REVIEW: Friday the 13th: The Remix

So, I got to see Friday the 13th on my 36th birthday last Saturday because the Friday the 13th showing of Friday the 13th was sold out. I did start to feel a bit mortal that day knowing that in my lifetime I have lived through twelve Friday the 13th films, and now with Hills Have Eyes, last House on the Left, and coming soon... A Nightmare on Elm Street all being remade I guess I might be at the top of the hill and about to go down age wise.

Watching Marcus Nispel's remake of Friday the 13th was fun but also somewhat of a missed opportunity in my mind. I am a big Friday fan, so I knew going in they were going to cram Parts 1-3 into one film. That's no biggie, but they crammed 1 and 2 in before the opening credits were done! So there was no buildup really of Jason and why he and his Mom had such a tight relationship. It was all crammed into a fast cutting music video style open. Lame. The slower methodical way of previous Fridays has been replaced with shaky cam. I have no problem with shaky cam mind you, but when it's done poorly it reeks of "hey guess what I can't figure out how to frame?" There is a lot of that here. And as a result it takes away from Jason's creepiness. By far the best scene in the film is when Jason shows up in a long shot as a girl is trying to swim to safety. It's a very eerie shot that actually works in full on broad daylight. And the kill of her under the dock is also the best kill. If only the rest of the film was as good as the lake sequence.




Derek Mears I think plays Jason and he is fine, but I longed for the days of Kane Hodder who played Jason in 7-10. That dude had it down. The rest of the cast shows up at a cabin, gets naked and gets dispatched but I was just really disappointed they didn't do the great 80's Camp counseler thing. (oh and all the actors look like Abercrombie and Finch models or on Gossip Girl) I think if your going to rebuild a legend, then do it in it's natural environment. I remember going to camp in the summer and the first thing we would do is start telling stories to girls about how Jason was out there and how he was coming for us. There is NONE of that kind of campfire-eque fun here. In fact you may as well just called it Friday the 13th Part 12, cause its in present day so if just forget the fact he finds the hockey mask in this one, it's as if life went on at Camp Crystal Lake.



Keep in mind I liked director Nispel's Texas Chainsaw remake, which was also shot in Austin, TX as is this one. But come on dude, maybe its because I'm from Texas but for me this was the most distracting thing about the movie to me. I would have titled it Jason Takes Tejas. Most of the other movies had a kind of East Coast Vermont feel to them. This is summertime dead tree Texas. I kept waiting for him to team up with Leatherface. (maybe that's the plan) But I never in my mind saw Jason in Texas, he lived on the East coast and ended up in New York!

Something popped in my mind though after it was over, The director of the TCM prequel TCM: The Beginning. I think its Jonathan Liebesman was originally attached to this, and he should of stayed on board instead Nispel. TCM: The Beginning is a utter brutal film, and this one is just a fun ride. Nispel just plain does not get the joke here. I had high hopes for my hommie Mr. Voorhees, but alas he has been dissed in another crappy remake. I guess as a fun slasher movie its not bad, but my hopes were higher for something that could have really setup an interesting new franchise. Instead there is really nowhere to go with a sequel without starting over yet again. Or maybe I'm just old.

V: The Redux

V was my favorite show as a kid. I loved me the hell out of some V. I was obsessed with it. I used to pretend I was Queen lizard leader herself, Diana's half lizard half earthling son working for the Resistance. Did I mention how much I loved this show, and that Diana actress, Jane Badler (pic above) and her sister are my Facebook friends?

Now for years series creator Kenneth Johnson has been trying to get a new mini-series or movie made to conclude the thing and start a new deal. But ABC has taken over and signed a deal for a new version by one of the guys behind the Terminator show and The 4400 series. I have mixed feelings about it, because this will be a "reboot" or "re-imagining" of the original. I've read the synopsis and it does nothing for me. It sounds quite boring. But now is a good time for V to come back. With the terrorism scare and crappy economy, people are scared for what's next. Lizard aliens attacking the earth would be the last thing we want to deal with, but could the rallying call America needs.

Click HERE to read the full story thanks to The Movie Blog...

Building a Home Media Player Part 1

Every once in a while on the blog here the subject of DVD and Blu-ray comes up. And usually I discuss the greatness of picture quality with those formats. And right now physical media is still the dominant way to watch movies and other forms of entertainment without quality loss. However, if you have cable and satellite you are all quite familiar with on-demand services and pay-per-view and the greatness of DVR's and Tivo's. I love my DirecTv DVRs unconditionally. They ARE the greatest things ever. The best thing about them to me is not just the ease of use but they got rid of all those pesky space taking VHS tapes, DVD discs, and bulky VCRs. I am a proponent of ditching the physical world of media all together and the convergence of the internet/tv/HD Discs etc. We should be able to come home one day, turn on our TV, check our email, go to a website and watch whatever TV Show, Movie, Sports, or Video game we want. All in one deal. Getting there is the problem now. There are too many cooks in the kitchen.

