|
Kill Bill in One Minute and One Take
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 21, 2009 in Cinema
As a Quentin Tarantino fanboy I love this fan made remake of Kill Bill (parts 1 and 2 no less). The credit goes to directors Joe Burgess, Rocco Sulkin and Will Tribble of the University of York Filmmaking Society. And on a related note here’s a Lego Batman version of Kill Bill which I also got a kick out of: Read more… Watch out, Watchmen! This Film is Fanboy Approved…
Posted by Guest Author on Mar 5, 2009 in Cinema, Comic Books
Editor’s Note: In this column animation critic Joe Strike gives us our first review of the Watchmen film. They got it right – they didn’t fuck it up too bad. That only begins to describe my reaction to Zack Snyder’s Watchmen. On the ‘faithful-to-the-source-material-in-terms-of-capturing-its spirit’ scale I give the film 4.95 stars out of five. I credit the film to Snyder because it’s definitely his version of A____ M____ and Dave Gibbons’ ‘unfilmable’ graphic novel. It’s also a paraphrase of what Snyder said back in 2007 when he was starting work on the project: “I hope some rainy afternoon in England A___ M____ will watch the movie and say ‘they didn’t fuck it up too bad.'” Since you’re reading this on a site called fanboy.com, you know A___ M____ removed his name from the film (and turned down the zillions of $ of booty it will generate, handing it over to Gibbons) because of his distaste for what Hollywood’s done to his books; you also know the book inside-out, the way its themes echo through its huge cast and various subplots, or the counterpoint between the main story and the pirate comic ‘within the comic.’ (I don’t intend to review the movie here, plenty of people are already covering that end of it, but even so, plenty of spoilers ahead – you’ve been warned…) Read more… Hollywood Hates Terry Gilliam (and Smart Moviegoers)
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 2, 2009 in Cinema
You’d think that the Hollywood distribution companies would kill to get their hands on The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus — you’ve got Terry Gilliam one of the best directors of all time, then you have the final performance of Oscar winning Heath Ledger and add to that additional performances by Jude Law, Colin Farrell and Johnny Depp. The film only cost $20 million to make, yet distribution companies are afraid to touch it because the plot is too complex. These industry types point to the complexity of recent Gilliam efforts like Tideland and The Brothers Grimm, but to be blunt about it the marketing campaigns on those films were pretty non-existent. Sadly if a deal can’t be reached it looks like the film will go to DVD — now perhaps it’s not ready for the cineplex at the mall, but you’d think that this film at least deserves an art house run. Would You Take a Chance Casting This Actor in a Cyberspace Themed Film?
Posted by Michael Pinto on Feb 28, 2009 in Cinema
Inglourious Basterds: Quentin Tarantino Goes to War
Posted by Michael Pinto on Feb 12, 2009 in Cinema
Brad Pitt’s accent doesn’t quite cut it for me in this trailer (compare him to the performance of R. Lee Ermey in Full Metal Jacket) but I’m sure Quentin Tarantino will have enough guts-n-gore to make up for that! And of course even if QT isn’t making a great film he never commits the sin of making a dull film, you know that when you enter the movie theater you’re going on a long roller coaster ride. Read more… Latest Land of the Lost Trailer
Posted by Michael Pinto on Feb 6, 2009 in Cinema, Television
This latest Land of the Lost trailer goes into a bit more detail than the Superbowl spot — I have to say that I love the idea that the producers have decided to make this a comedy instead of trying and botching up a more serious film. While I loved the fact that the original series had some A+ science fiction writers on board Hollywood just doesn’t have what it takes to pull that off, so it was smart move to do what they do best. As a Geek I Hate the Superbowl, but Check Out These Trailers!Land of the Lost Superbowl Spot Update: We also had the trailers for Star Trek and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen but the legal department at Paramount had the trailers yanked from our YouTube source. In our humble opinion this was a dumb marketing move as many fanboys (and fangurls) might not want to watch an annual jock ritual. Ghostbusters III: Film Crew Apparitions Take Us Behind the Scenes
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 14, 2009 in Cinema
In the good old days (a year ago) we’d somehow get our hands on a preproduction sketch from an upcoming film — and then within hours await for the lawyers to contact us. But in the modern world of viral marketing the smarter film folks actually stalk fanboy oriented websites and reach out to us fanboys via Twitter! So it seems that the fanboy friendly folks behind Ghostbusters III are doing an outreach campaign to plug their film production. So far they have a Twitter account and a production blog setup which features footage from the field and even some production artwork. Here’s a scene featuring panicked folks fleeing some unseen sort of CGI monster: Holiday Film Marathon at My Multiplex: The Day the Earth Stood Still, Desperaux, and The Spirit
