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Reviews, previews and chuckling and snorting...

20/20 Filmsight - January 2007

Zombies on a Plane

January 31st 2007 23:01
Inspired by Snakes on a Plane? Perhaps... it seems like planes are dangerous territory these days: closed, confined, prone to venomous reptiles and, now, the flesh-hungry undead.

Plane Dead comes out in 2007, and is attracting a lot of curious viewers. Who are these zombies? Where did they come from? Do they fly first-class, and, if they don't eat theirs, can we eat their lobster tails?

Personally, I think it looks unwatchable... after the 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead, zombie movies have been whizzing past. They're all trying to catch onto the 'fast zombie' theory, which means that the zombies are just like people, but with those nasty contact lenses and blood makeup.

They're even remaking Day of the Dead, again, with fast zombies.

Yeah, fast zombies are more dangerous, but the animated corpse look of the old-school zombies are, I find, much more terrifying. Sure, you can run past them, or even swat their hands away, but the horror came from their sheer numbers, their relentless pursuit and their ultimate creepiness.

So, zombies on a plane, eh?

See the YouTube trailer here!

Plane Dead - official site

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Wedding Thriller

January 31st 2007 17:58
People enjoy weddings for the simple fact that you're celebrating the union of two people, the union of two families. The creation of a holy bond that lasts until they both die, unless they file for divorce.

I don't much like weddings, or any pre/post-wedding activities, but I'd be more likely to go if there were more zombies doing choreographed dance moves:



That's right... an entire wedding party recreating the Thriller dance. It probably happens more than you think.

Did they do a good job? I'd say it was pretty arrhythmic, but you have to appreciate the sheer intensity of the performance.

In case you forgot what the original looks like, here's the best 2 minutes of the best music video of all time:




(found on Fazed)

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Book cover of the Hobbit
It's all rumours, of course... but following the volcanic success of the Lord of the Rings, it's hard to believe that The Hobbit will not be made. Who could resist the sickly sweet smell of those sure profits?

LOTR fanboys, suckling at the nine teats of Peter Jackson, are definitely up in arms about Jackson being blacklisted by New Line Cinemas... his vision of Middle-Earth is, as many people have violently argued, as faithful to the original 'scriptures' as possible


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Gymkata!

January 30th 2007 22:48
Gymkata movie poster Gymnastics and Karate
"The skill of Gymnastics. The Kill of Karate."

That's the tagline for Gymkata, a near legendary cult classic from the 80s which used the popularity of martial arts movies combined with the hype of American gymnastics


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Calvin and Hobbes - Snowmen of Horrors
It seems that parents have to be vigilant in protecting their kids from all sorts of unseen menaces... lurking paedophiles, drugs, Dungeons and Dragons and Liberal Propaganda.

Hmm? Oh yeah, Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth was pulled from a Seattle class when angry parents decided it was too much propaganda to be force fed in the school system
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Watch Cibby's tribal dance

January 28th 2007 23:04
Ha!

I found this great link on Wonderland, a video gaming blog


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Star Wars dogfight reenacted by hands!

January 26th 2007 17:48
Lately, the internet has been coming up with a lot of Star Wars-related awesomeness. It's humbling to think of all the creative effort that has been inspired by one sci-fi opera.

You think you love Star Wars? You've only got a little obsession


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It's a ridiculous SNL skit from better days, but it's pretty funny to see Kevin Spacey nail an impersonation of Christopher Walken auditioning for Star Wars...


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Daughters of Darkness

January 23rd 2007 18:54
Daughters of Darkness DVD cover
Lent to me by Horrorphile Bryn, Daughters of Darkness is a great example of the short-lived fad in lesbian vampire movies in the 60s and 70s.

Personally, I ask, why did we stop making lesbian vampire movies? Aren't they the best kind


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Original 1977 Star Wars Trailer

January 23rd 2007 18:31
This is the original trailer for Star Wars from 1977, probably shown at make-out drive-in theatres.

Yech... who would want to watch this, after seeing the trailer? It looks like some B-movie pre-previews, pre-concession ads hype


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Pan's Labryinth: second viewing

January 22nd 2007 18:41
Doug Jones in Pan's Labyrinth Pale Man
I watched Pan's Labyrinth last week, a DVD lent to me by JohnDoe at JDMFilmReviews... it was, naturally, fantastic, and I felt it was visually detailed enough to watch again, on the big screen at the Verona Cinema.

On the big screen... well... the film really comes alive... I tried to avoid reading the subtitles and let the sound of the native Spanish flow over me just a hypnotic lullaby


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The Colbert Report on the Apple iPhone

January 21st 2007 21:50
Stephen Colbert Wag the Finger Animated GIF
This link was thrown out to me by the Postmodern Critic, the blogger who's 'bananas' about Postmodern Architecture.

It's a video of razor sharp Stephen Colbert, giving the Wag of the Finger to Apple, Inc for developing the iPhone
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Swedish Wildcats selling slave
It's almost the end of January, which means that it's almost the beginning of February, which means it's almost the middle of February, which means, finally, that it's almost time for the legendary Sydney Mardi Gras...

Though it'll mean hard to find parking in my neighborhood and noisy nights along Oxford street, one benefit is the Mardi Gras Film Festival, highlighting excellent queer-related movies from around the globe


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The 90s were hilariously bad

January 19th 2007 18:49
On 20/20 Filmsight, I often make fun of the 90s, probably more so than I make fun of the 80s.

