Trailer Post: Wolverine

The final trailer for the X-Men Origins: Wolverine movie was released recently - it aired before The Day the Earth Stood Still in the USA - and it looks better than the previous one, so it made its way into my privileged Trailer Post section.

(Actually it's not that privileged, now that I think about it. I keep posting trailers of that turd fest know as Dragonball Evolution.) But I digress. Here goes Wolverine:

X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE HD

Although my excitement level for Watchmen is pretty much overshadowing my anticipation for any other 2009 movie, I'm pretty curious to see this Wolverine movie. Wolverine was always my favorite out of the X-Men Universe, and I'm glad he's the first to get his spin off. Besides, we finally get a look at Gambit, who I think always deserved a place in the movies - I'm not that satisfied with his characterization, but at least they didn't butcher him into oblivion, like they do in other movies *cough*dragonball*cough* - and plenty more characters, like Sabretooth, Deadpool and Blob.
All in all, I definitely want to see this. I just hope it's not a total cheesefest.

Trailer Post: Dragonball Evolution and Terminator Salvation

Two more trailers for you today.

First we have Dragonball Evolution (yeah, apparently it's how its called now).

The good news about this is that Piccolo looks a little more green, at least from a certain angle. The bad news is that pretty much everything else is still shit. It looks slightly better than the previous trailer, but that's like saying a piece of crap with a cherry on top looks better than a piece of crap by itself. I think I'm desensitized enough that this new trailer didn't make me want to stab my eyes with a fork, but that doesn't mean it didn't make me suffer on the inside. Oh well.

Next up, Terminator Salvation.

Rise of the Machines was a weak movie in my opinion, and I don't think it fits very well in the franchise, but I hope this 4th sequel proves superior and refreshes the Terminator universe. The trailer looks good, other than that I don't know what much to say... certainly didn't blow me away, but I'm giving it the benefit of the doubt. More than that actually, because it stars Christian Bale, and I'm confident he'll do a great job as John Connor. So even if the movie is not all that, I'm sure it'll have at least ONE good performance.

What other trailers have you been watching?

Christmas Songs-a-Palooza 2

First off, this Christmas songs thing I wanted to have going on may be cut a little shorter because most of the songs I wanted to post are nowhere to be found on any site that allows embedding of their players. I'm just that underground (yeah, right). But I'll try to keep it up moderately and introduce you to a few new christmas songs.

Today I'll leave you with Relient K's version of the 12 Days of Christmas. It's from the 2007 album "Let it snow, baby... let it Reindeer", built up of Christmas songs all throughout. This song doesn't hold a candle to Fairytale of New York, but then again Fairytale of New York is so awesome that very few songs would be an honorable follow-up. Everyone is familiar with the song 12 days of Christmas, even if you don't know the lyrics, so this is a decent, upbeat and fun cover of that holiday classic.



Also, here's a new digital sketch for today's post. I basically did the same as in the previous one, very quick, cutesy lines and sloppy coloring to give it a really rough and sketchy look. The sketch stars my boyfriend, Mr. Cosmic, with some Iron Man flair, because if there is one guy cooler than Tony Stark, it's Cosmic for sure ;)

Time for a random sketch

Being without access to photoshop for a month left me a little rusty, so I've been trying to pick up my slack and practice a little.
I sketched up this little guy yesterday, with my trusty Stumpy Pencil tool (that's why it looks like pencil lines... I kinda love that brush for some reason), and threw some quick color farts on it. I didn't mean for it to look good, I just wanted to really just DO something, really quickly, try and use different brushes, etc. So, here it is!

It was also the first time I drew a fully digital complete picture. Woohoo for me or what? :B

Trailer Post: Coraline and Astro Boy

More trailers for you, this time dedicated to animated movies.

First off, Coraline.




Based on a novella by Neil Gaiman and directed by Henry Sellick, Coraline tells us the story of a little girl who unlocks a mysterious door in her house that takes her to a parallel universe, very similar to her, but also that much more fantastic, surreal and... dangerous?
I never read the book, but this trailer really made me curious. It looks like a fantastic tale with great animation, and definitely made me want to see it. Thanks to Captain Chants for the trailer tip!

Next, we have Astro Boy.



Astro Boy needs no introduction, but anyway... Created by " god of manga" Osamu Tesuka in the 1950's, Astro Boy is a robot kid, created to replace a scientist's deceased son. Being a robot, he is abandoned by his creator, and later adopted by the head of the Ministry of Science, who gives him a family and also calls him up when the earth and humanity need saving from a variety of threats.
I'm not very familiar with the Astro Boy manga or anime, having only seen a couple of episodes, but the trailer is looking good and I bet there's going to be a lot of people seeing it if only for nostalgia sake. And, who am I kidding, I might also be there too, if the next trailers keep being good.

What other trailers are catching your eye lately?

Christmas-Songs-a-Palooza 1

The stores are putting out their christmas decorations, the streets are all lined up with lights and the malls all have their Christmas trees and fake Santas lined up to hear the kid's wishes for this year while blasting "Last Christmas" on the sound system - and all this means that, wether you like it or not, Christmas is creeping up upon us. And I don't know about you, but to me, t'is the season to start listening to a few Christmas songs. Not the usual run-of-the-mill ones, but covers of the classics or, even, totally original and maybe innapropriate stuff. I thought it'd be useful to keep erratically suggesting Christmas songs for you guys, so you could all make your very own unusual Christmas mixtape you can blast on your stereo while having dinner with your whole family on the 24th.

