It's been kicking around the internet for a couple of weeks but I thought I'd post it here in case anyone missed it. I had to tweak the image quite a bit as it was so dark.
It’s been absolutely ages coming so let’s talk Black Dynamite.
This incredible film came out at the beginning of 2010 in the states and I was fortunate to see an early copy of it. At first I thought it was a re-issue of an old 70’s Blaxploitation picture I just hadn’t heard of, similar to that of Shaft and Superfly. It is in fact, a comedy spoof which plays homage to the 70’s genre from start to end.
This is written, directed by the incredibly talented Michael Jai White who also stars in the lead role. Some may notice him as one of the mob bosses in The Dark Knight. The rest of the cast are fairly unknown with the exception of Arsenio Hall (Trading Places) but don’t let that put you off.
Here’s a great scene featuring the "righteous" Pimpin’ Council.
Black Dynamite had me in stitches throughout. The comedy comes in the form of the ridiculous story, shoddy dialogue, awful acting, laughable stunts/SFX and poor direction but all done with intention and in the best possible way.
For those that have seen Blaxploitation films you will really appreciate the attention to detail shown in this, it’s phenomenal! The cast and crew were really passionate in making the film look and sound right.
The film features a completely original soundtrack, full of rich 70’s esque funk and soul tunes, all produced using original 70’s recording equipment (yes, good old analogue) and instruments! I’ve never seen a film with this much attention to detail.
I don’t want to spoil this for anyone that hasn’t seen it so won’t reveal the story, but all you need to know is it’s fantastic fun to watch. Repeat viewing only seems to make this better, I’ve seen it 6 times and it still makes me laugh and I occasionally notice new things.
This is, without a doubt, the BEST comedy I have seen this year and I highly recommend it to all that appreciate films of the 70’s. It's a shame it had such a limited cinema release in the UK. Black Dynamite has the UK release date of 24th January 2011 for DVD/Blu-ray so please look out for it.
I’m hoping the cast/crew will make a sequel, I would love to see that! A new Black Dynamie cartoon series should be starting fairly soon on Adult Swim from the sounds of things, I look forward to checking that out.
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia has been playing in the US for 6 weeks but I only noticed it was back the other day. Anyway, I'm now up tp speed and am pleased to say it's still incredibly good and just as dark as ever.
Be sure to check your friendly local streaming website!
Wow!!! Yes, that's Adam West dressed as Batman with Burt Ward's Robin (and Green Lantern's there too).
This TV special from 1979 was found by Warner Bros', mislabled and stored in a salt cave in Kansas apparently! It's now available to buy (exclusively) on DVD from the WB shop but unfortunately they won't ship outside America (sorry Ned, I did try to buy it for you).
This new TV series looks really good. It's a similar setup to Danny Boyles '28 Days Later' film (man wakes up to find the world is overrun with zombies) but that's not necessarily a bad thing.
The Walking Dead is based on a comic books series of the same name created by Robert Kirkman. The show has a couple of very prestigious exec producers behind it in the form of Gale Anne Hurd (producer of The Terminator & Aliens) and Frank Darabont (director of The Shawshank Redemption & Green Mile) so hopes are pretty high.
The 90 minute pilot is currently available here to watch online (streamed of course).
I urge anyone with a humour bone in their body and a lust for crappy movies to check out this excellent and hilarious article from the awesome Cracked.com. Welcome to the wonderfully dodgy world of shoddy Turkish movie knock offs, enjoy!
According to an exclusive from Deadline.com, Tom Hardy (Inception, Bronson) has been cast in a lead role for the third and final Christopher Nolan 'Batman' movie. As to whether he will be a hero or villian is another thing. Keep those rumours coming in fellow film nerds!
Yep, Eric Stoltz was originally cast as Marty McFly in Back to the Future. How about that! I always thought Stoltz would have made a good double for Michael J Fox, turned out it was the other way round... sort of!
The Expendables is an amazing movie, mostly because of the impressive cast of action stars from past to present. The general idea was to make a really cool action film to reflect those from the 80’s and Stallone’s glory days.
The story isn’t really that important, you’ll be watching this to see the incredible cast kick ass and blow shit up! It’s a lot of fun to watch and you can tell that making the film was even more enjoyable.
The violence is very similar to Rambo 4, another recent Stallone film which was utterly brilliant in my opinion. There’s a huge body count with gallons of CGI blood spraying everywhere. One of the characters wields a massive gun that rips people apart – that has to be seen!!! There’s also tonnes of explosions which would satisfy the likes of Michael Bay.
Both Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger have cameos, and at the same time. My only criticism is that Arnies bit part isn’t much longer than the clip shown in the trailer. I know he’s a busy guy these days but it would have been nice to see more of him especially in a short flashback action scene. Arnie actually looks like he popped onto the set whilst on the way to pick up his morning paper!
To be honest, Expendables reminds me of the Hulk Hogan/Carl Weathers/Shannon Tweed “Shadow Warriors” action films from the late 90’s more than any one 80’s film. I quite liked the Shadow Warrior films despite them being low budget, cheesy, straight to video productions. Click here for a trailer.