After all, the 80s had 80s morning cartoons and a whole universe of gender-specific toys. Plus the whole Star Wars thing, breakfast cereals and action movies starring Stallone and/or Schwartzenegger
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Vanilla Ice on SNL

January 18th 2007 18:08
Vanilla Ice wearing a ridiculous American Flag leather jacket
Ah, looking back, it's easy to see our folly. Or our cultural slips in trends and fashion. In the 90s, it was 'hip' to look down on the 80s, with the big hair and glam rock.

Now, of course, the 80s are huge, and we can finally look at the 90s with disgust


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The Hardest Novels To Film

January 17th 2007 23:35
Perfume Patrick Suskind movie image
Screenhead.com has an interesting article about novels that are particularly difficult to film, and who should take on the monumental task to bringing them to the screen.

This is inspired, of course, by the recent release of Pefume: The Story of a Murderer, the adaptation of Patrick Suskind's legendary novel
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Personally, I find American network news so unbearably boring to watch, with hundreds of shows just focusing on the minutia that escapes from George W. Bush's lips. When they're not commenting on American foreign policy, they've cooked up some fear story keep people on the edge of their seats.

It's always with delicious pleasure that I watch the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. It's not news per se, but, in the style of Hunter S. Thompson, there's no objective viewpoint, so you might as well just take it all as delirium


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Ghostbusters Video Game in the Works?

January 15th 2007 22:57
Gamers are getting hot and toasty about some videos making their way on the net... from a company called Zootfly, located in Europe, comes demo clips of a potential Ghostbusters video game.

80s fans around the world bow their heads in silence


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Wired's Sundance 2007 Film Picks

January 14th 2007 22:32
Fido zombie servants
Sure, we'd all like to be at the Sundance Film Festival, rubbing elbows with big Robbie Redford, riding horses into the setting sun of the red-dusted Utah desert.

It's dry. You drink from your canteen. You spit on a lizard and kill it. These are cowboy times, boy


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Pan's Labyrinth

January 14th 2007 01:29
Pan's Labyrinth the Faun Doug Jones
Passed along to me by JohnDoe from JDM Film Reviews, I watched Pan's Labyrinth last night and found myself drawn into a sick, twisted world of childhood fantasies. This is the latest film from Mexican director Guillermo del Toro, and has been nearly universally applauded as a fine example of Latin magical realism brought to the screen.

There's definitely an underlying foundation in Latin American literature - the history of South and Central America has been battered by so much war and conflict that the writers have often dreamed of magical worlds that allow them to escape. Watching Pan's Labyrinth, the connections to Marquez's 100 Years of Solitude and Borges' Labyrinth are obvious


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Canadian Bacon

January 11th 2007 23:48
Canadian Bacon movie poster
John Candy's last completed film, and the only non-documentary made my Michael Moore, Canadian Bacon is a hilarious satire of US-Canada relations, and has a certain dire edge in face of the current American incarnation.

It's technically an American film, but Canadians have claimed it for our own... after all, Michael Moore is from a place that's just over the water, and there's enough beer and hockey jokes to make us Canucks feel comfortable. Yeah, we'll call it a Canadian film


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iPhone Video

January 10th 2007 21:54
iPhone displayed at MacWorld
The Internet is gyrating from the hordes of tech-heads getting spun up about Apple's new iPhone, an all-in-one MP3 player, phone and internet connection.

Engadget had the opening scoop as Apple CEO Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone to cheers and adulation


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Japanese Bikini Rodeo Pie Fighting

January 10th 2007 18:48
Japanese Bikini Rodeo Pie Fighting
With a title like that, it'd be negligent to NOT post this video.

We're all familiar with the Japanese obsession with weird game shows. And some of us are even more familiar with the amount of titillation available on Japanese cable TV


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Sister Rosetta Tharpe

January 9th 2007 18:42
One of the original rock & gospel singers from the 30s, Sister Rosetta Tharpe gave the world church music that was raw and electrified.

She was Johnny Cash's favourite artist and crossed a line from church to nightclubs. I love watching these old videos of live acts that must've been astounding to see in their original form


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10 Fantastic Opening Credit Sequences

January 8th 2007 18:44
From Laboratory 101, a list of 10 Kickass Opening Credit Sequence, though the list is decidedly Hollywood-centric, there's still some great openings.

1) For example, who doesn't love the beginning to Snatch? Finely edited shots accompanied by stirring music. You don't know who these rascals and scoundrels are, but you know it's going to be a gritty, rough movie from Guy Ritchie


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Beerfest

January 7th 2007 22:22
Beerfest drinking beer with Germans
A while back, I previewed the newest Broken Lizard comedy movie, Beerfest, and I was looking forward to seeing it. After all, these guys did Super Troopers, and even if Club Dread was a little dull, it still had some laughs.

Beerfest promised more: two American brothers find an underground beer-drinking festival and organize an American team to compete. With this much beer, we were assured that there'd be gratuitous nudity


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The End of Your Productivity

January 5th 2007 18:17
A friend sent me the link to this page, and I'm still reeling from the Internet goodiness of it all. It's killing me, it's actually killing me.

I had all this great stuff planned to do today, and in one fell swoop, BAM! it's all gone


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