A few months ago I was talking to my brother-in-law Art, and he like me, is a great tech nut himself. Although he was late to the DVR/Tivo party, he dove in head first and hacked the thing to include a bigger hard drive to have endless recording capabilities. I'm sure many of you have iTunes, and as soon as you buy a CD (if anyone still does that) and you put it on your iTunes to build your library. As for myself I don't have any physical CD's laying around taking up countless bookshelves. They are nicely sitting on a hard drive (with a backup). They can played through out the house wireless on a network in any room. Well we wanted to do that with our DVD collections.



So in essence it's itunes for movies. But you ask, isn't that called AppleTV. Sort of. You see AppleTV only plays AppleTV files. I want all my video formats to play, not just Apple encoded stuff. So the concept is the same as ATV, without all the rules and DRM BS. So I discovered this awesome thing by Western Digital called The Western Digital HD Media Player. It plays EVERYTHING know to man.

Music - MP3, WMA, OGG, WAV/PCM/LPCM, AAC, FLAC, Dolby Digital, AIF/AIFF, MKA
Photo - JPEG, GIF, TIF/TIFF, BMP, PNG
Video -MPEG1/2/4, WMV9, AVI (MPEG4, Xvid, AVC), H.264, MKV, MOV (MPEG4, H.264),
MTS, TP, TS

I think the only thing it does not play that I could find was VC-1 which was the codec for HD-DVD's. Oh well...



And it fits in the palm of your hand for 99 bux. However before you throw down the plastic, keep in mind you have to provide a flash drive or hard drive with content on it for it to play stuff. So until I get a really good 1TB hard drive, I'm going to use a 32GB flash drive i got at Frys for about 40 bucks. It has 2 usb slots for multiple drives.

So now I have this player, how do you get your DVDs and other crap on it? Easy, but it takes a bit of planning, experimenting and time to convert you DVDs. All your other stuff like Windows media files, AVI's or home movies you might have on a hard drive, just transfer them to the drive you want to use with the Media Player and you are good to go.



No for DVD's... I'm a Mac person, but this program is available for PC peeps too. It's called Handbrake, and it's free! Handbrake will rip your DVD's and then compress them into tiny files that look almost identical to your original DVD. For instance say I have a copy of Iron Man. Let's say the Standard Def DVD is about 7GB. Handbrake will create a mp4 file of the same movie in a 1GB file. How is this possible you ask? Well the greatness of h.264 compression. DVD's are creeping up on 15 years old now. And the tech in them is MPEG2 compression. Handbrake uses h.264 to rearrange that ancient stuff into a similar file but h.264 uses much less space than 90's MPEG2. It ditches a lot of useless 90's compression info. This is the same stuff Apple uses for Quicktime and Apple TV and ipod and iphone movies. So its not that new either.



Now that I've got my DVD compressed into a tiny file, I was concerned about menus, audio commentaries, and other bonus features on the DVD. To my knowledge there is not a way yet to get the menu structure and all that stuff working, but in Handbrake there is something called .MKV files that act as a container for those MP4 files. So now I can compress the movie, multiple audio streams and subtitles all in the same container (MKV). And once played back, on the HD Media player I can select this audio stream or another one. Same with subs or chapter stops. (Although I have yet to get the chapter stops to work on all titles....)



The HD media player has HDMI out so it supports full 1080P output. the menus on the screen are very similar to a PS3 or Sony menu layout. It's pretty simple. You can create folders to sort TV shows and movies and personal home movies. So what does this all mean? It means you can now throw your own movies, and home movies, you tubes, email videos all on your portable hard drive or Flash sticks, and boom you have all your videos ready to go, just like a tivo would. And best of all this saves shelve space if you don't want to have all those pesky discs laying all over the place. You don't have go get the disc load it, wait for FBI warnings, trailers, ads, etc. It builds your library as you want it. So think of this as a giant ipod for your videos.

Now you're probably thinking but hey what about Blu-ray discs. Oh it goes there, but I have yet to get a Blu-Ray computer drive for that. But Art has, and he has done it, and the results are amazing. So that will be my Part 2 of this article. Stay tuned!

Licence to Restore

This is a documentary on the Dr. No Blu-ray about all the extensive restoration they are doing on the James Bond movies they are releasing on Blu-Ray. I watched Dr. No last night and it was amazing. It looked like it was shot yesterday. Anyway this documentary was really insightful about restoring older films. I got to work as an archivist on some old film footage at Channel 5 when I was working there. Cleaning it by hand, and restoring it digitally was a real experience and this documentary reminded me of how important film restoration is.

Muchos Gracias!

