At the Cinema
 

I know we have a thread for movie musings, but this could be a nice place for trailers, limited and new releases, classic film showings, special appearances, etc.

Here is one to start. It's a bit odd

The Human Centipede

You may want to add "nightmare inducing". Hilarious, but holy crap, I kind of wish I hadn't seen that...

I thought about that later. Yeh, I should have mentioned that.

Wow. At first it seemed a little cheesy so I thought it was a joke. Then it got darker and I still couldn't believe it was real. Then I went to the IFC site and it turns out it's definitely coming out on April 30. I am... surprised?

Gross.

A zombie-western! Survival of the Dead (NSFW)

The Human Centipede looks revolting and silly, traits that were once catnip for me. I guess I'm mostly put off by the tone- too much metallic clanging on the soundtrack and a torture porn aesthetic. Makes me nostalgic for the days when such a concept would be treated with tongue in cheek humor, over the top visuals or a camp sensibility. (yes, it occurs to me that my choice of the phrase "tongue in cheek" was really unfortunate in this case.) I feel like I've seen enough would-be disturbing body mutilation horror in the Miike/Roth style to last me the rest of this lifetime, but I've got plenty of room left for more Cronenberg or Stuart Gordon. Heck, I want to see The Human Centipede as a musical by John Waters or a low budget fever dream by Stephen Sayadian. (thanks again for that one, mr. Pod!)

San Francisco
 

The San Francisco Symphony will accompany Charlie Chaplin's The Gold Rush with the comedian's original score at 2 p.m. Thursday, April 15; 8 p.m. Friday, April 16; and at 2 p.m. Saturday, April 17 at Davies Symphony Hall, 201 Van Ness Ave., San Francisco. (415) 864-6000. www.sfsymphony.org .

For more info, click here

What a great way to celebrate his birthday! I wish I could go.

I wish I could have been there, too. I wonder if the conductor led the orchestra through a version of "Happy Birthday To You"?

One of my favorite trailers of all time ... From 1979, Real Life, by Albert Brooks in 3-D!

Michael Caine as Paul Kersey as Erica Bain as Harry Brown

Los Angeles
 

Sunday night at Grauman's Chinese Theatre as part of the TCM Classic Film Festival (with a full run scheduled at Laemmle's Royal starting May 14), a 2-hour, 27-minute version of Lang's film will get its North American debut after a rapturous world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival.

This "Metropolis," which will be accompanied by a live performance by the always compelling Alloy Orchestra, is 25 minutes longer than any version seen in more than 80 years. Because Lang's picture is an icon of the silent era and the foundation stone of science-fiction cinema, this news has electrified fans and scholars of early film. Finding this new material was, as Glenn Erickson of the Web column DVD Savant put it, "akin to recovering lost books of The Bible." Experts were so certain it was lost that a restored version of "Metropolis" completed in 2002 was declared definitive.

(Pic related -- it's approx. the time you should arrive at the theater)



To read the whole story (and nothing but the whole story) click here

Ohmygodohmygodohmygod!! Must See!

I'd see that

I am seeing it, it's screening at the SF Silent Film Fest in July. :)

Alloy Orchestra will be playing it, too.

Clarification: Must See when it comes out on DVD!

I gather no one watched the streaming debut a couple months ago?

Nope, it was during the workday and I could not stream on the office PC.

I didn't know anything about it.

Backstage

What a great picture. Looking at it, I realize I didn't think they had hair dryers back in 1927. for some reason, I think of it as a forties or fifties thing, but there you go.

Hottest robot ever.

Official Toy Story 3 poster

Dead Hooker In A Trunk - trailer 2 (NSFW - or the squeamish)

This movie ROCKS!!

I tried to watch the streaming Metropolis, but ran out of patience. I would be able to deal with it on a big screen with a live orchestra!!!


.....buuuut, I'm also gonna just wait for it to be on DVD. In fact, I was going to attend a handful of the TCM Festival films. Some good ones were playing in the Chinese, and it's always fun to see a great classic in that most classic of venues. And "Cleopatra" at The Egyptian was almost too funny to pass up.

In the end though, I couldn't see shelling out $$ to see movies I could just pop in the DVD of.


Boring. Le sigh.

This is cool. Roger Ebert has posted the entire screenplay he wrote for Russ Meyer for a never-to-be film starring the Sex Pistols, Who Killed Bambi?. I haven't had time to read it yet, but it should be fun to picture in my head.

So very cool. I look forward to reading it.

Awesome - and of course Julien Temple picked up the work which ultimately became the Great Rock n Roll Swinlde. At the Filmex screening Julien told the story of who really killed Bambi (i.e. the dead deer in the cover art)

They just f'd with the wrong Mexican
 

Red-band trailer for MACHETE with a special message to Arizona (NSFW)

The above trailer for Machete makes the news ...

But before the trailer even begins, the battle-scarred title character stares out from the screen as he tells viewers that what's about to unfold — an immigration-laced slasher grindhouse flick — is about the current border battle in Arizona.

In the trailer for the film, the title character is hired to assassinate an anti-immigration U.S. senator played by Robert De Niro. Protesters are seen waving nationalist signs as the senator speaks to a charged-up rally: "We are at war," he booms. "Every time an illegal dances across our border, it is an act of aggression against this sovereign state — an overt act of terrorism."