For suggestion numero uno, I'll leave you with one of my favorite Christmas songs ever: Fairytale of New York. The original is by the irish band The Pogues (awesome), and kick ass as it is, I'm going to have to suggest the cover by classic punk-rockers No Use for a Name. Why? Because it's still pretty cool and it has a 70% more chance of making your family uncomfortable with the noise.
If you don't know this song, you should go back to the rock you've been living under, but anyway, here is the No Use for a Name version. Feel free to listen to it and let that holiday spirit start rolling while you listen to this tale of a drunken man on the streets of New York, on Christmas eve.

Trailer Post - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and Star Trek

Last week finished on a high note, trailer wise, with the release of a bunch of great movie trailers. Watchmen was the first, but Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince and Star Trek followed right after.

1. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince



The first teaser for this movie was such a blatant disappointment that I was ready to quit on Harry right then and there. I mean, a teaser is supposed to TEASE, and I don't know about you, but watching a black screen for 15 seconds certainly doesn't make me want to see the movie. The full-length first trailer was actually neat and rekindled my hopes, but it was this one that really made me feel like I want to see this movie. Bad. The effects are great, and it looks like it's going in the dark direction that it should. I know that a ton of stuff will be cut from the movie, I'm not one of those fans that is shocked when they can't cram everything from a 500-paged book into a movie, but I hope they do a good adaptation and I'm looking forward to see it.

2. Star Trek



I think I already mentioned I was never much of a Trekkie, but I ocasionally followed the campy adventures of Kirk, Spock and the Enterprise crew, and seeing as this adaptation gives us the younger versions of characters we're all familiar with, it should be a decent movie-going experience. I admit it does look a bit strange to see such young versions of the crew, but they look faithfull to their characters - especially Spock, I love the way Zachary Quinto talks - and the whole thing looks like it's going to provide us with quality sci-fi entertainment.

Seeing so many awesome trailers at once just made me feel sorry for the slow movie season we're having - is it just me or there's hardly any movie on right now that REALLY makes you want to see it?

Watchmen theatrical trailer

I had planned to write a few more posts between Halloween and today, but I've been kinda busy, so I'll leave my opinions on Quantum of Solace and Dark City for another day. The thing is, the new theatrical trailer for Watchmen was released today and I have a moral obligation to share it with anyone that casually drops by this blog. This movie is seriously looking more and more awesome and I can not wait to see it!




Watchmen and Muse? Nerdgasm.

This year's Halloween was...

Brilliant :)

Watched a couple of horror movies that, while fun to watch, were not all that good. Me and Cosmic had about a million and one movies to pick from, but ended up going with Pumpkinhead and Zombi 2 (also known as Zombie Flesh Eaters, a title I can't help but feel is a bit redundant).

1. Pumpkinhead (1988)

I don't really understand what the "fairy tale" part of the tagline refers to, but oh well. Maybe because there's a witch in the movie? We all know fairy tales are crawling with witches. Moving on.
Pumpkinhead starts with a flashback. It shows us a man desperately running from something evil through the woods, until he gets to a house. He pleads for the people inside to help him, but the mother, father and child that are inside do not move. As the man doesn't go away, the family's patriarch grabs his shotgun and threatens he will shoot him if he doesn't leave the area. The man eventually runs away, and, through the window, the child sees a monster in the shadows killing the man who previously pleaded them for help.

Fast-forward a few years, and we find that kid all grown up: he's now an adult hillbilly, with a son of his own, a little cute blonde boy with oversized glasses. They live quietly in the country, until one day, a bunch of city teenagers stop by their grocery store on their way to a cabin in the woods. You just know something bad is going to happen, and when dad has to leave the store, one of the city folks 8the asshole of the bunch) runs over the little boy with his motorbike. Despite his friends want to help the poor boy, Biker Dude has been drinking, and if he gets caught, his ass will go to jail. So he ends up making his friends hostages in said cabin, stopping them from getting help for the dying kid. When dad comes back to find his young boy dead in the field, his only thought is revenge, and with the help of the local witch, he conjures up a demon, Pumpkinhead, to carry out his revenge for him.

It was directed by the special effects wizard Stan Winston, so you know the creature looks really good - although I heard that due to his directing duties he actually couldn't supervise the creature effects as much as he wanted. The plot is not bad, and it had great potential, but to me the movie kind of fell flat. The acting was, for the most part, pretty campy, and I don't have much against that in a horror movie, but there was almost zero suspense. The creature was scary, but that wasn't explored enough (although some shots of it lurking on the foggy forest were effective), and the killings were pretty boring, in my opinion (I know I'm sounding like those video fanatics from the League of Gentlemen...). The sound effects were really over-the-top cheesy, and made me laugh when they were supposed to scare me or make me feel unsafe. The cinematography was decent, and I actually think the blue and orange filters used in this movie really helped set the mood on different locations.

All in all, it wasn't the worst movie I ever saw, but it hardly impressed me. I think that, had I seen it a few years earlier, I'd probably dig it a whole lot, but for some reason, it just didn't do it for me this time. It was fun to watch though, and we laughed a whole lot.

