45365 - available online until August 6th

45365 is an engrossing stream-of-consicousness documentary that follows a year or so in the life of a small Ohio town. I was lucky enough to see this as a volunteer screener at South by Southwest; the film later played the festival and won the festival's juried documentary feature award. It's available on the internet through SnagFilms (embedded above) until August 6 - catch it while you can.

"Crawford" & "Visioneers" just 99 cents each on Amazon VOD

Here's an evening of entertainment for under two bucks. Crawford and Visioneers are two great films and Amazon's renting them on their VOD system for just 99 cents each. Yes, I do work for the distributor but I wouldn't steer you wrong on this. Check them out.

Blatant plug: "Visioneers" on DVD

Whether you're a long-time fan or if your first introduction to Zach Galifianakis was in The Hangover, you've probably taken notice of this bearded comedian recently. I'm happy to say that my employer, B-Side Entertainment, has released Zach's new film Visioneers theatrically and on DVD.

Visioneers has been described a number of ways but "it's Brazil meets Office Space" is one of my favorites. (In my case it is also sufficient simply to say "it's got Judy Greer in it.") Here's a quick excerpt from the synopsis by Jason Buchanan at the All-Movie Guide:

First time feature filmmaker Jared Drake makes his directorial debut with this quirky black comedy set in the near future, and concerning a curious spike in cases of spontaneous human combustion. The Jeffers Corporation is the largest business in the history of mankind, and they got that way thanks to their strict philosophy of happiness through mindless productivity. But when people begin literally exploding due to unhappiness, Jeffers Corporation Level Three TUNT George Washington Winsterhammerman (Zach Galifianakis) begins to fear that his time will come sooner rather than later.

Interested? You can find a screening near you, host your own screening, buy the DVD on Amazon or at the web site, or rent it from Netflix. A hearty Jeffers salute to you for supporting Galifianakis, independent film, and me!

Memory lane: the Hoka Theater

Not my memory, but the memories of the residents of Oxford, Mississippi, where the Hoka once operated. A very cool retrospective of a time when theaters were often more than just a place you went to watch movies.

Sorry We're Open from Joe York on Vimeo.

D-Box motion seats - a review

Over at Slackerwood I've posted a quick review of the new D-Box motion seats that provide a new and moving (har) experience at the cinema. Frankly I think this is more exciting than 3-D projection but you'll have to decide for yourself when D-Box rolls into your town. So far only two theatrical releases have been given the D-Box treatment: Fast and Furious and Terminator: Salvation.

Read the review at Slackerwood.

The Fall of the House of Ackerman

Great article remembering Forrest J. Ackerman by Criterion's Brock Deshane. Apparently Ackerman's "Ackermansion" collection will be sold off by his estate a piece at a time.

Sadly, many of Forry’s prized possessions were sold or stolen over the years, and much of what’s left will be auctioned off on April 30 and May 1. Despite his steadfast efforts to do so, Ackerman never found a permanent home for his treasure (a portion of it can be viewed at Seattle’s Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame). The myriad of marvels to be sold this week include a monocle worn by Fritz Lang during the making of Metropolis (1926), prosthetic teeth from Lon Chaney Sr.’s makeup kit, and a first American edition of Dracula, signed by Bram Stoker, Bela Lugosi, and Christopher Lee.

I met Mr. Ackerman in 2002; we traded copies of each others' books. His: an elaborate, color-printed hardback tome. Mine: a small, text-heavy paperback on bad movies and the Hollywood stars who made them. He didn't seem to mind the disparity, in fact he seemed excited at the prospect of reading it. A

Read THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF ACKERMAN - From the Current.

Q&A with Chris Holland re: last night's Star Trek event

Q. So, you're a nerd. A geek, even. You love all that Star Trek crap.

A. Yes.

Q. And you live in Austin, TX?

A. Yes.

Q. But -- even though you pre-purchased a Fantastic Fest badge just so you could attend these sorts of things -- you didn't go to last night's screening of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan?

A. No.

Q. The one that turned out to be the sneak World Premiere of the new Star Trek film, which looks massively awesome and may well reboot the franchise for a new generation of fans?

A. Yes.

Q. And I understand Leonard "Spock" Nimoy was there in person to deliver the print of the new film?

A. Yes.

Q. So hundreds of your fellow geeks got to watch a crazy great new movie while you stayed home to watch TV with your wife?

