Seeya!

A couple of posts in one day...
One post per day...
One post every couple of days...
One post per week...
One post every couple of weeks...
The End
:)

Film: Kingdom of Heaven

BORING! I did not like this movie at all. To be honest, I can't remember why I wanted to watch it in the first place. Maybe because I did like Ridley Scott's Gladiator or something. This movie drags on and I found it hard to keep my focus. I guess cinematography is alright, but that alone cannot carry a movie of course. Unappealing characters and a dull story. This film is slow, boring and predictable, just stupid. If you are not convinced, try getting through the official trailer. If you can, maybe this film is for you :P

Anime: Karas

Just watched the first episode of a new 6-part OVA called Karas. It is supposed to be about strange mechanical monsters led by a sinister ex-hero named Eko and a young hero (KARAS, a powerful armored being) chosen to fight against these phantoms that plague Japan, with the help of Yuri, his mystical mentor. These mysterious baddies commit a number of murders, where the victims are deprived of their body fluids. What I mainly noticed after watching the first episode is that it's just like watching two unrelated shows pasted together. The first show is an X-Files-like detective thriller of which the main focus is who killed these people and how. In this part we follow news people and police officers. In the second show we follow the 'lead characters' Karas and Eko. This part is all about 3D computer-graphic animated fight scenes, which look pretty good. Actually the second show is where they put the focus animation-wise, yet it lacks depth, because all the storyline is dedicated to the first shows (detective part). I think they made a bad judgement call by not going 100% for one or the other and they ended up with a mish-mash of two different - both lacking - shows. Added to that is the questionable quality of the current fansub with regards to image and translation. At this point I would not recommend this anime, given the quality of both the show itself and the fansub.

Film: Casshern

Casshern is as intriguing as it is flawed. Being another one the recently released green-screen films it has a completely unique visual atmosphere created with CGI, special effects, cell-shading, stop-motion animation and many other visual tricks. I think most people would agree that the visuals are the strong point of this film, but some argue it’s just a boring 2 hour 20 min music video. The reason is that Casshern has the most incoherent story I’ve ever seen in a film and actually the more you see of it, the less you understand. At the beginning of the film I attributed it to a symbolic way of storytelling, but as the movie unfolds it gets worse, a lot worse. The incomprehensible story is probably due to the fact that it’s an adaptation of an anime series and that the director used to make music videos. Basically all problems of this film are script-related. For example Casshern attempts to go into deep ethical, philosophical issues, but it does so in such a shallow manner, that whatever point they were trying to make is totally missed. Unconvincing in its message and severely lacking in the story department, I still somehow found it quite an interesting experience to watch. I think expectations play a big role in the way the viewer perceives this movie. A lot of people saw it after watching the incredible trailer, which left them utterly disappointed. So as a sci-fi and anime fan I would recommend this film, BUT I also stress that Casshern is not the film portrayed in its trailer, not does it have a coherent story. If you go see it with the right expectations, you’ll probably be able to enjoy it for what it is: a live-action anime with strong visuals and nothing else, 7.0/10.

Film: Howl's Moving Castle by Hayao Miyazaki

Looking forward to Howl's Moving Castle, because I really enjoyed Hayao Miyazaki's two previous films - Spirited Away and Mononoke Hime. Howl's Moving Castle (Hauru No Ugoku Shiro) was already released in 2004 and has made $ 200 million since then, but I haven't had the chance to check it out yet. In my wanderings on the net I've come across quite a lot of interesting Howl-stuff so I thought it would be nice to post a quick overview of all this. Here it goes:

• Apple Quicktime Trailer
• Comingsoon.net overview of all available trailers
• Official site (lots of content, but in Japanese)
• Disney site (not much content, but in english)
• Howl MP3's (direct download):
• Wandering Sophie
• Moving
• The Boy Who Accepted the Star
• Magic Door
• Official Movie poster
• Production still of the moving castle
• A lot more info on Nausicaa.net

Music: Grey Street

Sad and beautiful song by Dave Matthews. Get the live, acoustic version if you can.

