Site Upgrades Under Way

Just in case you are wondering I am currently updating the site with a new template with some extra features. If you notice that a post has gone missing or something looks strange or isn’t working hang on for a little bit and it should be all fixed.

Update: I think I’ve caught most of the glitches but if you see anything that looks wrong then feel free to send an email to me at john@rowthree.com.

Here is a list of what has been upgraded at Row Three:

• No longer using Tables for layout. The site is completely CSS based now. This means quicker loading times.
• Rotating Flash in the top bar which randomly displays the last 8 Movies reviewed here at Row Three.
• New Podcast player added in the top bar. If you wish to listen to one of the shows simply click the podcast and then click the play button in the player. If you want to go to the show notes for the podcast then click on the little triangle to the right of the title.

Thanks for bearing with us during the upgrades. If there is anyway we can make your visit to Row Three more enjoyable don’t hesitate to mention it in the comments.

Criterion Top Tens

Every month, Criterion sends out their newsletter loaded with information on new releases, stuff on sale, contests and a few months back they added a new column titled “Top Ten Criterions” where they have someone famous list their ten favourite Criterion films with a little blurb.

They’ve had some fantastic folks involved in this little project, folks like Guy Maddin who topped his list with René Clément’s Forbidden Games, Richard Linklater who topped his with Andrei Tarkovsky’s Andrei Rublev and Jane Campion who had Kurosawa’s Seven Samuari at number one.

The newest installment arrived in my mailbox earlier today and it featured a Top Ten from Beastie Boys founding member Adam Yauch and I must admit, the reason for posting this is to share his explanations which put a smile on my face. His list breaks down like this:

1. Seven Samurai C’mon, I gotta tell why this movie is good? You tell me!
2. Walkabout Saw this one when I was in junior high school and it stayed with me. Glad to see it in the collection.
3. Nights of Cabiria I don’t know what to write. I just love this movie.
4. Yojimbo I guess you have figured out by now that I am really not going to review any of the films that I picked.
5. Sanjuro But I do like the folks up at the Criterion Collection. Those are my people up in there.
6. Rushmore They are a really great team that’s into some bugged-out, esoteric shit.
7. And God Created Woman Peter is like the bigwig. He’s the head honcho.
8. The Harder They Come Susan has her ear to the street. She always looks for some interesting stuff to put out.
9. Rashomon When I was hanging out up there Heather was working on the audio. But now she switched over to some other department.
10. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou Sometimes I get free DVDs from Criterion, but not always. I wanted to get one of each, you know, like the whole collection, but they said, “No, Adam, we don’t do that.”

If you’re curious about the other Top Tens, be sure to check them out at Criterion.

Worth noting that Michael Bay’s The Rock didn’t pop up on any lists, I didn’t realize that Silence of the Lambs had a Criterion Edition and that I’ve now added Children of Paradise to my watch list because it came up on more than a handful of lists.

Do you have a favourite Criterion DVD?

What we’ve got here is a semi-reasonable success to occasionally communicate

You like us! You really like us! Either that or you love to disagree with us; either way we’re making conversation.

I think it’s fair to say that when we started Row Three as a place to write about and discuss film, we were happy to have one comment on an article, never mind 30. We hoped that as the site grew, we would bring more people into the conversation but it’s fair to say that we never imagined the site would be such a success coming out of the gate. Our site lives and dies by the discussion and the comments section is the most important aspect of the site which is why the contributors spend so much time commenting on the articles.

Nearly five months since our birth and almost 500 posts later, we are also creeping on a new milestone: 5,000 comments.

To celebrate this great achievement and to thank you for contributing to the discussion, we’re going to be giving the lucky 5,000th commenter a little prize - a DVD of your choice (up to $30 value).

A few ground rules:

1) No bullshit comments. If it’s just a comment to be a comment, it won’t count.
2) Row Three writers are excluded from the contest. If it turns out one of us is the lucky entry, we’ll take 5,001 as the winner.

Thank you again for making us a hit and just keep on doing what you’re doing. At this rate, we’ll hit 10,000 (and likely another contest) in no time!

Video Review: Be Kind Rewind

Director: Michel Gondry (Human Nature, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Science of Sleep)
Writer: Michel Gondry
Producers: Georges Bermann, Julie Fong
Starring: Jack Black, Mos Def, Danny Glover, Melonie Diaz, Mia Farrow
MPAA Rating: R
Running time: 101 min

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check out the trailer after the jump…
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Who is Your Favorite New Line?

