Mario is at bat, man! Just in time to handle your jones for singalong fan bonding, to speak the heretofore unspoken truths of super _jawesome classic film themes. Also he dresses up, like it's, um, Halloween.
posted on Jul 18, 2008 - View this thread

The Bullitt chase entirely geocoded. (Previously.)
posted on Jun 30, 2008 - View this thread

Walkenworks
posted on Jun 10, 2008 - View this thread

Charlie Chaplin Filter.
posted on May 26, 2008 - View this thread

Audience of One. Documenting one man's God-given mission to create the ultimate sci-fi religious epic, Gravity: The Shadow Of Joseph.
posted on Apr 7, 2008 - View this thread

Do you love documentaries? The Documentary Blog offers reviews and news about documentary films. Check out their list of the Top 25 Documentaries.
posted on Mar 27, 2008 - View this thread

Top Ten Fan-Made "Sweded" Films Featuring: Predator, Star Wars, Blade Runner, Die Hard, Back to the Future, Goldfinger, Total Recall, Jurassic Park, Armageddon, Lord of the Rings and Terminator 2.
posted on Mar 20, 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

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

Courtesy of Youtube, here are some performances from the 1981 movie Dance Craze: Nite Klub, Too Much Too Young & Concrete Jungle by The Specials; Three Minute Hero & Too Much Pressure by The Selecter; Ranking Full Stop & Mirror in the Bathroom by The (English) Beat; The Prince & Swan Lake by Madness; (Lets do the) Rock Steady & 007 (Shanty Town) by The Bodysnatchers and; Nee-Nee-Na-Na-Na-Nu & Lip Up Fatty by Bad Manners.
posted on Dec 5, 2007 - View this thread

Norman Bates and that oh, so famous shower scene...
posted on Nov 24, 2007 - View this thread

Smile - a very creepy short student film.
posted on Nov 17, 2007 - View this thread

John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath
posted on Nov 13, 2007 - View this thread

Marx Brothers Filter:
Animal Crackers (1930), Monkey Business (1931), Horse Feathers (1932) and Duck Soup (1933).
posted on Nov 2, 2007 - View this thread

Ozu and the Poetics of Cinema - David Bordwell
posted on Oct 16, 2007 - View this thread

Uh ohhh! McCloud is in trouble! Duel (1971) was Steven Spielberg's very first film, starring Dennis Weaver. If you haven't seen it before and were looking for inspiration to avoid dirt-encrusted, flammable trucks on the road, well here you go.
posted on Aug 22, 2007 - View this thread

Children of God film to premiere September 6 on HBO. Filmmaker Noah Thomson goes in search of the young adults who have made a life for themselves outside of the controversial Christian cult "The Children of God." [previously] Many children of this cult have failed to thrive in the outside world and committed suicide, unable to adjust to life in a society indifferent to their abuse as children. Premieres Thursday September 6 on HBO. Link to trailer (sound is low). Jane Magazine has an article on the group and Noah Thompson in its June/July issue. [link to text and PDF scans].
posted on Jul 20, 2007 - View this thread

Kerwin Mathews, 1926-2007. The genre actor may be best remembered as the title character in one of my favorite movies, the classic The 7th Voyage of Sinbad.
posted on Jul 18, 2007 - View this thread

The Simpsons Movie website just went live. In 12 languages, apparently (including non-American English).
posted on Jun 22, 2007 - View this thread

The Long Take aka "The Greatest Long Tracking Shots in Cinema".
posted on May 9, 2007 - View this thread

Dante's Inferno. A surfer-cum-Doré remix of the Divine Comedy's most famous chunk, from the book of the same name. The art of Sandow Birk informs this peculiar, but cool-looking spin on an old classic. Enjoy the trailer in glorious Quicktime, or suffer endlessly with the YouTube version. And while you're at it, check out their previous film - a mockumentary of California's civil war.
posted on May 1, 2007 - View this thread

The year is 1978. A group of 12 year-olds have decided to make a Super 8 film of their own based on Jaws. Presenting... SHARK!
posted on Apr 23, 2007 - View this thread

If Footmen Tire You, What Will Horses Do? (1971). This film based on the pro-Jesus/anti-Commie teachings of Baptist minister Dr. Estus Washington Pirkle (3/12/1930–3/3/05) warns what will happen to America if the citizens do not give up their depraved ways and turn to God and Jesus for salvation. Fun for the whole family! Also by Reverend Pirkle: The Burning Hell & The Believer's Heaven. Good times.
posted on Apr 20, 2007 - View this thread

