DVD Watch #1

It was fun posting about the Serenity DVD release, so why not make it a regular thing, I thought? Thus, here it is, the first DVD Watch post, dedicated to bring you the news of the latest DVD of your favourite blockbusters (and not-so-blockbusters).

Between now to November, keep an eye out for:

• Fantastic Four - Rise of the Silver Surfer: The Power Cosmic Edition (2-Disc)
• Grindhouse Presents, Death Proof: Extended and Unrated (2-Disc)
• Grindhouse Presents, Planet Terror: Extended and Unrated (2-Disc)
• Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, 2-Disc Limited Edition
• Ratatouille (?)
• Spider-man 3, 2-Disc Special Edition
• Transformers, 2-Disc Special Edition

Will post more info on the discs' special features once they're available. So many DVDs, so little income. Sigh...

Star Wars CG television series

"So it's kind of a PG-13 animated TV series, which is something that has never been done before and obviously doesn't fit in any of the conventional slots that these things fall into. In that, it's very different, and I think it's very exciting."

Go to TV Guide article.

Funny Sh**! Console rundown!

Techno-babble: Robot Car My Ass...

A whole bunch of “chips” just to drive this car! If I had the money, I would probably pay a “driver” to drive me around instead of the “Robot”. Excluding the chips & shits, I don’t see much room available for the passengers… The things people do when they have too much time & money… And to think that we are paying for this development eventually when we buy their products! - The Link

Techno-babble: Little Boobs... Oops, I mean "Little Book"

This little “notebook” device might be useful to “The BMF”. With a great battery life and super-ultra portable, there will be no stopping “The BMF” from blogging (& bullsh***ing) on-the-job or on-the-bowl (toilet that is…).
By the way, don’t expect Quake 4 on this machine, but I assure you Solitaire or FreeCell will be enjoyable-man!
I believe it is on sale at our local “Uncle Sim Lim” for a little above S$1,000. Great inve$tment, join the geeky side of life…

Techno-babble: Here mouse-y, mouse-y, mouse-y...

“Holy breast mouse-y Batman…”
I really don’t have any idea why would someone need this? However, a small minority of the male population might be “fully grown” out of this… The Link
(in life, almost everything has two meanings)

Justice League: The Movie is a go!

Well, at least Warner Bros. sounds determined about it. What's certain is that George Miller of Happy Feet, Babe and the Mad Max trilogy fame, is directing. They're still iffy about whether the movie's live-action or animated, while the actor playing the current celluloid Batman, the Grammaton Cleric Christian Bale himself didn't sound too keen about it. Keep an eye out for this in 2009 - this is going to be a tough one to pull off.

Read the original article from Variety.com here. Thanks to Empireonline.com.

Johnnie To + Chow Yun Fat = BADASS!!!

Is this a dream? Am I hearing it right? Johnnie To, he of Election and The Mission and Expect the Unexpected, and the greatest Chinese badass actor, Chow Yun Fat, together in the same movie? Don't take it just from me, read this article!

(Thanks to The Golden Rock for the news.)

Dai-nipponjin! (no relations to the Tech Freak)

Wanted to share this news from Aintitcool.com about a crazy Ultraman-type Japanese movie showing at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) right now. It's called Dai-nipponjin, and it's about a loser guy who turns into a 50-foot giant who looks like a cross between The Rock and Sun Goku (see pic above). When he's a regular sized guy, he actually carries his giant spandex underwear around on his back (see below). He protects Japan by fighting other giant creatures: one resembles an old guy with a comb-over and giant rubberbands as arms. Yes, it's supposed to be funny. Read more about it here, or go to the Jap site by clicking here or the above pic.

Shoot 'em up!

If you read Roger Ebert's review on the upcoming action flick Shoot 'Em Up, then it must have spoiled the movie for you like it did for me, revealing what a crazy f***ed-up movie this is (but in a good way). In tandem with the upcoming release of this American homage to John Woo's mother-of-all-action-movies Hard Boiled, FHM has compiled a list of the top ten best shootouts in movie history. But it's a real travesty that they didn't include a single shootout sequence from Hard Boiled in their top ten.

Elsewhere, Will2k listed the top five best death by gunshot scenes at the bottom of his L.A. Confidential review last year, republished again here for your enjoyment:

Will2k's top 5 best deaths by gunshot (in his own words)

1. The Godfather (the toll booth scene death - 100 bullets sprayed? - copied by Chow Yuen Fat in A Better Tomorrow)
2. The Godfather II (Don Fanucci - killed by Vito Corleone (Robert De Niro) )
3. L. A. Confidential (Jack Vincennes - Kevin Spacey death)
4. Unforgiven (Gene Hackman's death by Clint Eastwood)
5. A Better Tomorrow II - Chow Yuen Fat vs. Sunglasses Assassin (the one who killed Leslie Cheung a.k.a. Ah Kit)

On vacation...

