Check out the new trailer for Michael Haneke’s Funny Games. It’s a remake of 1997′s Funny Games which Haneke also wrote and directed. Both films follow a family vacationing at their lakeside summer home who get taken hostage by two young, well dressed men masquerading as friends of the neighbors. What follows is a violent, slow building suspense film that experiments with narrative as well as audience interaction and expectation. Expect a limited U.S. release on February 15, 2008.
Below is the trailer for the 1997 version which, when paired with the new trailer, seems to imply Haneke created a nearly shot-for-shot remake of the film… and cryogenically froze the actor who played the son.
Any and all adventure game news gets me going, and this is certainly an unexpected story. Word over at Artie Lange’s blog is that he’ll be voicing Big Al in a new Leisure Suit Larry game. Artie’s involvement isn’t shocking so much as the shear fact that a new Leisure Suit Larry game is being made. The last Leisure Suit Larry game released did not turn a lot of profit, but there is the possibility the adventure game audience has been growing as a result of the several successful Nintendo DS “adventure games.” If you ask me, there would be nothing better than a renewed interest in the genre. Could it be people are leaning more towards good story than good graphics?
[via Joystiq]
[S01E09]
Written by: Cecily von Ziegesar, K.J. Steinberg, Jessica Queller
Directed by: Mark Piznarski
Even though we’ve come to the close of Gossip Girl for the year 2007, don’t be alarmed because we already know for sure that the show will be returning – it’s just a matter of when and for how long. Now let’s dig into this delicious episode…
Well, considering we’ve gone a few episodes now with B. and S. on good terms, I guess I should have expected a quick scrap between the two. I’m glad Serena hasn’t forgotten about Chuck Bass forcing himself on Jenny (everybody else appears to have), because it lends some necessary weight to their latest disagreement. But I was happy to see things quickly move on to what was ultimately an adult-centric episode where we got a much deeper glimpse into all of the parents’ lives than we have before.
Speaking of which, getting Rufus, Alison, and Lily van der Woodsen in the same room was not something I expected to see until several episodes of reconciliatory bliss between Mr. and Mrs. Humphrey. But not on Gossip Girl. These writers won’t dish out a new conflict without dealing with the fallout the very next week. Some might argue that’ll lead to a sophomore season of recycled story lines, but as anyone familiar with the book series knows, there is still a lot of history to cover and even more new characters to introduce…
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Hey guys, here’s another installment of girls and celestial bodies. This girl used to be on one of my favorite television shows. To her right is a nebula.
Filed under Film
Tagged as teeth, vagina dentata
Picture this: You’re a young girl, inexperienced not only with boys, but with your own body. You think that everything about you is normal. Eventually, you get older and start getting involved with the opposite sex, only to find maybe you’re not as normal as you thought.
So begins to story of Teeth, a film about a young woman who discovers she’s been cursed with vagina dentata, or a toothed vagina, during a rape. The story is every boy’s worst dream. I’ve been reading a lot about this movie, and how disturbing it is. What I find most strange is how it’s being called a dark comedy even though the trailer comes off as more of a teen angst piece.
Teen angst or comedy doesn’t change one fact. I need me some of those pearly whites down there. There’s some guys out there who deserve a little nip every now and then.
Troll 2 somehow gained one heck of a following for a film of such low quality. If you take a look at the production levels of some of the more famous cult films, none even come close to being this poor. But something about its sincerity draws us back. I didn’t get a chance to see this movie until a few years ago when my older, and much wiser, brother introduced me to it. It’s got everything you would need in a cheesy movie: bad acting, bad make-up, limited sets, cheesy one-liners, all far beyond the scope of what they could have reasonably accomplished.
And wouldn’t you know it, someone has finally made a documentary on this well-deserving disaster of a film. Best Worst Movie gives us an inside look at the cult sensation following Troll 2, as well as what was going on in the heads of the people who produced the #1 worst film of all time (as ranked by the IMDB). One key thing separating this documentary is that it’s written, produced, and directed by Troll 2‘s lead actor Michael Stephenson. Take a look at the trailer here.
So everyone, grab a bowl of green goo, call up all your Goblin-loving friends, and get ready for one hell of a fright night because as we all know, “You can’t piss on hospitality!”
So I would never consider myself a “techie”. I’m not into modding computers or anything like that. But I love digital design. Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects. Which is why I think this is a pretty hip piece of hardware. Art Lebedev has been designing this keyboard for quite some time, and I’ve been patiently waiting. Finally, we’ve got a big announcement. There’s going to be 4 different versions of the keyboard: a version with 1, 10, 47, and 113 active buttons. What’s great is that there is finally a variety in price (from it’s original $1260.00 price tag). They will be $370, $480, and $800 and they’ll be available February 20th, 2008.
For those of you who don’t know what this is or why I am so hopped up I’ll tell you. The Optimus Maximus is a keyboard with keys that can be changed dynamically depending on what program you have running. There could be a normal set of keys in Word, but in Photoshop they would change to their appropriate tools. So basically, each key is a little LCD screen. Sure, spending hundreds of dollars on a keyboard might seem a bit steep, but sometimes you just need to treat yourself to something special! Will any of you guys be picking this up with me?