A. Yes.

Q. Dude. You're getting old.

A. That's not a question, but . . . Yes.

Jean Claude Van-Damme confirms Universal Soldier 3

In a radio interview with Adam Carolla (see YouTube video below), JCVD confirmed the upcoming production of Universal Soldier 3, to be directed by John Hyams (The Smashing Machine, Rank) with his father Peter Hyams (Timecop, Capricorn One) on board as director of photography. There's some speculation that it will probably feature JCVD and Dolph Lundgren as cameos only and that it will jump straight to DVD. From the sounds of things, however, the script is still being massaged and we might yet get full-bore Van Damme and Lundgren -- and maybe a small theatrical release? Time will tell.

New Zealand has its own B-Fest: The Annual 24 Hour V Movie Marathon

From their press release:

Flying in the face of health professionals worldwide, New Zealand movie lovers are again being offered a chance to take part in a marathon that requires zero physical exertion but comes with a very real threat of dying.

The Annual 24 Hour V Movie Marathon returns for its ninth year and organiser Ant Timpson warns the sedentary participants, "that even though the marathon requires no cardio from attendees, they should never forget that death himself could be creeping up their leg during a movie."

Dr Royce Carruthers from Miskatonic University confirms Timpson's concern, "Research shows that movie marathoners are susceptible to blood clots, and in fact, one in eighty could experience deep vein thrombosis, especially if they are heavy smokers and are attending this movie marathon on a 747 thirty seven thousand feet in the air".

One regular attendee Steve Brough had this to say when confronted with a one in eighty chance of dying while watching a film at the marathon, "Well apart from cardiac arrest during sex, I can't think of a better way to die!"

The 24 Hour 'V' Movie Marathon offers adventurous audiences a mix of Blockbuster Premieres alongside some diabolical exploitation from the vault.

This year the Marathon is offering a 'Big Baby' ticket, one which cuts a break to those who fear death and want to arrive Sunday morning to just see approximately half the films for half the price. The only catch is that purchasers of the 'Big Baby' must wear a diaper and bib for the final 8 hours.

The 24 Hour Movie Marathon is presented with V energy drink , the long-term supporter of all things filmy in New Zealand.

If you happen to be reading this from New Zealand, you'll be pleased to note that there are two dates for the Marathon:

Auckland
Hollywood Cinema, Saturday Dec 6th, 2008

Wellington
Paramount Theatre, Saturday Dec 13th, 2008

Learn more at the Marathon web site.

The Lost Skeleton Returns Again!

Now here's a movie trailer release I can get behind: not one, but five teaser trailers for the sequel to The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra -- The Lost Skeleton Returns Again! If ever there were a film worthy of a sequel franchise, I believe this is the one. I especially love the bit with the aliens bickering about wasting time.

Check out all five trailers right now.

The horror: Watchmen movie trailer surfaces.

Don't get me wrong, I think this looks great. I'm a Watchmen fan from way back. But there's a world of difference between making a music video that recreates scenes from the graphic novel and making a convincing movie out of some pretty epic source material.

Watchmen is an intensely cerebral comic book largely about comic books. What kind of movie do you make out of that? I'm guessing it will be escapist garbage, but I'll reserve judgment until I see the final product. Nice eye candy, though.

Who watches the Watchmen trailer?

First evening with the Netflix Roku box

Netflix Roku box
Originally uploaded by stomptokyo

Last night Christina and I hooked up our new Netflix Roku box, which allows us to finally take advantage of the Netflix "Watch It Now" program. About 10% of the titles on Netflix are available to watch as streaming video for no additional cost on top of your regular DVD rental subscription. I'd never really used it before because it only worked with Windows PCs. Not only is my primary laptop a Mac (and I never could get it to work with my Windows XP machine), but I dislike watching video on my laptop for more than a few minutes. When I want to watch a movie or TV show, I want to take advantage of my couch and the nice TV set sitting in front of it.

Enter the Roku box, which hooks up to your TV and streams the video from your Netflix account over your wireless (or wired) home network. You have to add movies to your "instant watch" queue on your computer before they show up as selections on your Roku box, but I actually prefer it that way. Once you select a program, it takes about a minute to spin up the show and then you're watching. Since it's streaming, network interruptions could result in video stutters or straight-up stoppages. Over the 90 minutes or so that we watched a couple of different TV show episodes ("A&E Biography" and the pilot of the original "Battlestar Galactica"), however, we never noticed so much as a blip. Video quality varies depending on the speed of your network, but even though we got the medium-quality stream (2 pips out of 4 on the little quality meter that pops up), it looked more than passable. Better than Tivo's "basic" recording quality, and we watch TV at that quality all the time.

Setup was dead simple -- plug into TV, plug into wall, follow on screen instructions. I was done in about 10 minutes, including a system software update. It was the most painless install I've done of a home theater component ever.