2 out of 5 demons

2. Zombi 2 - Zombie Flesheaters (1979)

Oh wow.

Being a horror movie fan, I've heard a lot about Lucio Fulci, the italian zombie-master. His movies are not exactly easy to find, so I had only seen one of his movies before: Paura nella città dei morti viventi, or City of the Living Dead (just sounds fancier in italian, doesn't it?), and that didn't impress me much. But Zombi 2 is his most well-known movie, so I was pretty curious to see what the fuss was all about. Little sidenote: Zombie 2 was marketed in Europe as a sequel to Romero's Dawn of the Dead (marketed in Europe under the title Zombi), but it's absolutely unrelated to Romero's work. Well, except that it has zombies, of course.

The story starts with a boat sailing along the East River, apparently without any passengers or crew. When two coast guards go on board to check it out, we see there is actually a zombie inside. He kills one guard, and is then shot by the other, falls into the water - and we somehow know that's not the end of it. Next thing we know, the boat owner's daughter wishes to find out what happened with her father. On the boat, she finds a note stating her father is in the island of Matool and, teaming up with a jornalist currently investigating the case, heads up to Matool to find out just exactly what is going on there. They catch a ride from a couple on vacation and start looking for the uncharted, mysterious island. Matool happens to be a damned place, where the dead come back to life, and the 4 of them are in for more than just an investigation.

I can see why this is a classic. Despite the non-existing plot, the bad acting, and the lack of coeherence or logic, the violence is pretty high for 79's standards, and no doubt caused a lot of waves. By today's standards it's nothing that would make you flinch - but in 79, it could. It also has a lot of boobs.

Still, being a classic doesn't make it good. Yeah, it was fun seeing all the two-dimensional characters, the plot holes, the one prop-hand that was apparently used in all the scenes and the bad make-up job in so many of the zombies, but honestly I expected more. Not Citizen Kane, but you know, something better than a zombie fighting a shark. Yes, that does happen, and no, it's not as freaking awesome as it sounds - believe me, I thought I was going to see the coolest thing ever, but it just turned out to be kind of stupid and boring. The characters act in the most ridiculous ways possible, especially the women: they just stand there, screaming, whenever a zombie pops up. What, they're Banshee now, and will destroy them by sound? Heaven's sake, move those legs already. I also learned that when you throw a Molotov cocktail at a bunch of zombies, the flames go out once it hits the floor, which kinda defies the logic of the whole thing. The gore is okay, not much to complain about in that department. It's mildly entertaining trash.

All in all, there are FAR superior zombie movies out there that you should watch. I don't really recommend Zombi 2 to anyone but horror movie apreciators, or zombie fans who like to take a peek at the birth of the zombie genre.

1.5 out of 5 zombies

Let me know what movies you watched this Halloween.

Halloween Picks - The Descent (2005) and Young Frankenstein (1974)

Well, here are the two last movie picks for Halloween 2008. It hasn't been easy to narrow down all the movies I wanted to recommend to this little list, so I might just keep recommending horror movies every once in a while - after all, Halloween is like Christmas, you can have it everyday.

1. The Descent (2005)

I consider The Descent to be one of the best horror movies of the last years, and I'm sure time will make it a classic.

Directed by Neil Marshall, The Descent tells us the story of a group of 6 women who go spelunking 1 year after Sarah, a member of the group, lost her daughter and husband on a car accident. Juno, Sarah's best friend, leads the group further and further into a previously unexplored cave, and it soon becomes apparent that they won't all make it out of the cave... if anyone will at all. Revealing more would be a little sinful.

The plot is tight, and the characters are very well fleshed out, making it very interesting to see their relationships change, tear and fall apart. The suspense keeps building from the beginning, and when the action unfolds it's truly like a rollercoaster ride. The cave and the tension make this movie crazy claustrophobic, and if you're anything like me, you'll feel like you're out of breath inside that dark, ominous cave along with the 6 characters. There's a constant feeling of dread and foreboding. The Descebt will make you uncomfortable, and it will scare you, which is not something a lot of horror movies successfully pull off. If you're looking for more than a couple empty jumps, for Halloween, go with this one.

2. Young Frankenstein (1974)

Ok, so, this is not horror. It's a comedy movie - but it's a parody of some of Universal's earliest and biggest classics (Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, and so on), and it's definitely worth a mention. And, more than 30 years after its making, it stands as one of my favorite comedies of all time.

Young Frankenstein gives us the tale of Dr. Frederik Frankenstein (ir's pronounced Fronk-en-steen!), a somewhat crazy college professor who happens to be the grandson of famous mad scientist Victor Frankenstein. His grandfather passed away and left Frederik his castle in Transylvania. He travels to Transyvalnia to claim his inheritance and stumbles upon a book detailing his grandfather's earlier projects of trying to create life from dead body parts. Despite deeming his grandfather insane in the earlier parts of the movie, he decides to give Frankenstein senior's projects a try. Along with him for the ride are the iconic hunchback lab assistant, Igor (pronounced Eye-gore); a young nurse named Inga, and the castle's scary caretaker, Frau Blucher.