Many thanks to all the emails and comments about my short film, "The Farm". I really appreciate it and I visited my Grandfather in the nursing home yesterday afternoon and shared all the great comments with him. At 95, he is very thrilled to be in another film, and in his words at 95 he is happy to be anywhere! I am currently working researching and writing a new project which I am super excited about doing. So stay tuned...

Trailer: Black Dynamite

My hommie, Cedrick has a part in this crazy ass movie that just sold to Sony for a cool 2 million at Sundance. As a fan of Dolemite, this makes me smile...

WARNING this is the Red Band trailer, so it has the good stuff in it.

NBS Nightly News Report

Now this is way too friggin cool!

The Farm

The Farm (HD) from Atombomb.tv on Vimeo.

Over the Christmas break, my good friend and fellow filmmaker Jason Todd Hampton encouraged me to make a short film. I must admit that I couldn't get behind anything quality that we could weave in and around the holiday travels and events. So I thought how much we both enjoyed shooting nature, having enjoyed such programs as Planet Earth and Sunrise Earth. So instead of doing a comedy as originally planned, I decided to head out to my Grandfather's Ranch of which we refer to as The Farm. We shot all day until the sun came down on us. We hiked all over about 200 acres in a pattern similar to that of which my Grandfather and I often walked when I stayed out there. In fact you might call this short film a sequel or re-imagining of a my very first film, Farm: The First Documentary I made in 1987.



I took the footage we shot and set it to some music, and even though to me it was compelling, it may not mean much to anyone outside of my family. I discussed with Jason about going out to the nursing home to film my Grandfather talking about the Farm, but something about that seemed like it would take away from the imagery. So I found my old VHS tape of my Grandfather narrating my original '87 documentary and digitized those. The voice over was in pretty bad shape. I mean I think I used a two dollar Radio Shack microphone for the recording session in the back of the house. After listening to the track, there was something interesting about the contrast between the cracky audio and the HD imagery. So I used Soundtrack Pro to clean the audio up a wee bit, and merged the two elements into this experimental short film. In fact its more of a mediation than anything else. It's not for everyone, but it was something organic that just kind of needed to be made for some reason. I hope you enjoy it as much as I had fun discovering it...

Head over to ATOMBOMB.TV to watch it in Standard Def or in big time HD by clicking on the HD icon on the movie window. Or you can watch it above in Standard Def. Crank your sound up too because its a pretty quiet film.

Ong Bak 2: Electric Bakaloo!

Lookie lookie, it's an Ong Bak 2 trailer. Kick Ass!

REVIEW: My Bloody Valentines (old and new)

To 3-D or not 3-D. That was the question Saturday night as we took a quest out to the local cinema to see the new horror opus, My Bloody Valentine 3-D. But let's back up a bit and look at the original film produced in in 1981 and directed by George Mihalka. I think I saw this in a TV edit, a long time ago. I quickly dismissed it then, and never really though of it as a slasher classic by any means, so I was a bit taken a back that they wanted to remake this sucker. In the original a little mining town is cursed after some minors are left to die in a collapsed mine on Valentine's Day. One miner escapes named Harry Warden. Ticked off at any attempt to celebrate Valentine's Day again old Mr. Warden seems to return to town ten years later to wreak havoc amongst the kiddies again. Or does he? Halloween anyone? Basically this is a typical 80's slasher clone revolving around a teenage love triangle. The one thing that sets this movie apart was for me the appearance of the killer. The mining suit is quite scary and used very effectively in both this version and even more so in the updated 3-D version, which we will get to later. Now I rented the new director's cut of the original because the old R-rated version had 9 minutes of gore cut out. That's a lot MPAA! So this new version on dvd from Lions Gate gives you the option of playing both the original and uncut versions. I can't say the old version is anything of a buried treasure. The mine getup is very scary here, and this version spends a lot more time in the mining tunnels which is something the remake could have learned from.



My Bloody Valentine 3-D is the remake out in theaters now. I really wanted to see this to experience the new Real D technology I had heard about. It sounded like it could be fun. The plot is pretty much the same, they just updated things and re-arranged the characters to throw off fans of the original. There is a lot of nudity and lot of gore, and tons of Harry Warden. And really the Warden character and the creepy tunnels are the main reason to see this movie other than the 3-D. This movie is more a return in tone to the Scream and I Know What you (and your cleavage) Did Last Summer flicks from the 90's. But at the same time it does have some good old fashioned 80's style gore effects. Director Patrick Lussier who is Wes Craven's editor in his free time, does a nice job with the director's duties making a much slicker film than the original. Jaimie King and Jensen Ackles play the main leads and do a serviceable job here.