It appears the picture of the The Joker, slowly being unveiled at Empire Online, has been revealed a bit early.
I’m not sure how I feel about the hype surrounding these photographs. Any fan of Batman knows that the Joker is one of the greatest villains of all time. He’s psychotic, erratic, violent, and worst of all unpredictable (probably even to himself). This is why when I first heard he’s being played by Heath Ledger, I had some major reservations (me and the rest of the comic-loving world). After hearing him in the trailer though, I began to ease up. These pictures are more or less how I would have imagined him to look given the casting circumstances (although I would have preferred someone a bit more gaunt and straggly).
Either way, I can’t wait to see him in action. He almost looks like a disgruntled golfer. Anyone else curious how he’ll be playing it?
FOX has hired on Alex Graves to helm their latest, J.J. Abram’s produced drama series Fringe. The show, written by Abrams and fellow executive producers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, is being described as The X-Files meets The Twilight Zone and centers around “a female FBI agent who is forced to work with an institutionalized scientist in order to rationalize a brewing storm of unexplained phenomena.” The project comes from Bad Robot and Warner Bros. TV, and in true Lost fashion, the pilot for Fringe (which has already been given a series commitment) will be a 2-hour event with a budget of nearly $10 million.
Alex Graves, coming off of NBC’s Journeyman (which is shutting down production due to the strike) is also serving as an executive producer for the show. Along with Journeyman, Graves has previously served as a director and producer on The Nine and The West Wing. Check out an advanced review of the Fringe pilot script over at Televisionary.
[via The Hollywood Reporter]
Wedding Daze, written and directed by Michael Ian Black, arrives on DVD January 15, 2008. Previously known as The Next Girl I See and The Pleasure of Your Company, it was an oft-delayed title which never found a substantial release in theaters. But don’t let that deter you! As per the IMDB description:
After losing the woman of his dreams, Anderson is convinced he’ll never fall in love again. But at the urging of his best friend, he spontaneously proposes to a dissatisfied waitress named Katie and an innocent dare evolves into the kind of love that both have been looking for all along.
The trailer is harmless enough, and alludes to the brand of underlying absurdity one hopes to see from Michael Ian Black. And at the very least, the outlandish, post-everything premise does not appear to be lost on the cast. Also, Jason Biggs reminds me of my ex-boyfriend.
[via IGNDVD]
As we approach the beginning of 2008, the long gestating video game Gray Matter will finally be making it’s appearance. Slated to be released in Q1 of ’08, Gray Matter is the first game by renowned adventure game writer Jane Jensen since finishing up on the Gabriel Knight series back in 1999. The game has been in developement for quite some time now. Originally set to be released through The Adventure Game Company, it was eventually dropped and picked up by German developers Anaconda Games who gives us this description:
Neurobiologist Dr. David Styles is one of the game’s central characters: since losing his wife in a horrible accident some several years ago, he has become a recluse, seldom leaving Dread Hill House, his English country estate. When student and part-time street performer Samantha Everett shows up at his doorstep, she unexpectedly becomes his assistant. Hailing from America, she has been travelling through most of Europe the last couple years. Her first task: finding six test subjects at Oxford University for one of Styles’ experiments. The experiment starts off innocently enough, but then inexplicable incidents start mounting. And Styles is visited by his dear departed wife. Now it’s up to Sam to solve the mysteries of Dread Hill House.
Much like the latter two Gabriel Knight games, the player controls both Styles and Samantha on and off between chapters. From the stills, the game looks to me like Jane Jensen is traveling into Roberta Williams’ territory of the classic mystery house theme (Phantasmagoria, Mystery House, The Colonel’s Bequest). I’m extremely excited for this. It’s been too long since a genuine, well written adventure game has arrived on the scene. More pictures after the jump.
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The Criterion Collection has released a restored and remastered version of Berlin Alexanderplatz in its entire, 15 1/2 hour glory. Writer/director Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s epic is an adaptation of the Alfred Döblin novel, and is considered the longest narrative film ever created (though it originally premiered in the United States as a television miniseries). Pick it up if you like sharp, foreign melodramas or just want to be able to say you saw it.
Born out of footage from the two years spent assembling Inland Empire (2006), Lynch is a documentary on the director considered long overdue by many of his critics. That being said, judging from the handful of available reviews, it is no more a documentary in the traditional sense than his own films could be considered off beat dramas or mysteries. The fact that the 82-minute Lynch (whose director is credited as “Blackandwhite”) is focused on all things Inland Empire, causes it to feel more like a supplementary feature to the 2006 film than a standalone, panoptic look at the artist’s life according to The New York Time’s review. Then again, with a filmmaker like Lynch, this observant, fly on the wall approach is probably more interesting than strict talking heads and exposition on his personal history. It seems as if it will play more like Derrida than anything else.
You can find the trailer and information on its limited release at the official site.
I stumbled across this little gem while surfing the web today. The photograph shows Paris Hilton and Charles Bukowski sharing a moment at an unidentified bar in (I am guessing) Los Angeles. Be sure and check back because I am going to make this an on going search. Something tells me there’s more unexpected encounters out there just like this one.