Editor’s Note: This week we’re lucky to have film critic Joe Strike offers us his insights and first impressions of the films The Day the Earth Stood Still, Desperaux, and The Spirit. I tell you, the synchronicity around here can really get to you sometimes. The other morning I went to see The Day the Earth Stood Still, or as us folks in a hurry like to call it, TDTESS (which is stupid since they’re all one-syllable words anyway). Weekend morning shows are $6.00 at my just-up-the-street cinema, I thank you from the bottom of my recession, AMC. Read more… Pop Art Meets Jaws: Warhol Interviews Spielberg (and Bianca Jagger)
This is THE best unintentional anti-drug commercial I’ve ever seen hands down! In this clip Andy Warhol interviews Steven Spielberg while Bianca Jagger pretends that everything is “just normal”. What’s odd is that Spielberg seems so off the wall — this must have been what it was like to hang out at Studio 54 back in the day: Read more… How Can You Call Yourself Educated if You Haven’t Seen Citizen Kane?
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 26, 2008 in Cinema
Recently I was talking about the topics of great films with a college bound liberal arts student and I made a shocking discovery: The student had never once seen Citizen Kane. It’s frankly shocking to me as an American citizen that in the United States of America that you can graduate from high school without having seen at least one viewing of this film. Read more… Pinup Dreamgirl Bettie Page Passes Away: She Was a Fanboy Favorite
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 12, 2008 in Cinema, Comic Books
How many comic book artists have been inspired by Bettie Page? Everyone knows what a Bettie Page haircut is. I think when folks look back at the film icons of the 20th century Bettie Page will rank up there with the likes of Marilyn Monroe: Read more… Forbidden Planet Flying Saucer for Sale!
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 11, 2008 in Cinema, Hobbies and Collections
It looks like today some lucky fanboy collector will be walking away with the model of the flying saucer from the 1956 classic science fiction film Forbidden Planet. The model was later used on several episodes of the Twilight Zone TV series as well: Dragonball Evolution Trailer: Will This Be the Worst Film of 2009?I got a very bad feeling about this film about 57 seconds into this trailer when the Transformer styled vehicle appears. To me it looks like the film is taking itself a bit too seriously… Ghostbusters the Videogame: Will it be Humous or Horrible?The trailer for this videogame looks like it’s very true to the 1984 film of the same name, but as a fanboy I’m asking if this is really a good thing? Yeah on a technical level I’m impressed that Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd look exactly like Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd, but does that mean it will make a good videogame? I think sometimes the best thing to do with a Hollywood based title is to have some fun with it (example: Batman Lego) but for a film that was a comedy this title seems a tad serious from this first glance. 50 Years of Janus Films: The Ultimate Cinephile Christmas Gift
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 4, 2008 in Cinema
I just spotted this gem, and man would I love this for Christmas: Going back to my childhood I’ve always noticed that Janus Films logo whenever I’d see a offbeat movie. The company was founded in 1956, and one of the co-founders ran the 55th Street Playhouse in New York City which was one of the first cinemas to specialize in art house films. Over the years they’ve distributed films from some of the best directors from Federico Fellini to Akira Kurosawa. In 2006 to celebrate their 50th anniversary the Criterion Collection put out a 50 set DVD collection titled Essential Art House – 50 Years of Janus Films Criterion Starts an Online Cinema
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 2, 2008 in Cinema
Cinema fanboys rejoice! The Criterion Collection has started putting their films online for viewing. Unlike YouTube this will cost you $5 a movie, but the quality and variety is high. To me this is an important first step as my prediction is a that over the next few years we’ll see traditional media not only embrace the likes of YouTube, but my gut feeling is that this may lead to something that may be the next golden age of a new medium. But for now I’d suggest checking out the vintage 1972 science fiction film Solaris before the revolution starts. BBC to Remake The Day of the Triffids: Plants Gone Wild!
