Trailer: Blackfish

Ever since its premiere at Sundance Film Festival early last year, Gabriela Cowperthwaite's controversial, anti-SeaWorld documentary Blackfish has been gathering major steam, igniting the debate over keeping orcas in captivity while prompting responses that ranged from bands pulling out from SeaWorld gigs to Pixar rewriting the ending to their Finding Nemo sequel, Finding Dory. There's been the expected backlash of course, not least of all, from SeaWorld themselves, who've been going on the damage control warpath to salvage their increasingly tarnished reputation. If you missed the screenings at the New Zealand Film Festival, Madman will be releasing Blackfish on DVD exactly a month from today; watch the trailer below:

The Raid 2 Obliterates Sundance Crowd

...and with those few eloquent words, you pretty much have the gist of overwhelmingly orgasmic reactions to Gareth Evan's The Raid 2 which premiered at Sundance yesterday.

Due here on March 28, the sequel to the 2011 bone-crunching Indonesian actioner has generated plenty of buzz among fans, and if the tweets last night are anything to go by, then Evans has really delivered the goods, and then some. Here's a sampling of those tweets:

Comparisons to Kubrick AND Kurosawa? Holy shit! There HAVE been a few more "balanced" reviews -- like this Indiewire one, and this dude who almost vomited -- and I still do have concerns over the film's 148-minute length. But damn, I'm so ready to be broken by this movie. Click below for the latest trailer: And if you haven't seen the first one, rent it here!

The Raid at Sundance

In case you haven't heard, Fatso will be giving away tickets to preview screenings of The Raid in Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington really soon. To get you a little more excited here's a video reaction by two web film critics after its screening at the Sundance Film Festival in January. And here's the excellent poster that Madman's put together for its theatrical release on March 22nd:

Check your inbox for details on the giveaway sometime next week!

Guy Wants Sundance Horror Movie to Be Burned

I've always wondered if indie filmmaker Lucky McKee will make another film as great as his debut May (criminally MIA on DVD around these parts) again: I haven't seen the Jack Ketchum adaptation Red which he was fired from, but his other two horror efforts, The Woods and the Masters of Horror entry Sick Girl, while not without their moments, didn't quite live up to their potential.

Here's hoping that film will be The Woman, which just premiered at Sundance and has already caused a stir, prompting walkouts and this dude to call for the film to be "burned and confiscated". The following video is possibly the best publicity the film could ever receive: