What do you get when you take two of the greatest writer/directors in the world and let them do whatever the hell they want? You get the movie Grindhouse. Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill) and Robert Rodriguez (Sin City, From Dusk Til Dawn, The El Miriachi Trilogy) join forces once more to take you through a tour de force of the classic Grindhouse exploitation movies of the Seventies. The film features two full length movies back to back that include evrerything you would find in an old seventies exploitation flick. Noise pops, scratches on the film even missing reels and skips.
Things start out with a ‘fake’ trailer for the movie Machete. Danny Trejo stars as the mad Mexican killer Machete and in joined by his priest/brother Cheech Marrin (Cheech and Chong). After the two minute trailer the first movie, Robert Rodriguez’s Planet Terror begins.
Set in Texas Planet Terror is an over the top gorefest that slaps you in the face with it’s rediculous plot and stereotyping of women as sluts and lesbians…Except for Cherry Darling (Rose McGowan). She’s got a chip on her shoulder and doesn’t like much of anyone. Our Heroine set we meet the rest of the cast. Freddy Rodriguez as El Wray, Micheal Biehn as the Sheriff and Jeff Fahey as his brother J.T.
The story really cranks when Naveen Andrews (TV’s LOST) and Bruce Willis (Do I even need to mention what HE’s been in?) Show the audiance that there’s a mysterious gas that turns people into flesh eating zombies. Without giving too much of the plot away things go sideways and the gas is released. Mayhem ensuses (Including Fergie getting eaten by Zombies). Things spin quickly out of control and people are attacked left and right as the gas spreads. It all comes down to El Wray and Cherrie Darling to save the day and yes this does include Cherry sporting a new leg that happens to be a machine gun. It sounds corny as hell but while you watch it everything just seems to make sense.
With roles from actors of past and present by the likes of Tom Savini (Dawn of the Dead, Land of the Dead), Josh Brolin and Marlie Shelton Planet Terror was an in your face visceral blow shit up fest that keeps you bouncing back and forth from lauging to going COOOOOL!
Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 15, 2007 in Animation
If you’re an anime fanboy like me you’ll want to set your DVR to catch Hayao Miyazaki’s Oscar winning film Spirited Away on June 3rd at 9:45 p.m. ET playing on Turner Classic Movies.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 14, 2007 in Animation
I guess to me Corinne Orr wil always be the true voice of Trixie! That said Christina Ricci has done some nice work, but I hope they cast Trixie more in a cute light than make her too sexy:
“Christina Ricci is joining Larry and Andy Wachowski’s live-action adaptation of the 1960s cartoon “Speed Racer” for Warner Bros. Pictures and producer Joel Silver. Emile Hirsch, Susan Sarandon and John Goodman already have boarded the high-octane project, which is based on the anime series created by Tatsuo Yoshida for Japanese audiences and later imported to the U.S.
“Speed” centers on a young race car driver, Speed (Hirsch), and his quest for glory in his thundering, gadget-laden vehicle Mach 5. Ricci will star as Speed’s girlfriend Trixie, his formidable ally on and off the track. The show revolved around Speed’s family. In the big-screen adaptation, Goodman will play Pops, a race car owner and builder. Sarandon is on board as Pops’ wife, the backbone of the family as well as the Mach 5 Go Racing Team. The Wachowskis, who are writing and directing, are eyeing a summer shoot in Berlin with a summer 2008 release.”
…you know it would show some class if the brothers Wachowski gave bit parts to Corinne Orr and Peter Fernandez. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that they keep the fanboys like myself happy.
Update: Here’s a video interview with Christina talking about playing Trixie:
Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 13, 2007 in Animation
I admit it, I’m a huge fan when it comes to Star Blazers also known as Space Cruiser Yamato for your hardcore anime fanboys. Tonight I was very surprised while channel surfing to see that Nova on PBS did an amazing special on the final voyage of World War II battleship Yamato. The special showed some footage of the ruins of the Yamato underwater, along with some nice computer animation and some very touching interviews with actual survivors. The website for the show is well worth checking out:
“The final phase of the Pacific war during World War II saw a terrible new tactic: massed kamikaze attacks on American ships by Japanese planes. But the biggest kamikaze attack of all was the suicidal mission of the super battleship Yamato, the largest, most advanced warship of the day. In this program, NOVA joins an international team exploring the grave of this magnificent vessel to learn the secrets of her design, her final mission, and the violent events that brought her down.
Yamato lies on the floor of the East China Sea, 200 miles north of Okinawa, blown apart by one of the most massive explosions ever to occur at sea. Altogether, more than 2,700 men went down with the ship or drowned after it sank, making the loss of the Yamato one of the greatest naval disasters of all time. Despite the destruction, the majesty of the ship is unmistakable, symbolized by a six-foot-wide chrysanthemum crest, icon of the Japanese imperial family, still gracing Yamato’s prow like a figurehead.”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 13, 2007 in Television
Setting to prove that there is no intelligent life in the universe (or no new ideas) the Sci Fi channel will be doing it’s take on Flash Gordon. Now let me be clear on something, Flash Gordon has has always been a silly pulp concept. However the orginal film serials from the 1930s starring Buster Crabbe are beloved classics in their own campy way.
The last time someone tried to update the series was with the 1980 film which was produced by Dino De Laurentiis. I was never a big fan of this film, but in many ways it was sort of so bad it was good! The acting was slightly worse than a porno movie, but the costumes and theme song by Queen made up for it.
But now I’ve just read that the Scoi Fi channel filled with their Galactica gusto is set to ruin Flash Gordon:
“Smallville alum Eric Johnson has landed the title role in Sci Fi Channel’s upcoming series “Flash Gordon.” The 22-hour series, a contemporary take on the popular comic strip franchise, is slated for an August premiere. It will feature Johnson as space traveler Flash Gordon embarking on all-new adventures.
Peter Hume penned the first two episodes, which will be directed by Rick Rosenthal (“Smallville”). Production is to begin May 1 in Vancouver. “Flash” is being produced by Reunion Pictures under an agreement with property owner King Features Syndicate. RHI Entertainment is distributing the series internationally. RHI’s Robert Halmi Sr. and Robert Halmi Jr., who recently worked with Sci Fi on the miniseries “Legend of Earthsea,” are executive producing, with Hume also expected to exec produce. Casting is under way for the other roles, including Flash Gordon’s fellow space travelers Dale Arden and Dr. Hans Zarkov.”
…well to bring you campers back to the good old days of the early 80s here’s a neat poster I found that’s from the Japanese release of the Dino De Laurentiis film:
Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 12, 2007 in Pulp Fiction
I owned that paperback copy of “Sirens of Titan” above, what was great about Kurt Vonnegut was that he played a role in making science fiction respectable:
“Kurt Vonnegut, whose dark comic talent and urgent moral vision in novels like “Slaughterhouse-Five,” “Cat’s Cradle” and “God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater” caught the temper of his times and the imagination of a generation, died last night in Manhattan. He was 84 and had homes in Manhattan and in Sagaponack on Long Island.
Mr. Vonnegut wrote plays, essays and short fiction. But it was his novels that became classics of the American counterculture, making him a literary idol, particularly to students in the 1960s and ’70s. Dog-eared paperback copies of his books could be found in the back pockets of blue jeans and in dorm rooms on campuses throughout the United States.
His novels — 14 in all — were alternate universes, filled with topsy-turvy images and populated by races of his own creation, like the Tralfamadorians and the Mercurian Harmoniums. He invented phenomena like chrono-synclastic infundibula (places in the universe where all truths fit neatly together) as well as religions, like the Church of God the Utterly Indifferent and Bokononism (based on the books of a black British Episcopalian from Tobago “filled with bittersweet lies,” a narrator says).”
“Water has been detected in the atmosphere of an alien world for the first time, a new analysis of Hubble Space Telescope data suggests. Water was widely believed to exist on the planet, but previous observations with other telescopes had failed to find it.
The planet, called HD 209458b, is about 70% as massive as Jupiter and is scorched by the heat of its parent star, which it orbits 9 times as close as Mercury does to the Sun.