With New Line Cinema recently being folded into its parent corporation and its founders being put to pasture after 40 years of running the company (!), I thought I’d offer out the question of what the row three folks favourite New Line offering is. But that may be putting the cart before the horse. Do folks out there pay attention to studio logos at the front of their films? (I’m asking you). In the early 1990s, seeing the Miramax logo pop up often meant something, same with the early 2000s with Lionsgate. I still get a warm and fuzzy feeling when I see the Focus Features logo, and lately Paramount Vantage has rocked, but I get cold and uncomfortable (usually) upon seeing many Sony Screen Gems features.

Anyway, New Line seemed to be all over the place in their projects. Certainly their early claim to fame was the Nightmare on Elm Street films then the Austin Powers franchise before culminating with the Lord of the Rings Trilogy where it made history in terms of how to shoot expensive blockbusters, how to film a large book or series, how to keep putting out Special Editions (OK, that trick was taken from George Lucas) and ultimately how to get everyone on your back through bad accounting and dirty pool.

But I digress. New Line may not have exactly been high brow as studios go, but they were more or less independent and autonomous for most of their 40 year life. The studio spanned the range from John Waters scat-spliotation to the Pleasantville; Evil Dead to Glengarry Glen Ross; The Hidden to The New World; and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to Boogie Nights (and lets not forget the glorious Critters franchise!).

Here are three of my favorites:

Dark City

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Birth

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Magnolia

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Short Film Spotlight: Whatever We Do

Here is a cool short film called Whatever We Do that I stumbled upon that was directed by Kevin Connelly (of Entourage fame) back in 2003 for Sundance. It stars the Row Three favorite Robert Downey Jr., as well as Tim Roth, Amanda Peet, and the always lovely Zooey Deschanel. It’s about a newly engaged couple who plan to spend a romantic day together, but those plans quickly change when the man’s childhood friend and girlfriend show up to have a little drunken celebration.

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Doomsday Official Web Site Goes Live

Most of us around here tend to be big into the post-apocalyptic stuff. Even less than great films; as long as they are dealing with a world in decay after humanity has destroyed it for one reason or another, we’re happy. One of the better looking ones entitled Doomsday, has just opened the doors on its new web page. Most of the usual fare is there: some downloads, the trailer, production notes, a fun little mini-game, etc. A few weeks back, we posted the movie’s trailer, but what’s cool and different about the site is that as you click around, you get to see small, as of yet unseen, clips from the movie.

I have to say after playing around in there a bit, I’m pretty damn excited for this movie. It looks like Escape from New York with higher production value, a hot chick in the Kurt Russell role and a dash of Mad Max thrown in for good measure. I can live with that.

Anyway, the new site is over here. Check it out and then come back and tell us what you think.

 

Second Iron Man Trailer Revealed

I‘ve been one-hundred percent behind the Iron Man movie ever since Robert Downey Jr. came on board. Talk about perfect casting. Throw in the fact that Jon Favreau has always seemed like a genuinely likable and cool guy, and I can’t help but root for this one all of the way. By the looks of the new trailer, this is going to be a whole lot of fun. Come on, admit it… even those of you that keep your nose raised at movies like this and are stubbornly skeptical have to admit your curiosity. There’s no shame.

I’m particularly pleased how Downey Jr. did pretty much all of his CGI motion-capture work too (which took a few extra months after the initial filming to complete), because he didn’t want the movement of Iron Man to be “just some random stunt guy.” I’d expect nothing less from one of the most talented actors out there working today though. May 2, 2008 is the date. I’ll be there opening day.

Proceed to check out the trailer!

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“Dark Matter” Trailer

Dark Matter: -noun; a hypothetical form of matter invisible to electromagnetic radiation, postulated to account for gravitational forces observed in the universe.

I’m sure there’s a metaphorical message in there somewhere, but it’s probably pretty loose and way over my head. The point here is that this is a script I read about quite a long time ago (maybe 6 months or more?) and today I came across the newest exclusive trailer being hosted by comingsoon.

Based on actual events, the story revolves around a Chinese university student seeking a PhD in Cosmology (the creation of the universe), who responds violently when his chances for a Nobel Prize are dashed by school politics. The cast is pretty interesting: Liu Xing (who was prety great in the mediocre, Curse of the Godlen Flower), Meryl Streep and Aidan Quinn. Quite a hodge Podge of actors at various stages in their fame and career. The story itself may or may not be compelling, but the trailer sure makes it look interesting. If nothing else it appears to be shot very nicely and if it is at all scientifically accurate, interesting and mind-bending, I’ll be involved in a screening for sure. But we’ll all have to wait until April 11th to find out, when Dark Matter get released to theaters every where.