Film: Star Wars Ep. III - Revenge of the Sith

Great! Star Wars Episode III is as good as any popcorn blockbuster can get. The first half hour has its problems, but the movie really gets better and better as it plays out. You really get sucked into the story even though everyone pretty much knows how it will end. This movie has lots of phenomenal action scenes and some great dramatic scenes as well. The story of Anakin's transformation to the dark side is fully laid out. Although I must say, sometimes his motives and actions seemed a bit illogical when you think about them longer. But you dont have the time to think for long, because one great scene after another - sometimes interwoven - is delivered in a break-neck tempo. Get through the first half hour and you'll be in for a fantastic rollercoaster ride. Superb special effects, dramatic scenes and lots of action as a historic saga is completed. Don't miss it - 8.0/10.

Southland Tales Wallpapers

So many Southland Tales fans stopped by to check out my blog, that I decided to give something back to the ST-Community! Here are 4 Southland Tales wallpapers available for download. Right now they are only posted in 1024x768, but if there are any requests for alternate resolutions, widescreen versions or just more wallpapers, let me know by leaving a comment. And of course I'd like to hear what you think of them :P

Fingerprinting


Southland Tales


They Are Watching (Regular Edition)


They Are Watching (Widescreen Edition)

Film: Jet Li's Unleashed

The plot of Unleashed is simple: Danny, a man treated like a dog his whole life and raised as a fighting machine, meets a kind elderly blind piano tuner who teaches him about being human. The leads are played by Morgan Freeman (normally great, here average as the piano tuner), Bob Hoskins (great performance as the evil boss) and of course Jet Li, who shows he can act in addition to kicking some serious ass. This movie looks cool – and really is kind of cool – but still lacks some things to be absolutely top-notch.

I've been hearing a lot of good things about this movie, so my expectations were pretty high. However this movie is not as great as I was led to believe. Sure, it's better than all the previous American Jet Li movies. But that's just because all those movies sucked big time. There is a long list of other, better Jet Li movies such as Hero, Fist of Legend and the Once Upon a Time in China Trilogy. Don't get me wrong, Unleashed is a good movie, but not a great movie. It's more in the league of films like The Transporter and Kiss of the Dragon, but not anywhere near the greatness of Leon - The Professional (which I was also led to believe because of the Besson-written script).

In the end the film isn’t really a full on action/martial arts movie, because about 80% is drama. However, when relying on the plot, it has to be solid, which is not the case here. The plot could be called original for a B-action film, but it's just too weak, far-fetched and filled with holes for a normal film. Human pitbull blablabla is a concept, not a plot! If you've seen the trailer, you've seen the film, because this film (like many other Besson writing lately) is a high concept / formula film. What I like about the film is that it starts with a bang and ends with a bang. The action / martial arts sequences (about 20% of the movie) are great, brutal Yuen Woo-Ping choreographies in the style of Fist of Legend, so very hard and in-your-face. But in the end, there is just not enough action for an action film. I don’t want to be too negative (because the film has its merits), but given my high expectation, everything was just a bit disappointing.

I have mixed feelings about this whole film. The way I see it, this film is one step further for Jet Li in 'American films'. Kiss of the Dragon was 6/10, this film is about 7, maybe 7.5/10. So it's a step in the right direction, but still not worth all that hype. Jet Li shows people who only see American films he can really act in this entertaining flick, which is nice to see once, because it's good, but not great. More info:

• Official website
• Apple Quicktime Trailer

Dont forget to leave a message

Hello world! Please dont hesitate to leave a message, feedback is greatly appreciated. If you have something say, just say it. If you have nothing to say, think of something to say, then say it :P

Music: Featured Artist - The White Stripes

These guys rock! Depending on the source Meg & Jack White are either brother and sister or ex-husband-and-wife, but I don’t really care. All that matters is that they rock! Jack’s in charge of rocking on guitar and vocals, while Meg is busy rocking on the drums. Their music is influenced by different genres like punk rock, blues and American folk music. The great thing about a two-person band is that the sound is so much simpler and louder. Really. Because they can just go nuts, instead of having to be in tune etc. with ten different people playing at the same time. I’ve always been a fan of 2-or-3-person bands. My favorite White Stripes songs are Fell in Love with a Girl (their first big-time hit) and a live cover they did of a classic tearjerker called Jolene. They have a lot more great songs, but listing them all would be pointless. Just go listen to some of their music and remember they rock. Right now, I’m waiting for their next album Get Behind Me Satan, which will be released next month. The songs I’m already listening to come from a number of their albums: Elephant (2003), White Blood Cells (2002) and De Stijl (2002). Yes, the latter is named after the Dutch minimalist art movement (pronounced as duh-shtile). Uhm, have I mentioned they rocked? More info:

• Official website
• Unofficial website
• White Stripes @ Amazon

Anime: Otogi-Jushi Akazukin (OVA)

Otogi-Jushi Akazukin is a "figuanime", which means Konami has created a cute figurine (see above) and Madhouse has made an anime about this figurine. Of course Madhouse Production is a big name in anime and the animation quality is top-notch. The OVA has only 3 episodes, but this results in very fast storyline and lots of action. Another strong point of this OVA is the character design, which I think is absolutely beautiful.

The plot is about two worlds - ours and a fairytale world - which were in balance, because one had magic and one has science. But now a portal has opened and a battle for both worlds has begun. At the center of this is Sota a boy from our world (who has the 'key' inside him), heroic girl Akazukin & her silver-blue talking wolf Val from fairytale world and of course all the bad guys, werewolves, black magic queens etc.

The only downside is that this anime is targeted at a somewhat younger audience. It plays like an anime-style fairytale fantasy, for example in the fights there are no real problems for the main characters (its more eyecandy with lots of lights etc.). Personally I prefer more mature anime like GITS or Basilisk (see below), but still I found this enjoyable to watch.

If you like an anime that looks good, plays fast and is cute. Plus you are OK with the fact that it's all a bit child-oriented, then this one is for you! More info:

• Official website
• Trailer at Konami
• Free fansubs at AnimeSuki (wait for eps. 2 & 3)

Rant: 10 Reasons Why Richard Kelly's Southland Tales Will Be Great

Southland Tales - the true follow-up to Donnie Darko - is an ensemble piece set in the futuristic landscape of Los Angeles on July 4, 2008. Set to a background of social, economic and environmental turmoil, the lives of three people are intertwined. Boxer Santaros (action star with amnesia), Krysta Now (adult film star developing her own reality-TV project) and David Clark (police officer holding the key to a vast conspiracy).

Ten reasons why this movie will be great:

1. First one is easy: writer/director Richard ‘Donnie Darko’ Kelly. According to Kelly the film will be his Pulp Fiction and can be described as “a strange hybrid of the sensibilities of Andy Warhol and Philip K. Dick”.
2. It will probably be a very relevant film in post-9/11 USA, since it’s about a near American future, where security is tight (USIDent = United States IDentification?), a conspiracy and chaos & disaster on the 4th of July!
   
3. Most of the people from Donnie Darko's crew (director of photography, production designer, editor and others) have already joined this project.
4. It’s going to be a musical, comedy, sci-fi, ensemble piece, action thriller!
5. Critically acclaimed artist / producer Moby will compose the music for the film.
   
6. The official site will be one of the most elaborate websites ever built to tie into a film.
7. An ensemble of actors including Sarah Michelle Gellar, Sean William Scott, The Rock, Jason Lee & Kevin Smith. That sounds like such an incredibly, crappy cast, it has to be great!
8. Southland Tales will have an even bigger, more epic canvas than Donnie Darko.
9. In addition to the feature film, the prequel saga will - over a six month period leading up to the film's release - be published as six separate 100 page graphic novels. The feature film concludes the saga with the story's final three chapters.
10. The total interactive experience / mystery / smart PR-hype will give interested fans a lot to talk about and discuss. For example the titles of the graphic novels, are all songs. Temptation Waits by Garbage, Memory Gospel by Moby and Wave of Mutilation by The Pixies. So there is a lot to find out and interpret.