Because it is one of a small number of extrasolar planets observed to pass directly in front of and behind their parent stars as seen from Earth, astronomers have been able to glean a lot of information – such as its size and mass – about the distant world.”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 11, 2007 in Comic Books
I recently came across a series of well done DC Comic covers for Rush City (the cover of issue #6 is above) which were simply credited “Cover by Jock”. It took me a bit of creative googling, but it turns out Jock is the pseudonym of British comics artist Mark Simpson, known for his work with Andy Diggle on the science fiction comic book 2000 AD and on The Losers. His website is well worth a visit:
“She’s watched the movie hundreds of times, seen the West End show and even has a lunchbox featuring the magical flying car. Now, thanks to her husband and four years of oil, sweat and tears, Carolyn Pointing has her own full-size Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. The 42-year-old police constable, who fell in love with the film as a three-year-old, said: “It’s a dream come true.”
Husband Nick, 41, a manager for Marks & Spencer, spent every spare minute building his creation using the chassis of an old Land Rover. Now the couple, from Sandown, Isle of Wight, plan to take a 12-month career break and tour the world with the car raising money for charity.”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 9, 2007 in Comic Books
The comic strip B.C. has been running in newspapers since 1958, and the man behind that was Johnny Heart, who has sadly just passed away. I grew up reading B.C. in the Sunday funnies and was always touched by it’s gentle and philosophical humor.
Heart became a born again Christian in 1977, but while his strips sometimes featured religious themes I would never say that they were heavy handed. In fact looking back at many of those strips I’ve always thought that they were poking fun at religion, or perhaps our human take on the subject.
Heart got his start in Stars and Stripes while he was serving in Korea, and then went on to do work for magazines like the Saturday Evening Post when he retured from the war in 1953. It’s also important to note that he co-created The Wizard of Id with Brant Parker in 1964. And being a true cartoonist’s cartoonist he died at his storyboard this past weekend.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 9, 2007 in Comic Books
The animation fanboy in me has always respected Winsor McCay (September 26, 1867 – July 26, 1934) for his ground breaking work on Gertie the Dinosaur back in 1914, however his work on the newspaper comic strip Little Nemo in Slumberland is a cornerstone to the world of comic books. What shocks me when I look at his work is that even though he was a pioneer, his comics looks very sophisticated in terms of draftsmanship and sorytelling. Years before the fine art world began to explore themes like surrealism and dadism, McCay’s strips show an ordinary world turned upside down.
So with the above in mind I was pretty happy to read that the Checker Book Publishing Group will be publishing a series of books showing all of McCay’s comics. I have a few examples of his work in a few books on the history of cartoons, but having a full collection of his work will be on the Christmas list this year for many a fanboy like myself. Here’s the full press release:
Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 8, 2007 in Animation
Easter always makes me think of the classic 1947 Bugs Bunny cartoon Easter Yeggs. What’s amazing to me is how well the humor holds up today, almost sixty years later (well as of June). By the way it’s interesting to note that the catch phrase of the Easter Rabbit “Keep Smiling!”, is a takeoff of a character actually created by Mel Blanc for George Burns and Gracie Allen’s radio show during the 1940s; Mel’s character was called “The Happy Postman”.
If you want to check out this classic it’s on the web at the Looney Tunes website (gee sometimes big media gets it!).
“Even as British librarians realize that the average child is more interested in Japanese comics featuring androgynous teenage boys ponderously making out with one another than the doily and crumpet adventures of Jane Austen’s Emma, British Publishers Hodder and Stoughton are looking to manga to revive flagging Bible sales. The result? The Manga Bible!
Only two issues have been released so far, but Hodder and Stoughton aren’t playing around. This is the Bible, rawer and more extreme than we’ve ever seen it before! To emphasize the rawness and extremity of Jesus’ ass-kicking adventures through Ancient Jerusalem, the first two volumes of The Manga Bible have the subtitles NT Extreme! and NT Raw!”
If you’re a true fanboy at heart you’ll have to see Grindhouse in a movie theater. Yes I know that the DVD will have all of those extra scenes and the director’s comments giving you every reference that will make you want to search IMDB high-and-low. But in a movie theater you’ll get that one special thing you won’t get at home: audience participation!
Half the fun of watching this film was hearing everyone next to me applauding, cheering, laughing, gasping, or saying “ewwwwww….” in unison. The charm of both films is that they don’t take themselves too seriously, and you even get the sense that the actors up on the screen are having as much fun playing their parts as you are watching them. To me the critical test was at the end of three hours I found myself wanting to see several more hours of the film. In fact if there was premium cable channel that showed nothing but Grindhouse 24/7 I dare say that I might never leave my apartment.
The other half of watching this fim for any fanboy will be looking at the wondeful detail that’s up on the screen. Every other scene seems to have a reference to some old slasher film or features a character actor that you haven’t seen in a few years. By the way while both films owe quite a bit to horror films of the 60s and 70s, there are references to quite a few other things to be found, for example the soundtrack had a bad 80s low budget synth feeling to it. And of course you have that non-stop Rodriguez action and quite a bit of clever Tarantino dialogue to wash down your Pepsi and popcorn with as you watch the film.
I’d rate the film as “a must see, and bring a few friends while you’re at it”…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 7, 2007 in Star Wars
The 30th anniversary of Star Wars will leave no merchandising opportunity unturned, and the exclusive Space Slug Enviorama (seen above) is an example of this in action. I mean I love Star Wars as much as the next fanboy, but in all my many years of hanging out at conentions I never heard one person blurt out “Ya know, I wish Lucas would put out a Space Slug model!” The other odd thing is that slug looks oddly, well somewhat, err, I’ll say it: somewhat phallic looking:
“It looks like Hello Kitty’s rampage through the gadget world isn’t showing any signs of letting up, with an otherwise unremarkable iPod car charger / FM transmitter the latest device to get its irresistible stamp of approval. Compatible with 3G, 4G, 5G, Photo, Mini, and nano varieties of iPods, the device will plug into your car’s cigarette lighter and pump tunes straight to your car’s radio at the same time, promising a minimum amount of distortion in the process. We have to say we’re a bit skeptical of the stated 3 mile operating range, however — that seems a stretch even with the mighty Hello Kitty behind it.”
A clip from the 1965 episode ‘The Chase’ where the Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Vicki watch the Beatles play ‘Ticket to Ride’ on the Time/Space Visualiser:
…by the way the Beatles were suppose to be on the episode as themselves wearing “aging” makeup representing themselves in the future, however sadly this never came to be due to a schedule conflict.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 5, 2007 in Comic Books
Conan the Barbarian (also known as Conan the Cimmerian, from the name of his homeland, Cimmeria) is a fictional character often associated with sword & sorcery genre. He is perhaps the most famous fictional barbarian, and indeed one of the best known and most universally recognizable iconic figures in modern popular culture.
Created by Robert E. Howard in 1932 via a series of fantasy pulp stories sold to Weird Tales magazine, Conan has since appeared in books, comics, films, television and video games, contributing to popularity.
Conan the Barbarian is also the name of a Gnome Press collection of stories published in 1954, a comic published by Marvel Comics beginning in 1970, a film and its novelisation in 1982. Conan is a barbarian of the far north. He was born on a battlefield and is the son of a blacksmith. Conan matured quickly as a youth and, by age fifteen, he was already a respected warrior who had participated in the destruction of the Aquilonian outpost of Venarium. After its destruction, he was struck by wanderlust and began his adventures, encountering skulking monsters, evil wizards, tavern wenches and beautiful princesses.
More recently being pulished from Dark Horse Comics with great sucess. Dark Horse started their Conan run by re-printing the now classic issues from Marvel Comics. Right from the beginning Conan was an incredible comic book with such great talent in the comics field working on the title such as Roy Thomas, Barry Windsor-Smith (one of my fav’s), Gil Kane, John Buscema, & Neal Adams just to name a few. All the Marvel comics issues are now availble in trade paper back for a reasonable price.
As a NASA fanboy I’m very envious watching China put so much energy into their space program. Maybe they’re playing catchup with us and the Russians, but it’s refreshing to see someone who’s serious about funding space explortion:
“Chinese scientists have shown off a prototype Moon rover that could lead to the country’s first unmanned mission to the lunar surface in 2012. The 1.5m (5ft) high, 200kg (440lbs) rover should transmit video in real time, dig into and analyse soil, and produce 3D images of the lunar surface. Engineers have unveiled a prototype at the Shanghai institute where work on the six-wheeled vehicle is underway.
Rival rovers are being developed at institutes in Beijing and elsewhere. It is not clear when the successful candidate will be selected. Engineers at the Shanghai Aerospace System Engineering Institute have created a specialised laboratory that mimics the lunar surface for their rover.”