40 years ago, the Vicious Cycles motorcycle club assaulted a construction worker before taking to the road. Fortunately, filmmakers Chuck Menville (father of voice artist Scott Menville) and Len Janson were on hand to film the gang's misdeeds. Menville and Janson's picture would ultimately become part of a trilogy, with Blaze Glory and Sargent Swell of the Mounties produced wit similar eye-catching style. Decades later, the filmmakers' work would be echoed in another tale of conflict, in addition to a product-themed homage to more recent hipster subculture.
posted on Mar 19, 2007 - View this thread

The most inspirational film ever has an underexamined dark side, including a 1947 FBI memo that branded the film as subversive and "a rather obvious attempt to discredit bankers." The film's script was influenced by the liberal populism of the 1930s, used suicide as a plot point, and was criticized by a Christian Right website for "lax attitudes on alcohol and drunkenness." The film also inspired a feminist art project on "bad girl" Violet Bick and a dead-on parody of a right-wing Christian movie review. Meanwhile, Jimmy Stewart paid back Frank Capra for reviving his post-WWII career by spying on him for the FBI. The hidden backstory behind It's A Wonderful Life.
posted on Dec 15, 2006 - View this thread

The story, set in the distant future, involves a group of immortal intellectuals who lives isolated from an outside reality of unbridled savagery and brutality. No, I'm not talking about Metafilter, but Zardoz. The Penis is Bad, the Gun is Good. In the future the real threat isn’t Islamofascism or rogue Kryptonians, but bored immortals who dress like Belgians and can’t get it up. Did I mention Sean Connery in red S/M short shorts? You just can't make movies this wonderfully terrible anymore. (previously on MetaFilter, in the pre YouTube era, here)
posted on Dec 5, 2006 - View this thread

Roger Corman's Fantastic Four movie had been lambasted by many as the absolute worst in superhero moviedom, at least until Elektra and Catwoman came along. Shelved after production, it's hard for the casually-interested nerd to find without having to deal with bootleg video dealers at cons. Thankfully, somebody put it up on the internet in handy Flash video: Part One | Part Two.
posted on Nov 19, 2006 - View this thread

"When you walk into a house that was sealed in the last couple of years of the plague, you can crack the door or window and it pops like a vacuum seal, and you walk in and there's surprisingly little dust..."

Among the quotes from "Ever Since the World Ended," a fake documentary about the 186 survivors left in SF following a slate-wiping pandemic. No idea if it's any good, but the documentary approach makes it creepy, because it doesn't feel far from home.
posted on Nov 13, 2006 - View this thread

A 10 minute home movie taken by an SS officer has been discovered in an English church. It shows SS officers and secretaries relaxing in the summer of 1942 in southern Russia. The last couple of minutes shows footage from a slave labor camp in that area. The footage was taken at the height of the German success in Russia, a few months before the turning point in the Russian campaign - and probably the turning point in the Second World War.
posted on Oct 26, 2006 - View this thread

Full films for legal download: Archive.org has a large number of movies with expired copyrights for download. My favorite is 1936's Things To Come. Other nifty things include classic feature films like Battleship Potemkin and His Girl Friday, and shorts such as Max Fleicher's Superman, Three Stooges and Buster Keaton.
posted on Aug 5, 2006 - View this thread

CleanFlicks closes up shop and liquidates as Hollywood wins content-rights battle. Should a rental store have the right to remove offensive material before renting the DVD out to its customers?
posted on Jul 31, 2006 - View this thread

The 1 Second Film. 12 giant frames. One giant movie. 90 minutes of credits. All profits to the Global Fund for Women. It's all part of a plan.
posted on Jul 21, 2006 - View this thread

Keep on Shrugging: apparently the planned film of Ayn Rand's much-beloved Atlas Shrugged -- a chief vehicle for her philosophy "Objectivism" -- is moving ahead. It's now planned as a trilogy and has a studio, a (draft) script, funding, and (tentatively) Angelina Jolie as Dagny Taggart (the star) -- she's apparently a big fan. For background, here's the Objectivism Mockery links page, including the brilliant, now-vanished "Objectifism."
posted on Jul 13, 2006 - View this thread