There are a few minor down sides, but I don't think they're deal breakers by any means. First, it's yet another box to hook up to your TV. But given the plethora of hookups most TVs come with these days that's less of a problem than it once was. Adding to the clutter problem, I can also see a time when I'm going to want to run an ethernet cable over to the TV to get higher quality video -- especially if HD content (which the box can handle) becomes available.

The Roku box's biggest problem is the dearth of content, which is annoying but not insurmountable. About 10% of the titles on Netflix are available on Watch it Now, and Netflix conveniently scans your DVD queue for the titles that are available to watch instantly. (You'll have to manage the queue of things you've seen manually so that you don't end up with a DVD in your mailbox that you've already seen on the Roku box.) The biggest rebuttal to this problem so far is that there's a ton of great TV content, including recent shows like Weeds and 30 Rock and classics like The Dick Van Dyke Show and a bunch of vintage Doctor Who episodes. If you've ever watched a series all the way through on DVD, devouring episodes like candy, the Roku box is for you. The ability to take a chance on something -- and bail consequence-free if it sucks -- is liberating. What's this? Knight Rider and The Hardy Boys Nancy Drew Mysteries?

For more on the Roku box, check out David Pogue's review in the New York Times.

We Wuz Robbed

I don't do politics much on this blog, but when Gabe Wardell blogged this I knew I had to share. It's Spike Lee's short film We Wuz Robbed.

We Wuz Robbed


I was a voter in Florida in 2000 and it still hurts. Regardless of your party affiliation, it was a huge mess that led to an even bigger mess. It's a period in our history of which I don't think any American can be proud. Hopefully we can do better in 2008.

I don't think I actually need to comment on this.

Day of the Dolphin
Originally uploaded by Grendel 72

But I will. Best. Movie Poster. Evar.

Indiana Jones & The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull in brief

Saw this tonight with a bunch of film fans at the Alamo South Lamar; the optimal viewing experience as far as I'm concerned.

I'm not sure where the backlash is coming from on this movie. If you had to make a 4th Indy movie, this would be about as good as you could do it. I really enjoyed myself, more for the spectacle and creep-out factor than for the acting -- everyone was great, but c'mon: giant ants! Heroes plummeting over waterfalls! Ancient ruins with intricate death traps! It's really all about the set pieces. Harrison Ford and Karen Allen still have great chemistry, and Cate Blanchett looks like she's having a ball. Shia Lebouf isn't who I'd pick as the heir to the hat, but he performs admirably.

The last 20 minutes are definitely the weakest, but by that time the flick has built up so much good will it's hard to find fault with much. Nothing can compare to the original Raiders of the Lost Ark, but Kingdom stands shoulder to shoulder with the latter two films, and we can all breathe a heavy sigh of relief. Finally, a return to a beloved franchise that doesn't completely blow chunks.

Concessions Speech

Dave Stinton at The Simon ruminates about the food he's eaten in movie theaters, and along the way produces this gem about B-Fest and the fact that food is against the rules. It's probably the greatest unenforced rule ever.

Technically, you’re not supposed to bring food into the theatre. But this rule is a quaint little relic that brings wistful smiles to the faces of audience members laden down with coolers. “There’s no outside food allowed in this room,” the host will announce, yelling to be heard over the rustles of hundreds of bags of Doritos.

Read more about B-Fest and the rest of Stinton's Concessions Speech.

Wall-E on the streets of LA

Wall-E Spotted in LA! from Blink on Vimeo.

Via Cabel.

Queenie in Trouble

The things filmmakers used to be able to get away with... this excerpt from Dogway Melody.



Thanks to Mitch O'Connell for bringing this to my attention, and for pointing me to some historical context as well.

Uwe Boll will stop directing if 1 million people ask him to.

Or so he says.

Sign the petition here - almost 73,000 signatures as of this writing.

You will be compelled to the edge of sight and sound.

Guess who went to Trailerthon tonight?

SxSW MADNESS!

If things have been a little quiet, it's because I'm swept up in the South By Southwest film festival. Check out the coverage over at Slackerwood and, for you filmmakers in the crowd, Film Festival Secrets.

Cult Movies Podcast Episode 51

"All The Glamour Hollywoood Can Muster." In this episode we talk about the Oscars, why we hate the Razzies, some summer movies, and the death of HD-DVD.

100 days, 100 movies and Film Festival Secrets.

As you probably know, Stomp Tokyo is currently in hibernation while Scott and I recharge our mental batteries. Back in November we decided it was time to formally acknowledge the fact that we were on a break from the b-movie biz and pursue the other projects on our plates.

