Poster Critiques - Athlete, Courier, The Expendables Banner, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps

I haven't done a poster critique in a while so let's do a whirlwind to make up for it. First up: Athlete, which I know nearly nothing about, but it comes out on DVD March 9. There are several different posters floating around but a couple of them are pretty striking but a bit vague about what the doc is actually about. My favorite is the version above and there's a couple of things I really love about it. The text is your usual inspirational stuff and written in a gritty handwritten way, but I like the fact that the socks are pulled up; it's not a stylish look and that's gives a sense that the film is less about posturing and machismo and more of the heart of what it means to be an athlete. I kinda hope that whoever this photo is of, that he or she is a character in the doc.

The next poster I'm looking at is Courier. Sure it's in development, but from the poster maybe they should just label it as "sucking." There's a lot of things wrong with this one upon closer inspection. A lot of the space feels either unused or useless; the numbers scrolling over the background map feels really cliched.

What's really bad is the copy; writers of Wanted is ok but who gives a shit about any of the Resident Evil movies, much less their director(s)? Adrien Brody is a lot of things but he's not an action guy, which is what the film is saying to me with the gun and the suit and the macguffin. It already feels miscast, maybe they leave his name out of it. He looks like he has a weak frame and those Diet Coke commercials ("HAY BRODY") tried to make him look cool but he just doesn't look cool. The tag line for the poster, "He Delivers", is just stupid. I think I've seen this movie before, it's called Transporter, Transporter 2, and Transporter 3. I'm sure this is a mock up but even at that it's pretty bad.

Next up is banner artwork for Expendables. I'm not totally into the poster with the back tattoo, just because it just kind of looks silly, trying too hard, etc. This though, is pretty awesome: Winged shiny skull? Fuck yeah. Blood text extension of 'Semper Fi' to 'Semper Fight'? Jizz. Weird combo of aforementioned Transporter actor, Sylvester Stallone (extraordinary director? Nope), and Jet Li. And he doesn't play an evil Asian dictator.

The last one for now, and what I think is the most interesting is Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, the sequel to the Academy Award winning (a weak year perhaps?) Wall Street. Oliver Stone still seems like a scary asshole who would be a horrible father but I like the two initial posters that have surfaced for this.

There are some differences between the two, namely the presentation of Michael Douglas's more powerful father figure type character in the first one and an aging mentor type in the second one. Alternately, you can say Shia LaBeouf's character is two shades of young upstart. If you look closely, the rendition of the posters is what makes it cool and very old school, almost 70s. Throw in the simple font and you have a throwback poster style. It gives the characters weight and a timeless quality, as if what they are about is something important and elite. I also like the accessories shown, LaBeouf's pocket handkerchief and Douglas's pocket watch chain in the first poster. I also like that in the second poster especially, LaBeouf's profile is in a light background and Douglas is in the dark. Of course the trailer is kind of meh but these posters do this business film justice. I'm not a huge fan of the subtitle, but it's not a huge deal.

A necessary sequel? Probably not; but an old school look is one of the best decisions.

NYC Horror Film Festival in Tribeca Nov. 18th - 22nd kicking off with surf pop sirens Witches in Bikinis

Image from Icons of Fright.

The friends at the NYC Horror Film Festival are gearing up for what looks to be another year of great genre fun from Nov. 18th to the 22nd, so buy your tickets! Not only that, it will be held at the posh Tribeca Cinema, nearby where you'll be able to take in a few drinks at Nancy Whiskey Pub and shoot free shuffleboard until your luck runs out and some sort of verbal assault starts up. If you see the director of programming Joe Mauceri (you'll know, he's probably got that "man about town" look) you should totally buy him a beer and bug him to feature Jason X next year as the headliner.

Before you run through the press release below though, a couple things of note. There will be 5 bands at the kickoff party on the 18th at BLVD, most notable to me are Brooklyn's Witches in Bikinis, of whom I've been fans of now for a while ever since I went to see them at a Stray From The Heart fundraiser a couple years back. They play a real fun, "Monster Mash" type mix of surf and 50s girl pop and look exactly as advertised. I'm sure there will be enough fanboys gushing over them and blushing blood red to match some of the themes of the evening. I totally own a glo-in-the-dark shirt from them. What, you don't? Lamesauce.

