Movies

Usually I get swamped with short horror films, gore-fests and Troma wannabe’s and most recently, Asian erotic thrillers (don’t get me wrong, these are good things and I love stuff like that). Then out of nowhere, I received something a little different: A martial arts film that wasn’t a Godfrey Ho cut and paste movie or a Bruce-sploitation flick. So I got curious and checked out the trailer for a little short indy flick called Sins of the Dragon and let me tell you something… I was not expecting to see the awesomeness that I saw. (Editor’s note: I’m totally surprised to see that awesomeness is a word. That squiggly red line didn’t appear under it when I typed it) Sins of the Dragon isn’t your straight forward martial arts flick. It’s also a fantasy film, so it doesn’t take place at any specific time in history or in the future. Hell, maybe not even this world. But where and when never come into question. Right from the get-go, they explain what you need to know: There are four separate territories and each is ruled by a dragon. Well, the dragon is actually a martial arts master that possesses superhuman abilities. So what do you think if, for example, someone decides they are going to kill the other dragons and gain their powers? They would rule the world, duh! And it just so happens that someone is doing exactly that. He goes by the name Caligo and wears like this half Jason mask on the bottom half of his face. This is where the movie opens up at actually. We see Caligo fighting Master Sozen, who looks kinda like Raiden from Mortal Kombat (well, actually he is wearing the same hat, but to be honest, I forgot what those were called, so I knew you would be able to follow along if I made that reference). Caligo informs the Master Sozen, and the audience, that he has already killed two of the dragons and is about to make it three. Sins of the Dragon does actually build up their characters and makes sympathetic. Cunri lives with an almost uncontrollable rage, due to his village being slaughtered by Caligo during his quest to kill the other dragons. Thus, it orphaned Cunri, but as fate would have it, he is trained by Master Shaw and met Kaia. See, not all bad, right? Lose your family, gain awesome martial arts skills. Even Steven? All of this boils down to the final showdown between Cunri and Caligo, after he and Kaia are attacked and exhausted by a group of ninjas. Cunri must use all of his skill to defeat the now almost invincible Caligo. But what of Kaia? What about her fate? Everything rests on this battle! You’ve probably been seeing the phrase ‘martial arts’ a bit in this review and you must be wondering, “Is there actually any martial arts and is it any good?” To answer it simply: Yes. Oh lord, yes. Sins of the Dragon has more impressive fight choreography than any other big budget movie in the past few years. It’s actually very impressive. The plot itself is also quite impressive. The characters have an anime vibe to them; Cunri being the brooding protagonist with his smart-arse she-sidekick as they encounter a group of buffoonish thieves; one who is the ‘brain’, one who gets lost in his own metaphors and the third is the silent type all on a quest to stop an evil villain. Sins of the Dragon definitely sets up a fantasy world and invites you in without overwhelming you with complicated mythos or an overabundance of unnecessary back story. It also has its share of special effects that are pretty decent considering the budget and type of film it is, but it’s not what it’s about and you won’t be paying any attention to it once they start roundhouse kicking everyone. It’s an easy film to sit down, watch and enjoy some major butt kicking! Running in at just under half an hour, everything is well developed and fleshed out, you’ll feel like you watched an episode of some new anime and you want to see what happens next to these characters and you want to see where they go. In a short amount of time, you do feel attached to these ch

Cannes 2013 highlight? (Photo: Bérénice Bejo, Tahar Rahim in Asghar Farhadi’s The Past) So far, what’s the most memorable event at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival? Perhaps the screening of Asghar Farhadi’s Palme d’Or competitor The Past, starring The Artist‘s Bérénice Bejo (replacing Marion Cotillard) and A Prophet‘s Tahar Rahim? Variety‘s Justin Chang called Farhadi’s follow-up to his Oscar-winning A Separation "an exquisitely sculpted family melodrama in which the end of a marriage is merely the beginning of something else, an indelible tapestry of carefully engineered revelations and deeper human truths." (Scroll down to check out The Bling Ring cast Cannes 2013 photos.) Or perhaps Joel and Ethan Coen’s Inside Llewyn Davies, which impressed The Independent film critic Geoffrey Macnab with "the sure-footed way the Coens combine comedy, music and brooding film noir elements"? Or maybe the fact that Carey Mulligan had two major films screening at Cannes: the aforementioned Inside Llewyn Davies and, out of competition, the festival’s opening-night gala movie The Great Gatsby? Or perhaps, as reported in The Guardian, the highlight of sorts of this year’s Cannes Film Festival was The Bridge TV series producer Lars Blomgren remarking, "I have always worked in both [film and television] and I think it is film that will have to change. A lot of creativity has moved over to TV." If that weren’t all, Blomgren added that he prefers Cannes’ TV festival Mipcom to the town’s more renowned film festival because Mipcom "is more focused and there is less b.s." Jewelry heist: Cannes’ own The Bling Ring But no. So far, the 2013 Cannes Film Festival’s most memorable event — or at least the one with the biggest real-world repercussion — had little to do with moving images screened in a darkened room. Shortly after the premiere of Sofia Coppola’s real-life-inspired The Bling Ring, starring Harry Potter‘s Emma Watson as one of a group of teenagers who stole about $3 million worth of goods from the homes of Los Angeles’ rich and famous, a jewelry heist worth more than €300,000 took place at the Cannes’ Hotel Novotel, located not far from the Palais des Festivals. According to reports, the jewels were stolen from the hotel room of an employee of Swiss jeweler Chopard, which makes the Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d’Or and other trophies. Shades of Alfred Hitchcock’s French Riviera-set To Catch a Thief, starring Cary Grant and Grace Kelly. The latter, by the way, is the subject of The Weinstein Company’s upcoming Grace of Monaco, whose trailer was presented by Harvey Weinstein himself at the festival. Speaking of Weinstein, not even he has come up with a jewelry heist as a tie-in to one of his Oscar-contending movies. Don’t expect him to do so this year either, as The Bling Ring will be released (on June 14) by A24 in North America. Claire Julien (The Bling Ring) poses inside a Lamborghini Gallardo Spider at the Cannes Film Festival The Bling Ring cast: Taissa Farmiga, Katie Chang, Sofia Coppola, Emma Watson, Israel Broussard at the Cannes Film Festival’s ‘Movie Star Lounge’ in the Carlton Hotel Emma Watson of The Bling Ring in the Carlton Hotel’s ‘Movie Star Lounge’ The Bling Ring‘s Claire Julien, Taissa Farmiga, Katie Chang, Sofia Coppola, Israel Broussard, Emma Watson photos: Annalisa Flori / Getty Images. Bérénice Bejo, Tahar Rahim in Asghar Farhadi’s The Past photo: Cannes Film Festival. This post was originally published at Alt Film Guide (http://www.altfg.com/). Not to be republished without permission.