Scott has reverted to type and is passing the time on his blog with a concept that is, admittedly, 100% Awesome: 100 days, 100 movies. In his own words:

My plan is to watch a movie a day for at least the next 100 days, and write something, however brief, on each one of them. Movie will mostly be on DVD, though I imagine I’ll get out to theater every now and again. There will also be a few digital download movies in there too.

For my part, I'm doing a bunch of writing on the small corner of the film world that has become my professional life: film festivals. After talking with hundreds of festival directors and staffers, I realized that every day they receive a deluge of questions from filmmakers -- the same questions, over and over again. And so I started the Film Festival Secrets blog with an eye towards answering those questions, eventually in the form of a book.

So now you're caught up on what we're up to at the moment. Look out, world -- it's gettin' crazy up in here.

Podcast Catch-up - new episodes

The last time I posted here about a new episode of Stomp Tokyo - the Cult Movies Podcast, it was November. If you don't subscribe to the podcast with an RSS reader you could be forgiven for thinking that Scott and I hadn't recorded anything since then. But how wrong you'd be! Here's a recap of the episodes since then:

Stomp Tokyo Podcast #47 - In another catch-up episode, we talk about HD DVD and new theater experiences, as well as No Country for Old Men and Cat O'Nine Tails.

Stomp Tokyo Podcast #48 - In this episode we discuss the WGA strike, HD-DVD, and Rambo. Featuring special guest and occasional Peter Cushing impersonator Freeman Williams.

Stomp Tokyo Podcast #49 - Subjects this time include Cloverfield, Slamdance, and B-Fest.

Stomp Tokyo Podcast #50 - We Always Shoot With a Steady Cam. Subjects include documentaries, Cloverfield, and In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale.

And there's another episode on the way, we're just editing it together. Enjoy!

The B-Masters Cabal Roundtable #25: The Ottoman Empire Strikes Back

The B-Masters are back with another roundtable, this time centered around Turkish ripoff cinema. I've long been in love with any movie prefaced by the words "The Turkish," so I'm sorry I missed participation in this particular roundtable.

Fortunately Scott was there to pick up the slack, even during Stomp Tokyo's sabbatical. His review of Badi (the Turkish version of E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial) stands proud (?) with the other reviews from the industrious members of the B-Masters Cabal -- watching crap so you don't have to.

Read The B-Masters Cabal » 25: The Ottoman Empire Strikes Back.

Just one more reason to love Diablo Cody

Diablo Cody, screenwriter of Juno, posted this pic to her blog the other day. (Click to reveal.)

That blog, by the way, is over at MySpace.

Don't miss the other photos she's posted recently, particularly the one of her and Ron Jeremy hanging out at a... disco?

I know people who were really disappointed by this particular win, but I say it was just right. And the tearful speech by Cody thanking her family was very sweet. In fact, I'm pretty happy about the way the Oscars went overall this year. It seemed really low-key and without a lot of the BS that makes them usually so intolerable.

Of course, the musical numbers were as un-entertaining as usual, but at least I got to see Amy Adams and Kristen Chenoweth perform. An unusual display of taste in picking the performers, but the performances themselves were uninspired.

But hey! The Coens and Diablo Cody honored in a big way. I'm happy.

When does Hilary Clinton = Reese Witherspoon?

Normally I try to steer clear of political talk here on the blog, but this was too good not to share.

Oscar, Oscar OSCAR!

In 2003 Scott and I wrote down the things we'd learned from watching that year's Oscars telecast.

To win a Best Supporting Actor Oscar, it really helps to be an old white guy.

If you want to win a Best Supporting Actress Oscar, play someone's mother, or a hooker, or, if at all possible, both.

The Academy Awards ceremony has never, ever included a tasteful musical number.

I've taken a break from the Oscars for the last few years, tuning in briefly if at all, but tonight I'm prepared to soak it in. I even set up a real-time chat and Oscars pool over at the B-Movie Message Board. Hell, maybe Scott and I will even write about the lessons we learned this year.

Why the renewed enthusiasm? I'm not sure. Maybe it's the fact that I've seen a few more of the contenders this year than usual, or maybe I'm just psyched that the WGA strike is over. (I really want to see what Jon Stewart and crew come up with under this much pressure.) Last night the Indie Spirit Awards rewarded Juno and Diablo Cody in particular, which warms my heart, but it's too much to hope that the same film will fare as well at the Academy Awards. Wouldn't it be cool to see Cody give an Oscars speech though?

I notice that the Razzies went out yesterday as well, and that the Lindsay Lohan "thriller" I Know Who Killed Me swept the bad-movie awards, setting yet another record for most Razzies won. According to the Razzies, I Know is officially worse than Showgirls or Battlefield Earth. Somehow I doubt it. I haven't delved into the way the Razzies work, but it seems to have evolved into a flavor-of-the-month celebrity schadenfreude contest instead of a real examination of the worst movies made each year. But hey, it's their event -- let 'em run it the way they want.