While I'm not as big of a horror buff as, say, Andrew Jupin of the Jacob Burns Film Center and all around bearded fellow, I do enjoy horror films on a basic level. I can enjoy them as a flick to just pop in if I'm not feeling anything in particular. That might sound weird considering a lot of horror is not easy to watch (could be really scary, could just really suck) but it sucks you in to something more odd, more fantastic, or more unnerving. Taking that conspiracy and horror in American film class at NYU did me wonders in terms of understand horror on a higher level and it's a fun, timeless genre that can be wonderfully subversive. That and I own a ton of newer horror material but am taking my time going through them.

Anywho, if you have a few bucks and are willing to surround yourself with nerdy genrespeak, possible bad haircuts, and creepy, bespectacled people such as myself, please check out their official site with some cool artwork and find something that fits your bleeds.

Here's all the info:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (November 06th, 2009, New York City) – The 2009 NYC Horror Film Festival kicks off on November 18th, 2009, with the opening night party at a new venue, BLVD, located at 199 Bowery, in New York City. Doors open at 7:30 pm, with the festivities to kick off at 8:00 pm. The opening night party serves as one of the few fundraisers for the festival and a $10.00 donation is suggested.

Shorts screened at the party in between the performances include “Barbee Butcher,” “Aaragh, a Monster,” “Carved,” “The Stings of Clarity,” “Burn the Whole Place Down,” “Black Suit Youth,” “Elder Sign,” “Mascacator,” “You Better Behave,” “Close Call,” and “X-Mess Detritus.”

BLVD (http://www.blvdnyc.com/), located at 199 Bowery, adjacent to the termination of Spring Street, BLVD features a world-class restaurant, café, nightclub, event space, live music venue and recording studio, all within one bi-level complex. Noted for its stunning high-tech computer controlled creative lighting and state-of-the-art sound installations that bring both warmth and excitement to the spaces inside, each area of the complex is crafted to support the best in dining, events and entertainment. The main area of BLVD provides a comfortable and spacious lounge and ultra-premium bar where guests can meet and mingle for a pre-dinner drink, or to spend an entire evening.

At just 23 years old Hayley Griffiths (http://www.hayleygriffiths.com/) is achieving global recognition and critical acclaim for her classically trained vocal abilities. Her “stunningly pure soprano voice” (Chicago Medhill review) earned her roles as the lead singer in both “Riverdance” and Michael Flatley’s “Lord of the Dance” world tours. Along with acting accomplishments in performances for both the RSC and the BBC, Hayley is ready to pursue her career as a recording artist for the Classical Crossover market. Currently recording her debut album in collaboration with Surefire Music Group, and working with producers who have written/produced for Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes, Ne-Yo, Brooke Hogan, Makio, Ryan Toby and many others, Hayley’s New Age sound infuses the purity and beauty of her classical background with the solid rhythm and striking arrangements of pop and R&B music. Expect high drama, powerful lyrics and a captivating sound from Hayley’s debut EP, due out Fall 2009.

Brewed in a cauldron deep in Brooklyn, Witches In Bikinis (http://www.witchesinbikinis.com/) combines beach party movie and low-budget horror flick themes into a unique rock ‘n roll experience. Composed of stunning female vocalists and a solid three piece band, the group’s sound is reminiscent of 60’s girl groups, Rocky Horror and B-52’s. Witches In Bikinis has been featured in the NYC Halloween Parade and Fangoria Sirius Radio.

The Tarantinos NYC (http://www.tarantinosnyc.com/) play music that is total twang and severe reverb – an instrumental smorgasborg flavored by the films of Quentin Tarantino.

M-16 (www.myspace.com/m16metal) is a Latin Hardcore band that has been redefining heavy music since its inception. In the late 90's three friends and musicians emigrated from the Dominican Republic to New York in search of a wider audience for their brand of metal. Scathing, pulsing, louder than hell, M-16's music is at times bombastic and scalding yet poetic in style and nature. Unapologetic lyrics sung entirely in Spanish, scream and whisper tales of mortal disillusion, political terror, and the chaos of modern times. A band that firmly believes in substance over style, M-16 is all the angst and frustration of real people channeled through guitars, drums and bass. Currently the band is composed of original member Daniel Estrella and guitarist Marcos Medina. Ex-member Ray Reed is dominating the live drums.