Now on to the 3-D. I loved it. I wish it was on a bigger screen, so you can get more immersed in it, but I thought it was fun as hell. The depth was really amazing, and as far as the things flying out at you, it was so-so. The light on Harry Warden's mining hat was very spooky. And the 3-D in the tunnel system was outstanding. Stay through the end credits and you'll see even more of what I'm talking about. The movie though, is pretty forgettable. And please no more CG body parts being thrown at me. I didn't buy the effects there. Overall I had a good time, and although its still early in the game for 3-D, you can see it's coming, and it will only be a matter of time before we are all walking around the house in giant grandma glasses waiting to see Star Wars 55 in 3-D. If you like 3-D and bad 80's remakes then you can't go wrong with this one.

The Vacation Film Festival Blowout

OK, so this vacation I decided to really relax and take it easy, get some exercise, travel, and watch a crap load of movies that have been stacked up for ages. I made some progress, so here is a quick review of everything I watched. Starting with the Documentaries:



Confessions of a Superhero
Great documentary about the crazies that dress up as super heroes or celebrities in front of Mann's Chinese Theater in Hollywood. It mostly focuses on four people who dress as Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, and the Hulk. Some of them are struggling actors and some of them are just plain mental patients. Highly recommended.



Cocaine Cowboys:
Another terrific documentary that will captivate you from second one. This doc chronicles the late 70's and early 80's drug wars in Miami. This is the real deal and not Crocket and Tubbs. The characters are real and very dangerous and maybe someday they can make a movie based on this and not something like Scarface, who one of the murderers says was not accurate. He said they were more insane than that!

Sicko:
I used to dig Michael Moore, but his shtick has grown very very tired. His docs are less and less like docs now but more like comedy routines that try to make him look like Mr. Funny and Gee how great am I for showing people these things. Roger and Me and Columbine were great docs, and parts of Fahrenheit 911 were too, but its getting old dude.

Autism: The Musical
This is about a mother of an adopted kid with Autism and her class of autistic kids that decide to put on a musical to show off their talents. Through the course you learn about each kids problems and plights. Some of the mothers are a bit on the crazy side and things begin to melt down hours before the performance as egos begin take over. I had heard some good things about this doc, but nothing really captured my attention.

The Road to Guantanamo:
A 2006 doc about three guys arrested for being part of Al Queda when in fact they were on their way to a wedding for a good friend. Upon arriving he went missing and in the search in finding him they get thrown into the 911 throw down and are mistaken for terrorists and spend several years in prison and wind up in Guantanamo. I liked the story of this movie, but since they had no footage of any of this , they went back and tried to recreate it intermixed with the real guys interviews. The reacted stuff bothered me so much that I had a hard time really feeling this. But like I said the story itself is very good.




Harlan County USA:
This is an older doc on Criterion disc from Barbara Kopple that I've always heard about but could never find. It details the efforts of coal miners strikes in Harlan County against "The Man". These strikes go on for a year or so and get quite intense. The greatest thing about this doc is the way its done. You can tell this director went all out and became of these minors. Every aspect is detailed from the strike to family life. It is literally like being a fly on the wall. Highly recommended.



Baraka
8K transfer bitches! This is the sharpest Blu-ray disc on the Earth. Ron Frickes 92 film is much like Cronos the Imax movie and Koyanskatsi. The images are breathtaking and mind blowing in 1080p. This film was shot in 65mm, and transferred frame by frame at 8K res. Most films are done in 4K. There is also a great documentary on the disc about the making of not just the movie but the restoration as well. Amazing stuff that can only be seen with the best Blu-ray tech.

I watched a few more that were not worth mentioning, so let's move on to some narratives:




The Promotion:
Starring Sean Williams Scott and John C. Reilly I really fell for this comedy. Scott plays a guy who works as a grocery store manager who is hoping to get a big promotion from corporate, when John C. Reilly is brought in from Canada to help run the store, and he too is up for the same promotion. The rest may seem predictable and formulaic but this is different in that takes some really interesting dramatic turns but is still really funny while remaining true to life. Which is probably why it pretty much went straight to video. Check this one out for sure. I usually hate anything with Scott in it, but he administered the shocker to me on this one.




Talk to Me:
A Biopic of DJ Petey Greene. This movie tells the story of convict Greene played nicely by Don Cheadle who upon getting out of prison attempts to or insists on being a disc jockey. Music soon takes a backseat to his ability to talk to the people of Detroit and once the assassination of Martin Luther King happens he finds himself as a person who can bring people together. However Green just wants to BS on the air and a TV show and Johnny Carson appearance begin to reveal that Green is not comfortable in his hero role at all and begins a path so self destruction that leaves his manager played by Chiwetel Ejiofor to become a famous DJ when Green leaves the game. I liked this movie as I learned a few more things about Green I didn't know. Most of my knowledge of him comes from his association with Howard Stern. Stern cites him as an inspiration for his own show. Recommended.




Last King of Scotland:
Forrest Whitaker has come a long way since Fast Times. And newcomer James McAvoy was equally great in this amazing film about Ugandan dictator Idi Amin. I even think the movie could of been even longer and better has it expanded upon some of Amin's crimes. This one is a keeper for those of you who have not seen it.

