Back from the dead is Matt Gamble who helps contribute to a nice lengthy Watch List in which we get into all manner of cinematic delights. Everyone gets into the doc talk with their respective viewings and best of all, two big, 80s action movies are revisited on the big screen and it turns out it’s more awesome than you can imagine. Andrew visits some trash, some pulp and nearly completes Soderbergh’s complete filmography. We take another look at classic Coen brothers and Matt regales us with yet another of his brushes with “fame.” It’s a long road to Guantanamo, but we take it in stride with some laughs and harsh words, but we make it. Fists with your toes friend, fists with your toes.

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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Cinecast (Andrew and Halfyard show)
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Mamo! (Matt and Matt)
ALL the RowThree Podcasts on one feed
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Cinecast Episode 293 [ 1:42:51 | 70.62 MB ] Play Now | Play in Popup

 
 
Full show notes are under the seats…
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We’ve already seen a poster and then a first trailer for Oblivion, the upcoming big-budget sci-fi flick starring Tom Cruise. Now a new trailer has appeared and it’s bringing us more of the same vibe – a little bit WALL-E, a little Minority Report, a hint of War of the Worlds, a nod to Alien 3 and Pitch Black, some dashes of the video games Portal and Half-Life – a little bit of everything sci-fi really. It looks shiny and fun though it could provide for one of those hollow sci-fi experiences that’s all snap, crackle and pop but with nothing to make it last long in the memory. Hopefully that’s not the case.

The film is directed by Joseph Kosinski, whose previous and debut film was TRON: Legacy (which I actually really enjoyed), and has quite an impressive supporting cast including Olga Kurylenko (Quantum of Solace, Seven Psychopaths), Andrea Riseborough (Shadow Dancer), Melissa Leo and Morgan Freeman looking as cool as ever. I’m filing this one under “cautiously optimistic.”

Are you liking the look of Oblivion?

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An academic but thoroughly enjoyable trip through the obvious with PhD Drew Morton and critic Matthew Zoller Seitz on how one medium can infect or be transposed into another, and the near-infinite hall of mirrors that Scott Pilgrim is for doing what it did. Well worth a look.

These are slippery subjects to analyze, but Morton never loses his grip here, and the final section—a detailed analysis of the style of Wright’s film—is dazzling. He talks about how Wright folds representations of comics, videogames and music into a movie based on a comic book that was itself strongly inspired by videogames, and in so doing, creates a “re-remediation.” If you tried to represent that on a page, it might look like a bunch of parentheses inside one big parenthetical, or maybe a line drawing of a Russian nesting doll, animated, with each layer’s shell cracking to reveal the layer beneath, each pop commemorated by a point value materializing in space and hanging there. Fifty points! A hundred! Next level!

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The title of this posts says it all, enjoy this 1 minute, 20 seconds of bliss known as, A GOOD CLAY TO DIE HARD and save yourself from the 95 minute teal&orange nightmare that is the 21st century shell of the Die Hard franchise.

After our small discussion about “House of Cards” on episode 290 of The Cinecast, there is/was much chatter in the comments about the future of release schedules when it comes to Netflix original content and their episodic entertainment. “House of Cards” full season was released in one fell swoop so that viewers could just enjoy the entire run from start to finish at their own pace rather than being forced to wait for the next episode on a week by week basis.

So this July, Dreamworks Animation is theatrically releasing their next potential franchise with Turbo; “a high velocity 3D comedy about an ordinary snail who dares to dream big – and fast.” Then in December, Dreamworks is collaborating with Netflix to release an animated series based on the movie specifically for the Netflix kids audience entitled “Turbo: F. A. S. T. (Fast Action Stunt Team)”.

So by going after the little ones, this is one more step in the direction of subscriber based television becoming the norm. Of course it likely won’t be the norm for many many years yet, but it’s headed that way. The story doesn’t say whether “Turbo: F. A. S. T.” will be released all at once, but my hunch is yes it will.