The New York City Horror Film Festival (http://www.nychorrorfilmfest.com/) was established in 2001 by Festival Director Michael J. Hein. The festival is dedicated to the international genre film community. There are no restrictions on the films that are screened at the festivals. The program includes films screened both in and out of competition. The Festival jury presents awards to films in the categories of Best Feature Film, Best Short Film, Best Cinematography, Best Special Effects, Best Actor/Actress, Best Screenplay for films showcased, and Audience Choice. The NYCHFF also presents an annual Lifetime Achievement award. Past recipients include director George A. Romero, Special Effects Artist and Director Tom Savini, Producer and Director Roger Corman, and Producer and Director Mick Garris.

Ridiculous Kicking of the Butts Trailers - Expendables, Bad Lieutenant with cra cra Nick Cage....The Tooth Fairy?

That's right, all of these trailers have so much in common: action stars, ridiculous lines, and this panache that can only be described as intangible, so whatever objections you have, you're totally wrong because you just can't touch it.

Expendables (with a release date of August 20, you know it'll be worth it):


Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (Herzog let's Nick Cage do his batshit stuff):


The Tooth Fairy (with that 'you can't handle the tooth' tagline, I'm totally hooked):

Not Doing Anything This Weekend? Free Hip Hop Docs (and happy hour drink prices) from The Kings County Cinema Society

This Sunday July 19th, the friends at the Kings County Cinema Society are blasting serious beats this weekend in Gowanus at the newish performance space Littlefield located on 622 Degraw Street. The double bill includes the Beastie Boys concert documentary at 6pm , Awesome: I Fuckin' Shot That! and at 8:30pm Rock The Bells, which chronicles the reunion of the Wu-Tang Clan for the Rock The Bells concert back in 2004. All Eastern times folks.

In between there will be BBQ for you foodies, as well as happy hour (aka recession era) drink prices, very cheap, very awesome, Gooooooowanus! And, to get you in the groove between, before, and after the par-tay, is DJ empanadamn. Yes that's a combo of two words if you want to think of it as such.


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The Kings County Cinema Society is doing Brooklyn right, check out their site and look for more events every week!

Resident Film Critic Chris Cabin - Top 10 Movies of the Year So Far

Our resident film critic Chris Cabin weighs in on his top 10 films of the year thus far (since we’re a little over half way, and because awards season seems like it never ends with all that patting on the backing and what not). Here it is, complete with trailers for each. Never heard of these films? Find out more at IMDb and get crackin'! The KCB is particularly interested in Hunger fo sho.

01. The Headless Woman: A work of concentrated discombobulation and exacting mood. A woman runs over something in the road, hits her head and for the rest of the film she doesn't know what's going on. Neither do we really, thanks to the young Argentinean master Lucretia Martel's lean, focused formalism but that's what makes it one of the best films of the year. It's a mystery film where the questions posed by the narrative are engulfed by the provocations made by the filmmaking.

02. Silent Light: Like Martel, Mexican troublemaker Carlos Reygadas holds nothing back on his third masterfully crafted film. An agrarian staging of Dreyer's Ordet? Or just a Mennonite ethnographic study with a script? Reygadas has been cast-off as pretentious but what else would you expect from a filmmaker bold enough to attempt greatness?

03. Hunger: The debut of the year by a country mile. British video artist Steve McQueen's highly photographic retelling of the last weeks of IRA martyr Bobby Sands is brilliantly fragmented, awake with inciting clamor and at war with the clarion beauty of its compositions. A step forward from Paul Greengrass' excellent Bloody Sunday, McQueen has located the fight rather than the folklore of the IRA.

04. Summer Hours: Long past prolific, Olivier Assayas' latest is arguably his most refined and clearly his most personal film to date. Globalization hits home when three siblings decide to sell the family house following the death of the family's matriarch. French to the bone, this surpassingly delicate tale finds Assayas cozy at home after years in techno-espionage and turning his camera into a fluidly expanding family tree.

05. The Hurt Locker: Kathryn Bigelow's monumental Iraq Occupation film has its roots in both action and war but it is devout to both in ways few directors could stomach. For a triptych of bomb-disposal specialists, headed by Jeremy Renner's devastating William James, war may be an addiction, an anesthetic to the complacency of real life or just something they're good at. Crafted in terms of time and clarity of motion rather than spectacle, this is Bigelow's most triumphant moment and, by a wide margin, the best film about the current mental state of our soldiers I've seen.