Paranoid Park:
Gus Van Sant returns to his native Portand, OR roots to make another experimental film this time incorporating some thriller/noir elements in a movie that left me pretty empty. I appreciate what he was going for with he realistic treatment of characters and stuff. But I didn't really learn much from this that I didn't already know. Skater kids are depressed and it rains a lot in Oregon, which makes them pine for the return of grunge music so everyone can be sad together. Not Van's worst movie by far but not his greatest. Hey at least its not Gerry! I will give props to the cinematography by my hero Christopher Doyle who does some really pretty work on a no budget.




Perhaps Love:
This is a blu-ray i picked up on import because the director Peter Chan made a really oool movie called Comrades Almost a Love Story a few years back I really dug. So this one won a crap load of HK awards, and its a musical. What could go wrong? And while make no mistake the imagery in this is breathtaking especially in 1080p on Blu, but in the end I found the film to be overly sentimental and I had checked out at about half time.




Half Nelson:
This is not The Wrestler Part 2. Ryan Gosling plays this high school history teacher in the ghetto in what we think might be Dangerous Minds or some shit, but ends up being Bad Lieutenant goes to High School. It seems our inspirational teacher has a really bad drug problem. Heck he even gets high in the girls locker room! All fin aside this is a really good movie and shows that in the hood black, white, green whatever, all have struggles. And every day is a fight to find something left to fight for. The movie never comes out and says that, you have to find it. Check this one out.

Hancock:
Great first half and really unfocused second half. I wonder if there is a mystery cut of this film floating around somewhere... Recommended for fun.




The Proposition:
This is an intense Western that pulls no punches when it comes to violence. Guy Pierce stars in a Australian western that would kill Baz Luhrman then Skull F his Australia movie for fun. Its that crazy. This is about a lawman that captures the younger brother of a notorious outlaw and threatens to kill him unless he kills his even more notorious older brother outlaw. This is a great movie that must have been overlooked which is too bad. Seek it.

Redbelt:
A David Mamet movie about Mixed Martial Arts. Well mediocre Mamet is better than Grade A other stuff I guess, but I have high expectations with things saying Mamet, so I was slightly disappointed. And please dude stop putting your wife in your movies. Does she have some sex video of you and a small animal?




Diving Bell and the Butterfly:
OK hands down this was the best film I saw over vacation marathon. This is the amazing story of Elle magazine editor, Jean-Do in a staggering performance by Mathieu Amalric who had a stroke that left him paralyzed to the point where he only had the use of one eye to blink. He along with a nurse developed a communication system based on winking that enabled him to write a book about his life before he passed on. Flashbacks aside this film is told mainly from the POV of his one eye which puts the viewer in situations beyond their control much like he was. The cinematography here by Spielberg DP Janusz Kaminski is amazing. I hope this comes out on Blu really soon. This is a story about a life of regret and a man unable to express it to the ones he loves. But somehow he finds that way. REALLY RECOMMENDED!



In Bruges:
Great thriller with Colin Farrel as an assassin who has a hit go horrible wrong hiding out in Bruges with a fellow assassin. Things get a bit crazy, midgets get involved and fat Americans provide a lot of laughs in this great little thriller, that I would like to watch again. Farrel is very good here, and the film within the film being shot in Bruges is also a neat device that works in well with the plot. Check it out!




Boarding Gate
Ah. Asia Argento. You had me at A. This is a story about Asia who kills her crazy ass criminal businessman boyfriend Michael Madson, (who actually acts in this one) and is on the run in Hong Kong the rest of the time trying to not get knocked off by her other criminal boyfriend. This is pretty much a arty chase film with amazing photography by French director Oliver Assias who did Irma Vep with Maggie Chueng. Asia does a great job here and this film is a good one for a rainy day that is really just a bunch of amazing images intersected with boring dialog scenes.

Fatal Contact:
Abysmal Hong Kong fighting movie. Really bad. Bad.




Trafic:
Very entertaining Jacque Tati movie that suffers from a bit of being too long. This time Tati takes his act on the road mixing up all sorts of madcap sight gags while trying to get from one place to another for a car show. If you are into Tati, this one is quite fun.

Dog Bites Dog:
Another Hong Kong action movie that tries to eliminate dialog and create a visual tour de force action movie with limited speaking. Unfortunately the story is a bit of a leap of faith, and if you don't buy in it won't grab you much. And I'm in that category here. Skip.

Star Wars: Clone Wars
F Lucas.




Snow Angels:
Very depressing character drama from Director David Gordon Green. Sam Rockwell and Kate Beckinsale are divorced with a little girl who one day goes missing, setting off a series of unfortunate events in a sleepy little town of sleepy characters looking for some purpose in a very sad limited universe. Both Rockwell and Beckinsale give great performances. The very ending is quite a shocker, and really took me off guard. I don't know if it was the perfect ending, but it did make me think. So I guess it worked.