“Netflix boasts one of the largest and fastest-growing audiences in kids television. They pioneered a new model for TV dramas with House of Cards, and now together, we’re doing the same thing with kids’ programming,” said DreamWorks Animation’s Chief Executive Officer, Jeffrey Katzenberg . “DreamWorks is thrilled to be part of the television revolution.”

So your kids will now be begging you for Netflix so they can watch the new big thing (presumably similar to something like Shrek or Cars) and you’ll be able to plop them down in the rec room for 16 hours of straight animation while you get your house work done.

I‘ve been watching David Lynch do all of these various, personal projects for some time now (mostly courtesy of content over at Twitch). But I haven’t seen a feature length film since 2007 (unless you count his “Duran Duran” doc). Not that I care mind you; I’m not the biggest Lynch fan on the planet and much of these short films and online interview segments are actually quite a joy to watch.

His latest appears to be a brief look at a lithograph company called Idem Paris. An “old-fashioned” printing company he’s used to produce quite a bit of his own art. Nothing real involving here, but there is a sort of strange hypnotic nature about the short with its dialogue-free, pulsing machinery and hissing steam engine. It’s actually quite visceral and heavy; makes you want to watch out that your fingers don’t get pinched or mashed – though probably nothing more than a couple minutes of a look.

…a statement from Lynch regarding the short from Indiewire:

Hervé Chandès from the Fondation Cartier brought me over to Idem and introduced me to Patrice Forest. I see this incredible place, and I get the opportunity to work there. And this was like a dream! It just opened up this brand-new world of the lithography and the magic of lithography, the magic of the stones. And it was a great, great thing! This thing of lithography, this channel of lithography opened up and a bunch of ideas came flowing out and it led to about a hundred lithographs. I will say that Idem printing studio has a unique, very special mood, and it is so conducive to creating. Patrice has the greatest attitude for all the artists and he creates this space of freedom and this joy of creating. It’s so beautiful! And I think the place is very important—in other wors, the same stone could be moved to another place, and I think that the work that comes out would be different. It’s a combination of the stone, the place, the people, this mood, and out comes these certain ideas.

That’s right, the king of pop is back!… from the dead.

Michael Jackson’s hand has been stolen from his crypt in LA!! The culprits: two love-struck leather dwarves, acting on the orders of Dr. Cagliostro, a time-traveling sorcerer posing as the manager of a “punk circus” in Berlin. The mysterious mystic’s mad plan: use the risen Michael to rouse the masses and ignite a global revolution! Realizing something strange is afoot, two lesbian ghost hunter girls and three horny college dudes team up to infiltrate Cagliostro’s circus. Things come to a head when the rapidly decaying Jacko-Zombie Messiah takes over the circus and starts his own “Rainbow Revolution” one that quickly descends into chaos.

I have a couple of friends who were/are pretty die hard MJ fans and I think if I showed them this trailer they’d be legitimately offended and pissed off. Personally, I think it’s mildly amusing fun but don’t expect this in your local multi-plex any time soon. More likely a small festival run and then it’ll be hitting VOD for everyone in March.

Is it going to be “good?” No, probably not, but the trailer is most certainly worth taking a look at. Wait for it…

Short and sweet here folks. I love the color palette of this film’s trailer. It borders on an Almodóvar aesthetic. Unfortunately just about everything else in here makes me cringe with the ugly-ooglies.

The Moochmore girls are all certain they suffer from some sort of mental illness, because if they’re not crazy they’re just unpopular. The combination of Shirley’s five rambunctious daughters and her philandering husband Barry becomes too much for her to bear and she is committed to a mental institution.

Barry, a small time politician is left to take care of his five girls who he barely knows. Overwhelmed, he impulsively picks up Shaz, a colorful hitchhiker on the side of the road, and installs her as the girls’ nanny. Shaz is charismatic, hot tempered, inspiring, and completely nuts. However she proves to be exactly what the Moochmore family needs.