Son of Rambo (not to be confused with Rambo IV: Holy War/End of Peace) is a Hammer and Tongs film about two kids in the 80s making a home video sequel to First Blood. No teaser or trailer available as of post time, but there is a showcase of illustrations by hand-picked and contributing artists that claim to cover the era, themes and content of the film.
posted on Jun 20, 2006 - View this thread

The Room: The Movie. Triple-threat (actor/writer/director) Tommy Wiseau made his cinematic debut in 2003 with the The Room (see trailer and various scenes), "a blend between a softcore porn flick and a Tennessee Williams stageplay." Wiseau ("who's not just one of the most unusual looking and sounding-with an unidentifiable Eastern European accent-leading men ever to grace the screen, but a narcissist nonpareil whose movie makes Vincent Gallo's "The Brown Bunny" seem the apotheosis of cinematic self-restraint...may be something of a first: A movie that prompts most of its viewers to ask for their money back-before even 30 minutes have passed." - Variety), allegedly raised $6 million outside Hollywood to cover production and marketing costs of the self-described "black comedy about love, passion, betrayal and lies" (see various rough dress rehersals). Audience members, including comedian David Cross, have been "marveling at the bizarre editing, bad bluescreen, uncomfortably explicit sex scenes and, of course, the enigma of Wiseau himself" as the film played monthly for years in Los Angeles. Available on DVD, diehard "roomies" swear by the theatrical experience, shout out their own commentary, hurl spoons at the screen and singalong to the soundtrack. Some call it "The Rocky Horror of the New Millenium" and stage "Room" parties. If you look at the marketing campaign or survived a screening you might see The Room as "a seminar on how NOT to make a movie." [Inspired by Boing Boing]
posted on Jun 1, 2006 - View this thread

The top entry* (turn up the volume) in the Scanner Darkly remix contest is already better than the (turn it back down) official trailer.
posted on May 21, 2006 - View this thread

Another great Google video. Before "Fear of Girls," the guys from Sleepy Eye, MN made a short film for a 48 hour film project called "Paper Hearts."
posted on Apr 11, 2006 - View this thread

Gender differences in literary taste - The Guardian (inter alia) has been reporting two English professors' studies of reading habits and feelings about books by gender. Others (newest to oldest): most revelatory books by reader gender (for men), (for women), author gender by reader gender. The methodology may not be unassailable but the findings are interesting and plausible. [viaduct vianochicken]
Sidenote: I did a little research following a comment on MR and reached a non-obvious conclusion: women hate Akira Kurosawa (check out those charts; for comparison). Theories welcome.
posted on Apr 10, 2006 - View this thread

Never ever borrow a friend's mobile, trust hitch hikers or strangers in furry costumes, never get distracted, worry about the first time or about your young son not being manly enough, and most of all never, ever forget stuff. Also, remember to always be nice to your enemies, your granny and policemen, but don't be too nice to your neighbours, and don't forget to get the car washed. Lots more brilliant short films viewable online from UK's Channel 4 Film (Real/WM streams).
posted on Mar 31, 2006 - View this thread

The first clip (QuickTime movie, 15 MB) from The Science of Sleep, Michel Gondry's new film, starring Gael Garcia Bernal and Charlotte Gainsbourg (set photos), out later this year and hailed by reviewers at Sundance as a "a glorious mess", "loaded with gags and gimmicks and spectacularly beautiful and memorable images", a "wild visual phantasmagoria... and a lot of fun".
posted on Mar 16, 2006 - View this thread

The inevitable deal for a Welcome Back, Kotter movie has been struck. It will be scripted (and DIRECTED) by Tom Brady, responsible for not one, but two Rob Schneider vehicles. And in the lead role as Kotter we have ... Ice Cube???
posted on Mar 14, 2006 - View this thread

What became of Whit Stillman.
posted on Mar 6, 2006 - View this thread

There was a time when his scowling, oversized visage, his battered black fedora, and his long black coat, were as familiar to horror fans as such characters as Frankenstein and Dracula. This character, who appeared in three films, was called "The Brute Man" or "The Creeper."

Only that terrifying face wasn't a mask or a creation of makeup. It was an actual face, a product of a condition called agromegaly. And The Creeper never planned to be an actor at all, he was simply decorated war veteran-turned-Tampa reporter who had shown up one day to cover a film. The movie's director noticed him and recommended he move to Hollywood and pursue a career as a character actor.

