Toho kingdom is a deeply obsessive website devoted to Japanese media company Toho. Highlights include monster bios, failed projects (including Batman vs. Godzilla and Godzilla vs. the Devil), in-depth articles, movie concept art and music tablature. You can also check out a few scholarly treatments/discussions of Toho's most famous creation here (MP3 version), here, and here (YT version). But if you'd rather just watch big rubbery monsters slug it out over a major metropolitan centers in a battle for world supremacy, well, take your pick. Happy Friday everyone!
posted on May 9, 2008 - View this thread

Hollywood Chinese: The Chinese in American Feature Films (official site w/Flash) Filmmaker Arthur Dong covers the good (YT), the bad and the players (link to Flash video clips) in his latest award-winning documentary. Related MeFi post.
posted on May 4, 2008 - View this thread

The top 100 films According to The Times (UK) Another film list? The same old Citizen Kane? No - this one’s different, says The Times’s chief film critic James Christopher
posted on May 2, 2008 - View this thread

"And I Refuse To Forget," the three-minute sci-fi thriller from 21-year-old director Nuru Rimington-Mkali, has won the grand prize in the Filmaka feature film competition. Judges include Werner Herzog, Wim Wenders, Neil Labute and many others. For his efforts, Rimington-Mkali wins the director's chair of his first feature film, to be produced by Filmaka. (Lots of other great stuff on Filmaka, too.)
posted on Apr 30, 2008 - View this thread

Kids-in-mind "provides parents and other adults with objective and complete information about a film's content so that they can decide, based on their own value system, whether they should watch a movie with or without their kids." Informative AND unintentionally hilarious! From the somewhat kid-friendly Ratatouille (A rat smokes a mushroom over a chimney, and with another rat they are struck by lightning, thrown from the roof and to the ground (they have electrified fur but are otherwise OK).) to more decidedly non-kid-friendly fare, and everything in between.
posted on Apr 21, 2008 - View this thread

Ben Stein's Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, a pro-Intelligent Design, anti-evolution polemic, arrived in theaters Friday to overwhelmingly negative reviews and anemic ticket sales. In response to the claims made in the film comes Expelled Exposed, a website which seeks to "show you why this movie is not a documentary at all, but anti-science propaganda aimed at creating the appearance of controversy where there is none."
posted on Apr 20, 2008 - View this thread

Stephen King has described The Dark Tower as his "Jupiter." The epic series, inspired in part by Robert Browning's poem, "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came", has spanned 22 years, 7 books and nearly 4000 pages. The first book in the series, The Gunslinger, begins with a simple, memorable declaration, "The Man in Black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed."
posted on Apr 18, 2008 - View this thread

The Opening Shots Project on Jim Emerson's scanners blog is a collection of reader-contributed dissections of, you guessed it, opening shots of movies.
posted on Apr 8, 2008 - View this thread

Uwe Boll has said if this online petition gets a million signatures he'll stop making movies. Previously
posted on Apr 7, 2008 - View this thread

The Truth Is Still Out There [link includes embedded video, scroll down for article]. Members of The X-Files' cast and crew (minus Anderson/Scully and Duchovny/Mulder) discuss the myths and legends surrounding the show, as well as the upcoming new movie, at the 2008 Paley Festival, sponsored by The Paley Center for Media (named for broadcaster William S. Paley, and formerly known as The Museum of Television & Radio). [Previous X-Files-related posts here.]
posted on Mar 27, 2008 - View this thread

Cliffhangers "In Focus" is an entertaining, well-written overview of the rise and decline of action serial movies of the 1930s and 40s. It also includes rundowns of many major serial films of the time. Several of these serials are now available online. Links to them are inside.
posted on Mar 26, 2008 - View this thread

Long Duk Dong: Last of the Hollywood Stereotypes? Related: Whatever Happened to John Hughes? which has an accompanying photo gallery: Where are Hughes' teen stars now? [A previous post about John Hughes here.]
posted on Mar 24, 2008 - View this thread