Mel Brooks has made some of the funniest comedies ever (notably Blazing Saddles, Spaceballs and Robin Hood: Men in Tights), and Young Frankenstein ranks high on my laugh-a-palooza list. Once the laughter starts, it's hard to stop it, not only because of a great script, but thanks to the brilliant acting by the cast, particularly Gene Wilder, who is perfect as Frederik Frankenstein, and Marty Feldman, who delivers a truly hilarious performance as the hunchbacked Igor. Shot in black and white and using a lot of the same props made for 1931's Frankenstein, the movie successfully reflects the style of the Universal classic, while at the same time being side-splitting hilarious. It's one of the best spoof movies ever made, and I guarantee it'll make for a really fun Halloween night.

Well, these were my suggestions. Let me know if you choose any of these movies to keep you company tonight, and have a kick ass Halloween!

Halloween Picks - Re-Animator (1985) and The Faculty (1998)

Once again, as promised, here are a couple of fun suggestions for your Halloween Night.

1. Re-Animator (1985)

As you can see on the poster, Re-Animator is the adaptation of one of H. P. Lovecraft's tales. I am a big fan of Lovecraft's horror writings, but I never got to read Re-Animator, so I'm not in a position to judge its faithfulness to the source material - although I would risk saying it detours from it a whole lot. Lovecraft's writing is not exactly filled with the kind of gore and nonsense you find in this movie.

Directed by Stuart Gordon (a man who directed at least two other feature film adptations of Lovecraft's tales, plus two episodes of Masters of Horror, also Lovecraftian stuff), Re-Animator tells us the story of Herbert West, your token mad scientist, who found out a way of re-animating dead tissue, and is itching to try it on humans, instead of on little lab animals. Brilliant as he is, he's not very modest or personable, and after he lands on Miskatonic Medical University, he immediately makes an enemy in Dr. Carl Hill, when they disagree on the subject of brain death. Herbert ends up moving to the Dean's daughter house, that she shares with her boyfriend Dan, and uses their basement to further his research. In need of a helper, he takes a chance when Dan's cat dies, and re-animates it in hopes of bringing Dan to aid him in his quest. Hill ends up stumbling on West's experiments and finds them an excellent way to put pressure on the genius: he threatens to blackmail him if he doesn't hand over the secret of his re-animating serum. And the rest is history.

The movie is pretty twisted, perverted, and gory, but everything is so over-the-top and cartoonish that it gets really funny. The script is great, and so is the directing and the pace of the film (that by the way, at under 90 minutes in length, is pretty short). Jeffrey Combs performance as Doctor West is brilliant, he has to be one of my favorite mad scientists to ever grace the screen, and the rest of the cast is pretty solid as well.

It's so difficult to find a movie nowadays that makes you cringe and laugh at the same time, but Re-Animator successfully does so, without dumbing the viewer down. Give it a chance, or you'll be missing out.

2. The Faculty (1998)

When the teen horror genre resurfaced in the nighties, some movies were lost amidst the Scream and I know What You Did Last Summer franchises. The Faculty was one of those movies, and while I don't consider it to be "all that" when it comes to horror movies, I'm picking it mostly for nostalgia-based reasons. See, I was a wee teen when this movie came out, and I have to tell you that the possibility of my teachers beings aliens was something that lightly crossed my mind at times. Since that is the premise of this movie, we shared a bit of a kindred spirit.

Directed by the "too cool for school" Robert Rodriguez, The Faculty whirls around an unlikely group of students that come together to fight an alien invasion taking place in their high school. As the alien's posess more and more teachers, it's up to them to find the origin of the infection and stop it, before it overruns their whole town and, eventually, the world.

Think Breakfast Club meets Invasion of the Body Snatcher's - kinda cool, huh?

The movie doesn't get too extreme, gore and scare-wise. In my opinion, the lack of scares can be because an high school isn't exactly the most terrifying setup you can think of for an alien invasion - although it does offer a nice, palpable sense of paranoia. It's also a very stylish movie, and that's what appealed most to the young crowd: the cast is made of clean cut, pretty-face actors, who face the everyday problems of high school... plus aliens; and they actually make a good job. The script is solid enough (penned by Kevin Williamson), with nice dialogue, a pronounced sense of humor and various references to sci-fi material that inspired this movie.

As a horror movie, it doesn't do too much. But as a teen horror movie, it's a few notches above most of the stuff that came out recently, and it's worth at least one viewing. So if you feel nostalgic of simpler times and are looking for a thrill or two, look into The Faculty and it may just be the kick you need.

Stay tuned for the two final recommendations tomorrow! Oh man, I wish it was Halloween every week.

Halloween Picks - Hatchet (2006) and Tesis (1996)

I had fun yesterday thinking about these Halloween picks, so why not be a little generous and sugest two movies a day instead of just one? I know, I know, I'm too cool, so here go the TWO-for-one picks of today.

Keep in mind that I'm trying to think about movies that aren't tool well known, and that's why I'm not refering the classics - I don't think anyone needs to recommend The Exorcist, The Shining or Shaun of the Dead, because everyone already knows they're brilliant. Read on!

1. Hatchet (2006)

You know, the tagline pretty much says it all. Hatchet is a movie that takes you right back to the 80's american slashers: it has a deformed, inbred gigantic and inhumanly strong killer; it has
the same teenage characters we've seen in these movies over and over again (poor sap dumped by his girlfriend and trying to forget her, drunk jocks, token black guy, slutty cheeleader types, and the one girl who knows too much) and the plot is entirely forgettable. So why am I suggesting this, you ask?