The Notebook:
I'm not going to review this because I'm the last one on Earth who has not seen it. Suffice to say I liked it, but thought the core story could of done without the current day sentimental overkill.




Wanted:
This movie really took me off guard. I liked both Nightwatch and Daywatch, Timur Bekmambetovthe's previous Russian films, but at the end of the day I found them both pretty empty. Wanted however is really fun. I'm not familiar with the comic book its based on, but it had a great comic feel to it, so I hope its a faithful adaptation. Jolie and McAvoy make a good team and the rest of the cast are equally fun. Its a totally insane premise but for whatever reason it works and its a very entertaining film, that for once they make a sequel, cause I "wanted" more.




The Protector:
Tony Jaa stars as a dude who wants his stolen elephant back. He goes to Australia and kicks some serious ass. I watched the US cut of this, and I should of watched the international cut instead, because the editing is horrendous and the music is god awful. This is no Ong Bak folks. In fact it could be Rumble in the Bronx 2. Do all the punks in Australia and Vancouver seem stuck in an 80's Michael Jackson video? Fights are good in spots and if you like Tony Jaa, you will dig it.

Flight of the Conchords 2nd Season Premiere!

Season 2 Online Premiere - Flight of the Conchords (US Only) - watch more funny videos

My Dad has a Blog!

Holy crap the apocalypse is near, my dad has a blog now! My dad is a retired professional photographer who as of last year finally put his big Nikon away and got a digital camera. So I set him up a blog where he can post his digital photos. His website is www.davesdigitalphotos.blogspot.com

REVIEW: Flags of our Fathers and Letters From Iwo Jima

Wow and Wow are the first two things that come to mind in describing the greatness that Clint Eastwood's two films I watched on Blu-ray the other night. I guess the best way to review these are to review them together since in essence they are one story told from opposites sides of WWII. Flags details the US perspective of the Iwo Jima invasion. The battle scenes are intense, but in a very realistic and classic sense of filmmaking. There is nothing showy about Eastwood's directorial style. He composes his films like classical music. They have structure and layers that is such a lost and necessary art in Hollywoodland these days. Unlike Saving Private Ryan's brilliant flurry of high shutter speed violence, Flags and Iwo take there time so that you feel the impending doom of these characters. The one flaw I would lay on the Flags battle scenes is that at times its difficult to follow who is who on the battlefield, but that is a minor quip in an otherwise masterpiece of modern cinema.



Once Fathers gets going past Iwo Jima we follow the tale of three solders who survived the battle and were captured raising the flag in that famous photograph. But we soon learn a nasty lesson in US Government PR, that the three guys that raised the flag were actually raising the replacement flag because the original flag was taken down hours after it was raised so that a general could have it as a souvenir to hang in his living room after the war. Sad but true. The film follows the lives of those three men as they were rushed back to the states to go on tour to promote the war by selling war bonds. The US used these guys as heroes to promote the war as win able, yet the men themselves were living a lie day in and day out. The ending coda for some of these men are very sad as their lives post war were quite sad. I was really taken with Flags not so much as a war movie but on a psychological level it has a fascinating structure about how war is promoted to the public and how the casualties of that war linger forever.



Letters From Iwo Jima doesn't do much to lighten up the party, as this film now sees the invasion of Iwo jima from the Japanese perspective which was an idea producer Spielberg thought might be interesting to do during pre-production on Flags and Eastwood agreed and shot them both at the same time. This film follows the lives of a general and his men preparing for the landing of the US troops on the island. Unlike the US soldiers who were told they would be coming back from the war as heroes, the Japanese men were told that they were not coming back. So its interesting to see the different mindsets that poses on the battlefield. The General and the men know that they can't win, so they go into the battle purely just trying everything they can to survive one day after another and prolong death one day at a time. The film also details some of the US soldiers who see taken capture in Flags but we don't know what happened to them. We discover here that some of them were treated well and with honor.



The young Japanese soldiers see reflections of themselves in a particular prisoner and the general played by the genius of Ken Wantanbe speaks English and spent time in America is able to read some of the prisoners letters to his Mom to the troops. Some of the letters he is writing are exactly those thoughts and feelings that they have. All of the solder's write their families letters thinking that they are being sent home, when in fat they are all going a big bag. Towards the end of the film as the Americans are overtaking the caves and underground bunkers, a Japanese solider buries the letters in the cave. Later in a scene showing real explorers in the caves they are found. Both films detail the honor both sides had for their country and that in reality there was not a winning side with the thousands of men that lost their lives. They were all just young men 18 to 20 years old fighting alternate versions of themselves when every one of them wanted to be at home with their loved ones. These two films are both an amazing testament to the talent that Clint Eastwood is as a director. He is turning out films in his 70's that filmmakers in their prime will never match. Having said that where can I get a ticket to see Grand Torino right now? In all seriousness I know I am late to the party on these two films, but you must see them if you have not. They are modern day classics. Oh and an apology to Kevin F, because I told him we would watch these and I went off and did on my own. My bad. I will gladly watch them again!