06. The Limits of Control: Bad-mouthed and labeled monotonous by nearly every critic around, Jim Jarmusch's latest film could be renamed Variations on a Scene. Space is a key factor in Jarmusch's entire oeuvre but here, the movement and position of actors and camera become the focus itself, accompanied by a sea storm of chrome ambience courtesy of Japanese psych-metal outfit Boris. Jarmusch has called his film Point Blank remade by Rivette but his disregard for the constraints of storytelling and devotion to the medium places him in ranks with the greats, if he wasn't there already.

07. Still Walking: The most delicate and lovely of Ozu tributes since Hou Hsiao-hsien's Café Lumiere. Two families converge on the house of their grandparents, played magnificently by Kirin Kiki and Yoshio Harada, for a 24-hour lunch and dinner and all manner of cultural and traditional tectonic plates begin to shift. Very few films have touched so fearlessly on the resentments of age and the ignorance of youth without pandering to either side. The immensely talented Hirokazu Koreeda, who we last saw directing a household of children in the superb Nobody Knows, may now be the most fascinating modern director working in Japan and Still Walking is his most refined film to date.

08. Tulpan: Buster Keaton moves to Kazakhstan? Not really but Sergei Dvortsevoy's astounding, original comedy certainly has invested itself in silence and the physicality of its actors. It's a simple story really: Boy meets girl, gets rejected by girl, falls for girl, gets rejected again and then helps deliver a newborn lamb. Ethnographic immersion played as minimalist romantic comedy, Dvortsevoy has made an exception first narrative feature coming from a life of documentary filmmaking. Life on the steppe becomes tradition's last stand while the titular tulip dreams of life at college, away from her alien birthplace.

09. Beeswax: Far from the portentous expectations of the Mumblecore movement, Bujalski now seems one of the strongest of American indie filmmakers, rightly in the same wheelhouse as Kelly Reichardt, So Yong Kim and other erstwhile Mumbler Aaron Katz. Set in suburban Texas, his latest is about early, sticky fumblings towards adulthood, typified by the social, romantic and economic hamstrings encountered by a pair of twins. Refined and more at ease with its habitats than his last two features, Bujalski's film still enjoys a good awkward moment but the scenes feel less fetishized. Neither softened nor unfocused, Bujalski is maturing while many of his compatriots are stuck in adolescence.

10. 35 Shots of Rum: Has Claire Denis given in and made something resembling a conventional narrative? You bet, but this is in no way a bad thing. In fact, it illuminates the director's most evocative gifts -- compositions of echoing desperation, her precise sense of movement and tone -- and places them in the context of artful melodrama. In this case, it's the story of a father and daughter living in the same rise as his ex-lover and her smoldering, wandering love interest. Feelings are hurt and hearts are broken but there's a harrowing mortality to Denis' world that belies the poetic lilt of the imagery. It is the director's most outwardly inviting film but it also may lay claim as her most transfixing.

10 Honorable Mentions:

Adventureland

Treeless Mountain

Tony Manero

In the Loop

Duplicity

The Beaches of Agnes

24 City

Taxidermia

Revanche

Cargo 200

All Ears All Eyes All The Time Fuels A Retrospective of James Bond - Dr. No

My friend at All Ears All Eyes All The Time blog is taking it upon himself to revisit all the James Bond films (we're still looking for odds and ends, but he's starting with the major ones for sure). Personally Quantum of Solace left a funny taste in my mouth, but I still thought it was a solid action flick.

The first two official Bond film reviews are up, starting with Dr. No:

"The recent release of several James Bond films onto high definition Blu-ray discs grabbed my curiosity a few months back and I decided to check out the titles that had been released to nerdily see if the new high definition transfers looked any better than the standard DVDs. As I started doing this, I realized that it had been a while since I watched a few of these Bond movies and in some cases even several years. I decided that I was going to embark on a gigantic undertaking: to re-watch every James Bond film in succession. I’ve been at it for a little over a month now and will be chiming in from time to time to update everyone on my progress and opinions of the films. Let’s begin where else, but the film that started it all..."

To read more on Dr. No, check out his review.

for From Russia With Love, which I think is the best Bond film (my personal favorite being For Your Eyes Only and the Dalton films, yeah so sue me), go here.

Getting Romantic on a Twosday: Notorious screening at Ortine

Needing of a nice dinner and a movie? Why not both at Ortine Cafe on the Prospect Heights/Crown Heights border of Washington Ave. tomorrow night July 7th!

