MUST WATCH: A brand new test footage of MORTAL KOMBAT!

IRON BABY

Check this out! - Splice

Official Web Site

Damn! I was about to use that title for my next movie...

First saw this on Aintitcool.com.

Upcoming movie: Appaloosa!

A Western starring Viggo Mortensen and Ed Harris and directed by Harris himself, and nobody told me about this?? And what in tarnation is an Appaloosa? (Apparently, it's a horse. Hidalgo all over again?) Hell and damnation I'm gonna get meself a ticket this coming October the 3rd, mark my words!

Disaster Movie - The Poster

Big price for figuring out who "?" is supposed to represent. Nah, just kidding. But it'll still be fun to do it, right?

More Sin City-style fun?

Frank Miller, the comic book auteur who created Sin City, 300 and the ultimate Batman story, The Dark Knight Returns, is adapting Will Eisner's comic series The Spirit, and will also be directing the movie. He said that he'll be using the same bluescreen techniques from Sin City and 300, but judging from the posters it looks like he might be using the same black-and-white aesthetics as well. The movie stars Gabriel Macht as The Spirit, and Samuel L. Jackson as his nemesis, The Octopus. Scarlett Johansson and Eva Mendes play The Spirit's love interests. Movie's due 16 January 2009. More info here.

An Empress and The Warriors: a flop?

So reports Hong Kong movie blogger The Golden Rock on Empress' Hong Kong box office result. Reason? It wasn't shown in Cantonese. That's it - I'm watching this one right away.

Star Trek 11: The Casting (so far)

Just a bit of backstory for those who're unaware: similar to the Christian Bale Batman movie, Paramount is rebooting the Star Trek franchise, with Alias and Lost creator J. J. Abrams as director (he last helmed Mission: Impossible 3). Below is a pictorial match-up of the prequel's cast with their original counterparts. Apart from Karl Urban as "Bones", the rest are more or less confirmed for their respective roles.

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 Discounts: This info may be outdated in a few years time, but most of the discounts available are credit card privileges.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.

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

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.

A Short review on Tenacious D: The Pick of Destiny

Yo Lam,

I managed to watch Tenacious D, the pitch of destiny.
As you know I am not a big fan of musicals, but I could safely say this is the musical I have enjoyed so far.
Really cool man, especially when they played my favourite piece from 'The WHO',when the 2 heroes were escaping from the rock and roll museum.
Some big names were in the movies, for example, Meatloaf, not to mention Kyle Gass and Jack Black.
It is a nice comedy that showcase some really cool guitar music, not to mention promotion of the use of grass.
In short, great musical and I do hope I could get to watch musicals as well.

SPOOVANS

Alien Vs Predator 2: Redemption?

Alien Vs Predator, the original comic book mini-series, was supposed to be a mindless commercial cash-in on two popular monster franchises, but turned out to be one of the best and most inspired of such endeavours. The terrible 2004 movie of the same name, though, has almost nothing in common with the comic book, except that the Predators are still using Earth as a training ground to battle Aliens. And, unlike Die Hard 4.0, they failed to pull off a PG-13 version (depends on whether you consider a US Number One Box Office Movie despite a universal critical mauling to be a success or failure.) The human characters were unmemorable, the story was lacklustre, the effects were shoddy, and the PG-13 rating guaranteed a diminished amount of thrill, excitement and blood.

With Alien Vs Predator: Requiem, the producers seem determine to set things right. Looking at its "red band" trailer (meaning a promo clip with mature content), AVP:R is definitely not going to be PG-13-rated, with its abundance of violent scenes involving humans being disposed off in various creative fashions. They've finally got at least half of it right, so let's hope they've also got a decent-enough story to go with all the gloriously gory action. Or why not just adapt the already-good storyline from the comic?

Click on the picture or the link below to see the trailer. Warning! Contains violent scenes, not for the young or squeamish!

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/avp2/trailers.php

Shiny!

Currently my most anticipated DVD is the Collector's Edition of Serenity, a great sci-fi movie based on a great sci-fi television series that I just can't seem to stop gushing about. Luckily, I didn't buy the first edition DVD that came out earlier with the godawful cover design (see below).

At least the theatrical poster wasn't too bad (see below).

Serenity Collector's Edition DVD is out on August 21.