Where Christmas Happens

Where Christmas Happens... from Atombomb.tv on Vimeo.

Amy and i did a little spoof of all those NBA Where Amazing Happens spots on TV, to use as our Christmas video for everyone. Hope you guys like it and Happy Holidays to everyone. Click HERE to see the original commercial we were spoofing. There are 50 of those things out there. Happy Holidays to everyone!

Zu the Cat Packaging Superstar!

We are proud of our little Zu Warrior being the face of Home 360 cat food! Go Zu!

Playing the Blog Catchup Game

I am sorry for not updating any sooner, but since I last posted things got crazy busy at work and at home. So I'll pick up about a month ago on my last post. I did attend the Lone Star Film Festival in Downtown Fort Worth on that Friday. I tried to make it back out for some of the shorts and another feature but could not. So here are my mini reviews of what I have seen either at home or at the movies:

Let the Right One In (2008)



I was a bit disappointed that the screening for this movie was from a DVD and not a film print. This was very frustrating considering its currently in distribution around the States. However that aside, the film itself is among my favorites of the year. It's about a young boy, Oscar who befriends a new neighbor girl, Eli who seems as lonely and odd as he is. One difference is the new neighbor is a vampire. Now, for me vampire movies have been done to death. If you are able to breath life into that dead genre you have done something special, and this film is special. It's very slow paced and that was a welcome change from the MTV cutting style of recent vampire trite. The look and feel of the film is cold, inside and out. You want to start a fire while watching it. It feels like a Ikea vampire movie the way the Sweedish film moves along in a very neat and comfy fashion. I thought the performance of Eli by Lina Leandersson was particulary spot on as she toes the gender line of boy/girl/vampire. I have heard that in the book the gender issue is more a topic than the film where its dealt with and disposed of quickly. This is a great little vampire film that I think stays with you both visually and emotionally. Director Tomas Alfredson visual style oozes over you like a great painting from shot to shot. And of course if its a good unique piece of work it is being remade for illiterate US audiences that can't read subtitles. See the original!

12 (2007)



This is a Russian film that is essentially a remake of sorts of Sidney Lumet's 12 Angry Men. 12 jurors must decide the fate of a Chechen teenager charged with murdering his stepfather. Directed by Nikita Mikhalkov with a very strong character oriented visual style, the film never gets boring despite its 2 and half hour running time. The story within the story is not as compelling as the ones in the jury room. And in fact I guess it may be a little more compelling if I knew a bit more of the history of the Chechen/Russian history. But for dramas sake it was all very fascinating. If you are a fan of courtroom drama and that sort of thing, then this is an excellent film. Starting off the film every one but one feel the boy is guilty of murder, then one by one each begin to change there mind as they reconstruct the case in the basketball gym where they are held up using props to imagine how the murder may have happened. It was all very well done and not disrespectful to Lumet's original masterwork.

So here is some rapid fire thoughts on stuff I watched on dvd/blu recently:

Reno 911: Season 1
Awesome! Can't wait for season 2

The Sopranos: Season 6 (final season)
Sad, that the epic is over, but wow what an accomplishment for David Chase. I would retire now and never make anything again.

Hellboy 2
The blu-ray rules! The 2plus-hour documentary about the making of the film is worth the price of the disc. Del Toro rules.

Zodiac
I really wanted to flip out over David Fincher's new film, but as much as I liked it, it left me wanting more, and not in a good way. Still very recomended for the performances and directing. Also on a tech note, this is Finchers first film to be totally digital HD.

Incredible Hulk
Another blu-ray that I love. This film has gotten better with each repeated viewing. Highly recommended.

Dark City: Director's Cut
This blu-ray of a new cut of Dark City is really fun if your a fan of this film. I thought the film holds up really well over time and I still had a blast watching it.

Indiana Jones and the Raping of my Generation
Ok, thats not the title to the film, but it might as well be. There is some fun stuff, but George Lucas managed to mess up a movie with monkeys in it. You know why? Cause they are digital! You BASTARD!



Planet of the Apes: Blu-ray box set
This is heaven. Pure heaven. Will review more extensiviely later.

The Universe: Season One (blu)
This is great if you're a space junkie like me. Its like taking a Astronomy class refresher course. Good stuff and Highly recommended.

Wall-E
Best Pixar movie yet, for me anyway. I really dug the hell out of this movie. Pixar is a magical place.

X-Files: I Want to Believe
I wanted to believe I was watching something else. Enjoyed the return of the characters, but the movie sucks.