The Kings County Cinema Society (no relation to the KCB other than friendship rings) is hosting a screening of Alfred Hitchcock's Notorious in Ortine's backyard. Get suspicious with your partner over dinner and the Cary Grant/Ingrid Bergman chemistry. Oh and they fight Nazis, something we can all get behind!
Photo from Fanpop.

Speaking of Nazis, you can still catch the outrageous flick Dead Snow at almost everyone's favorite uber-indie movie theater, Cinema Village.

Michael Jackson Dead at 50 - But You Can Relive the MJ magic this weekend at BAM Cinematek

Not doing anything this weekend? Initially I was just going to go to BAM's Cinematek party extravaganza/movie marathon, but since the sad news today of the white-gloved one's death, in honor I'm focusing on the fact that one of the movies during the marathon is The Wiz, which features Diana Ross and a young, wonderful MJ at his most nubile as the Scarecrow in a re-imagining of The Wizard of Oz. Scroll down for a link to the story. More people are probably going to catch it now. Here's the trailer:



I'm probably not going to do up the Marathon 4 because it's just depressing. However, a chance to catch Pineapple Express AND Friday back to back while partying at the cafe? Absolutely. I am kind of peeved that they chose Look Who's Talking Too, versus the first one which was pleasant. Bruce Willis doesn't always mean better people. But Top Gun is always good for a laugh. I'll be there for the Chyka birth anniversary! Although with the amount of noise, I'll want one of those hearing packs. All night party and movies included for 15 bucks.

"Join us for four movie marathons that are sure to satisfy the popcorn flick lover in everyone (don't worry, there's one screen for arthouse lovers, too!). And if you need help keeping your energy up between film screenings, we'll also be running an all-night dance party in BAMcafé. Tickets are $15 and include access to all screens and dance party.

Marathon 1: Diana Ross Coming Out

Music, glamour, and 70s schmaltz collide in this pair of films featuring superstar Diana Ross. This double feature will have you in rapture from the moment the words "gowns designed by Diana Ross" hit the screen.

The Wiz
12am
(1978) 134 min
Director: Sidney Lumet.
With Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Nipsey Russell, Richard Pryor.
We're definitely nowhere near Kansas in this urban re-telling of the classic tale.

Mahogany
2:30am
(1975) 109 min
Director: Berry Gordy.
With Diana Ross, Billy Dee Williams, Anthony Perkins.
Ross, in glamorous 70s couture, is paired with Williams—the paramour to her rising fashion model—while Perkins is the disturbed photographer who tries to split them up.

Marathon 2: Before They Were Scientologists

BAMcinemaFEST presents three of your favorite stars as you'd like to remember them...before the couch jumping, Jenny Craig commercials, and, er, Battlefield Earth.

Top Gun
11:15pm
(1986) 110 min
Director: Tony Scott.
With Tom Cruise, Kelly McGillis, Val Kilmer.
Tom Cruise stars as Lt. Pete "Maverick" Mitchell, a hot-shot young aviator with a "need for speed" in this VHS classic featuring a killer 80s soundtrack.

Look Who's Talking Too
1:30am
(1990) 81 min
Director: Amy Heckerling.
With John Travolta, Kirstie Alley, Bruce Willis, Roseanne Barr.
This sequel to Look Who's Talking finds toddler Mikey learning he's got to "fight for his right to potty."

Staying Alive
3am
(1983) 93 min
Director: Sylvester Stallone.
With John Travolta.
Travolta's crotch practically co-stars in this awesomely cheesy follow-up to Saturday Night Fever. Don't miss the climactic, psychedelic S&M-themed dance sequence.

Marathon 3: All Night Bong

Whether you're in the mood to see really good, funny movies, or feeling unusually relaxed, hungry, and/or paranoid, this screen is for you.

Smiley Face
11:15pm
(2007) 88 min
Director: Gregg Araki.
With Anna Faris, John Krasinski.
When Jane eats her roommate's pot-filled cupcakes, she stumbles through LA to find replacements. With subtle social commentary throughout, some of this is actually kind of deep, dude.

Pineapple Express
1am
(2008) 111 min
Director: David Gordon Green.
With Seth Rogen, James Franco.
Green revitalizes the classic pot plot in this 80s-action-flick-inspired comedy. "The Casablanca of pot comedies" (Cinematical).

Friday
3am
(1995) 91 min
Director: F. Gary Gray.
With Ice Cube, Chris Tucker.
Craig and Smokey share a joint and chillax in South Central when Smokey's dealer threatens to kill them if they don't pay their debt by the end of the night. Boyz in the Hood with bongs.

