Friday Clips #10

We're long overdue for a Friday Clips post! Below: a supercut of Wes Anderson's POV-vehicle shots; an Honest Trailer of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, which is actually one of their more positive efforts but still points out, deservingly, lapses in the movie's narrative logic; a LEGO short film that spoofs Guardian of the Galaxy's mix tape; a video showing Pixar's beautiful colour script at work...

Breaking Down "Bayhem"

Is there currently a more widely lambasted director on this planet than Michael Bay? Though critics softened slightly for his last film, the dark true-crime comedy Pain and Gain, the knives are out once again -- perhaps even sharper than before -- with the release of Transformers: Age of Extinction, the fourth entry in the blockbuster franchise that has continued to stuff Bay's pockets with ridiculous amounts of moolah. So is there anything more to Bay than what we already know, i.e. fast cuts, sexy chicks and explosions? In this video essay, Tony Zhou incisively analyses what makes Bay, essentially Bay, and love or hate him, there's no question that the man's a step above the the blander, hack-ier likes of McG or Brett Ratner, at least on an aesthetic level:
Meanwhile, the critical mauling of Age of Extinction has been so bad that talk show host Jimmy Kimmel decided to get a few critics together to say something nice about Bay:

Only God Forgives: VFX Showreel

To say that Nicolas Winding Refn's Thailand-set crime-noir Only God Forgives arrived last year to hugely polarising reactions would be an understatement -- it definitely didn't garner the same kind of consistent acclaim as his previous film, Drive. In fact most Fatso customers hated it, if this sampling of reviews are anything to go by:

But if you're a fan of the film and/or the director, you'll want to check out this clip that breaks down all the special effects shots. Love or hate him, you can't deny that Refn knows exactly what he wants to see on-screen... down to blinking eyes....

I'll be the first person to say that CGI is overused these days, BUT when it's used as smart and subtly as this, it can be a brilliant tool to help you achieve a very specific artistic vision that doesn't involve cities getting decimated. Good stuff.

The Changing Shape of Cinema: The History of Aspect Ratio

Ever wondered what the "Screen format" field in the movie detail page is? What it means, what it refers to?

I'm assuming most people these days are already clued into letterboxing etc., but if you're not or have always wondered "what those black bars" are on your TV screen, let me direct you to this educational video from FilmmakerIQ breaking down the history of the Aspect Ratio...

State of Cinema: Steven Soderbergh

So what's wrong with the movies these days? What exactly IS the state of cinema? Let Steven Soderbergh lay it all out for you in this 40-minute speech he made at the San Francisco International Film Festival. It's a cogent, funny, intelligent piece that's a must-listen for anyone who wants to know what factors and circumstances are influencing the production of movies these days and so forth. And it seems the guy can't get away from movies, even after he's announced his retirement - here's some talk of Magic Mike 2 being on the way.

Friday Clips #1

Welcome to the first edition of Friday Clips, a compilation - or more precisely, a dumping ground - of interesting/funny/weird clips and trailers that I didn't get around to posting about during the week and presented in a more concise fashion. So basically my tribute to the fact that on Friday our brains seem to slow down and have no time nor power to process large blocks of text - it's Random Stuff, but solely with video.

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The Scared is Scared - cute little short film made from a six-year-old's story:


Life of Pi Screening... in a swimming pool... in Paris:

Biting Elbows music video - wild, violent first-person action, not for kids, the squeamish and easily offended:

 Lil Bubs and Friendz - cat memes taken to the next inevitable level:

Game of Thrones Season 3 trailer - I realise Season 2 just came out on DVD, but for the hardcore fans...:

Time After Time

There's been a lot of time travel talk on the web to coincide with the release of Rian Johnson's Looper (go see it!), which is fine by me, since it's one of my favourite genres. Here's a list of stuff to read and see if you need more time travel in your life:

• A Top 10 list I compiled for Flicks
• A blog by NZ Herald's Dominic Corry
• Indie Wire's Criticwire Survey: The Best Time Travel Movie
• Flavorwire's How Time Travel Works video essay
• Interview with Rian Johnson about Looper - do not watch if you haven't seen the movie, it's spoiler-heavy. But for those who've seen it a lot of interesting points to chew on.  
• Tom Cruise has his own time travel flick in the works: All You Need is Kill, directed by Doug Liman and due for release in 2014.

Rear Window Timelapse

All I can say is, holy hell.