Me, I'll be watching tasteless musical numbers on the Academy Awards.

Showing of The Wizard at Alamo Drafthouse Ritz

super mario brothers and their princess
Originally uploaded by sarah pants

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is but one of the reasons that the Alamo Drafthouse kicks ass. A showing of "The Wizard" with cast and crew present. Staff members in costume. And the presentation of a golden Nintendo Power Glove to the lucky crew. If only I'd been there!

It's Official: 'Cloverfield 2'

From Cinematical:

According to Variety, Matt Reeves is "in early talks with Paramount" to direct a sequel to this month's smash Cloverfield. This should come as a surprise to exactly no one, as Cloverfield was made on the super cheap ($25 million) and scored a whopping $46 million in its opening weekend alone. From the way the announcement is worded, it looks like they want Cloverfield II underway ASAP, as soon as Paramount can complete discussions with Reeves, producer J.J. Abrams and writer Drew Goddard, who penned Cloverfield as well as episodes of Lost, Alias, and Buffy, the Vampire Slayer. Reeves has also signed to direct The Invisible Woman, "a Hitchcock-style thriller" he wrote that "probes the mind of a former beauty queen who turns to a life of crime to protect her family."

Read It's Official: 'Cloverfield 2' is Coming! - Cinematical.

JJ Abrams talks at TED

...on why closed boxes obsess him.

Some brilliant analysis of the best moments in movies like JAWS.

The dirty little secret about why I'm missing B-Fest

Normally at this time of year I'd be packing up my travel gear and heading north for the snowy wastes of Chicago for B-Fest, but this year my job keeps me from doing that. Instead I am packing up my travel gear and heading north (and west) for the snowy wastes of Park City, Utah. Yes, I'm going to Sundance.

Well, technically Slamdance, since that's the festival our company is working with, but it's all part of the crazy Sundance/Slamdance/Xdance/Tromadance mashup that is Park City in late January. Naturally I'll be blogging the whole thing as time allows and will probably write a bit about it when I get back.

Watch for on-the-ground blog posts over on my film festival related blog, Film Festival Secrets.

I will also be posting pictures to my Flickr account while I'm there.

If by some chance you'll be in Park City this week as well, shoot me an e-mail: chris at stomptokyo dot com. Maybe I'll see you in the aisles . . . though not the beloved aisles of B-Fest.

RIP Vampira

Long live Maila Nurmi, aka Vampira.

B-Fest 2008 Schedule Revealed

Does it hurt that I can't go to B-Fest this year?

Yes. Yes it does.

Italian Spiderman Trailer

Blake over at Cinema Is Dope recommended I take a gander at this -- how could I not share it with you?

Warner adopts Blu-Ray; Paramount to follow suit?

A little over a month ago I wrote that I was keeping out of the hi-def DVD format wars for a while, but that if I had to make a choice I'd probably go with Blu-Ray. Looks like my instincts were good as Warner Bros. announced last Friday that it would be releasing its films exclusively in the Blu-Ray format. (For those catching up, Sony was one of the major players in the consortium that created the Blu-Ray format and Toshiba appears to be heading up the rival HD-DVD format.)

Industry analysts are falling all over themselves to predict the end of the format war -- I think everyone (except perhaps the HD-DVD consortium) wants a quick end to this one, but it doesn't seem over quite yet. There were an awful lot of HD-DVD players sold at deep discount this Christmas, and a large number of PS3 systems (which have Blu-Ray players built in) out there as well.

The player to watch at this point seems to be Paramount Pictures, which famously took a $150 million payoff to declare its exclusive commitment to Toshiba's format back in August. Just four months later, however, rumors have it that Paramount may have an escape clause in that contract that permits it to abandon that position in the event that Warner commits to Blu-Ray -- which of course, it just did.

I'm still planning to bide my time and wait for a price drop on the PS-3 (and hopefully they'll figure out the whole backwards-compatibility thing in the meantime), but it's looking good for those folks who chose Blu-Ray as their high definition DVD format. Stay tuned.

Safety First

"Safety First" -- a comedy short by Scott Calonico that slays me every single time. If you like it, please register at Funny or Die and help vote the video up the charts.

Trajan is the movie font

OK, this is pretty funny. 99% of moviegoers out there won't have even thought about this, but I'll confess -- I noticed. I didn't know the name of the font, but I knew it was being overused.

[via Daring Fireball]

John C. Reilly - Walks Hard, Rocks Hard

John C. Reilly was in town to rock the legendary Stubb's BBQ as Dewey Cox, the subject of Jake Kasdan's new film Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story. I got a chance to see the film and the performance, and both were excellent. See the full report over at Slackerwood along with some video of the concert.

YouTube Saturday - Extended Cloverfield Trailer

New Stomp Tokyo review: The Zombie Diaries (2006)

Remember all that talk about a sabbatical? Well, it's still on. I just felt that I couldn't let our commitment to the latest B-Masters Cabal roundtable (Month of the Living Dead-Palooza) go entirely, so there's a new review of The Zombie Diaries now available at Stomp Tokyo for your enjoyment. There might be one more soon if I can muster the strength to put together some thoughts about Carnival Magic.

Eiji Tsuburaya: Master of Monsters

My sabbatical from things Stomp Tokyo means that I'm no longer posting to Film Buff Stuff, but I couldn't resist passing along word of this new book from cult movie enthusiast August Ragone.

The Amazon description states:

Behind-the-scenes hero to anyone who's thrilled by giant monsters duking it out over Tokyo, Eiji Tsuburaya was the visual effects mastermind behind Godzilla, Ultraman, and numerous Japanese science fiction movies and TV shows beloved around the world. The first book on this legendary film figure in English, this highly visual biography details his fascinating life and career, featuring hundreds of film stills, posters, concept art, and delightful on-set photos of Tsuburaya prompting monsters to crush landmark buildings. A must-have for fans, this towering tribute also features profiles of Tsuburaya's film collaborators, details on his key films and shows (most available on DVD), and features on the enduring popularity of the characters he helped create.

The behind-the-scenes photos are apparently quite something to behold -- can't wait to take a look for myself.

Check out the Amazon listing for Eiji Tsuburaya: Master of Monsters: Defending the Earth with Ultraman and Godzilla.

[Via Giant Monsters Attack!.]

Word Wars

After watching Wordplay I added a few different puzzle-competition type documentaries to my Netflix queue. Word Wars, which documents the National Scrabble Championship of 2002, is the first one I've felt compelled to say anything about. It's worth watching, if only by virtue of its odd cast of characters. If one is to judge by these contestants, Scrabble players are the black sheep of the puzzle family -- they seem more bloodthirsty, more compulsive (two of the contestants seem to enjoy taking each others' money more than anything else), and certainly more dysfunctional than their pencil-wielding brethren.

The film is less compelling than Wordplay, mostly because it is only about the contestants. New crossword puzzles are created every day, but each game of Scrabble begins from the same blank board and a few randomly selected tiles, so the movie can't squeeze any fun out of the game's origins. There is no father figure like the affable Will Shortz presiding over the world of Scrabble, and there seems precious little mirth or wit involved in the game. In some ways, Scrabble is the exact opposite of a crossword puzzle -- because it is merely about letter arrangement, divorced entirely from the meanings of the words, it reduces the necessary language skills to rote memorization and probability calculation. As one of the contestants remarks, there are few English Lit professors in the tournament, but mathematicians abound.

So what we're left with are the competitors. The reigning champion comes off as an incurable bore, ripe for the unseating. His challengers seem a bit unsavory but entertainingly scrappy, and each gives the impression (often stated by their on-screen friends and loved ones) that if only he would apply his dedication to Scrabble in some other area of life, he might actually make something of himself. Word Wars is a delicious bit of schadenfreude that will almost certainly make you feel better about your own life, but not recommended for repeat viewing.

Find Word Wars at Amazon. And believe it or not, there's another Scrabble doc called Scrabylon.

Weird Wednesday: Carnival Magic

So last night I went to the first-ever Weird Wednesday at the new Alamo Drafthouse Ritz location because I figured that if ever they were going to show a special, special movie designed for maximum audience pain, this would be the time. I wasn't wrong.

Carnival Magic is an über-rare kids movie directed by Al Adamson. Yes, that Al Adamson: the man who brought us such fine films as Dracula vs. Frankenstein, Black Samurai, and Blazing Stewardesses.

If you're thinking to yourself "this is not a man who should be directing anything for kids," you win a gold star. It was disturbing. It was horrifying. It was very, very wrong.

But most of all, it was fascinating.

I know I just went on sabbatical from the site and all, but this movie makes me want to write a review.

Many thanks to Lars and Zack for the damaging, damaging memories.

Joss Whedon on the WGA Strike

I’ve done well, and I’m grateful that I can weather a long winter. Compared to what the studios have made off me my share is tiny and cute, but I’m in no position to complain. But take that differential, apply it to someone who’s just getting by when they deserve better. Now take it and… well, just take it, ‘cause when it comes to the internet and the emerging media there’s nothing there for the artists. There’s no precedent; these media didn’t exist the last time a contract was negotiated. We’re not just talking about an unfair deal, we’re talking about no deal at all.