The trailer was released Wednesday, just 24 hours after an envelope filled with a still-undetermined white powder was sent to Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, temporarily closing the State Capitol in Phoenix. The powder spilled out when a staffer opened it Tuesday morning, sending Hazmat teams scrambling through the governor's offices ...

... Some outspoken critics of illegal immigration took umbrage at the movie trailer and its swipe at Arizona, which is the entry point for one-third of all illegal immigrants in the U.S.
"It's pretty ugly out there," said former Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo, a staunch advocate of tougher immigration laws. "Half the time that's the way all of us are depicted: corrupt, no good, racist."

...Tancredo, who argued that the film should not be distributed at all, said he wasn't worried the movie would incite any violence, but that its political message was clear.
"I think it is a true reflection of exactly who these people are and what they think about America," he said.

To read the whole story, click here


(Pic related ... it's Machete)

Okay, Danny Trejo? I'm already there.

Yep, it's on my list now. Thanks, Arizona.

Tarantino Trunk Shots
 

That's rad. I think we (meaning you) should find a slew of filmmaker's obvious penchants, via repetitive shots in their ouvre of work.

Cool behind the scene shot from the Green Lantern movie set.

http://www.comicsbeat.com/2010/05/11...ntern-villain/

'Beat' Takeshi is back
 

Outrage!

From the good people at Dickhouse Films, The Wild & Wonderful Whites of West Virginia

My best friend from eighth grade directed this movie.

Charlie Chaplin Retrospective at the Aero Theatre in June 17-26

(Pic related -- it's Charlie Chaplin)

I'm not really familiar with the Green Hornet other than knowing Bruce Lee was Kato on TV.

Has it always been that the Green Hornet is a doofus and Kato is the real brains of things or has the movie made something of a farce of it?

Farce. It started as a radio show in the 1930's, so as you can imagine it was more serious.

I'm a Seth Rogen fan and I don't care about the Green Hornet property, but this trailer just made me kind of sad that they took the character down so many notches. No interest here...

I'm with CP on this one.

If you need a Green Hornet overload, there's a DVD out (probably a bootleg) with every episode of the Green Hornet TV series, the complete original theatrical serial, and both '70s movies (plus extras).

Green Hornet Ultimate Collection

We started watching it a couple of weeks ago. It'll take months to get through the set.

I kinda felt the same way ... till I found out that Christoph Waltz will be playing the bad guy.


Interest re-peeked.

Prodigal Sons - music by Orson Welles (apparently)

Valhalla Rising

(Pic related - It's your reaction to the Valhalla trailer)

The Social Network, aka the Facebook movie, directed by David Fincher (Fight Club, Se7en, The Game, etc). The not-really-ironic part: They have a prominent link on their site to recommend it to your Facebook friends.

New pictures from the upcoming Green Lantern film.

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2010/07/...green-lantern/

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2010/07/...eep-on-coming/

As usual, the costume looks terrible.

At the Egyptian Sept. 4-6:

Cinecon 2010 unveils exciting programming: a lost Chaplin film, Lloyd and other silent-era rarities


(Pic related)

The Agony and Ecstasy of Phil Spector at the Egyptian on Hollywood for one week.

"Phil Spector’s openness and ability to discuss some of his greatest collaborations (The Ronettes, John Lennon, The Beatles, The Righteous Brothers, and The Crystals) stem from the mindset of facing a possible conviction and sentencing. He is unafraid to malign, among others, Tony Bennett (the person he regards most as overrated it would seem), Paul McCartney (when discussing how Spector felt about McCartney re-releasing the Let It Be album without Phil Spector’s production and arrangements, he said, “He has me mixed up with somebody who gives a ****”), and Yoko Ono (on producing her music, he asserts, “I had to pass on that”)."

To read more, click here

I saw the movie last night and enjoyed it. The film itself is poorly made and sort of a mess, but the interview itself is so great that it more than makes up for the rest of the film. The director relies heavily on Lennon songs, and plays most his choices in their entirety, which is great, but sometimes he'll play the same song twice -- back to back! Why? I don't know. To fill up space?

The director, Vikram Jayanti, was there last night (and may be again, you'll have to check the schedule) but he did not have much to add, and what he did say did not help his case that he was the right man for the job. He even admitted that he did NO research before interviewing Spector, which reveals a level of ignorance that is maddening.

Worse, he told a story about how he was supposed to have five days of filming with Spector (but only got one due to scheduling conflicts) and how he planned on using the other four to make a parody of "Mean Streets" with Spector in the role of Keitel. The film explains his asinine reasoning for trying to make the parody, but when you consider that this film represents the only time the man has ever been interviewed, you can only shake you head and think, 'what an idiot.'

But, like I said, this is the only time Spector has talked about his music and that makes this film a real find for music lovers.

Tref sez, check it out.

(Pic related -- it's Phillip Spector)

I will be at Cinecon. The Chaplin rarity is screening on Saturday in the afternoon. Cinecon is not able to sell single tickets for the films (long story mostly having to do with clearences from suppliers) but they will sell day passes. I believe the day passes will be available at the Egyptian and if not, at the Renaissance Hotel at the Admission tables. More info is at their website