Because it actually WORKS. Hatchet knows what it is, and makes fun of itself at all times. It doesn't take itself seriously, the director knows this is not the next big thing in horror, but he wants people to have a good time watching it, and Hatchet delivers.

The plot, forgettable as it is, revolves around a group of people that go on a tour of a supposedly haunted swamp in New Orleans. That's where things go awry, after their boat crashes and they find themselves stuck in the swamps with the unwanted company of a mutant serial killer.

The cast gets picked off one by one, in a lot of different, violent, gory ways - we're talking impalement, dismemberment, blood squirting in impossible amounts, the whole deal. Interestingly enough, Hatchet features cameos by famous stars of horror movies, like Robert Englund (Nightmare in Elm Street), Kane Hodder (Friday the 13th) and Tony Todd (Candyman), providing little Easter Eggs for horror fans.

I can't say anything about this flick is fresh or original, but in my opinion, that was the whole point: poking loving fun at the slasher genre while keeping things interesting with splatter comedy and mayhem. It's a B-movie and it knows it, and it works very well as both an homage and a parody. Best watched with a group of friends you can laugh along with.

It's been successful enough to warrant a sequel: Hatchet 2 is supposed to hit screens next year.

2. Tesis (1996)

Moving on from a goofy movie to a more serious one, Tesis is my second pick of the day. Despite being more of a thriller than straight up horror, it's a great movie and deserves to be better known.

I am a big fan of spanish horror movies (the best horror movie I've seen this year was [REC], and it's spanish, as I'm sure you know), so I was pretty curious when I heard of this earlier work of Alejandro Amenábar, who more recently directed The Others - one of the best and most chilling supernatural horrors I've seen. Tesis was Amenábar's debut movie, written while he was still in college. And what a debut it was.

Tesis tells us the story of Ángela, a college student who is writing a thesis about violence in film and in the media. Helping her is Chema, a classmate who because of his obsession about horror movies and extreme films, has a massive collection of said material, that Ángela uses on her research. Meanwhile, Ángela's thesis advisor, Prof. Figueroa, discovers a snuff film where a girl is beaten and brutally murdered on camera, and he dies while watching this film. Ángela and Chema get their hands on the movie, and Chema recognizes the dead girl as a former student of their university. Together, they set out to find out about the snuff underworld and who is murdering people on camera to satisfy a sick fascination with violence.

The movie is very suspenseful and successfully keeps a mood of building tension, without resorting to extreme gore and violence (like some of the earlier picks I made). Intense directing, great cinematograpy and solid performances from the cast are a couple other reaons that make this movie stand out, in my opinion, and definitely worthy of a recommendation. Go get it.

Keep enjoying Halloween's week, and don't forget to check back tomorrow, when 2 new suggestions will be up.

Halloween Picks - Braindead (1992) and Dead End (2003)

As you may have noticed, I've been a little absent from the blogging world lately, and while that has happened before for reasons connected to my rampant lazyness, this time it's nothing like that: my computer had to go to the PC Doctor a couple of weeks ago, and I still haven't got it back, and that's pretty much a pain in the ass (it's delaying about half a dozen works I should have ready by now).

So I've been computerless, but this is HALLOWEEN week, and I had to find a way to post on this baby and give you guys some movie recommendations for your Halloween night. Hopefully you'll find some movies you haven't heard of here, and have a good scare at their expense.

I'll post two today, because I meant to have started the list yesterday and keep it up at one suggestion a day until Halloween.

1. Peter Jackson's Braindead (1992) (also known as Dead Alive in the USA).

That's right. Before Peter Jackson gave us the best epic fantasy movie trilogy ever, he made movies with far less elves, and much more zombies. Braindead was his 3rd movie. It became a cult favorite, and gained fame as the goriest movie ever made, and to this day, it holds its own as one of the funniest splatter-fests of all time.

Braindead tells us the story of young man Lionel, who lives with his smothering, controlling mother. In his attempt to have something that resembled a normal life, Lionel starts dating Paquita, much to the grief of his mother. When he takes Paquita out for a walk in the local zoo, his mother decides to follow them, and gets bit by a strange creature called the Sumatran Rat Monkey. The bite causes her to start falling apart and, eventually, die, but that's not the last we see of her, as she comes back to life as controlling and obnoxious as always, but this time with a taste for human flesh. It's up to Lionel to try and stop his mother from spreading the undead infection, while maintaining a normal household as much as possible - unfortunatelly he doesn't really succeed, and next thing we now, that little kiwi town is overrun with blood thirsty zombies, and the fun starts!

The gore in this movie is something I guarantee you've never seen before. Literally gallons of bloods and guts of all sort keep flying around the screen, and the corpses decompose in a miriad of disgusting ways. In the final scene of the movie, over 300 liters of fake blood were used. 300 liters. That is a shitload of blood, and if that's not awesome, I don't know what is.

It borrows a lot of the splastick seen on movies like Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn and exagerates it even further, to levels I never thought possible. Zombie sex, zombie babies, a nazi veterinarian, a kung-fu priest and body parts with a mind of their own are only a few of the things you can expect to see in this crazy, over-the-top gorefest. It's hilarious, it's bloody, it's violent, it blew my mind away when I first watched it and it continues to do so. I couldn't recommend it more.


