Action Movie Kid is All Kinds of Awesome

What do you do when you're a special effects wiz at Dreamworks Animation with a kid? If you're Daniel Hashimoto, you turn your three-year-old's imagination into action-packed reality. Check out this super-cute compilation of short videos he's created with James, who gets to wield a light saber, fire rocket launchers, amongst other things...

End-of-Week News Round-up

Bits and pieces from the past week or so in case you missed them:

GENERAL NEWS 

Lindsay Lohan with co-(porn)-star James Deen in The Canyons

• Walking celeb trainwreck Lindsay Lohan has completed filming the low-budget, partially crowd-funded (and non-Sundance-accepted) noir The Canyons with director Paul Schrader (Affliction), and if you've ever wondered to yourself, "Hmm what would it be like to work with Lohan on a film? Is she that bad?", then this amazing New York Times Magazine piece by Stephen Rodrick should answer all your questions (and then some). A truly eye-opening, compulsively entertaining read.
• I generally hate doing Year-in-Review lists but I ended up doing a few for Flicks.co.nz. See here for my favourite films of the year.
• Kathryn Bigelow's Osama Bin Laden manhunt movie Zero Dark Thirty is stirring a storm of controversy over its portrayal of torture lately, with lines divided between those who think it endorses torture and those who think depiction does not = endorsement. The director's now written a response to her critics in the LA Times, which you can read here. Also for more Bigelow-related reading, check out AV Club's unpacking of her "fascinating, elusive" filmography.
• Awards season is in full swing. The Golden Globes happened and Oscar nominees were announced.  

• Acclaimed Austrian director Michael Haneke (Amour) addresses the (hilarious) parody Twitter account under his name, and says he doesn't really care for it.
• A few reviews of Arnie's new action flick The Last Stand are starting to surface, with the most glowing coming from Slant Magazine.

CLIPS 

• Jodie Foster receives Life Time Achievement Award and comes out to the world:
• A full-length shot-for-shot recreation of Toy Story using Toy Story toys. Holy crap.  
• And MORE Tarantino shenanigans. Can't get enough of hearing this guy speak, especially when he's telling you he's "shutting your butt down!":

DVD NEWS

• Delays: Vendetta Films's releases of Safety Not Guaranteed and Hit and Run have been delayed until Jan 25. Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning is now coming out Jan 24, and Seal Team Six: The Raid on Osama Bin Laden pushed back to March 13.
• Looking ahead to March, several cool Madman titles to keep an eye out for: Arbitrage, Searching for Sugar Man (one of last year's best docos!), Monsieur Lahzar, Turn Me On Dammit!, Elena, Marina Abramovic: The Artist is Present.

60 Years of Cinema (in 40 Seconds)

A stunning little montage, with many iconic images. See how many films you can pick out... (via Wonders in the Dark)

Silencio, old man!

Admittedly all these fan "super-cuts" popping up these days can get rather tiresome/repetitive after a while, but they're usually worth a laugh or two, and this compilation boasts an impressive 172 films (under 4 minutes!) of characters saying SILENCE! Extra bonus points for including legendary crapfest Manos: Hands of Fate in there.



Thanks, Ebert.