Read Whedon's entire post here.

WGA strikers use YouTube to tell their side of the story

Brilliant, really. I wonder if the execs will clue in and try to set up an opposing YouTube channel. And if they do, who will write their videos for them?



Check out the other videos on the WGA YouTube Channel.

Humility by the Arcade Lights

My short "documentary" film from about ten years ago, starring Scott Hamilton and Amy Eisenman. Newly remastered for YouTube.

Here comes the Austin Film Festival 2007

My first preview posted to Slackerwood for the Austin Film Festival 2007 -- American Fork, which I liked quite a bit.

Critical Condition compilation of '80s video cover art

Back when Scott and I started Stomp Tokyo in 1996, VHS was enjoying its last days of glory. Most of the stuff we watched came from a single mom-n-pop video rental shop that had thousands of dusty VHS tapes with wonderful covers like these. Those days are gone but I still have a shelf of VHS tapes waiting to be transferred to DVD-R. Once I do that I'll have to donate them or consign them to the trash heap in order to stay married, but I'll probably hold on to one or two best examples of the form just as a testament to the heyday of VHS home video.

Wander on over to Critical Condition's amazing archive of '80s box art and learn more than you ever wanted to know about video companies of yesteryear.

[Thanks to tablesaw safety at the BMMB.]

New hope for a Serenity sequel?

Moviehole reports that Alan Tudyk dropped a wee bit of life back into the Serenity sequel rumor machine. Apparently DVD sales (of the original version and now the revamped Special Edition) have been so strong that interest in a sequel has been resurrected at Universal.

Cross your fingers, Browncoats.

[Thanks to Blake Matthews for the tip.]

NY Times on the recent changes at Troublemaker Studios

Rumor flies around in every town, big or small -- Austin is no exception. So when Rose McGowan was on the arm of Robert Rodriguez in the place of Rodriguez' wife, Elizabeth Avellan, the city's film community took notice.

The New York Times doesn't lower itself to salacious details, thank goodness, but it does provide a solid article on what happens now for the team that produced Spy Kids and Desperado. I'm looking forward to seeing the individual output of both halves of the team. I'm hopeful it will be less like Spy Kids 3 and more like Planet Terror.

Read the full article on Rodriguez and Avellan at the NY Times web site.

Fantastic Fest updates forthcoming ; "There Will Be Blood" closes festival

Since returning to Texas from Indiana and Ohio I've thrown myself
headlong into the last four days of Fantastic Fest. Austin's eight day
marathon of genre movie madness is as successful and geek-scented as
in 2007 as in its previous two years, as borne out by the fact that
the limited number of VIP passes for the 2008 festival that were put
on sale during this year's event dwindled to 25 by Wednesday
afternoon. A friendly Fantastic Fest volunteer mentioned this evening
that they have since sold out, but I haven't been able to confirm that
elsewhere. (One of the consequences of FF's increased popularity is
that the wifi network is completely overwhelmed, rendering it useless
for everyone.)

The only bit of news I have to relate is that, as rumored, "There Will
Be Blood" was indeed the secret screening that serves as the closing
night film. Upon hearing that I was relieved to have chosen to see
"The Girl Who Leapt Through Time" instead, since the chances of seeing
that on film in the future are much slimmer.

More soon, but there's much-neglected family and work and sleep to
catch up on this weekend first.

Wired's Chris Kohler chats with Uwe Boll

This is just precious.

I met Uwe Boll about two years ago (for the premiere of Bloodrayne at the Austin Film Festival) and he hasn't done a lot since then to convince the world of his prowess as a movie director. There's always the chance that he's playing up these conflicts with the press for the sake of publicity, but that would require an insight about his own work that I don't think he has. At least, not from the content of these interviews.

There's not much content here, other than Uwe Boll flicks continue to stink. Also, against incomprehensible odds, Uwe Boll continues to make movies.

Cloverfield poster released

If this poster doesn't give you a minor case of the chills, you're either:

a) not a giant monster fan

b) dead.

[Via Giant Monsters Attack.]

MGM Midnite Movie madness continues

For a while there it looked like MGM might not put out any more of these terrific Midnight Movies double-feature discs, but we can all breathe easy -- a new batch of discs is apparently on the way for Halloween along with some other goodies from Fox, as highlighted by the ever-vigilant DVD Drive-In.