2. Dead End (2003)

Directed by unknowns Jean-Baptiste Andrea and Fabrice Canepa, Dead End is a pretty straightforward movie about a family on their way to a Christmas dinner at their grandmother's house. There's a little tension going on, and the dad, anxious to shorten the drive there, takes a shortcut, something he had never done in 20 years. We soon learn he would have done better to keep with the traditional road, because the new shortcut is apparently never ending, and filled with unexplainable forces, out to cause the family harm.

The set-up is pretty simple, and I think that's why it ends up working so well, since it helps to keep the focus on the characters and the situation. The atmosphere of the movie is great, very dark, very bleak and eerie, and as the movie develops, you get the feeling of hopelessness of that family, as they realize they won't make it out of the shortcut. That was my favorite thing about Dead End, because scarewise I can't say it scared my pants off or anything (most of the times, when something happened, you could see it coming a few minutes in advance), but there was such a dark mood that I was unsettled for most of the movie, even getting a few old-fashioned chills, the kind that make the hairs on your arms stand up. Don't expect much gore, because most of the horror is actually unseen - being, in my opinion, all the more effective. It really lets you use your imagination and doesn't spoon-feed your brain.

There are some moments of deep weirdness and even humor, as the family turns out to be a little more dysfunctional then you thought they would be, with the humor actually providing a welcome balance, at times. The cast works very well here, and the dialogue is witty and above average for a horror movie. I have to say the ending failed to captivate me, but I definitely enjoyed the ride and I forgive the less than perfect ending.

I confess: after seeing this movie, I was creeped out when I saw a black car on the road at night, and if you give this a try, I think you might be too.

These are the suggestions for today, stay tuned for a brand new one tomorrow!

Michael Bay is a genius

No, I did not bang my head on a wall or something, but I had to share one of the funniest things I stumbled upon the web lately.
Some (genius) guy set up a Twitter account as Michael Bay and posts some funny tidbits about his thought process, his dreams with Megan Fox and Shia LaBeou'fs tantrums on the set of Transformers 2. Go check it out here, I promise it's funny.

Dragon Ball Teaser Trailer

I must really hate myself to keep posting stuff about this train wreck of a movie, but anyway. The teaser trailer for Dragon Ball leaked online earlier this week, but it was bootlegged, and it looked like it was filmed from a man's ass, and even I have a too much self respect to post that here. But today, the good quality teaser hit the web, and if I suffered watching it, you must all suffer with me.



I seriously don't know what to say. This looks mind-blowingly bad. I keep expecting it's all a big joke, but it gets worse everytime. Oh well...

Super Mario on eBay

And now, for a bit of shameless self-promotion, I leave you with a link to the eBay auction for the Super Mario acrylic painting I did a while ago. Go here and bid bid bid! :D



Thanks Mr. Cosmic for the video ;)

Movies + Kung Fu Panda intro

I'm starting to procrastinate in this blog again, so today is day for a new post.

I've seen a few movies lately, but none really worth a good old long post. Last week I saw Mamma Mia!, and that was mostly a totally harmless movie - I mean, what you see is what you get: people singing and dancing for two hours. You get to see Meryl Streep jump around with ten times the energy I have (and I am 23, that made me feel bad), Pierce Brosnan trying to sing, and Colin Firth's character having a ridiculous twist towards the end. But like I said, it's pretty harmless and I'm sure you can extract some fun out of it if you're into Abba at all (which I must admit I am. I know, I know, but who can resist those sugary melodies?? gah!).


This weekend I saw Babylon A.D. with my Mr. Cosmic, and that movie was baaaad, but not even funny bad, just boring bad. It didn't hold my attention for more than 5 seconds! If only it had been bad in a FUNNY way... but no. So I don't advise seeing it for the laughs, because there won't be any.


Anyway, today I colored that Kung Fu Panda pic I posted a while ago. Here it is:

And in honor of this (and because I forgot to do it before) I'm posting the intro to Kung Fu Panda. It was one of the coolest intros ever, I loved it. Check it out below, and while you're at it, put "watch kung fu panda" on your to-do list.

Zack and Miri Make a Porno: red band trailer

Kevin Smith's new movie released a red band trailer around the end of August, but since I was away, I'm only going to post it now. It's actually in good timing, because I hope this will make you smile after my last post made you - most likely - cry, or throw up bile.

I'm a fan of most of Kevin Smith's work, and this honestly looks pretty funny, so yeah, color me excited for this one.

Keep in mind it's a red band trailer, so you'll find swearing and bla bla and don't see it if you're under 18 or something (who am I kidding, see it anyway, just don't say you found it here).

Dragon Ball Screenshots

Well, I'm back, and what better subject for a new post than one that makes me want to kick Hollywood in its fat, rich ass.

A few more screenshots from the upcoming Dragon Ball movie have been released, and guess what, they SUCK. I don't know how I can possibly still be surprised by the suckiness of this pictures, because I'm entirely convinced the movie will be awful, but still, here I am, surprised and sad to see what they're doing to one of my all-time favorite franchises.