I doubt another film with a similar cast like this will ever happen again so make the most of the opportunity and check Expendables out. If you like action movies you will love this!
And whilst I'm on the subject of Star Wars, check out this superb Blaxploitation spoof trailer for a Lando themed movie called BlackStar Warrior. Hopefully with the recent sucess of Black Dynamite (WATCH IT NOW!!!) this could get made into a full feature.
It had to happen eventually, now in its 30th (yes - 30th!!!) year, Star Wars and its many sequels will finally get a Blu Ray HD release. This time Lucas is packing in even more deleted and missing scenes, it's amazing there is still so much unseen footage is still kicking around.
Release date is sometime next year unfortunately which seems badly organised, on the 31st anniversary - come on! Maybe that will tie in with the theatrical release of all the films, revisioned in 3D? And eventually the 3D versions will get a released on disc (or whatever format has taken over) and I'll probably buy the whole series again!
Lucas is one clever bastard.
Anyway, enjoy the above montage of all six films against the excellent John Williams score. I don't think I've ever seen the films put together like this, it makes me want to dust off the DVD's and rewatch them all again.
Karl Urban (Lord of the Rings, Doom, Star Trek) has signed up to play Judge Dredd in a new big screen outing. The new film should be darker than the Stallone version and if reports are correct, Urban will be keeping the helmet on throughout.
Shooting will take place in Johannesburg with most of the team behind the excellent District 9 so I think we can all start to get (quietly) excited!
On June 29th, the godfather of special effects, Ray Harryhausen, was honoured at the London Film Museum by opening an exhibition all about his life's work (it also marked his 90th birthday).
Myths & Legends features original creatures from his films and shows people how he was inspired to create some of the most memorable moments in film history.
The US Department of Homeland Security has announced a new operation to find and prosecute owners of websites that offer illegal downloads of American films and television shows.
"Operation In Our Sites" was launched in conjunction with the seizure of nine websites, accused of offering free access to movies such as "Toy Story 3".
Kevin Suh from Hollywood trade group, Motion Picture Association of America, called the action the "largest takedown of illegal movie and television websites in a single action by the federal government."
US Immigration and Customs and other law enforcement agencies are involved and it came a week after the White House unveiled an enforcement plan for tackling theft of intellectual property.
Seth Rogen plays the lead in Michael Gondrys 'Green Hornet' reboot. It would have been released in later this year but the studio decided to do a bullshit 3D conversion, and push back the release date to January 2011! What a waste of time.
The Social Network could actually be pretty good since David Fincher (Se7en, Fight Club, Zodiac) is in the directing seat. Check out the official website www.thesocialnetwork-movie.com and join the Facebook group. That sounds like a good idea right?!
And for fellow Zombieland fans, Jesse Eisenberg will be back in a planned sequel. Awesome!
Wow - the new Xbox 360 Slim has just been announced at E3 and it will be available to buy in the US at the end of the week (UK release is a month later for £199). How about that for speedy release!
At heart the console plays the same as the standard Xbox 360 but it's now physically smaller, whisper quiet, has 5 USB ports and a 250gb hard drive. I'm totally trading in my old machine for one of these.
And I'll be playing the above at some point, you can be sure of that. Metal Gear Solid: Rising looks incredible and will be the 1st Metal Gear game to feature on the 360.
Holy shit, this actually looks pretty decent and Michael Jai White (otherwise known as Black Dynamite) playing Jaxx, that's so fricken awesome! I'm not sure if this is just an extravagent trailer for a new game or movie but whatever happens this could be very interesting.
The Diff'rent Strokes star succumbed at 12:05 p.m. (MST) today at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center to a brain hemorrhage suffered at his home Wednesday, a statement from his management firm said. He was 42.
"Conscious and lucid" yesterday morning, per the statement, the former child star was on life support by Thursday afternoon.
"Family members and close friends were at his side when life support was terminated" today, the statement said.
From 1978 to 1986, Coleman cracked wise as perennial kid Arnold Jackson on the sitcom Diff'rent Strokes. His timing, chubby cheeks and catchphrase ("Whatchu talkin' 'bout?") helped make Coleman the highest paid child actor of his era.
Rock Band (my most favourite game of all time) is finally getting it's official 3rd installment and this time it'll introduce a new instrument!
It appears the third game will feature a keyboard. From the internet gossip it hasn't been confirmed if it will resemble a dumbed down piano style keyboard or an awesome 80's style 'keytar' (shown below).
There's already loads of tracks available with piano/keyboard parts but no one knows if Harmonix will take the time to recode the tunes so they will be compatible with the new peripheral. That would be a huge task considering there's well over 1000 tracks available (on disc and to download)!
Whatever happens I can't wait to play Rock Band 3.
So, it's finally over. After six seasons we finally have all those unanswered riddles and mysteries revealed... right? Well yes and no.
This sixth and final season hasn't been that great to be honest but I had to stick with it. Lost is like no other show (that I've seen) and having already dedicated 5 years of my life watching it I wasn't about to stop.
