Author Archive

  • Almodóvar’s “The Skin I Live In” [teaser]

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    If there’s one director that can be called truly an auteur, it’s Pedro Almodóvar. Since I’m a lover of anything unique, it’s no surprise that his latest, The Skin I Live In, is one of my most anticipated films of the next year. Arguably the most prolific foreign director of this generation, surprisingly this is Almodóvar’s first step into the realm of horror; at least “horror” as Pedro sees it.

    Ever since his wife was burned in a car crash, Dr. Robert Ledgard, an eminent plastic surgeon, has been interested in creating a new skin with which he could have saved her. After twelve years, he manages to cultivate a skin that is a real shield against every assault.

    In addition to years of study and experimentation, Robert needed a further three things: no scruples, an accomplice and a human guinea pig. Scruples were never a problem. Marilia, the woman who looked after him from the day he was born, is his most faithful accomplice. And as for the human guinea pig…

    The trailer (actually just a quick scene) has finally arrived as a treat for all of us not lucky enough to be at Cannes this year. Not sure how I would categorize this scene. Is it creepy or comical or emotional? Likely a conglomerate of all three when put into context of the film. It’s been a while since Banderas has been in anything worthy of mention, but after having seen Almodóvar’s Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! earlier this year, I have no doubt he’ll be back on the top of big name stars by year’s end with Pedro’s (and Soderbergh’s) help.

    Thanks to Twitch for the above synopsis and the heads up on the trailer…

     

     

  • Blu-ray Giveaway: “Jawbreaker”

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    Before there was Mean Girls. Before Gossip Girl. There was Jawbreaker. The ’90s-nostagia movie and its deliciously wicked skewering of high-school hijinks (with a nod to the ’80s classic Heathers) is a modern-day classic that fans can now re-live — or, ahem, re-die — all over again.

    They’re the beautiful ones. The flawless four. Everyone wanted to be them. You know ‘em. They went to your school, too. First there’s Courtney “Satan in Heels” Shayne (Rose McGowan) and her pawn, the dense but dangerous Marcie Fox (Julie Benz), a legend in her own little mind. Then there’s angelic Julie Freedman (Rebecca Gayheart), doomed to be popular because of her pretty face, and lastly, the teen-dream herself, Elizabeth Purr. When an ordinary kidnapping prank leaves the future prom queen dead (accidentally gagged with a jaw-breaker), a deadly sweet prank leads to cover-up makeover in this edgy and unpredictable comedy. But there will be no mercy as prom night arrives, bringing this spirited tale to its cruel tiara-dropping conclusion.

    Want this great addition to your nostalgia Blu-ray collection? It’s easy! Thanks to Stuntman, one lucky winner will have a chance to add this one to their DVD shelf courtesy of RowThree. To win, in the comments section below, mention your favorite film by any one of the four lead actresses: Rose McGowan, Rebecca Gayheart, Julie Benz or Judy Greer. On Monday, May 16th we’ll pick a winner more or less at random and notify the winner by email – so put your correct email address in the appropriate field!

    Good luck!

     
    RowThree contributors are free to discuss but are not eligible to win.

  • One Sentence “Stakeland” Review

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    Holy shit; that was Kelly McGillis!?

     

    (pssst, here is Kurt’s longer review)

  • Conan the Trailer

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    Absent from Marina’s trailer round-up post from earlier today (probably because those are likely to actually be good films), is this little summertime (releasing in August) gem that is part 300 and part Prince of Persia with not a hint of Schwarzenegger. Yeah kids, before he was governor of Caleefonya, he was Conan. Now it’s some other dude. Check it out…

     

  • May the 4th Be With You [yeah yeah, I know: lame]

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    Lame as it may be to say that, what isn’t lame (hopefully) is that the Blu-rays for all six Star Wars movies will be available in September. Lucasfilm and StarWars.com are giving us a sneak peek at the really neat looking covers (that don’t look like the one pictured above!) and some of the extras included on the disc. The good news is you don’t have to buy all 6 films in the box set. You can buy the original 3 in their own set or if you’re retarded, you can buy the prequel trilogy in it’s own set. Sheesh, kids today.