The films stars Toni Collette, Anthony Lapaglia and whole host of well-known Australian actors, what is most upsetting is that this is directed by the same guy who made such schlock as My Best Friend’s Wedding and Confessions of a Shopoholic. By the looks of this trailer – other than the visual aesthetic – I’d say we’re in for not much more promising fare. But perhaps I’m wrong?

Or download in Quicktime

Mental trailer [ 2:15 | 95.79 MB ]

So really not much here but if you’re a Noah Baumbach (Kicking and Screaming, Squid and the Whale, Margot at the Wedding, Greenberg) fan, here’s a quick glimpse into his latest picture that became one of the most loved films of The Toronto Int’l Film Festival – at least around these parts.

First up, you can see to the right a somewhat uninspiring new poster for the film (click the image for a larger version).

If that isn’t doing it for you, here are a couple of newly released clips from the film that while don’t give us much insight into plot or character, we do get a general sense for the film’s tone and style – being in black and white probably the most obvious.

I have to be honest, none of this is really doing it for me, but despite really not caring much for his last two features, Baumbach is amazingly still in my good graces after K&S and my beloved Squid and the Whale. So I’m willing to give this film and Rot’s genuine review of it, the benefit of the doubt for now.

Take a look at the clips below and tell us what you think. If you’ve already seen the film in festival mode, how did it go over for you and those around you?

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I haven’t been on a Film Noir bender in awhile and it’s damn well due. So for my opening salvo in the 2013 Blind Spots, I grabbed a pair of Noirs that I not only felt I should have seen by now, but that I just simply wanted to see right now. I expect from a more mainstream perspective, these two films weren’t exactly gaping holes in my cinematic knowledge, but I’ve been yearning (yes, I said yearning) to see them both. The additional push is that The Reckless Moment is directed by Max Ophuls and he’s a director that I’d like to dig into this year. My only experience with him is the lovely Letter From An Unknown Woman and I’ve cobbled together 3 or 4 of his films on the PVR (oh TCM…you give and you give…), so I’m keen to see more of that constantly moving camera of his. By the way, both of these movies were watched via the PVR, but my capture card is providing horrible resolution on Windows 7 so I’ve borrowed these screenshots from other sites…

Once Noir gets a hold of you, it’s hard to shake. Like an addictive drug, Noir just leads to more Noir. I’m overstating of course, but Noir’s ever-present feeling of doom, its creeping hand of fate and its shafts of light painted with purpose across every inch of the frame lures me in every single time. Even the “lesser” Noirs manage to ensnare me. Not that every Noir is the same, but they share certain characteristics of style tone and theme. Indeed, both The Reckless Moment from 1949 and the earlier by 7 years This Gun For Hire share stylistic touches as well as central male characters who float through their dark lives. Both of these men end up glimpsing some possible redemption through the eyes of a woman (these ladies are not your typical femme fatales even though they may be the “cause” of the male’s downfall) as they accept the fate they always knew was approaching.

Would you like to know more…?

Non-censored version of the above poster can be found HERE.

Welcome to another part one of the week in Cinecast! For this week’s episode we’re talking Steven Soderbergh’s Side Effects – don’t let the SPOILERS! bite you folks! Between the chit and the chat we take a brief, but much awe-inspiring look back at the career of said director and lament his exit from the world of film making. Of course there are a few house keeping items to get to in the beginning of the show and we look forward at the next couple of weeks of Cinecast’s content. Feel free to send feedback to us in any way, shape or form for possible inclusion in part two of this week’s Cinecast later in the week.

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

show

Cinecast (Andrew and Halfyard show)
After the Credits (Marina and Co.)
Mamo! (Matt and Matt)
ALL the RowThree Podcasts on one feed
All posts and discussions from RowThree

Cinecast Episode 292 [ 56:07 | 38.53 MB ] Play Now | Play in Popup

 
 
Full show notes and VIDEO version are under the seats…
Would you like to know more…?

With the Oscars around the corner, Zach Galifianakis presents a very special Oscary edition of his “Between Two Ferns” with guests Jennifer Lawrence, The Impossible Naomi Watts, Christoph Waltz, Anne Hathaway and Amy Adams. Enjoy.