Marathon 4: BAMcinématek Favorites

Among the many films BAMcinématek has shown over the past ten years, these three hold a special place in our hearts.

In the Mood for Love
11:15pm
(2000) 98 min
Director: Wong Kar-wai.
With Tony Leung, Maggie Cheung.
Leung and Cheung star in this lushly photographed tale of unconsummated love.

Millennium Mambo
1:15am
(2001) 119 min
Director: Hou Hsiao-hsien.
With Shu Qi, Jack Kao.
A young girl drifts through endless parties and hookups in neon-soaked Taipei.

demonlover
3:15am
(2002) 115 min
Director: Olivier Assayas.
With Gina Gershon, Chloë Sevigny, Charles Berling.
A thriller about corporate greed, porn, and video games, set to a score by Sonic Youth."

For more on Michael Jackson's passing, go here.

For a full listing of BAM events, go here.

Resident Film Critic on: Fire & Brimstone - Sam Raimi's return to horror in Drag Me to Hell

In the same decade that asked the question "Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?" and birthed a top 20 hit that begged "Don't Phunk with My Heart", something very strange happened to the horror movie: It got cruel. Blood got darker, the separate organs that made up "guts" became more discernable and everything got louder. It was no longer appropriate to creep someone out or induce unthinkable perversity; you had to make them jump out of their seats by any means necessary. A viewer could no longer watch in terror as a killer slowly came up behind his victim; one had a cynical, methodical template of when said killer was to pounce, accompanied by an entire string section.

In his new film, Drag Me to Hell, the versatile Sam Raimi uses a similar template but something is different. First of all, there's very little blood and there are no guts whatsoever. There's plenty of saliva, vomit, bugs, rodents, worms, puss and mud but that's hardly cause for concern. He likes color, uses color and stages many of his set-pieces in the daylight. Films by contemporaries the likes of Eli Roth or Marcus Nispel would ascertain, quite literally, that one shouldn't trust women, foreigners, southern folk and most breeds of canine; they also seem to unfold in perpetual night. Mr. Raimi's blind distrust is far more precise and has been blatant fact since well before the director was born: Don't fuck with gypsies.

Such is the mistake made by loan officer Christine Brown (Alison Lohman) when she kindly dismisses and "shames" Mrs. Ganush (Lorna Raver, part hoot, entirely creepy), an elderly gypsy witch who is denied an extension for her mortgage. Ms. Brown, gunning for an assistant manager position under Mr. Jacks (David Paymer, playing scuzz like a pro), denies the extension in hopes of getting the edge over brown-nosed co-worker Stu (Reggie Lee) but ends up getting in one ugly cat fight with Ganush before the old lady lays the Curse of the Lamia on her.

What's the Lamia you ask? Oh, just a seven-foot goat-beast from the stomach-acid depths of Hell who commands a legion of doomed souls who, after three days of torture, embarrassment and personal desecration, drag you screaming and burning into the underworld to live in darkness and agony until the end of time.

Under a less adept hand, such things would be handled with gothic tiling and Exorcist-brand clichés but Mr. Raimi has mastered a lightness of tone that punctuates Drag Me to Hell with a vital, often vile humor and a sense of (grab your crosses!) fun. At 22, Raimi directed The Evil Dead, the lively cult classic that single-handedly made Bruce Campbell an icon and made Raimi the harbinger for the new paradigm of midnight movies. Since then, the Michigan-born Coen bros. collaborator has directed two sequels to Dead and become a genre-meister, trying his hand at everything from neo-westerns (The Quick and the Dead) and classy thrillers (A Simple Plan) to nostalgic weepies (For Love of the Game) and blockbusters (the Spider-Man franchise). Only Plan and, at moments, the latter series have seemed to harness his plentiful talents into a similar redefining of genre conventions and tone.

Drag Me to Hell is less a return to form than a loving reconsideration of where he's come from, where his strike-zone is. Over 15 years after the last Evil Dead film, he now casts a similar gaze on economics and the people behind it but the tone here is not satirical but true-to-form oversaturated lunacy. Helped by a fortune-teller (Dileep Rao) and her skeptical but devoted philosophy professor boyfriend (Justin Long), Ms. Brown's attempts at satiating the beast include decapitating a possessed billygoat, sacrificing her kitten and two separate instances of defiling a corpse.