Leroy Shield was a composer from the Hal Roach era of comedies who composed soundtracks for Laurel and Hardy and the Little Rascals, he has one cover, er, orchestra, the Beau Hunks and no less of a fan than Robert Crumb. Check the main website for more sounds and movies.
via WFMU, bonus YouTubery inside
posted on Mar 20, 2008 - View this thread

An essay by Bill Lawrence, creator of "Scrubs," on why he writes. It's part of a series: "Why We Write."
posted on Mar 16, 2008 - View this thread

Usually, movies based on serial killers are made long after the crimes are committed. This could be the first film inspired by someone who didn't begin killing serially until more than a decade after the movie was made.
posted on Mar 15, 2008 - View this thread

Lumbergh and the Bobs
bring layoffs and misery
white collars, dark times

- An excerpt from the "Office Space" Haikuvie. What's a Haikuvie? A Haikuvie takes a movie and sums it up in 7 haiku. It is an attempt to capture the essence of the film and mix in bits of commentary and humor along the way. Warning: Haikuvies contain spoilers (if you haven't seen the movies).
posted on Mar 11, 2008 - View this thread

Hanzo the Razor (not to be confused with Hattori Hanzo) is the title character of a Jidaigeki film trilogy. Like Tom Laughlin and his Billy Jack films, Shintaro Katsu both produced and starred in the low-budget movies. Each story has Hanzo bringing down corrupt politicians with his special blend of booby traps, rape and torture. Reviews of the trilogy can be found here and here.
posted on Mar 6, 2008 - View this thread

The opening credits to Star Wars, if Saul Bass had made them. Previously.
posted on Mar 4, 2008 - View this thread

Stage 6, recently linked in a popular FPP, has announced it will shut down today. Rumors about why include their battle against UMG to a "ridiculous battle of egos."
posted on Feb 28, 2008 - View this thread

Word Into Image: Writers on Screenwriting {youtube}
William Goldman (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) (1 2 3)
Robert Towne (Chinatown) (1 2 3)
Carl Foreman (High Noon) (1 2 3)
Neil Simon (The Odd Couple) (1 2 3)
Paul Mazursky (An Unmarried Woman) (1 2 3)
Eleanor Perry (The Swimmer) (1 2 3)
posted on Feb 22, 2008 - View this thread

The sequel to Repo Man will finally arrive next month - in graphic novel form. The script was originally floated by Alex Cox in 1994, but an attempt at filming it was unsuccessful. Now, the comic version, illustrated by Chris Bones, is on its way from Gestalt Comics.
posted on Feb 21, 2008 - View this thread

The [Leonard Schrader] Collection consists of 8,462 vintage lobby-cards and 5,000 related items - many the sole surviving traces of long-lost silent films - acquired by late screenwriter/filmmaker Leonard Schrader over the course of 27 years.
posted on Feb 20, 2008 - View this thread

The first drive-in movie theater was opened on June 6, 1933, by salesman Richard M. Hollingshead in Camden, N.J. On the bill was a twilight showing of the British comedy Wife Beware. And so the drive-in era was born, peaking in 1958 with almost 5,000 theaters in the U.S alone. These days you'd be hard pressed trying to find one but thankfully there are plenty of handy lists online telling you just where to find one (there's even one for Aussies like me!). And that's not all we have to be thankful for; the drive-in scene is apparently witnessing something of a "mini-revival" at present. Don't feel like going out? Then why not make your own? First you'll need instructions on how to build one. Then you'll need intermission-advertisements (you can download or even just watch heaps of them for free here). And then you'll need a handy list of the kinds of films they used to show at the drive-in. If you're in the US, you'll need to know some of the special rules the FCC has for drive-ins, and if you have any more questions, I'm sure the fine folk at the United Drive-In Theater Owners Association could help. All of this sound like too much work? Then just sit back and check out the videos and photos on this nice site (it's about drive-ins, of course!).
posted on Feb 18, 2008 - View this thread