He was Rondo Hatton.
posted on Mar 5, 2006 - View this thread

Sometimes movies don't finish the way we'd like. Short, off-beat, animated re-imaginings of selected movie endings, in torrent and .wmv format. The archives are yet young, but might be worth keeping an eye on for future chuckles.
posted on Jan 25, 2006 - View this thread

Many of you have probably heard of "Superfly" with its classic poster, and iconic soundtrack by Curtis Mayfield. However, you might not have heard of some other Blaxploitation films. For Instance "The Black Gestapo" which mixes NAZI aesthetics with the roving bass of a tight funk beat, or perhaps even more ludicrously the 1992 underground Blaxploitation tribute film "Gayniggers From Outer Space".
posted on Jan 20, 2006 - View this thread

The follow-up to Clerks, the imaginatively-titled Clerks 2. After trying to kill off Jay and Silent Bob with the poorly received Jersey Girl, director Kevin Smith relented (more here) and has made a follow-up to his debut, Clerks. Clerks 2 (still about 8 months away) sees a lot of the old cast reunite for no-doubt weed, dick and gay jokes along with numerous Star Wars references. There's a trailer with Anthrax's "Among The Living" blasting nicely over the top and, as is the norm with Smith, loads of other web "stuff". Oh, and he also has his own blog. Snoogans, etc...
posted on Jan 10, 2006 - View this thread

Le Roi et L’oiseau - is an old school “anime” by Paul Grimault, the script and score were contributed to by Jacques Prévert. If those two names are not good enough for you then I also submit for your approval that the style in this film has been referenced as a source of inspiration for Hayao Miyazaki. Although the wikipedia article doesn't back it up, so ill link to another site that does. At any rate watching this movie will leave you wondering just how many people have ripped it off over the years.
posted on Dec 15, 2005 - View this thread

Homecoming - anti-war movie from National Amusements featuring the ungrateful dead. This will possibly invoke some controversy.
posted on Dec 2, 2005 - View this thread

Loose change A one hour analysis of 9/11 and how it is more likely than not that the government was actually behind the attacks. A documentary analyzing the footage and presenting an alternative view to the official version.
posted on Nov 11, 2005 - View this thread

Filmgeeks -- and I know there are many on MeFi -- may wish to check out smallformat, the magazine for Super8, Single8, and 16/9.5/8mm enthusiasts. It's mother is the long-established German magazine of the same name. First issues went out the door only a few days/weeks ago.
posted on Oct 26, 2005 - View this thread

British Board of Film Classification - the BBFC is a non-governmental industry body responsible in the UK for rating films depending on their content. Their site provides listings of recent film and video classifications (even in RSS format!), along with guidelines for each classification possible. There's also an interactive children's version (with an article on how the last Harry Potter film was rated), and one aimed at students (with case studies regarding 'controversial' films such as A Clockwork Orange and Crash.

And they have their own private cinema...
posted on Oct 24, 2005 - View this thread

MY DATE WITH DREW - Follow up to this past thread.
Though the first post's linked page has changed since the last discussion. What happened to the web journal behind this movie?
posted on Aug 17, 2005 - View this thread

A huge, comprehensive collection of Italian soundtrack covers. With print runs as small as 300, some of these soundtracks are impossible to find nowadays. Some of the cover art is really fantastic. There's a pretty extensive collection of French, German, American, English and Japanese soundtracks too.
posted on Aug 8, 2005 - View this thread

Micromovie awards 2005 - the mission: produce a 90-second movie filmed entirely on a mobile phone (dubbing of better quality audio permitted). Dozens of films are available here for viewing. Sponsored, or course, by a major phone manufacturer. Don't let that distract you from the cute little films, though)
posted on May 26, 2005 - View this thread