    You can pre-order right now from Amazon:
    Full Set
    Original Trilogy
    Prequels – really? You’re gonna buy this?

     
     
     
     
     

     

  • Cinecast Episode 211 – Save it for the Spank Bank

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    Rather fast and casual this week folks; we sound like surly video store clerks! With Canadian Elections and Scotch vying for attention, it was hard to keep our thoughts about this weeks theatrical releases. An unnecessary heated debate ensues over the first two episodes of “Game of Thrones” after reviewing both Fast Five and Thor in quick succession. With HotDocs in full swing, Kurt gives an overview on what he has been watching on the big screen. This includes the festivals opening night films, an enthusiastic house for Beauty Day, midnight surreal lullaby of murder and madness, James Marsh’s debut documentary Wisconsin Death Trip, and what gets the conversation into heterosexually murky waters, Boy Cheerleaders. DVDs are still in the ho-hum stages of the year apparently, so we go to the standby Criterion release and the proto-grindhouse Quentin Tarantino/Robert Rodriguez vampire flick from the mid-nineties. Still, we keep things (relatively) civil this week and have fun with the varying directions the show takes us. Welcome to May.

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


     
     

     


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    To download the show directly, paste the following URL into your favorite downloader:
    http://rowthree.com/audio/cinecast_11/episode_211.mp3

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

  • The Wilhelm Scream Continues… and Continues

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    The first time I really became aware of the Wilhelm Scream was after watching the Indiana Jones films and Star Wars about 1000 times each. “That is the same sound effect in the other Star Wars movie,” I would say to my friends. “You’re crazy,” they would say. But after years of watching films and hearing it over and over again in scores of films, I knew I was right.

    With the advent of the internet some years later, I finally was able to search for this strange phenomenon and learn that is known as The Wilhelm Scream. I also learned just how many films the sounds effect appears in: a lot!

    Our buddy Joseph from Cinexcellence has spent many painstaking hours splicing together a “fairly complete” compilation of all the instances of The Wilhelm Scream into one, fun (though eventually annoying), twelve minute video.

    Over at their site, they’re even running a contest. If you can name all of the films in the video (in order), you’ll win a free DVD of your choice (that includes the scream of course!).

    Even if you’re not interested in the contest, check out the video. It’s fairly amusing – especially some of the earlier uses of the effect.

     

  • Shorts Program: “Bad Crowd”

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    What could be better on a Monday morning than escaping your dreaded day job for a few minutes and watching a movie? Not much. That’s why our good buddy Drew Nugent, regular reader and Cinecast listener, has uploaded his latest short film to YouTube so we can all take a look. It isn’t quite finished yet with some sound issues and what not, but the dialogue is fun and works pretty well, what with all the pop culture references and a great “hangin’ out” feel to the whole thing. Stop typing or making phone calls or building whatever you’re building and just check in a minutes with the Bad Crowd.

    Nice job Drew!

     

  • “One Day” Trailer

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    Being a big Anne Hathaway fan has cost me a little (see Bride Wars). But it’s also been a lot of fun and easy to maintain the crush with other things before and since. This trailer doesn’t do much to inspire me, but it does have a couple major pluses.

    One, Patricia Clarkson; ’nuff said. But secondly, this is the sophomore effort from director Lone Scherfig, who’s first film, An Education slid easily into a decent spot in my top ten of 2009. So while this trailer doesn’t do too much to get me excited, the cast and director is more than enough to give the benefit of the doubt. Even if the story line does seem a bit gimmicky and simple, we shall see.

    The trailer is tucked under the seat.

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • Animated Kubrick Retrospective

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    Thanks to our friends over at Ropes of Silicon, here’s a nice few minutes for any Kubrick fans to really swagger behind. It’s an animated retrospective of all of his film from 1952′s Killer’s Kiss all the way up to his final film in 1999, Eyes Wide Shut.

    Not really a moving animation or any sort of recreation, but more like a great usage of motion stills spliced together, each with a unique variance of display, to give a nice feel for each of the films. The animation and editing was designed by Martin Woutisseth and the music is by Romain Trouillet.

    If you’re a kubrick fan, you gotta check this out…