Off to Comic-con ‘09 for the weekend, shall return shortly.
Off to Comic-con
July 23rd, 2009 by CrapCoilhouse #3: Now For Sale
July 17th, 2009 by Crap
Being the only magazine I’ve purchased in the last decade or so, definitely excited. Just put in an order myself and am eagerly waiting for it to reach my doorstep. Plenty of interesting features this time around as well. An interview with Ron Moore of Battlestar Galactica, Kowloon Walled City, and of course plenty of articles featuring extremely intriguing artists such as Gustavo Lopez Mañas, who’s work graces this issue’s cover.
Follow the link below to see a tour of this issue and also to place an order:
Big Trouble In Little China: Oriental Absurdity and Transnationalism
July 15th, 2009 by Crap
John Carpenter has been and always will be a familiar name to cinephiles and even the casual movie-goer. Often times he has been conveniently placed into the confining label of a cult director who gets his chops from making senseless B-grade entertainment. Films known more for their outlandish style, one-liners, and quirky characters more so then any semblance of artistic merit, auteurship, or clever commentary.
Though for any individual with half a brain, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Films such as Halloween or The Thing held such artistry and weight behind them, that even today they have been burned into the cultural psyche as everlasting memes. Even cult favorites such as They Live abundant with its nonsensical one liners like “I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass… and I’m all out of bubblegum” are still popularly remembered for its blatant social commentaries.
Regardless, there has always been one film that stood out in Carpenter’s prolific filmography, and the very one that established the man as a true auteur in my book but has often been sadly misrepresented. Big Trouble In Little China has if anything, remained as a cultural meme more for its laughable absurdity and seemingly offensive portrayal of Chinese culture. The sad fact of the matter is, I found myself confronted more then once in college by scholarship that hammered in the idea that Big Trouble was part of a huge consortium or succession of film that relegated Asian culture to mere exoticism. Films like The Golden Child, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and First Yank into Tokyo for example, made liberal use of this orientalism and a tradition of yellowface.
Big Trouble In Little China on the other hand, could arguably be one of the greatest films to confront this misrepresentation of Asian culture and provide highly relevant criticism of US policies in context to an ever increasing transnationalist playing field. A sense of globalism and border breakdown which is ever so present today, especially in the face of a dwindling US economy, and an ever increasing China superpower.
Warehouse 13 Premieres on the newly dubbed SyFy
July 8th, 2009 by Crap
Yesterday saw the official transition of the Sci-Fi Channel to its newly dubbed moniker SyFy, which to some seemed like a strange move. This late in the game, a whole network name change seems to open questionable motives. People have already talked about it extensively months ago so I won’t get into the typography and what not, only that it does seemingly fit the already shifting emphasis away from “sci-fi” to a more holistic set of programming. Could be a bad or good thing really, the bad being those horrendous Sci-Fi original slasher flicks, and the good being new shows that really stretch the confines of science fiction but have no place on a more regular primetime network.
Korean Cinema Today Vol. 1
June 22nd, 2009 by Crap
The KOFIC recently released the first volume of Korean Cinema Today. It covers everything from Cannes, to economic and cultural trends, as well as a few more specified features. Both Thirst and Mother are included extensively as well as a look back at pas directors such as Lee Man-Hee.
Best of all, like most of the KOFIC publications this one is completely free and available for download as a pdf. Just follow the link below.
Nine versus 9
June 21st, 2009 by Crap
I don’t know what the deal is with 200″9″ and films seemingly coinciding with this numerical value. This year we are getting both Nine and 9. The latter of which sees a release date of 9/9/09. How clever….
Nine is the next travesty of a film by choreographer turned Oscar-winning director Rob Marshall. I can’t honestly understand why this man keeps getting projects, not to mention racking up Academy Awards in the process. Chicago was less than stellar and Memoirs of a Geisha was utter trash in addition to being downright offensive.
As for Nine, the project itself seems of questionable value as well. We have a film adaptation of the musical adaptation of the canonical film 8½ by Federico Fellini. So an adaptation of an adaptation. Needless to say, 8½ is an amazing film. This project, not so much at least from who is involved and the released trailer.
On the other hand, 9 is looking mighty intriguing. Produced by Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov, it is a feature length adaptation of Shane Acker’s awarding winning short of the same name. It has some great visuals and bears some resemblance to Burton’s own works such as Nightmare Before Christmas but instead infused with some steampunk flavorings.
The backdrop is definitely unique but admittedly the underlying narrative seems somewhat derivative. From the looks of the trailer, it seems the basic premise follows the “Seven Samurai” model which was more recently used in Pixar’s own Bug’s Life. Either way, definitely of interest and shall prove to be some nice eye candy.
Trailers after the break…
Essay Fail
June 16th, 2009 by Crap
courtesy of Epic Fail, comes this huge failure of a paper. The sad thing is, I’ve seen worse attempts at writing at the college level then this…..
MV to Neko Case’s “People Got A Lotta Nerve”
June 16th, 2009 by CrapNot sure how I missed this but from back in April, the video to Neko Case’s “People Got A Lotta Nerve“. Great track and some quirky animation from the talents of Paul and Julie Morstad. On a related note, Neko has announced a vinyl late Spring release for the Middle Cyclone LP. No updates on it so far but will be sure to pick it up when it does finally hit stores.