Why the hell did they turn Piccolo into an albino sort-of vampirish freak? He's green people! And at least give him his little antennas! And I hate his uniform, god damn I hate it. He looks so bad. I promised I won't mention anything about Master Roshi, because that have been discussed enough. But Piccolo, I can't get over it. What's going on with that red velvety jacket? When did we ever see Piccolo on his bath robe or something?
Bah...
I promise I'll be less bitter on the next post.

Paintings for sale!

Before going on holidays, I thought I might as well advertise it here along with DA.

I have a couple of acrylic paints up for sale. They're Mario and Link, sprite-style, done in 18x24 cm. canvases, with acrylic paint.


Since they're small, the price will be relatively small as well. If I don't sell them on DA, or to anyone here who's interested, I'll try putting them up on e-bay and then I'll blog the link to the auction as well. Anyway, if you'd like to have them, leave me a comment with your e-mail and we'll make the arrangements!

I won't be posting new stuff for the next couple of weeks, but I'll be checking back for comments, so feel free to leave them! :)

Bully

Thanks to my lovely Mr. Cosmic, I've been in contact with lots of new (to me) games on the Playstation 2. I've been having a ton of fun catching up with games I never had the chance to play intensely before, namely Resident Evil 4, Driver, God of War, among others. The one I've been playing more and more of, however, is Bully (also known as Canis Canem Edit).


The game, created by Rockstar Vancouver, follows the story of Jimmy Hopkins, a 15 year old boy that is sent to a boarding school while his mother goes on a year long honeymoon with Jimmy's new stepfather. Bullworth Academy is not exactly heaven, and is filled with bullies, preps, nerds and greasers, all apparently ready to kick the new kid's ass. It's your job to stand up to them and, through various missions, prove yourself as the new tough kid.

Since you're in school, you need to go to class as well. When you successfully attend a class, you unlock new abbilities or moves that will probably come in handy in the future, so it is convenient to attend at least a few classes.


You need to complete your missions to advance in the game, but besides those missions, you have a big world that you can explore and interact with. It's a lot of fun to get new weapons, enter in bike races, or go to the carnival play all those "games within the game".



Apparently this game has been the center of a lot of controversy (at least when it came out), but I can't say I agree with that. Sure, it's called BULLY, and you have to fight a lot throughout the game, but in most of the missions you even have to protect the weaker kids from other bullies. I don't see the game as condoning bullying in any way, but I guess videogames have always been an excellent scapegoat for this kind of issues.

I'm yet a long way from finishing it, but I've been having a lot of fun with it!

I'll leave you with a video review I found.

If you were a Zombie...

So, the surge of Wacthmen-related news seems to have slowed down, leaving me with next to nothing to post (what are you saying, that other movies exist besides that one? no they don't, shut up.). This leads me to posting today about a little site about zombies I stumbled upon.



It's called "If you were a zombie..." and essentially it gathers zombie videos, zombies news and, the best, zombie postcards. Whenever shopping for postcards, I always find myself frustrated by the sight of row upon row of postcards filled with cuddly teddy bears, cute macroshots of dogs' snouts, or kitties playing with balls of thread. I needed something with zombies, and now my needs have been fulfilled. It's nice to know I can let people know how I feel about them with zombie cards, because, just like it says on the site, "Once they're a zombie, it's too late to say you care".



So waste no more time, and go send your loved one a postcard: If You Were a Zombie.



Enjoy the breakdancing zombie's mesmerizing moves until next time!

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

After hearing much hype about this little series created for the web, I decided to check it out, and I can say it was a pleasant surprise.

Created by Joss Whedon (famous for his work on Firefly and Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and his brothers during the writer's strike of earlier this year, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog is a 3-part series that tells the story of evil scientist wannabe Dr. Horrible, who longs for acceptance on the Evil League of Evil, and for the love of a good-doing girl named Penny.
In the words of the creator, it's "The story of a low-rent super-villain, the hero who keeps beating him up, and the cute girl from the laundromat he's too shy to talk to."

The characters are all played in a campy, fun way (especially Captain Hammer, Dr. Horrible's nemesis), the story is simple and nicely developed, and the songs (because yes!, it is a musical) are all nice and catchy enough. This was obviously done on a super low-budget, so nothing is entirely brilliant and the songs are simple in their execution, but that's all part of the charm. There's a nice balance of humor/drama, though it is pretty humorous and funny for the most part.

I recommend this if you have an extra 40 minutes of free time, and want to check out something simple and fun. It's likely you'll have a good time along Dr. Horrible and his horrible machinations :)

Go here to see the whole thing, or download on iTunes if you wish to support it with a bit of your money.

More Watchmen stuff and Dragon Ball

This time, it's because I stumbled upon an interesting detail. The new character posters are actually modeled after the original 1986 promotional ads for the comic. Check it out below, and go to Newsarama for more pictures and a nifty article.

To finish up today's post, here's a simple colored sketch of everyone's favorite monkey-tailed alien, Son Goku, riding his cloud Kinton.

Have a nice weekend!

Watchmen on Empire

I'm kinda sorry that my blog is starting to resemble a Watchmen promotional vehicle, because boy am I going to look like a bloody idiot if the movie ends up sucking (so it better not, Zach Snyder!!). But I gotta be honest, I'm more excited for Watchmen everyday, and every photo that comes out looks impossibly cool and I can't stop myself from posting.

This time, the Watchmen movie is on focus on Empire. Next month they even have two different covers dedicated to it, and a new set of images.