Michel Gondry has a new movie coming out called "Be Kind Rewind." And then, since I guess he wasn't entirely happy with the way the studio's trailer looked, he made his own.
posted on Feb 13, 2008 - View this thread

1,780 Cult Movies Online ~ A huge repository of online movies described as cult classics.
posted on Feb 10, 2008 - View this thread

Ernest sings.
posted on Feb 8, 2008 - View this thread

Edward Samuel's Illustrated History of Copyright A fascinating illustrated historical tour, looking at how different technologies have shaped how we think about copyright and intellectual property.
posted on Jan 31, 2008 - View this thread

The Cheating of Salim Baba [video | projector]
posted on Jan 29, 2008 - View this thread

Oscarology is a system of astrology I invented -- excuse me, that was revealed to me in a powerful mystical experience -- based on what movie won the Best Picture Oscar for the year you were born. I have been communing with the Spirit of the Oscars and transcribing the visions it has vouchsafed to me.
posted on Jan 25, 2008 - View this thread

On Tuesday, A.V. Club critic Nathan Rabin's reassessment of the rabidly ambitious Perfume: The Story of a Murderer marked the culmination of his Year of Flops project, a reviewing marathon of 104 commercial and critical failures. Here's the index of the films, sorted into Elizabethtown-derived categories of good but luckless movies, ordinary losers, and disasters of mythic proportions.
posted on Jan 24, 2008 - View this thread

Dreams: The Terry Gilliam Fanzine Or, if you prefer, here is his Official Site
posted on Jan 24, 2008 - View this thread

"It's so black, it's like, how much more black can it be?(youtube link) The Answer is none. None more black." And I have just found out there is a band called None More Black.
posted on Jan 16, 2008 - View this thread

The Star Wars illustrations and posters of Noriyoshi Ohrai.
posted on Jan 12, 2008 - View this thread

"But, it's a post on film noir!" I told her. She jerked away from me like a startled fawn might, if I had a startled fawn and it jerked away from me. I knew that caving into my desires meant I might lose her. But I didn't care. I went out to the kitchen to make coffee -- yards of coffee. Rich, strong, bitter, boiling hot, ruthless, depraved. I knew she'd be back.
posted on Jan 11, 2008 - View this thread

Into the Night Films through the ages. "What’s an into-the-night movie? It’s essentially about one anxious character (or group of characters) embarking on an illicit adventure and emerging transformed. Most often, the stories take place at night, but not always. Sometimes they happen over a whole summer, in the blazing light of day. Sometimes they’re comedies, and sometimes mysteries. But what they have in common is an acknowledgment that somewhere, lurking in the shadows of polite society, there are people getting ridiculously freaky." With much...
posted on Jan 4, 2008 - View this thread

Great Training Montages throughout history And a few of my own choosing to inspire you all to keep to your New Year's resolution-mandated training regimens: Rocky, Rocky II, Rocky III, Rocky IV, Footloose, Team America: World Police, Karate Kid, the Breakfast Club, Flashdance, and arguably the best of all time, Turkish Star Wars
posted on Jan 2, 2008 - View this thread

Indiewire put out their second annual film critic's poll recently. There Will Be Blood tops the list, with Zodiac, No Country for Old Men, Syndromes and a Century, and 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days following behind.
posted on Dec 28, 2007 - View this thread

Fox Searchlight has made the screenplays to The Darjeeling Limited, Juno, The Namesake, Once, The Savages, and Waitress available online. Paramount Vantage has done the same for A Mighty Heart, Into the Wild, and Margot at the Wedding. (Note: All links are to pdf files.) (Via.)
posted on Dec 18, 2007 - View this thread