That Raimi enlists the same brutal sound design that most modern horror/thrillers use ad-nauseum feels like a choice made out of necessity. One of a handful of solid major-studio-backed horror films to be released in the last decade, Drag Me to Hell's design is one made for humor and shocks rather than legitimate fright but Raimi never indulges in the crypto-tragic archetypes that have become industry-standard in the 28 years since The Evil Dead. The graphics have improved but Raimi's fantastical scares are still all the better for being loony and unpredictable where his compatriots have sought to make horror into a matter of life and death.

- Chris Cabin

KCB note: Drag Me To Hell opened with 16.6 million to take 3rd place this past weekend. Also, The KCB enjoyed this film thoroughly as well. That is all.

Coming Soon....Chris Cabin Weighs In On Movies

Cabin and I, plotting something at a Brooklyn girl's birthday party only to be foiled by several beverages at what was formerly New Gate Bar and turned into Society.


So yes, I've been putting up Chris Cab-tion contests (and believe me, they'll still run until I run out of funny pictures of Chris Cabin, there's a beaut coming) and being all over the poor guy, but soon we're going to have an extra hand to massage the KCB audience with. Chris, our very own resident film critic, will be giving us his thoughts on current and past movies including the small stuff playing in the New York market (we have to have some sort of foot there don't we) that will test your brain as well as your penchant for artistic value. Y'know, all that Lincoln Center, Cinema Village, Quad/IFC/Angelika fare that is home to some really great movies and some really crappy ones, but it's all indie. Of course, Cabin enjoys the mainstream as well, so you'll get his round up of those.

In the end, his opinions are his own and not necessarily of mine. Maybe I'll even chime in....

More Bar Spotlights and the u-ge to come people, it's almost summer weather!

Poster Critique: Pandorum

So I was on the wonderful horror site Bloody Disgusting, who revealed the one-sheet and teaser trailer (both below). The trailer starts out kinda nice but I'm not totally convinced, although I agree Ben Foster is the shit (think poor man's Ryan Gosling, from Freaks and Geeks to now, he's got an awesome vulnerability). Oh and Dennis Quaid? The poster is pretty sick though, it takes the minimalist approach of the Saw series (trendy, I know), and kinda vague. But the tubes through the mouth and eyes gives it a medical, experiment feel and that's pretty cool. The fact that he's upside down and all greasy and messed up with the softer outline of his head but the really harsh and dark purple tubing, it's just kind of a sick poster. You don't really know what's going on, and yet it's somewhat fascinating, like the tubes are running through this hollowed out man. Why is he hollowed out? Is something sapping his strength, is this movie about prey and predator? That's what it says to me.

PANDORUM - Teaser Trailer
by thatsfunny

Hollywood ASST: Memories are comin' back!

Now I had a great boss when I was an assistant at a mid-major, anyone will tell you that (Lori!!). The fact that we were in New York made things a bit different too, but there should totally be a New York version of this with an ad agency or something.

For anyone who's ever been an unglamorous assistant in a glamorous industry, here you go! There are some great LA references. Which is why New York needs a counterpart...


Hollywood ASST from Back of the Class on Vimeo.

Oh, and Vimeo's offices are right next to where I work. Niiiice.

Fah Q: Scarlett Johansson

You had a such a great start to a career! Indie darling with Manny & Lo, then following up a few years later with The Man Who Wasn't There, Ghost World, and Lost in Translation, working with top talent and garnering some nominations.

Umm, but we should have seen it coming when you were in Home Alone 3. We should have. Versatility, I can give you that (a different role much of the time, except when you're playing with Rebecca Hall), but range? We mistook your low key charm for some real chops, but please don't do comedies anymore...and don't sing anymore...I have your record on vinyl and it's more authentically unnecessary I guess.

Damn your huge boobs...

AMD's Fusion Widget: Get an Instant Upgrade Now!

Check out this new widget from AMD (also on the sidebar here at KCB) and get some free software in the Download section, it's a gaming utility that optimizes your AMD-laced computer so that all those clunky background processes are shut off during your gaming or multimedia-ing experience either at home or at work (shh....don't let the bosses know, like in this hilarious video). Basically it's a free upgrade for your computer. Gotta love AMD and their mindset/culture, not only are they the cool underdogs but they have powerful words like this - " Fusion. It’s the energy of innovation. It’s what’s fueled our past, and what will drive our people and partners in the future."


For more on the Fusion movement, go to fusion.amd.com