Transiberian
I really liked this movie by Brad Anderson (Session 9) This is about a couple who find themselves in a middle of a gangster ordeal while on a train in a very cold place.

The Fall
Tarsem (The Cell) directs this fantasy film that is unbelievable to look at it. Every shot is elegantly composed, however a good movie it is not...

Bruce Lee Plays Ping Pong

I know I'm late to the party on this one, but if you have not seen this, enjoy....


Bruce Lee Plays Ping Pong with Nunchuks - The funniest videos are a click away

Lone Star International Film Festival Part Deux

Hey this came up so fast it almost passed me by! Come by the Lone Star Film festival in downtown Ft. Worth this weekend and see some great flicks. Here is a LINK to the website and you can see all the films. I'm going to see "12" and "Let the Right One In" tonight at the Palace.

Storm Chasers

I was going to write a post about how bad Heroes and Smallville are this year, but most of you probably already know this if you've seen them. So let's focus on some positive programming... And that is The Discovery Channel's show Storm Chasers now in its second season. This is a documentary show following around two groups of storm chasers looking to "intercept" a tornado for scientific research and for footage for an Imax film. the Imax camera truck is a tank that locks into the ground because the cameraman wants to drive the tankcam into the actual tornado to get footage of being inside the twister. Last season they came up short, and this year is not off to the best of starts. Yes these people are nuts.

Then there is a new group this year from Oklahoma that chase storms solely for the footage to sell to news stations and other outlets. There is a crazy competition between these two teams which is great to watch. If you like weather watching, this is a great show to get addicted to. Think of this as "Twister" the series but it's for real. Highly recommended.

An Article of Me

Mike Price is a guy whose movie reviews in the Fort Worth Star Telegram I grew up reading and respecting. As I got older I discovered his talent in the wide world of comic books starting with his Carnival of Souls adaptation. As a pimple faced loser I went to the Comic Shop get the comic autographed by him and fellow Telegram critic Todd Camp. I mentioned that I was a "screenwriter" and he graciously started accepting my really bad horror movie scripts. And I mean they were bad... To my shock he has actually kept them. He may be the only one with copies of them in existence! So I was quite honored that he chose me to write an article on for the Fort Worth Business Press. You can read all the action by clicking HERE.

REVIEW: Inland Empire

I love David Lynch. Not many filmmakers operate on his level. I put off seeing Inland Empire for quite some time now. I was trying to pick the right night, the right mood, etc. For his latest film, Inland Empire Lynch abandoned his elaborate 35mm past and embraced the technology of DV. Actually in this case he took many years with making it, so even in the time he made it, technology has improved to a point where this film looks dated tech wise. In fact if I'm not mistaken I think he used the tiny Sony PD150 DVCAM. Now if you are a big Lynch devotee as I am you are aware that Lynch is more than just a filmmaker he is a film artist and Inland takes this to a new extreme. Gone are the lush colorful wide shots of panavision and in their place are desaturated extreme close ups with handheld cameras operated most of the time by Lynch himself. Just thinking aloud for a moment maybe Lynch thought to himself that he had pushed the boundaries of his previous style that it was time to go the opposite direction. Style wise he has succeeded, content wise we are back in very Lynchian territory. And thank the Lord for that!



Inland focuses on an actress, Laura Dern who is cast in a film with a handsome leading man in a film they believe is an original screenplay. During the making of the film they learn that the film is in fact a remake of a Polish film that was never completed because the the two leads were murdered. The film was thought to have a gypsy curse attached to it. At a point Dern, enters a very familiar Lynchian dark void on the sound stage where they are filming and crosses over into a mirrored version of her reality. The film and what we believe was reality has merged. This falls into the same doppelganger style that dominated Twin Peaks, Lost Highway, and Mullholand Drive. Lost Highway is maybe my favorite Lynch film. For me it's his grim masterpiece. There are moments in Inland that really got to me. The flashlight sequence for one is quite unnerving in an erotic way that only Lynch can serve up. The music of course is always great for a Lynch film. This is without a doubt Dern's movie. Supporting cast includes Jeremy Irons, Harry Dean Stanton, and Grace Z. Lynch again does his own sound design, and the DVD gives you multiple mix options to enjoy.



Inland Empire is a way too long though. It's never boring mind you, but you feel like as with this new DV technology he's pushing he also pushed the boundaries of its running time. And that's too bad because he paints a very wonderful idea here. I was very excited being a fan of DV that Lynch was doing this. But during it there were shots made for film. Dark voids and whatnot don't look good on video. I was longing for some 35mm or better grade of DV in the form of HD. I think other filmmakers like Mike Figgis have transitioned to video a little better. Inland has its own style and mood, and you either accept it or don't. I enjoyed the ride and can't wait for what's next for Mr. David Lynch.