In attempt to unravel things a bit, I did some research on the quote that is shown when you open the film’s official site by Perry Farrell: "We saw the shadows of the morning light...The shadows of the evening sun...'Til the shadows and the light were one". Perry Farrell was the bandleader of Jane's Addiction and the song this quote comes from is called Three Days. You can find the complete lyrics here. This song sounds like it could be used really well in a scene. It’s over 10 minutes long and builds up slowly towards a climax. So what’s the relevance of this song to the movie? First thing to note is the reference to three. The movie has three lead characters and is set during a three-day heat wave in Los Angeles. This song is also about three days, three ways, three lovers and how they are all connected to each other. The part of the song that is quoted specifically refers to them as ‘we’ (we saw the shadows…). The rest of the lyrics seems to be in tune with the film’s overall feel of chaos and disaster, for example ‘No herds to follow’, ‘True leaders gone, Of land and people’. But it ends on a positive note with lines like ‘Bits of puzzle, Fitting each other’, ‘All now with wings!’. So in the film, the characters will experience personal growth and solve things together? Hmm, I still didn’t figure it out completely :P

More Southland Tales:

• SouthlandTales.com
• Usident.org (still inactive though)
• Richard-kelly.net
  
• Interview with Richard Kelly here
• Southland Tales teaser trailer here (real or imaginary?)
• Updated - 4 brand new Southland Tales Wallpapers *NEW*
  

Film: Verhoeven's Zwartboek will get made!

Overcoming 15 years (!) of problems with regards to the script, funding of the film and the medical problems of Verhoeven just last year, it is now guaranteed: Zwartboek (Blackbook) WILL get made, finally! Straight from the horse's mouth - Paul Verhoeven and producer San Fu Maltha - stated that the financing and all other problems are solved and the film will definitely be made. At the Cannes Film Festival both have confirmed this. Shooting will start end of August with a budget of approximately $20 million.

Plot of the (over 2 hour) movie: Barely escaping a Nazi massacre in the fall of 1944, young and beautiful Rachel Steinn – Jewish, former revue star – joins the resistance. But this group is soon shattered by betrayal with Rachel falsely accused as the traitor. Once Holland is liberated in May 1945, Rachel reveals the real traitor and takes her revenge. But will revenge be sweet?

The film will be a Dutch/German/UK co-production, which are also the languages spoken in the movie (the real languages of the characters, so no Germ-English accents). The lead characters will be played by several Dutch quality actors like Carice van Houten (Rachel Steinn), Halina Reijn and Thom Hoffman.

Great news for the Dutch film industry and for movielovers in general. Personally I think Verhoeven is a great director who's strongest point is social criticism. because this is a project that he's been trying to get made for so long, I'm really exciting to see how it will turn out.

More info: official film site / dutch production company.

Rant: From Natalie Portman to Donnie Darko

Things are going through my head and I need to get them out, before I can move on to the next point. It all started when I saw Natalie Portman with a shaved head at the Cannes Film Festival. I don't know about you, but I find Natalie Portman fascinating (even when she's bald :). I loved her in Léon and I've been hoping for a follow-up to that film for a long time. Although some part of me is thinking: sequel = bad idea.

Recently, I saw the evil twin version of the trailer for Mathilda - The Professional II. Turned out it was a trailer for a film called Domino starring a crappy Portman look-a-like (at first glance) who is actually Keira Knightley (click to see how much she looks like Natalie!).

Now I didnt like that trailer at all. But I found out the film was written by Richard Kelly (Donnie Darko) and directed by Tony Scott (True Romance) and it's about a female bounty hunter. This team could have made such a cool film with Natalie in the lead and Mathilda (NOT Domino) as the lead character. However from the looks of the trailer the film will be incredibly lame, despite the genius of Richard Kelly.

Therefore the bad news is, that there is no phenomenal Léon sequel, written by Richard Kelly. Instead there is no sequel to Léon at all at this time and the next film of Richard Kelly seems to be disappointing (looks like it anyway). So what's the good news? Both for Léon and Donnie Darko there are special edition DVD's out. The Léon: Deluxe Edition is still on my wanted-list, but I know this version is the longer, international cut of the film. So I want to see that one, because I haven't yet.


I do already own Donnie Darko - Director's Cut and it's really a great DVD. This version (as the title suggests) makes it easier to understand Richard Kelly's interpretation of the film plus there are a lot of genuinly interesting extras. So what is the point I was working towards and where is this all going? To Southland of course! (Find out more in my next post :)

Tips & Feedback Appreciated

I'm pretty new to this blogging thing (just 1 day yet). I would really appreciate tips from experienced bloggers, especially on how to get more traffic or exchange links (blogroll?). Off course visitor feedback is also greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Music: Featured Artist - Zero 7

Spotlight on Zero 7 - a band that produces some of the most relaxing music in the bizz. Although they are often - rightly - placed in the genre of electronic music and ambient dance, their music has no electronic feel to it at all. Making use of trumpets, strings, guitars and smooth vocals the sound of Zero 7 is really laid-back and authentic. If you are familiar with other trip-hop songs like All I Need by Air or Teardrop by Massive Attack, you'll know what I'm talking about. I've come accross them while watching Garden State, a fairly entertaining film with a great soundtrack. The song featured in that movie is called In The Waiting Line and its in my opinion the best song of their 2001-album Simple Things. Their best song overall is Somersault of their latest album When It Falls (2004) . If you like soothing, mellow music and appreciate calming down once in a while, then follow the links to Zero 7's albums at Amazon, where you can listen to samples. Or just try the P2P-networks, which have plenty of Zero 7 downloads.

3D Graphics: Short Film Indigen

I've downloaded a lot of 3D animations, but there are only a few that I can watch over and over again. One that is really funny and skillfully created is the short 3D-film Indigen about an african hunter and it's 'prey' and their increasingly aggressive ways to hurt each other. It's like a mixture between Itchy & Scratchy (from the Simpsons) and Scrat (from Ice Age). Anyway, you can download this hilarious short film here.

Film: Sin City

I saw Sin City a couple of days ago and I loved it! It has some great performances, which is a hard task for so called 'green-screen movies'. The hard violence and several different storylines really reminded me of Pulp Fiction (Tarantino did some guest-directing on this movie). But what makes it unique is that it truly looks and feels like a comic book. This movie is one of a kind! You can watch the trailer here and see behind the scenes specials on creating the SFX here and here. Because of the great response by critics and public, they're already talking about filming the other Frank Miller Sin City stories as well. Recommended - 8.5/10.

Live Bookmarks

You can live bookmark this site using Firefox or any other Atom/RSS-reader. That way you can easily view the latest entries' headlines from the moment they are added - right in your browser! For more info on RSS go here. To download Firefox go here, which by the way also has other nifty features - apart from RSS - such as tabbed browsing and built-in popup killer. Recommended :P

Design: Eyecandy & Fun

Here are a couple of sites by great designers. Electric Heat's website is simple in presentation, but the work it features is absolutely wonderful. Designs at the highest quality level. The guys at Tokyoplastic have created a site that is both beautiful to see and fun to experience. I dont understand how they made it, but it looks really great. 123Klan is a site which mixes streets-style graffiti and computer design techniques plus it has an awesome soundtrack. Check it out!

Film: Comedian Trailer

The funniest trailer ever for any film must be the one for Jerry Seinfeld's Comedian. Now I don't know if the film is any good, but the trailer is great. Go watch it here - trust me, it's FUNNY!

Anime: Basilisk ~ Koga Ninpo Cho ~

Well, I'd like to start with a recommendation. And Basilisk - the new 24 episode ninja-series - is really worthy of recommendation. In the tradition of the great Ninja Scroll this anime revolves around the epic struggle between two rival ninja clans. There has been a fragile peace for several centuries, but when the series starts this peace is shattered. Having seen the 5 available episodes, I can say they are really entertaining and fun to watch. Basilisk features a romeo-juliet romance, battles between ninjas with unbelievable skills in the realm of superpowers and intrige between the two houses. The fights central in each episode are not just a few punches and kicks, but spectacular showdowns of the special abilities every ninja posseses, which makes it highly entertaining to watch. All in all, basilisk is highly recommended. More info on aniDB or the official site. When you're interested in this anime, you can find free fansub-torrents at AnimeSuki.

First post...EVER!

Woohoo, my first blog post EVER! Let me start by saying what this blog will (probably) be about: everything that falls under the broad category I call 'media'. Here is a list of some of the stuff im interested in and will be posting about:

• Film & DVD (movie recommendations, news & trailers)
• Anime (recent hot-or-not anime series and OVA's)
• Design (art, 3d graphics, graphic design etc.)
• Music (song recommendations for different genres)
• Downloads ('download-guides' for everything I discuss)
• Rants (rants and reflections on stuff I find interesting :)

That's the plan, let's see what happens :P