Archive for December, 2010

  • 30 Dec

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    Yet Another 2010 Movie Montage

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    It’s not quite as good as this one, but still pretty effective. And damn if there isn’t just about any movie released in here. Did he miss one? From Enter the Void to The Social Network to Dogtooth to Harry Potter. It’s all here.

     

     

  • 30 Dec

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    From Our Netflix Queue

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    With the growing popularity of Netflix instant streaming in the U.S. and its most recent arrival into Canada, we at Row Three would like to highlight some of the great choices available at the press of a button.

     

     


    The Secret of Kells (Tomm Moore, Nora Twomey)

    The surprise Oscar nominee for Best Animated Feature last year, The Secret of Kells pretty much flew under everyone’s radar, including mine. I missed its one-week run in Los Angeles, but finally caught up with it on Instant Watch recently and was really glad I did. The story is a fairly straightforward affair – Brendan is a young boy in an Irish monastary who wants to master the art of illuminating manuscripts, but his uncle (the Abbot) is more concerned with fortifying the village against Viking invasion. But with the help of an aging monk and a forest sprite, Brendan instead works to illustrate a book which will give the monks and villagers hope in their darkest hour. Much of the actual religious context (and content) of the Book of Kells is lost here, mixed in with Celtic mythology and general spirituality, but if you’re watching this for the story, you’re doing it wrong anyway. This is quite simply one of the most gorgeously animated films I’ve seen recently, evoking the style of illuminated manuscripts while still keeping lively and coherent. And even though the style stays consistently medieval throughout, my jaw kept dropping as new sections brought even greater levels of stylization – the Viking attack is all sharp angles and high contrasts that would put Soviet propaganda to shame. If more mainstream animated films would make bold art choices like this, I’d be a very happy filmgoer.
    -JANDY
     

    it! (US)

     

     


    Deliver Us From Evil (Amy J Berg)

    On the surface, a pedophile priest is, sadly, not as shocking a subject for a documentary as it probably should be, check a headline on any day of the week and somewhere, someone frocked has been exposed as a predator-in-waiting. But this is different. Father Oliver O’Grady, said pedophile (better known as evil incarnate) is a willing participant of the film, something rarely seen, and the candid interviews with him are unnerving to say the least. This documentary hurt me in a way I didn’t even know I was vulnerable (I am not even Christian, and for the most part am a jaded realist about most things). O’Grady has become a symbol of recognition for me of the kind of dissociative evil that lurks in the world, individual and corporate.
    -MIKE
     

    it! (USA & Canada)

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 29 Dec

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    Tyler Stout’s Star Wars Posters [finally]

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    From The Thing to Big Lebowski to Robocop to The Warriors and everything in between, Tyler Stout has become kind of a big deal in the pop culture, poster world. Even if you’re not a fan of the aesthetics, you gotta appreciate the meticulous attention to detail and sheer amount of work that must go into these things. Just do a Google image search with the guy’s name for countless examples. I suppose it was only a matter of time before Stout tackled The Trilogy. Some might say they’re surprised it’s taken this long. At any rate, here they are. One for each chapter in the trilogy plus three variants.

    The main editions are 24″ x 36″ screenprints, have editions of 850, and will cost $50 each. The variants have editions of 250 and will cost $100. They go up Friday, December 31st at a random time over at Mondotees.com. Thanks to OMG Posters for the tip.

    You can click any of the images for larger versions and the variants are under the seats. Wow that Empire poster would look sweet in my movie room!

     
    check out the others below…
    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 29 Dec

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    Weekend of Trash IV

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    TrashVHS

    I trekked over to meet up with ‘the guys’ last weekend for another one of our movie marathons (previous write-ups can be found here – 1, 2 and 3) and this session certainly didn’t disappoint. Easily our most purely exploitative lineup, this time round we watched no modern or respected cult genre offerings, we stuck solely to long forgotten titles from 70′s and 80′s, unearthing a few trashy classics along the way.

    As ever, and especially with a list of films like these, the scores relate more to the enjoyment factor rather than their quality so read on with an open mind…
    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 28 Dec

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    The Other Woman: Natalie Portman

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    Portman’s other film at TIFF last fall didn’t play to critics and fans as well as her current, Oscar contending project, Black Swan received. In fact apparently it was received rather negatively. “Love And Other Impossible Pursuits,” now being released to North American audiences as The Other Woman will already be upon us within the next few days. Personally, I hadn’t even heard of the film – maybe overshadowed by its Aronofsky directed older brother – but now it looks like the studio plans to latch on to the popularity of Black Swan and get this thing in theaters now while the buzz is still blazing.

    Directed by Don Roos (”The Opposite Of Sex,” “Happy Endings”), the film revolves around Portman’s character who steals a man from his wife and then must bond with her new stepson while dealing with the loss of her own child. It looks like pretty heavy handed melo-drama but in this camp that isn’t always a deal breaker. In fact it’s quite often a selling point. It looks clear (from the trailer below) that Portman will continue her streak of awesome performances; co-starring with Lisa Kudrow, Lauren Ambrose and Scott Cohen.

