a shortened, but emotional journey through an old mans life full of love and, ultimately, loss. These images are without a doubt the highlight of the film. While his ultimate journey to find the ultimate adventure in the form of "Paradise Falls", a childhood dream of himself and his former wife, is entertaining, it lacks the substance that other Pixar films were able to squeeze out of every frame.
Don't get me wrong, Pixar's characters are still drawn for us with care, just not great care. Only old Carl is given a full background, while his young traveling partner, Russel, was only given some brief lines of dialogue regarding his deadbeat Dad. Even the villain is merely given a brief newsreel before he shows up a full blown madman later on in the film.
Other than these small details, much of the film felt unbelievable. It may sound ludicrous to talk this way about an animated film in general, but pretty much all of Pixars other films gave us a feeling that we were part of a sort of alternate reality. Either a fantasy world unknown to the real world via Toy Story, and to an extent, The Incredibles, or completely fictional universes like Monsters Inc., Cars etc. This film felt grounded in the real world that Carl faced from the start, and then just out of the blue decided that real world rules don't apply anymore (flying balloon house, crazy undiscovered world in South America, giant undiscovered bird species, talking dog collars and much more) All of this was fun, but felt slightly misplaced against the film's initial backdrop.
Overall, however, this is still a strong entry into the Pixar catalog and only a minimal slip in their otherwise stellar output.
Don't get me wrong, Pixar's characters are still drawn for us with care, just not great care. Only old Carl is given a full background, while his young traveling partner, Russel, was only given some brief lines of dialogue regarding his deadbeat Dad. Even the villain is merely given a brief newsreel before he shows up a full blown madman later on in the film.
Other than these small details, much of the film felt unbelievable. It may sound ludicrous to talk this way about an animated film in general, but pretty much all of Pixars other films gave us a feeling that we were part of a sort of alternate reality. Either a fantasy world unknown to the real world via Toy Story, and to an extent, The Incredibles, or completely fictional universes like Monsters Inc., Cars etc. This film felt grounded in the real world that Carl faced from the start, and then just out of the blue decided that real world rules don't apply anymore (flying balloon house, crazy undiscovered world in South America, giant undiscovered bird species, talking dog collars and much more) All of this was fun, but felt slightly misplaced against the film's initial backdrop.
Overall, however, this is still a strong entry into the Pixar catalog and only a minimal slip in their otherwise stellar output.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