Justin Timberlake, Carey Mulligan, Jessica Biel, Garrett Hedlund, Oscar Isaac, Nicole Kidman, Keith Urban and Steven Spielberg were on hand at the Cannes premiere of the Coen Bros.' "Inside Llewyn Davis."http://www.hitfix.com

'Transformers 4' casting notices reveal character names and descriptions for Michael Bay's fourth installment in the 'Transformers' franchise.

In a nutshell: Solkir reviews the dumb (yet fascinating) Steel, starring Shaquille O'Neal as a weapons designer who grows a conscience and designs a powerful suit of armor so he can be a superhero. In the comics, Steel's origin was tied up in the '90s Death of Superman saga, but there's no sign of Superman here. Instead, we get Judd Nelson, the Not-Oracle, and a brand new dialect created by future sex tape star Ray J.

Here’s our box office report for the weekend of May 19th, 2013 – featuring J.J. Abrams' highly-anticipated sequel, 'Star Trek Into Darkness.'

I'll answer the question first. I might, though I probably shouldn't say that I might. For each year I make an internal plan to read all of the books on which upcoming films are based. Guess how many I usually get through? But given that I'd never trade F Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby" for any film version that might ever exist, I should probably try and read source material quicker once I know it's going to be a movie. I weep proactively, for example, for anyone who sees August: Osage County first as a movie (if it's not good) without having previously known the brilliance of the play. With this year's "Adapted" crowd, I have actually had read/experienced at least five of them... plus all the superhero stuff, 'natch. intimate knowledge *before* seeing the movies, 2013 edition This topic is on the mind since I've posted my predictions in the Original and Adapted Screenplay Oscar categories. What's the difference between ADAPTED and ORIGINAL these days? Well, like the Acting Categories, sometimes screenplays play fast and loose with definitions. The landmark year for "Original" vs "Adapted" shenanigans was 2002 in which both Gangs of New York and My Big Fat Greek Wedding, which had presented themselves as adaptations of a novel and play respectively for months on end as they made their way into the public consciousness, suddenly decided they were originals when that category proved conveniently easier to nab nominations in. Oh sure, they had their excuses ("only inspired by" "I wrote a version of this for the screen before I wrote it as a play") but it still smelled like Category Fraud. I bring this up because it's possible that some of the films will be classified differently than I've classified them. The most confusing case is probably Foxcatcher since books have been written about the bizarre true story but the film doesn't seem to be based on those books but on an unpublished autobiography (?) by one of its secondary characters (played by Channing Tatum). I'm guessing Adapted for now but that could easily change. But back to books. Have any of you read any of these pictured? Do you want to? Which of these ten should I read and write about before the film version? poll by twiigs.com WHICHEVER BOOK WINS THIS POLL I PROMISE TO READ / BLOG. I'll try for two but I will do one. I will, I will.

We had a chance to sit down with Simon Pegg, Alice Eve and John Cho to talk about Star Trek Into Darkness, dogs in the Star Trek universe and the sci-fi film as the new Western.

The Star Trek fever is full on this weekend. At least it seems like it is, though only a blockbuster THIS magnitude that an $84 mil four-day total is still considered a box office disappointment. Apparently Star Trek Into Darkness did not quite hit the warp-speed at the box ffice, well-short of the studios’ – […]

In more quick news coming out of the Cannes Film Market, Phase 4 has acquired all rights in the US and Canada to John Huddles’ Philosophers, a sci-fi thriller starring James Darcy (In Their Skin). Bankside Films handles international sales on the Croisette. Sophie Lowe, Daryl Sabara, Freddie Stroma, Rhys Wakefield, and Bonnie Wright also star. “The Philosophers centers on a philosophy teacher at an international school in Jakarta who challenges his graduate class of 20 to elect which 10 they would send into an underground shelter in the event of a nuclear apocalypse.” VISIT THE EVILSHOP @ AMAZON! Got news? Click here to submit it! Philosophize in the comments section below!