He was born in 1980, during a risqué Groundlings show. After cameo roles (NSFW/language) in two Cheech & Chong movies, he earned his own HBO special. Four years later, Pee Wee Herman made his first feature film. Love him or hate him, his tv show won 22 Emmys... it seemed he was the luckiest boy in the world. Until one fateful day. Since then he's kept busy, and has regularly started and then nixed rumors of the bow tie's return. Recently he's changed his mind though, and in June a middle-aged Pee Wee made a surprise appearance after 15 years. Now he's promising two upcoming Pee Wee films... but will Johnny Depp take over his giant underpants?
posted on Dec 17, 2007 - View this thread

Visual in jokes from Pixar Animation.
posted on Dec 11, 2007 - View this thread

The Unsung Joe: Where bit-part actors go when they die. Biographies of the most obscure micro-stars of 1940s and '50s cinema, all remarkably well-researched and richly illustrated.
posted on Dec 11, 2007 - View this thread

Though best known for his role as hunky Lance Rocke in Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, the actor/author was also distinguished by a career as a beefcake pin-up boy. Sadly, he has passed away at the age of 67.
posted on Dec 6, 2007 - View this thread

Antonio de Felipe is a Spanish pop artist whose work is heavily influenced by pop culture, Hollywood, classic art and movies, animation, advertising, and simply growing up in Spain. Among the actresses he frequently depicts are Audrey Hepburn (as well as melding different sources) and Marilyn Monroe. He has also recreated some international masterpieces in pop art form. Some may be familiar with his work from the art he created for Pedro Almodóvar's film Live Flesh. Altogether, his work transcends national boundaries while still maintaining a distinct Spanish flavor.
posted on Dec 4, 2007 - View this thread

Independent Filmaking: Kafkaesque Nightmare? Tom DiCillo's new film Delirious stars Steve Buscemi, is currently rated at 85% at Rotten Tomatoes, and yet, it only made $200,000. DiCillo asks Roger Ebert why.
posted on Dec 2, 2007 - View this thread

"One Paramount veteran compared the studio's vault to a teenager's chaotic bedroom. In fact, a visitor accidentally stepped on the negative of "Rosemary's Baby," which was unspooled on the floor."
posted on Dec 2, 2007 - View this thread

Viral marketing for The Dark Knight kicks it up a notch. The Gotham Times -- Joker's Take -- A Safer Gotham -- Gotham National Bank -- Gotham Police -- Gotham City Rail -- Victim of Crime -- Harvey Dent for DA -- Wanted: Henchman
posted on Nov 26, 2007 - View this thread

Alain Robbe-Grillet's La Belle Captive, Andrzej Zulawski's 'comedy,' My Nights Are Better Than Your Days, Carl Theodor Dreyer's Vampyr, Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Seance, Masahiro Shinoda's Pale Flower, Seijun Suzuki's Tattooed Life and Kanto Wanderer, Lucio Fulci's House by the Cemetery, Kinji Fukasaku's Blackmail is my Life, If You Were Young: Rage and Legend of the Eight Samurai, five films by Takashi Miike, the entire Ring series, thirteen(!) Zatoichi sequels, and 500+ other movies, streaming, online, free and legal. (Some links, NSFW)
posted on Nov 26, 2007 - View this thread

Though not as commonly known, Alfred Hitchcock's late British period is nonetheless an intriguing look at what delights were to come from his later work.

Secret Agent (1936 | Wikipedia | Download)
Young and Innocent (1937 | Wikipedia | Download)
Jamaica Inn (1939 | Wikipedia | Download)

posted on Nov 25, 2007 - View this thread

Imagine a world without lightsabers—where, instead, every big Star Wars finale consists of a 10-minute slap fight. Thank the maker we’ll never have to witness such a spectacle, because magical and impossibly high-tech weapons are staples of nearly all of our favorite entertainments! ToyFare Magazine presents the 50 Greatest Fictional Weapons of All Time.
posted on Nov 21, 2007 - View this thread

The Wizard of Oz
posted on Nov 15, 2007 - View this thread