I don't know what "independent film" means. At a time when the Weinsteins are trying to extricate themselves from Disney, it seems an appropriate question to ask. There are Indie films (non-industry money) that are supposed to imitate fancy hollywood films, there are new studios being opened outside of LA by Wealthy Christians in Denver hoping to convert through CS Lewis movies and there are Garden State, Lost in Translation, Eternal Sunshine etc. which are like other Hollywood films: have stars, and studio money but are marketed as "Independent Films." What makes these independent? Finally, and seemingly too infrequently, there are privately financed and self-distributed unusual films like Assisted Living which despite their obvious merits and the critic's adoration are presumably ignored by the studios, blasted by the brain-numbing EW and distributed instead by the two young first-time filmmakers Why can't we see more non-hollywood and non-hollywood espousing independent ART on the screen? Why do we let every other multi-million dollar romantic comedy be sold to us as "indy" just because it has a quirky soundtrack or aesthetic sensibility. What can we do about it? I'm going to the movies. You?
posted on Apr 15, 2005 - View this thread

Better known for their modernist take on contemporary furniture design, Minneapolis furniture studio Blu Dot has just introduced a series of film shorts entitled Blu Dot Shorts. Their first short film, Seven Twenty (embedded Quicktime warning), was directed by Christopher Arcella (Flash warning). While is is not earth shattering conceptually, it is a jaunty and fun little piece of cinema.
posted on Apr 6, 2005 - View this thread

Copy Shop   is a 12-minute dialogue-free film by director Virgil Widrich about a guy inadvertently duplicating himself over and over (320 x 240 streaming Real format download link). The most interesting aspect of the short, however, is that it was made frame-by-frame of photocopies, manipulated for jarring visual effects and then shot with a camera to put together the final cut. (Mentioned previously by film aficionado pxe2000.) Also see Widrich's photocopied short Fast Film with even more calamitous, unraveling effects. Get this guy toner refills for his birthday.
posted on Mar 21, 2005 - View this thread

EP3 Trailer Awesome.
posted on Mar 10, 2005 - View this thread

Straight outta Belgium, it's "The Matrix: The Beginning". This is a see-it-to-believe-it occasion. [20m WMV; Trailer for those with a lower tolerance for this sort of nonsense; Main site]
posted on Feb 20, 2005 - View this thread

The American Film Institute, striving ever harder for relevancy, announces their latest movie list: 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes, to be shown in June. Here's the list of 400 nominees [PDF]. What was unjustly left out? Let the debates begin!
posted on Nov 18, 2004 - View this thread

Normal for Us: The Millter Twins This is a pretty amazing documentary, made by Eric Cain for Oregon Public Broadcasting, about twins Michelle and Mariya Miller and their family. The girls were born with Spinal Muscular Atrophy and therefore have never been able to walk. The parents were determined to have their daughters live life and so developed unique motorized transports and a home that accomodates their needs. In a tiny town in Alaska. Talk about pulling the tears right out of their ducts!
posted on Sep 16, 2004 - View this thread

Zach Braff's Garden State Blog. Yeah, semi-PepsiBlue, but Braff talks about more than the movie, and the star of a movie choosing to write a weblog for a few months is a bit more of a commitment than the usual handful of talk shows.
posted on Aug 25, 2004 - View this thread

Indian Superman is a movie of questionable legality released in India in the mid eighties. Perhaps it should have had a wider release since it has a great deal of humorous appeal for Western audiences. Check out this review from Stomp Tokyo. I'm looking forward to a crossover when Indian Superman meets Indian Spider-Man. via Sepia Mutiny
posted on Aug 17, 2004 - View this thread

"Stone Reader makes you want to pick up a great novel and consume it in one long gulp. It’s a love letter to literature and literacy, a bibliophile’s dream film, dedicated to the joys of fiction and the passions of those who need books like they need food, water and air." (The Dallas Morning News)
posted on Aug 13, 2004 - View this thread

Charade has never looked so good.
"Somebody told me the French made it up hundreds of years ago, but I always thought my dad invented it just for me." (And other cool shorts.)
posted on Aug 11, 2004 - View this thread

Troy (the movie) in 15 minutes. Just in case you didn't feel like sitting through the whole ten years two hours 43 minutes. via BoingBoing

Bedroom of Helen of Troy Sparta
PARIS: Hey, baby, I brought you a pearl necklace.
HELEN [weepy]: I can’t wear it because I’m sort of already married to that other guy but we’ve been doing the royal nasty for a week already anyway and you’re going to leave tomorrow and WAHHHHH.
PARIS: You could stow away and come with me and start a war that will end up killing 90% of the cast and totally be the downfall of my people and my kingdom!
HELEN: *sniff* I think… that’s the sweetest thing anyone’s ever said to me.
posted on May 20, 2004 - View this thread