Posted by Michael Pinto on Nov 28, 2008 in Cinema, Television
The BBC has announced that it will remake two new films based upon the the 1951 science fiction novel The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham. The best known adapatdation of the novel is the 1962 film directed by Steve Sekely, although the title is an old BBC favorite having inspired radio plays in 1953, 1957, 1968 and a TV series in 1981. The new version will be set in the year 2011 in a post-peak oil setting where mankind has turned to the biofuel Triffid to solve the world’s energy problems — and everything goes wrong when the plant creatures grow hungry for human flesh. You see I always knew that biofuels aren’t the way to go… Read more… The Spirit: Two TV Trailers
Posted by Michael Pinto on Nov 26, 2008 in Cinema, Comic Books
Being a Will Eisner fanboy I sort of have mixed feelings from what I’ve seen of the upcoming film The Spirit so far. The clips seems a bit better than I thought, but I still feel like the idea of turning The Spirit into some sort of superhero is misplaced as what makes him so special is that he’s so ordinary on a certain level. Oldboy Will Be Based on the Japanese Manga, Not the Korean Film
Posted by Michael Pinto on Nov 21, 2008 in Cinema, Comic Books
Good news! According to filmschoolrejects.com it seems that Will Smith has stated that the American version of Oldboy won’t be based on the Korean film but instead based on the original manga. This will come as good news to fanboys that were worried that Steven Spielberg (or any American company) wouldn’t be able to capture the graphic nature of the original Korean film. Life Magazine Photo Archives: Film Fanboy Heaven!
Posted by Michael Pinto on Nov 19, 2008 in Cinema, Television
If you’re a classic film or TV fanboy you have to check out the LIFE photo archive hosted by Google — it’s like having a personal time machine to view film history. After spending a few hours I found a few gems that are worth sharing, but these are just the tip of the iceberg. Shown above is a 1950 photo of Walt Disney, and below is a 1968 photo of Stanley Kubrick on set of 2001: A Space Odyssey.
How many times to you get to see a rehearsal for a scene in Citizen Kane? This photo is from 1940 and shows Orson Welles at the high point of his career. Read more… Happy Birthday to Martin Scorsese
Posted by Michael Pinto on Nov 17, 2008 in Cinema
Today is the birthday of Academy Award-winning director Martin Marcantonio Luciano Scorsese (born November 17, 1942). Someone I know once mentioned that the test of a great film is that if you catch it in the middle playing on TV that you’ll sit down and watch the movie to the very end even though you’ve seen it time after time before, and Scorsese always comes to mind when I think about that. Most people think of him for his more gritty films like Raging Bull and Goodfellas, but what’s amazing about Scorsese is also his music documentary work like The Last Waltz and No Direction Home. Also as a fanboy I love the fact that he’s also been so involved in film preservation. Happy Birthday Marty! Pulp Muppets
Posted by Michael Pinto on Nov 15, 2008 in Cinema
This video mash up of the Muppets and Pulp Fiction got me to thinking: What I liked so much about this film was that it wasn’t based on any existing book, it was an original story. In fact like all good films of the crime genre it has very little to do with crime — and is all about people. I’d love to see Quentin Tarantino get back to basics again, although being a fanboy I’ll gladly stand in line for anything he directs. The Best James Bond Who Wasn’t: Patrick McGoohan
Posted by Michael Pinto on Nov 14, 2008 in Cinema, Television
It’s 007 season again and countless fanboy hours will be wasted debating the merits of who was the best James Bond of all time — a sad process of sorting out the pecking order of a sad line up that started with Sean Connery and ends with Daniel Craig. And while I have my favorites in the role, the best James Bond of all time for my money is Patrick McGoohan. Read more… |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Copyright © 2024 Fanboy.com All rights reserved. Theme by Laptop Geek.