In the mean time, I shoved the trailer under the seat, so check it out…
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Pfeiffer and Kutcher Lose Their Personal Effects

It’s commonly agreed that Ashton Kutcher isn’t a great actor and to be fair, Michelle Pfeiffer isn’t the box office attraction she used to be which raises the question: who thought it would be a good idea to put these two together?

The film is Personal Effects and it stars Kutcher as a young man who returns home to ‘avenge’ his sister’s death only to fall in love with an older woman (Pfeiffer) who attends the same grief counseling group. No excitement here and when one considers that writer/director David Hollander is pretty new at this movie making stuff, things don’t get any more exciting. The one possible bright light in all of this is that the film is based on a story from Rick Moody who, for those keeping track, was responsible for writing the novel which was later turned into the brilliant The Ice Storm.

At this point that comparison is pretty ludicrous considering that David Hollander has nothing on Ang Lee but one could hope for some goodness unfortunately, I don’t think Hollander brings it here. This looks awful. Maybe Pfeiffer needs a new agent.

Vancouverites will recognize a number of the local attractions including the VPL steps featured prominently in the trailer. The film is scheduled to open in 2009.

The trailer, care of our friends at TrailerSpy, has been tucked under the seat.

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Behold! The Awesomeness.

It is One Sheet day here at Row Three. I was over at the mighty fine Movie Poster Addict, and there was a tribute to Tyler Stout, the designer for the brilliant Hell Ride One Sheet who just happened also designed a brand new One Sheet for the recent AICN Butt Numb-a-thon Festival back at the beginning of December. I don’t know how I missed this when it was new, but since Big Trouble in Little China is a bit of a bond between many of the Rowthree writers. Let’s face it, as a genre-mashing goes, this movie is canon.

You know what Jack Burton always says…what the hell.

(See also The Lost Boys, and various Festival Posters from Stout over at /film)

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 

 
 
 

No Surprise: Madonna’s Filth and Wisdom Gets Noticed

I‘ve always held great respect for Madonna. Though over the decades her music, pictures, books and shenanigans have been more hit than miss, I appreciate her devotion to creativity and her unapologetic push to make herself the most popular trademark in the world. She’s been successful in some of her endeavors (the children’s books are gorgeous even if the stories are a bit flat) while other have been disasters (her acting) but she continues to forge ahead, paving her way to the top.

Considering the poor reception of Madonna the actress, she’s taken the Ben Affleck approach and retreated behind the camera to direct her first film Filth and Wisdom. Written by Dan Cadan (a regular Guy Ritchie collaborator), the film is a comedic romp through the lives of a group of Brits involved with the sexier side of life (strippers, sado masochists, singers).

Apparently, Madonna had no interest in shopping the film around to any other festivals and instead has opted to go down the self distribution route and I can’t say I blame her. It’ll likely be easier to avoid the negative reviews that are bound to appear by putting on a strong face and playing it like an experiment though I very much doubt Madonna would put her name to anything she didn’t believe would further her career.

According to the review over at Screen Daily, she’s taken the low budget approach and though it sounds interesting enough, I think it’s safe to assume that the only reason anyone is even remotely interested in this is because of Madonna’s involvement and my thought is further reinforced by a three minute clip which gives a bit of a taste of what to expect. I must say, I’m not at all impressed.

Check out the clip under the seat.

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Sukiyaki Western Django One Sheets

Now that is how you make a One Sheet. I certainly wouldn’t mind having that hanging up on my wall, and it is given here at full resolution, because hey, it goes with our colour palette so nicely. For those not aware, the film is Takashi Miike’s pastiche of Western, Samurai, Spaghetti and, well, Sukiyaki genres all blended into a cultural appropriation miasma. I caught it at TIFF and it is good fun too.

Don’t sweat the ‘above the line’ acting credit of Quentin Tarantino, his mug is only in the film for 2% of the runtime, but since these posters are aimed at western audiences (specifically the UK), he is likely above the line to sell the product. The rest of the One Sheets are over IGN (via Twitch)

The Violin

Dave’s most recent Hidden Features got me to take a look over at Film Movement and while I was there I noticed that they were highlighting a black and white foreign film called the Violin. I took a look at the trailer and thought it looked quite interesting. I also noticed that they list when the movie is being shown in a few select theatres. One of the theatres is in Minneapolis and since at least one of our readers and one of our writers live in Minneapolis I thought I post the information just in case they are interested in checking it out.