Among the discs coming out: a Yongary/Konga double-feature -- finally, a version of Yongary that (probably) won't look like crap. The "public domain" version released by Alpha is pretty washed-out so I'm hopeful that the print used for this disc is clean and bright. See some of those washed-out screen caps on the Stomp Tokyo review of Yongary.

Also on tap: The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues with The Beast with 1,000,000 Eyes, some great Vincent Price stuff, and a brilliant Roger Corman collection. I'll probably write all these up individually for Film Buff Stuff but it was just too good not to share here.

Thanks to Ken Begg for pointing these out.

Cloverfield - best analysis yet

Montyfood has the most in-depth and interesting analysis of J.J. Abrams mysterious "Cloverfield" project I've seen. Giant monster fans are slavering.

[Via Daring Fireball.]

Twitch - Death Note - Interview with Shusuke Kaneko

Blake Etheridge's Twitch interview with Shusuke Kaneko provides some insight into the director's latest set of movies, the "Death Note" series. Kaneko is known for the '90s Gamera movies, as well as Azumi 2 and Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack.

(Via Cinema is Dope.)

King of Kong trailer

Yahoo Movies has a trailer for The King of Kong, which I saw at SxSW this year. This film is one of tne of the best docs about video games ever. (Actually, I'm hard pressed to think of many good docs about video games, so it's really nice to see a decent one.) How good is it? It's looking like the film will get a fairly wide theatrical release in August, so you may actually get a chance to see it before it hits DVD. I encourage you to support documentary films in the theater -- it happens so rarely these days.

(Via Matt Dentler's blog.)

"The Host" to spawn a sequel

Twitch reports:

Chungeoram Productions is already at work on the sequel to Bong Joon-ho's The Host, and while details about the director and cast have yet to be announced, executive producer Choi Yong-bae said Monday that full-scale production will begin this fall, with a theatrical release slated for sometime in 2008.

Read more at twitchfilm.net.

7 Weeks of Harryhausen and Toho Double Features in Detroit

Sci-Fi Japan reports:

Starting this Saturday at 2:00pm, the Detroit Film Theatre in Detroit, MI presents seven consecutive weekends of monster and fantasy movie matinees on the big screen. The first half of each double feature will be a restored 35mm print of one of Ray Harryhausen's classic stop-motion animation films, followed by a bonus second movie from Toho Studios. Among the films being shown are 20 MILLION MILES TO EARTH, GODZILLA, MOTHRA, JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS, GODZILLA VS. KING GHIDORAH, THE 7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD, MYSTERIOUS ISLAND, and GODZILLA VS. MEGAGUIRUS.

I've never wanted to go back to Detroit after my brief visit there a few years ago, but if anything were to tempt me, this would be it.

Official Site: Detroit Film Theatre

(Via SciFi Japan.)

Toronto After Dark Film Festival - final deadline approaches

Attention Filmmakers, this is your LAST CHANCE to submit your Horror, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Action, and Cult feature and short entries to the 2007 Toronto After Dark Film Festival, Canada’s premier festival of international thrilling cinema. Full details and the online submission form are available at their website.

'Death Proof' on DVD in September, Sans 'Planet Terror'

Cinematical reports that Death Proof (Quentin Tarantino's half of the Grindhouse double feature) will be released on DVD on September 18th without Planet Terror (Robert Rodriguez's half). What this means for Planet Terror or the eventual release of Grindhouse (with all those great intermission trailers for fake movies) as a whole is unclear. I'm not even certain which cut of Death Proof it will be -- the Grindhouse version or the re-cut of the film that appeared at the Cannes film festival?

We've had better news about the release of a disc to DVD, but I suppose any news is better than none.

(Via Cinematical.)

"Four Eyed Monsters" on YouTube

That's right, the 71-minute movie that has spurred a lot of debate on the future of independent film and film distribution is now available in its entirety on YouTube for one week (until this coming Friday). I believe this is the first time YouTube has put up a feature film, and Lord knows how long it will take to download the thing, but if you're curious now you can see it for nothing. Click play above or visit the page on YouTube.

Disclosure: I work for B-Side Entertainment, the company that distributes Four-Eyed Monsters and other fine indie films on DVD and by digital download (you can get the iPod-ready version for just three bucks).

Kevin Smith to make "Porno"

That is to say, he's making a film called Zack and Miri Make a Porno. It's Smith's first non-Askewniverse pic since the ill-fated (and, in my opinion, underrated) Jersey Girl. Not that I thought Jersey Girl was terrific, but it got far more flak than it deserved. Hopefully this one will hit the sweet spot -- at least the title implies that it's going a bawdier route in the title than Smith's previous attempt at a non-Jay & Silent Bob flick.

Anyway, Cinematical has the details.