The flashbacks are gone, replaced with parallel glimpses of what would have happened if the Oceanic flight never crashed and what each character would be doing in the present day. Residents of the island, Jacob & Richard have had dedicated episodes to explain their history and the Black Smoke Monster was explained, to a point. That's not to say everything has been tidied up nicely, there's still plenty of stuff that doesn't make sense which I'm sure will be discussed by the Lost followers for many years to come.
Lost was always going to be a difficult show to end and with that in mind, the ending will probably seem disappointing to many but I quite liked it. I think if you've been able to follow the show since the beginning and have gone along with the crazy ideas, the ending shouldn't be that difficult to comprehend.
My last cat Chivers (II), named after the marmalade company, sadly died on Thursday after losing his fight against kidney disease.
He was a completely soppy cat but absolutely full of love. He'll be missed by everyone. I'm not a spiritual person but when it comes to my pets I hope he's "up there" with his brother Ollie, eating strips of chicken and purring loudly!
EDIT 22/02/2010: I've watched the first episode and it's brilliant! The show is basically an animated podcast but don't let that put you off. It's available to watch/download on Ninja Video.
Tommy Wiseau's 'The Room' has become a cult movie. Not because its good, because its hilariously bad!
This movie has a dedicated following in America, with a cinema in New York screening it weekly to packed audiences. It truly is an incredible film to experience and one I would certainly like to watch with a large group of people.
What little story there is revolves around Johnny (played by director, producer, writer... tea boy, Tommy Wiseau) and his cheating fiance Lisa. She has an affair with Johnny's best friend Mark and also spreads a false accusation that Johnny hit her. Johnny eventually finds out, they have a fight, then he shoots himself in the head... THE END.
What makes this such an enjoyable movie to watch is the overall quality (or lack of).
The script is hilarious. Most scenes start with at least one of the characters saying "Hi" to someone in the room. Very quickly I learnt the names of each of the characters in the film, something I can't usually do with on my first viewing . By the end of The Room both my friend Dez and myself were shouting each members name as they entered the screen, it was a fun thing to do.
Lets get onto the acting as this is some of the finest I have ever seen. I'm not sure which part of the world Tommy Wiseau comes from but its plain to tell English isn't his native tongue. This adds to the comedy aspect of the film. The scene below is a great example of this.
Apart from Johnny, Denny (Philip Haldiman) is a character to look out for. He's a creepy kid that just seems to appear in scenes randomly and apparently likes to watch Johnny & Lisa together. We decided he was a ninja and was in every scene of the film, hiding in the shadows or in clear sight.
Take a look at the scenery in Johnny & Lisa's apartment. They have framed photos of cutlery, knifes, forks, the lot! I don't think anyone truly understands whats going on here, perhaps Johnny works at a cutlery factory he's very proud of his work? We never see what he does for a living so it could be a possibility. [EDIT: I think he works at a bank actually] When 'The Room' is shown at certain screens in America, the audience is given plastic cutlery to sling whenever cutlery is seen. Its brilliant, interactive cinema at its best!
Tommy Wiseau apparently pretends he made the film awful on purpose but I don't think he's cleaver enough to pull that off. However, a bad film like this hasn't exactly killed his career. Even though Tommy hasn't made another film since 2004's Homeless in America documentary he's still doing the American convention circuits (off the cult success of The Room) as a celebrity!
I can appreciate people not wanting to waste time watching The Room but if you're a movie buff, and enjoy picking holes in poor films I couldn't recommend this enough. Seriously, get a bunch of mates together and some drinks, put this on, you'll have an entertaining time - guaranteed!
RATING
- As a film it stinks. - For entertainment value alone its one of the best films ever!
After a 14 year break (that makes me feel so old!) Mike Judge has brought back the teenage duo for more immature hijinks and the show's better than ever.
I expected the new season to look, sound and feel different to the 90's show but no, its exactly the same crude animation and voices but its brilliant because of this. The MTV music videos are still there but with the addition of other MTV shows such as Jersey Shore for the guys to totally rip into.
It's such a great return I highly recommend those who remember the original show to re-visit this and get all nostalgic.
It’s been absolutely ages coming so let’s talk Black Dynamite.
Both Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger have cameos, and at the same time. My only criticism is that Arnies bit part isn’t much longer than the clip shown in the trailer. I know he’s a busy guy these days but it would have been nice to see more of him especially in a short flashback action scene. Arnie actually looks like he popped onto the set whilst on the way to pick up his morning paper!
Pee-Wee Herman will be making a return to the big 'ol silver screen next year in 'Pee-wee's Playhouse'.
The US Department of Homeland Security has announced a new operation to find and prosecute owners of websites that offer illegal downloads of American films and television shows.
The Diff'rent Strokes star succumbed at 12:05 p.m. (MST) today at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center to a brain hemorrhage suffered at his home Wednesday, a statement from his management firm said. He was 42.
Rock Band (my most favourite game of all time) is finally getting it's official 3rd installment and this time it'll introduce a new instrument!
Tommy Wiseau's 'The Room' has become a cult movie. Not because its good, because its hilariously bad!
- As a film it stinks.
- For entertainment value alone its one of the best films ever!