Here are the dates that it is being shown:

22-FEB-08 to 27-FEB-08 at Real Art Ways, Hartford, CT
22-FEB-08 to 06-MAR-08 at The Living Roon Theater, Portland, OR
22-FEB-08 to 06-MAR-08 at The Parkway Theater, Minneapolis, MN
29-FEB-08 to 2-MAR-08 at Lake County Film Festival, Libertyville, IL
29-FEB-08 to 1-MAR-08 at Latino Community Association, Bend, OR

The trailer is under the seat…

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Hidden Treasures: Special Edition

This week, I bring to you an early, special edition of Hidden Treasures, one dedicated to three films that came to my attention by way of a fabulous organization known as Film Movement. Some of you may have heard of it, but for those who haven’t, Film Movement (located online at http://www.filmmovement.com) is a DVD-of-the-month club, one that caters to film enthusiasts, and not to the major studios.

Taken from their web site, the following is Film Movement’s Mission Statement:

“Film choices are dictated to us by a smaller and smaller group of major studios, which decide to release films based mostly on the stars in the cast and marketability. Many small but deserving films get squeezed out of theaters by Hollywood blockbusters and face skyrocketing marketing costs that make it daunting — if not impossible — to reach appreciative audiences. We created Film Movement because the system of releasing independent, foreign and documentary films needed to be changed. We believed that the only way to change the system was to reach out to film fans directly. Through our first of its kind DVD club our goal is to make these films more accessible. By supporting Film Movement, you are directly supporting independent and foreign film. We hope that you will join our movement of movie lovers”.

I was fortunate enough to have been a member of Film Movement for the first 3 ½ years of it’s existence. As a member, I received a new DVD every month, each one a film that had been lauded at a variety of festivals, but which never saw the light of day beyond them. Thankfully, both Netflix and Blockbuster now offer the movies of Film Movement as on-line rentals, which gives me a chance to present to you three great titles you may never have heard of, but which you will almost certainly enjoy. I’ve also added a short ‘trailer’ for Film Movement at the bottom, which pretty much sums up what this great organization is all about (Note: Unfortunately, Film Movement subscriptions are currently available only to those residing in the U.S., however a large portion of their catalog is available for on-line rental).

Ali Zaoua (2000)
Through the years, many films have centered on the dreams of children, but Ali Zaoua, a Moroccan film directed by Nabil Ayouch, takes a singularly unique approach to this subject. The children at the center of Ali Zaoua are alone, abandoned by their families, and suffering a sad, poverty-stricken existence on the streets of Casablanca. For them, an active imagination is not so much a luxury as it is a means of survival. Ali Zaoua (Abdelhak Zhayra) is one such child, who dreams of traveling across the sea to live on a tropical island, one where two suns are always in the sky to keep him warm. Unfortunately, fate intervenes. As Ali and his three friends, Kwita (Mounim Kbab), Omar (Mustapha Hansali) and Boubker (Hicham Moussoune), waste away the hours playing at an empty construction site, a gang of kids confronts them. One of these kids throws a rock, striking Ali in the head and knocking him unconscious, leaving Kwita, Omar and Boubkar to care for their wounded companion. As he’s being dragged through the streets on a makeshift stretcher, Ali dies, and his three friends agree that Ali deserves a first-class funeral. Each will do what he can to raise money to give their friend a burial at sea, certainly a fitting burial for a ‘prince’ like Ali. As constructed by director Ayouch, Ali Zaoua is a fascinating cross between drama and documentary. The children who star in this film are not actors, but actual Casablancan street kids, and their performances are nothing short of amazing. Ayouch shows a great compassion for the plight of these children, with a tone that is always observant, and never strained or artificial. These kids, forgotten by their families, suffer through life’s pitfalls on a daily basis, and the only thing that gets them through it all is their dreams, their hopes for a better tomorrow. Ali Zaoua is a film you won’t soon forget; an account of the exuberance of youth played out on a stage decorated with society’s most abhorrent contempt.

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Where’s the Pride and Glory?

Let’s just cut to the chase. Pride and Glory’s March 14th release date has been scrapped by New Line chairman Bob Shaye and now the movie’s fate is unknown. This is rightfully making those involved with the movie a little upset. I remember seeing the trailer a few months back in front of (I think) American Gangster and while it didn’t blow me away by any means, the fact that it was a cop drama starring Edward Norton really had me looking forward to it.