The Face That Launched A Thousand Ships Just in time for "Troy Story", a lyrical evocation of the Iliad.
posted on May 11, 2004 - View this thread

Pootie Tang Screen Test is an amusing four-minute video that includes a kick from Capoeira (images), a Brazilian Martial Art previously mentioned here. If you liked the screen test, you may enjoy the movie or the trailer.
posted on Apr 10, 2004 - View this thread

John Debney fought with Satan to score "The Passion of the Christ." Literally: "I had all these computers and synthesizers in my studio and the hard drives would go down and the digital picture that lives on the computer with the music would just freeze on his [Satan's] face... and I was verbalizing and saying to Satan, 'Manifest yourself right now...'"
posted on Mar 5, 2004 - View this thread

Cidade de Deus. Possibly the best Brazilian film ever made.
posted on Feb 5, 2004 - View this thread

Hollywood? Old. Bollywood? That's soooo 2003. Make room for Nollywood, Nigeria's own film industry which is growing by leaps and bounds every year, and is currently worth about $45 million dollars. About 400 Nollywood films are produced every year many on a budget of around $15000 and are distributed almost entirely by VHS and VCD. The stories are very much simplistic and pulpy (check out 419 Stalk Exchange. Yes, 419 as in the email scam) but are much preferred by local residents and emigre's than the usual arthouse fair one often thinks of when talking about African cinema. Now if you'll excuse me there's a bucket of popcorn and a copy of GSM Connection waiting for me in the living room.
posted on Jan 19, 2004 - View this thread

Independent film festivals often see a wide group of styles brought together and none more eclectic than the films being broadcast through the Iconscious Film Festival - "A diverse audio/visual festival featuring online events and live screenings of work from a selection of artists and film makers. A lucid optical experience brought electronically to unsuspecting net users and clubgoers worldwide." Pick of the bunch is probably Ben Milner's No Soul Journey whilst Vector(Remix) is strangely compelling. Real Player required.
posted on Oct 18, 2003 - View this thread

Like watching "moving picture shows" -- without all those annoying pictures.
posted on Sep 11, 2003 - View this thread

Craigslist: The Movie Just like the spate of body swap films in the 80s there are bound to be many more made about community websites.
posted on Aug 7, 2003 - View this thread

Watch this trailer and see if you can guess who made this movie. And if you check imdb, you'll also see that the one of the stars isn't shown or mentioned anywhere in the trailer or on the site. Interesting marketing tactic. I wonder if it will pay off.
posted on Aug 1, 2003 - View this thread

Extra, extra! Think your job is bad? Film extras (or 'background' as they're commonly referred to) just stand around waiting all day, have to bring their own wardrobe, and must always obey the unspoken rule of not chatting up the real talent. It's the job that's pretty much 'about nothing', with no guarantees, no glamour, no money. Yet, with that said, there are already many who do it, and more trying to break in every day. Are movie extras merely suckers for punishment, or are they hoping to find fame and fortune?
posted on May 26, 2003 - View this thread

I'd like to thank the Academy. And the French. Film critic Michael Sragow, late of Salon and currently of The Baltimore Sun, ruminates on the upcoming Oscar telecast and wonders why such a "lib-rad industry" would sit-out the night and pass on the opportunity to bang us all over the head with soporific political messages. In actual movie talk, he sez of LOTR: "I don't think there has been a fantasy film IN MOVIE HISTORY as faultlessly acted, as magnificent in its scope and invention, and as enthralling in its narrative drive as I'm sure the LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy will turn out to be. "
posted on Mar 21, 2003 - View this thread

Just how crazy is Kim Jong-Il? The North Korean dictator is also an uncompromising movie producer whose casting tactics make Bowfinger look tame. In In 1978, the North Korean dictator kidnapped his favorite director from South Korea, and forced him to make a terrible, Communist-themed monster movie called "Pulgasari." Keep in mind, the Bush administration considers this guy saner and more level-headed than Saddam Hussein.(registration req'd)
posted on Mar 14, 2003 - View this thread

A Mighty Wind - courtesy of Christopher Guest, folk music finally gets the spinal tap treatment.
posted on Feb 25, 2003 - View this thread