First cover features Silk Spectre, Dr. Manhattan, and Nite Owl. Ttry not to look at Dr. Manhattan's crotch too much (ah, you just did it! I saw you do it. Come on, now.).

Second covers features Ozymandias, The Comedian and Rorschach. I have to tell you that I'm not sure about the Robin-styled mask Ozymandias is sporting, but anywho. Looks awesome regardless. I love The Comedian in this shot.

Revel in the awesome new images now.

I really love this next one of The Comedian. It's the character, spot on.

The source for all these images was Empire.
Looks great or what? Shame that this movie only comes out next year. I want to see it NOW!

New Watchmen Posters

Apparently, during the San Diego Comic Con, there were a bunch new Watchmen character posters unveiled. They look pretty cool, and hey, it's Watchmen, so you know I'm gonna post them. Enjoy!

1. Rorschach



2. The Comedian


3. Silk Spectre


4.Nite Owl


5. Dr. Manhattan

6. Sally Jupiter

7. Ozymandias

Source: Omelete

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Trailer

The trailer for the new Harry Potter movie has hit the web - and I mean the REAL trailer, not that piece of crap teaser that was released a couple of weeks or so ago(by the way, that was the worse teaser I ever saw. It's like they don't even try, they just know us nerds will go see the movie anyway, but we deserve to be teased, do we not? Don't just give us a black screen and a title, for heavens sake).

My excitement towards trailers has already been largely spent this year on the Watchmen trailer, so this one only left me mildly excited.
There's very little of Harry, it focus more on Tom Riddle, and it's darker than usual, which is good. This next movie should be dark (despite all the teenage love affairs), so I consider it a good sign. I guess we'll have to wait until November 21 to know for sure.

Wolverine Trailer

The trailer for X-Men Origins: Wolverine was presented at the San Diego Comic Con, and thankfully there was a nerd there with a cellphone that filmed it, for the other nerds around the world to see. And here it is:

The quality is all you'd expect from something filmed with a cellphone, but it still looks pretty cool. It even has Gambit! I don't know how well they'll tie all these character's stories, but I hope they make a good movie. Wolverine certainly deserves it.

The Dark Knight

I finally saw it. And I realized that the hype around this movie existed for a reason: The Dark Knight really is damn good.

It reaches way beyond the "superhero movie" genre. In this movie you will find, of course, action, but also drama, suspense, tension, and even humor, all so delicately balanced that you just have to let yourself go with the flow. It's a movie with the classic themes of good vs. evil, order vs. anarchy, sanity vs. madness, and it's amazing to see how they manage to include characters so nuanced and elaborate that they tip-toe in the fine lines between, and sometimes even slip up, to make you aware that things are just not black or white.

Gotham never seemed so real. It's dark, gritty and dangerous. Criminals lurk in the shadows, but someone lurks there with them: Batman. Batman strives to clean up Gotham, but crime seems to rise more than ever, as the Joker gains a central role amongst Gotham's mob. With his evil machinations and love of anarchy, the Joker will try to twist and turn Batman's ideals of justice by proving everyone can be corrupted, and that the only right to live is without any rules.



The plot is great. Like I mentioned before, it's a bundle of different elements, all intertwined, and it works very well. I loved how dark and tense the movie gets at some points: I won't give examples because I would hate to spoil anything.

The performances were all very good, but I have to point one out. And yes, you already know who it's going to be.

Heath Ledger was brilliant as the Joker. Everything they've been saying is true. He plays a terrifying, insane, maniac, nervous, and even funny Joker. He is so evil and disturbing, and still he makes you laugh along with him. His voice and laughter are purely unnerving, and his moves and quirks are something to be seen. It was a fantastic performance, and everything the Joker should be. There have been talks of an Oscar nomination for Ledger, but I don't know if this is the kind of role valued by the Academy; probably, if Heath hadn't passed away, he'd not see a nomination for this. But we'll never know. What I DO know is that his Joker ruled. It was a pleasure to watch, albeit a bittersweet one, because it's sad that it was his last role. I would have liked to see him in many, many more movies.


Aaron Eckhart was great as Harvey Dent as well. This is a character that suffers major changes throughout the movie, and Aaron was convincing all the way. He was a great surprise.


Christian Bale was awesome, as always. His Batman is always a little strange because it takes a little time to get used to his voice, but he can make it work. Plus, I love how he slips in and out of Batman, he is a great Bruce Wayne, really embodying the rich playboy and fooling everyone around. The changes he, as Batman, goes through in this movie are also very interesting to watch.



Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine play Lucius Fox and Alfred Pennyworth, and they're really good, as it would be expected. Maggie Gylhenhall does a decent job and Rachel, definitely better than Katie Holmes, but it's still not a very compelling character. Gary Oldman is still a great Comissioner Gordon, another character that sees his trusts and beliefs shaken to the core by the brilliant machinations of The Joker.

Another thing that needs to be mentioned is the cinematography. Everything looks brilliant and, most of all, REAL. The action is palpable, and it feels actually dangerous. Thankfully the movie relied on organic rather than on CGI effects, and the result is amazing.

All in all, this is a blockbuster, yes, but a great one, with feelings, substance and quality, not just some popcorn brainless entertainment.
Superhero movies watch out, your bar has just been raised to new heights.
I give it 5 out of 5 stars.