    We’re getting the film via on demand next week (Jan. 1) and then a theatrical distribution begins on February 4th. I don’t know, Portman alone is enough to get me to watch and I tend to enjoy gawking at others’ misery. So I may get my trusty ol’ PS3 downloading this asap. Is this your kind of thing? Will critics warm to it? Check out the trailer under the seats and sound off…

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 27 Dec

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    In Eye Popping, Mouth Watering, Mind Bending 3D [vomit]

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    Tron: Legacy was pretty much the last straw (see rant here). It’s likely I’ve said that before, but this time I mean it. Not even the tantalizing prospect of Penélope Cruz’ bust falling into my lap in Pirates 4.0 will be enough to get me to pay more, see less and don that germ-ridden plastic onto my face ever again. For so many reasons this video commemorating 2010 just makes me ill.

     

  • 24 Dec

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    Merry Christmas from Everyone in the Third Row!

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  • 24 Dec

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    Please Drive Safely This Holiday Weekend (and always)

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    Hey, believe it or not we care about you guys. So take a minute to watch this “insanely cinematic” (copyright Kurt Halfyard) commercial from the Transport Accident Commission (TAC) out of Australia; promoting safe, sober driving. It gets pretty far down the spectrum on the graphic scale so watch at your own risk and maybe isn’t safe for work viewing. Nothing overly gruesome here but still some pretty horrific moments both physically and emotionally. It’s also extremely well shot and put together. At the end of the day it’s probably the most effective PSA I’ve ever seen – though after the play-through, check out some of the other PSAs this organization has produced. They are all really heavy-handed and hopefully quite effective in getting across their message (with great cinematography and carnage.)

    Happy Holidays all!

     

  • 23 Dec

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    We’re not in Askewniverse anymore Toto: Teaser for Kevin Smith’s RED STATE

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    Raw, kinetic and chock-o-block full of solid character actors (not the least of which is our narrator, a fire and brimstone spouting Michael Parks) Kevin Smith certainly proves with this trailer that he has gone way out of his comfort zone. And you know what? It looks damn good.

    Teaser is tucked under the seat.

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 23 Dec

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    Extended Thoughts: True Grit

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    With their love of American film genres, and a penchant for turning them inside out whilst still offering solid examples of whatever they do, be it the gangster picture (Miller’s Crossing), the noir (Blood Simple, The Man Who Wasn’t There), the ‘based-on-a-true-story’ (Fargo, even if it sort of wasn’t), and screw-ball comedy (Intolerable Cruelty, Raising Arizona), it was only a matter of time that they got to The Western, the most iconic of them all. Now they sort of went there with No Country For Old Men, a revisionist western set in the 1980s, complete with all the violence and nihilism fixins, but True Grit feels a lot more like a classic western, a good heaping dose of American myth-making where the brothers are more interested in classic entertainment, and leave the snark and the irony to only small scribbles in the margins (an Indian is hung before he can get his final statement to the crowd for instance, or Indian children are casually kicked around like stray dogs for another). Oddly enough, this is probably the closest the film the Coens have made in their career to what one might call a ‘family film.’ Certainly in the fine tradition of an American family film, something that has been all but morphed into awful, puerile Adam Sandler comedies or Pixar animated kids films.

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 22 Dec

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    Cinecast Episode 195 – Z-Axis

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    The last episode of 2010 clocks in with a triple review, as Kurt and Andrew look at David O. Russell’s earnest and farcical boxing drama, The Fighter, as well as John Cameron Mitchell’s look at how a couple (in this case, Aaron Eckhart and Nicole Kidman) grieve the loss of their young son in Rabbit Hole. Andrew and Gamble gripe on and praise Tron 2 for various reasons, before Gamble gives a double-sneakpeak of The Green Hornet and Fockers 3: Meet those Tiny Mothered-Fockers. All three of the boys discuss their Top 5 male performance picks of 2010 (and add a few honorable mentions in there to boot), and along the way there are digressions on Stanley Kubrick, Stephen King, the nature and requirement of good comedy writing and whether or not it is a good idea to watch mega-blockbusters under the influence of strong cocktails and bacon popcorn.

    The Cinecast will return early in 2011. Be safe. Be happy. Be catching up on the holiday cinema offerings if the family gets to be too much for you!

    As always, please join the conversation by leaving your own thoughts in the comment section below and again, thanks for listening!

     
     

    Cinecast Episode 195 [ 3:00:09 | 103.09 MB ] Play Now | Play in Popup

     

    To download the show directly, paste the following URL into your favorite downloader:
    http://rowthree.com/audio/cinecast_10/episode_195.mp3

    ALTERNATIVE (no music track):
    http://rowthree.com/audio/cinecast_10/episode_195-alt.mp3

     
     
    Full show notes are under the seats…
    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 22 Dec

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    Cinecast Episode 195 – Z-Axis (Alt. No Music Version)

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    Cinecast Episode 194 (alternate version with no music). This post is simply for streaming purposes and easier access for iTunes subscribers. For full show notes and listener comments, please visit the official post for this episode.

    Thanks!

     

    Cinecast Episode 195 - Z-Axis (Alt. No Music Version) [ 3:00:09 | 103.09 MB ] Play Now | Play in Popup

     
     

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