The other one in Weird Science What was it like to be a 15-year-old boy kissing 30-year-old Kelly LeBrock? Wyatt (Ilan Mitchell-Smith) tells all about his childhood acting days. He did not turn to a life of drugs, but to a life of academia. Is it "healthy and important for us to see that the guy who played Wyatt is a real person"? I'm not sure about that, but it was an interesting interview, and, of course, a great movie.
posted on Dec 3, 2002 - View this thread

if you're in California you're undoubtedly aware of the bitter intrastate rivalry. if you're not here, now you can get caught up: Slowcal vs. NOcal
posted on Oct 3, 2002 - View this thread

War as a Way of Life The latest Reggio/Glass collaboration - Naqoyqatsi - is coming out Oct. 18. From the looks of the trailer, this could be the coolest of the trilogy. Of course, who could forget the scene from Koyaanisqatsi where Reggio jumps from scene of Twinkies rushing through production line to fast-forward scene of daily-grinders moving up escalators in subway station - priceless. Just more 70's grad-student dope-smoking backdrop -- or essential media for our age?
posted on Sep 26, 2002 - View this thread

how's your news? mine just got a lot better: camp counselor takes a team of adults with developmental disabilities on a cross-country road trip, conducting 'man on the street' interviews along the way. end product is a hilarious and very human non-exploitive documentary film.
posted on Jul 10, 2002 - View this thread

Nuclear war on film The Los Angeles Times [registration required] reviews the potrayal of nuclear war in the movies.
posted on Jun 23, 2002 - View this thread

Ebert gushes: After seeing Steven Spielberg's "Minority Report," my mind was churning with amazement and curiosity. Talking to Spielberg and his star, Tom Cruise, I found myself not an interviewer but simply a moviegoer, talking the way you do when you walk out of a movie that blindsides you with its brilliance.
posted on Jun 17, 2002 - View this thread

Cannes film sickens audience It proved so shocking that 250 people walked out, some needing medical attention. Good lord.
posted on May 26, 2002 - View this thread

I think he liked the new Spider Man movie. Not only includes many arguments for why the movie is great, but goes so far as to say that Art is "culturally irrelevant," has been replaced by movies as the most successful reflection of our times, and that this movie will stand not merely as the best film of 2002, but might well be studied in the future as the creative work most symbolic of America in these troubled modern times. Wow. Now THAT's a good flick!
posted on May 7, 2002 - View this thread

Ain't It Cool: Hollywood's Redheaded Stepchild Speaks Out is the title of Harry Knowles' recently published book. Written with Paul Cullum and Mark Ebner, the book is a biting, dead-on critique of the film industry. "If smart audiences can't find the smart movies that are out there, then it's only because they have been systematically alientated from movies over a hard-fought twenty years. Films didn't get stupid all on their own; they were beaten and bloodied into submission in the mistaken belief that it would generate greater profits."
posted on Apr 11, 2002 - View this thread

The "Sum Of All Fears" trailer recently went online, and is already causing some heated discussion over major changes from the book. In the wake of 9/11, it seems that terrorists in the film have been changed from Muslim to Neo-Nazi (who then go on to detonate a bomb within the United States). Hollywood knee-jerk reaction or a good call given the timing of things? Discuss...
posted on Mar 28, 2002 - View this thread

amazing documentary about the children on both sides of the Israeli occupation. check it out if you can.
posted on Mar 19, 2002 - View this thread

The picture on the site for the upcoming movie K-Pax makes me want to add "...that Kevin Spacey's gay?" to that tagline. Not, of course, that there would be anything wrong with that. Actually, the one page of celebrity rumors I mostly buy, even if many are humdrum (drug/alcohol problems? say it ain't so!) claims he is, although who cares. David Duchovny, pothead, pr0n collector; Macy Gray, functioning heroin addict -- now that's what I wanna hear! (The page seems to have disappeared, so I've linked to the google's cached one, which unfortunately only goes halfway down the alphabet. Anybody have a better link?)
posted on Oct 7, 2001 - View this thread

polish posters not only does poland have the best cinematographers, but their movie posters are really awesome, too. inflammatory, erotic, surreal, and cute... well, not cute :) truly art as advertisement and good for decoration!
posted on Sep 27, 2001 - View this thread

A.I.'s chatbot from the movie's website is pretty nifty, even if it doesn't know David or recognize any other obvious questions about the movie.
posted on Jul 11, 2001 - View this thread