Now the studio seems unwilling to release the movie. But what’s the problem? Do they honestly think they can’t bring people in to watch a cop drama starring Edward Norton, Colin Farrell, Jon Voight, and Noah Emmerich? Were they scared away by the $3.3 million US gross of Harsh Times in ‘06? I have trouble believing that studio execs wouldn’t put money into advertising the hell out of a movie about corruption in a family of New York City cops that is supposed to have a 1970s cop movie vibe to it, especially with such star power. Or do they just have little faith in the draw of the movie’s stars? Hmm…

Let’s get the perspective of everyone involved in the making of the movie, courtesy of Variety:

Director Gavin O’Connor: “It was a joy making the movie, but then something happened internally at that company. I don’t think Bob Shaye believes in it, and he’s decided he’ll only release (sure bet) films. He never had the decency to call me. We’ve delivered something special and unique, a film that’s not for everybody but has something to say. We’re all heartbroken.”

Edward Norton: “Gavin was able to tease out themes that are relevant to my generation and to what this country is going through. This isn’t about New Line not knowing the film is strong; I just think there is a paralysis right now that has to do with much bigger issues than any particular film. We’re a victim of the moment, and I just hope they will either find a way to give the film its due or graciously let us do it with someone else.”

Colin Farrell: “This is the first time it’s happened to me, where a film I believed in so strongly, not only as entertainment but for its pertinent message and great performances, sits on a shelf. This is bizarre.”

Jon Voight: “It ain’t over till it’s over. Obviously, things are going on over there, and I’ve seen this situation before, where a studio dilemma created hardship for a film of quality. You don’t want to put it aside for long, though, because you can lose your momentum.”

Even co-writer Joe Carnahan chimed in over on his blog: “I’ve known about the ‘Pride and Glory’ situation for some time and was hoping that it would be resolved somehow because the f*cking film is GREAT. Nothing is worse than the idea that a film is unreleasable when it’s clearly not. I’ve seen the film four times now and it’s just gotten better every time. So New Line either needs to nut up or cut us loose. Rally behind the movie and give it the attention and consideration it deserves or let us roll. … It’ll get sorted. The movie speaks for itself. It just needs the right hands on it now.”

So, New Line, Bob Shaye, anyone… how about some answers not just for those involved in the making of the movie, but for those that have been patiently waiting for the movie to hit theatres?

“100 Feet” Trailer

Hey! It looks like a good version of Disturbia without stealing he Hitchcock theme. Famke Janssen I’ve always been a fan of and here comes a horror movie that looks like it stars only her for about 90% of the running time. The best part is that this looks like a genuine horror movie that’s scary as balls on a walrus. Personally, I kind of dug 1408, but for those of you who thought it was assinine and lame, check out this trailer = scary. Oh yeah, and again, it’s Famke Janssen:

I stuck it under the seat here in the third row…

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Movie Feeds from Around the Web

I would like to point you all to a new feature I just added to Row Three. We now have a page which gathers the posts from around the various movie sites around the web. The link is up in the bar at the top of the page or you can always just click here.

If you have a site with an RSS feed that would you like included feel free to send me an email to john@rowthree.com and I’ll be sure to add it. There were a few feeds which I tried to add but it said they were faulty so please don’t feel that we left your site out on purpose. I tried to put in every site that is on our list of links to the right.

Starship Troopers 3’s Killer Trailer

It’s not Paul Verhoeven but the upcoming, direct to DVD release of Starship Troopers 3: Marauder actually looks pretty damned cool.

You’re probably wondering what the heck happened to number two. Simple: it went direct to DVD in 2004 and was apparently so bad that it didn’t manage to bring back any of the cast. But the fact that no one saw it didn’t discourage the production of a third installment because god knows we can’t miss an opportunity to rake in a few more bucks. More surprising is that in this case, I’m actually quite thrilled at the fact that the project went ahead against everyones better judgement.

This time around Edward Neumeier (who’s had a hand at writing the scripts for all three installments) is writing and directing and Casper Van Dien is reprising his role of Johnny Rico. I’m not sure if this means that the script is better or simply that Van Dien is desperate for work (although it’s worth noting that he has kept busy with loads of TV work).

However you cut it, I must admit that this trailer is pretty wicked. It plays like a recruitment video from the first film and jeez, it’s just cheesy enough that I’m actually excited to see it. I particularly love the overly sappy moment of Rico holding out his hand to some girl. It’s almost as good as the voice-over guy saying “It’s a good day to die.”

Apparently we’ll see this released on DVD at some point in 2008 but I can’t seem to track down a date so your guess is as good as mine.

Check out the trailer under the seat care of the folks at FEARHASNOCURE.

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