NERD ALERT 3!!! - The Big Lebowski figurines

From EntertainmentEarth.com, via IMDb.com.

New Iron Man teaser trailer, and holy sheep!

First peek into the live-action movie adaptation. Click the pic.

The new title for Indiana Jones 4 is...

from aintitcool.com

The Pleasure of Pirates and What It Tells Us About World Building in Branded Entertainment

Very interesting article by Henry Jenkins that discusses why many critics are so negative when it comes to reviewing blockbuster movies while the rest of the world are enjoying the same movies. Click here for the article.

A short review on Ratatouille

Yo Lam,

I did watch Ratatouille when it was released quite some time back, and yes it definitely a really cool animation movie.
It is fun, heart warming, but it does not patronise its audience as some of the other hollywood animation movies(i.e Flushed away, surf up etc).
I especially enjoy the hero of the show, the rat, as he is an average rat with a gift, and also the food critic, anton, though he was rather cold at first, but towards the end of the movies, you realise that he is rather too passionate about his profession.
In short, a cool movie that is definitely worth a second or third watch.

take care man
Spoovans

(p.s. My girlfriend found the movie rather so-so, to my surprise!)

Grindhouse Marathon at GV!

I never thought this would happen, but they finally did it! They finally put the two Grindhouse movies back-to-back like it should have been, AND I CAN'T GO FOR IT! Of all the days in the year, they MUST set it on the day that I will be moving stuff to my new home! To my knowledge, it's only showing once in this format, so go catch it if you can. And if they're also including the fake trailers during the intermission, I'm gonna give up on life and throw myself at a pack of rabid zombies.

Ratatouille... good? Oui! Oui!

I've seen Ratatouille, and it is GOOD. It's not action-packed like The Incredibles, but it's closer to The Iron Giant, and melts hearts like that one. I kneel before The Lord Almighty, Brad Bird. Funny how the last two summer blockbuster movies shown are also the very best.

Highly recommended. Review coming soon!

The Simpsons + Star Wars Parody!

test

Bioshock (Xbox360) Review!

Robotech: The Live-action Movie!

I'm beginning to suspect that I have a sixth sense. In my review of Transformers, I predicted that the movie studios would start adapting other robot-related anime such as Robotech, and lo and behold it has come true! Ok, maybe I was stating the obvious, since Robotech is really one of the most highly regarded classic anime around. What's even nicer is Tobey Maguire's involvement in this adaptation, which will guarantee some class in the acting department. Anyway, it's time we see some more fricking robots kicking the crap out of each other... in space! I'm pretty bored already with them superheroes and pirates and medieval crap. Check out the original article here to find out which other robot anime* also got greenlighted!

.

*Highlight for answer >> It's Voltron!

Reviewed: The Simpsons Movie

Mmm...

(click to see gif animation)

Still a Heroes virgin...

Yeah, being the geek that I am, I still haven't seen a single Heroes episode, believe it or not. I meant to catch it when it aired on free TV in April, but I knew I was too busy to catch every episode, and opted to wait for the DVD. Now that it's finally out on DVD, I'm still not sure if I have time for it, with a new 3D project, a huge backlog of unwatched DVDs and unwritten reviews all begging for attention.

Anyway, for those who care, click here for DVDTalk.com's review.

WTF??? Street Fighter: The Movie Part II!

Want to know how I feel about the Street Fighter sequel? Well, FEEL THIS!

Directed by the guy who brought you Romeo Must Die and Doom. You just know that disaster's inevitable.

Go to EmpireOnline.com to see the full article.

NERD ALERT 2!!!

Wizard Entertainment's "10 Years, 100 Toys" list of the best figurines of the decade. Click on picture to see list, or click here. Jindavis, one of your dolls are on the list. You should be proud, heh heh.

Techno-babble: Apple, anyone?

It is that time of they year again… where Apple makes us open-up our wallet and give them hundreds of dollars of hard earn CA$H. It’s like being ripped off, but in a good way as we all end-up feeling fairly happy & good for the next few weeks playing with our new found purpose in life. Anyway see for yourself…
http://tinyurl.com/3celvt

How to save money on movies

This guy put up a very helpful list of things that you can do to save money on movies on his blog. I originally saw this via a link from IMDb.com.

Just to add a few things in relation to this side of the world (Singapore, to be precise):

1. Discounts: This info may be outdated in a few years time, but most of the discounts available are credit card privileges. HSBC offers a dollar off on every GV ticket, Maybank provides a special Hollywoodclicks.com membership price, and Citibank lets you redeem points for movie tickets. Of course, the cinemas themselves have their own discounts, packages and bargain days. Notably, GV has just started a membership thing where members get concession rates on tickets and snacks, and it's free. Cathay currently gives out free tickets for toddlers on Tuesdays among other things, and Shaw recently has a buy-four-get-one-free (albeit for Citibank cardholders only).
2. Film events: In Singapore, they're mostly managed by the Singapore Film Society (SFS), who charges membership that provides ticket discounts for said events and also blockbuster movies. But only if you're watching tons of arty movies and like to mingle with real film connoisseurs.
3. Cheaper movies: Many should have noticed by now that Code/Region 3 DVDs (that are made in Singapore or Malaysia) are significantly cheaper than imported US Region 1 DVDs, sometimes more than half the price. But I've experienced R3 DVDs that are inferior to its R1 counterparts, in terms of features and even video/audio quality (due to compression issues). These wouldn't matter if you don't really care for special features, do not own home theatre systems, or couldn't tell the difference between 480p and 1080i screen resolutions. Another format to consider is the VCD, though it's far inferior and cumbersome than the DVD in every ways, especially the need to swap discs mid-movie. There are also less scrupulous and much cheaper/free sources of movies across the border and on the world wide web, but that would be unfair to the men and women who worked their asses off in the making of movies. Also, indulge at your own risk.
4. Buy used: I saw Cash Converter selling second-hand DVDs once, but the selections are, not surprisingly, pretty horrible. The market for second-hand DVDs are not as prevalent as in the West, but it's not like you can't find anything good if you looked hard enough. There are also online classifieds where you can find people trying to hawk their old discs. But again, the problem here is variety.
5. Borrow from friends: This is probably the most popular way of saving money on movies. But it goes bothways. You'll also need to own something they want to exchange with. The problem of variety again.
6. Rental: This is The Big Movie Freak's second-most favourite way of saving costs. Renting a movie can be as low as $3.50 that lets you keep it for several days at end. Hollywoodclicks.com and VideoEzy lets you hold the discs for as long as you want with a fixed monthly fee. With rentals, you get to watch your movies at low, low prices, while not having to worry about shelf space.
7. The number one Big Movie Freak way of saving costs: watch a movie upon its release at the cinema, and watch it on a budget day (Mon-Wed). You'll be watching movies in the best environment (dark room, large screen, surround sound), and you'll less likely to waste money on direct-to-video crap that rentals often expose you to. There are also those "good for watching only once" movies that you'd be glad you saw in the cinemas and not having to "try your luck" in buying or renting them.
8. Cost-saving precision: do a budget plan. Why the heck do I wanna waste time doing a budget on how much I spend on movies, you say? As if planning household budgets and mortgage refinancing aren't enough headaches already! Well, if you're a movie freak like me that had been splurging an average of $1,000 a year on movies alone, a little planning goes a long way in keeping them costs from ballooning. I've since shaved my expenditure down to a modest limit of $500 without compromising what I need to watch and review every year. Like a responsible public-listed company, my budget is for all to see, right here.

The Wachowski Revolution

The Wachowski Brother and, err, Sister?

Apparently, one half of the directing pair responsible for bringing The Matrix trilogy into the real world have gone and done something to himself. You should be able to guess from the pic above. Click on it for the full article. Somebody please don't tell me this is a hoax.

A short Review on Zoolander

Yo Lam

Managed to finally watch Zoolander, and after watching the movies, I couldn't help but laugh my head off thinking that this is the movie that the Malaysian government banned in Malaysia.

I guess that the movie director or producers has something against male models.For such a pathetic movie, Ben stiller carried his role rather well.
In short, It is a lame comedy, shallow storyline, rather limited location shots. A movie that even Ben Stiller couldn't salvage!

take care man

Poovan

An Action Hero is Bourne

My new review of The Bourne Ultimatum is up. Click on the picture, or click here. To see the review banner I made for Ultimatum, please go to my main page.

Also check out this interesting Q&A with Eric Lichtenfeld, author of "Action Speaks Louder: Violence, Spectacle and the American Action Movie", which the Outlaw Vern claims to be the first serious study on Hollywood action movies.

The Russian Connection

Grand Theft Auto 4 in action.

Looks promising.

The upcoming chapter of the infamous bestselling video game Grand Theft Auto (GTA) adds the Russian Mafia into its canon of gangsters, after featuring the Italian, Hispanic and African-American ones in past installments. But before the game is even released or plans to adapt the game into a movie is even talked about, director David Cronenberg has shot and is about to release the Russian mob-themed movie Eastern Promises. Judging from his previous works including The Fly and A History of Violence, this could well be the most definitive (and probably the most violent and/or sexiest) Russian gangster movie to date, which will overshadow whatever film adaptation GTA producer Rockstar is planning in the future. Or these game making companies could just learn their lessons once and for all and stop throwing money at Uwe Boll, but instead hire a proper director like Cronenberg to bring justice to their game's future film adaptations.