San Fran: Matrix 2 Casting Call June 5, 6, 7 I don't live in SF but maybe you do, and maybe you'd be interested in being in The Matrix 2? (sorry, no link and more details within...)
posted on Jun 5, 2001 - View this thread

If you are concerned about global warming, you must watch this film
Some Mefi context
posted on May 3, 2001 - View this thread

Sure, you've seen Tie-Tanic, Troops and American Jedi, but is there room for another short spoof? Why yes, and I feel like I can watch them all day.
posted on Apr 10, 2001 - View this thread

Dutchman is a movie (originally a play) which "mirrors the difficulties of life for an African American male through the clash between a white woman and a black man sharing a subway car in NYC." And I don't mean to belittle that, but ... has anyone else noticed similarities between Shirley Knight (2)(3), the lead actress in Dutchman, and Heather Graham? Do today's actors and actresses try to achieve success by directly copying actors and actresses from the past? (I know they study them, but this almost borders on plagiarism, if that's possible)
posted on Mar 5, 2001 - View this thread

Trafficmovie.com has piqued my interest in a film more than any other celluloid trailer has in recent memory. Unlike the "Cast Away" previews that seem to give away the whole plot before the film even opens, this site is teasing, ambiguous, and enigmatic, giving away nothing...except for an uber-atmospheric mood. No wonder the movie is leading the Golden Globe pack of nominees.

Warning: uses Flash (albeit tastefully).
posted on Dec 21, 2000 - View this thread

E! Online presents the top devils (take that literally) in the movies. It's from November, but I spotted it just now via the Guardian Weblog
posted on Dec 8, 2000 - View this thread

Curiouser and curiouser... They are talking of making a movie based on the new game, of which some of us enjoyed the recently released demo. Since I thought the mood of the game was better than its playability (granted, I have yet to find a game whose playability satifies me), this could be pretty cool.
posted on Dec 7, 2000 - View this thread

A Very Wookie Christmas. I'm speechless in horror. This actually happened? This actually made it to the airwaves? Thank heavens Lucas is keeping it deeply, deeply hidden forever.
posted on Dec 5, 2000 - View this thread

Basic Instinct 2 will be directed by David Cronenberg. Paul Verhoeven walked out in disgust after reading the 'sick' script. How low does it go?
posted on Nov 10, 2000 - View this thread

Aw, for the love of Kee-rist, can't anyone quit screwing with stuff?

Columbus plans to shoot parallel versions of the first film -- one for the U.S. market and one for Britain. His plan is to shoot two or three alternate sequences for each film and to give the British film the first novel's original British title, "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone." The American film will be called, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone."

posted on Aug 24, 2000 - View this thread

Star Wars Episode II Trailer/Teaser Theforce.com has posted what is sapose to be the Episode II teaser, I haven't seen it yet buts its still unknown if it is the real thing.
posted on Jul 24, 2000 - View this thread

Separated at Birth? Angelina Jolie has been chosen to play Lara Croft in the upcoming Tomb Raider movie. I must say that from the neck up, she's actually a pretty good choice. (From the neck down, no woman alive measures up.)

The only problem is that Ms. Jolie is California, not England. I wonder how well she can do an English accent.

"Val Girl Lara" just doesn't make it.
posted on Apr 8, 2000 - View this thread

News of the Wonka remake. I think Nick Cage would suck as Wonka, but Dustin Hoffman...that's interesting.
posted on Mar 31, 2000 - View this thread

Jon Katz' new book to be made into a movie? Now this just boggles the mind. I've read Geeks, and it was an interesting story (to fellow geeks), but I just can't imagine this as a movie. It's non-fiction, so there's little, if any drama happening in any single scene. The screenwriters are going to have a field day with this. I predict that the movie may contain the general points as frames of reference, but everything else will be made up.
posted on Jan 14, 2000 - View this thread

I can't wait for the new version of Shaft to come out. It should be pretty cool. Richard Roundtree played a pretty good badass in the original, but other than that it was pretty comical. Rent it and listen to the lame dialouge the writers came up with.
posted on Sep 21, 1999 - View this thread

The first rule of fight club is... you do not talk about the fight club. Second rule of Fight Club is you do NOT TALK ABOUT FIGHT CLUB. God I hope that movie doesn't suck. And I love walking around the office repeating the two rules of fight club. Do it, your co-workers will love you for it.
posted on Sep 9, 1999 - View this thread