Amazing Colour Footage of London, 1927

Feast your eyes on this absolutely astounding, otherworldly colour footage of 1920s London shot by an early British pioneer of film named Claude Frisse-Greene, who made a series of travelogues using the colour process his father William - a noted cinematographer - was experimenting with. It's like a beautifully dusty old postcard you'd find in a junk store, but moving. Read more about Greene here.

Before They Were Stars: Jason Reitman

He's not technically a "star" as such, but Jason Reitman, the director of Juno and Thank You For Smoking, got his first kiss on the set of Arnie's Kindergarten Cop (which was produced by his father Ivan) and it's been immortalised on youtube in all its dorky awkward adolescent glory. I guess there are worse things to be embarrassed about... (via InContention)

Lego Matrix

It's hard to believe it but The Matrix turns TEN this year. Does anyone remember when this first came out? It was like nothing you'd seen before. It was like seeing Star Wars for the first time. Or Jaws. Or Blade Runner. Or Jurassic Park. Thinking about it now, I don't remember the last time I've been in a full theatre going UTTERLY BALLISTIC at a mainstream blockbuster film like the screening of The Matrix I attended ten years ago. The film's CGI felt fresh at the time; all that slow-mo bullet time stuff was still in its infancy. Ten years later, we've been inundated by so much CGI it's lost its power to surprise (here's hoping Avatar delivers the same kind of first-time magic). And for The Matrix, it's gone from being New Cool Thing to Who Cares? in the space of two poorly received sequels which tried to expand its mythology but ended up alienating everyone who loved the first film.

This all is just a long-winded way of prefacing this very cool clip of one of Matrix's key scenes re-done in LEGO form to commemorate its 10th Anniversary!! There's no CGI in this, everything was done, rather impressively, "in camera". It took 440 hours and $500 to create. Quite genius:



Now check out the side-by-side comparison of the original scene and Lego version. Talk about attention to detail:



To learn more about the making of, visit Lego Matrix.

Screaming Susie Greene

This one's strictly for diehard Curb Your Enthusiasm er, enthusiasts. Season 7's just wrapped up in the states - word has it that it's one of the best seasons yet - so a super fan decided to put together a video montage of every instance of Susie cursing and screaming in the show. Here's one woman you do not want to sass. Click on the picture to check it out (warning: offensive language follows):

Two-Minute Warning on DVD Next Year!

Been browsing upcoming release catalogues this arvo and had to stop and share my excitement in coming across a film I've wanted to see for ages on Vendetta's February slate: Two-Minute Warning. Directed by Larry Peerce, this 1976 thriller, about a sniper opening fire on a packed crowd at a football game, boasts what must be one of the all-time great star-studded disaster movie casts ever: Charlton Heston, John Cassavetes, Martin Balsam, Beau Bridges, David Jansen, Gena Rowlands, Walter Pidgeon, Marilyn Hassett!!! Have a peek at the cool trailer ("91000 people. 33 exit gates. 1 sniper"):



And continuing on a '70s note (my favourite note...), two other coming soon releases to look out for: The Silent Partner, heist flick starring Elliot Gould and Christopher Plummer, and The Spikes Gang, Richard Fleischer's MGM western which, as far as I know, has never been on VHS or DVD in the US! Love those guys at Shock for putting out these back catalogue MGM movies!!

R.I.P Edward Woodward (1930-2009)

Many will remember him for his starring turn in the original (and arguably the greatest British horror film ever made) The Wicker Man. Yet others will recall his hard-as-nails private eye, Robert McCall in The Equalizer. While those of a certain age will remember him fondly as Callan.

Edward Woodward passed away on Monday, in Turo, Cornwall, England, at the age of 79. This hugely influential character actor will be missed.

For the Star Wars Fan with Everything... #4

I love cosplay and I love Star Wars - so this guy gets bonus imperial credits for this one:

Roger Corman Receives Oscar!

Fans of B-movies will be pleased to learn that director/producer Roger Corman (83-years-old but still looking well!) received an Academy Award at the Oscar Governor's Ball on Saturday night for lifetime achievement. Longtime fan Quentin Tarantino gave an affectionate, charismatic speech, and Corman alumni Jonathan Demme presented the award to the influential low-budget filmmaker. Some big faces in the audience, including Steven Spielberg, George "I Devoted My Life to Star Wars" Lucas, Ron Howard and Jack Nicholson, who all in one way or another have crossed paths with Corman. The ceremony was untelevised but you can watch footage over here. Actress Lauren Bacall and cinematographer Gordon Willis also received awards.

Trailers for a few Corman titles we stock:

A Bucket of Blood (1959)


Little Shop of Horrors (1960)


Premature Burial (1962)

Superhero Trailers: Kick-Ass and Kanthaswamy

Here are two neato superhero trailers to kick-start your week. First up is Matthew Vaughn's Kick-Ass, a forthcoming adaptation of Mark Millar and John Romita Jr's comic series about amateur crimefighters. Looks like Watchmen for the Superbad set or something.



Secondly, check out the Tamil blockbuster Kanthaswamy (via Twitch) which looks like all kinds of crazy; I can't quite describe it right now but hope it comes to a theatre around here soon...


Enjoy!

2012 Floods Subway

This is a cool marketing campaign from Sony Pictures for the release of Roland Emmerich's disasterific 2012 in Brazil. The film opens here on Thursday. More 2012 reading: Making Waves.

Poker Face Walken

Hands down the best viral thing I've seen all week - Christopher Walken reading out the lyrics to Lady Gaga's "Poker Face" on BBC's Friday Night with Jonathan Ross. He's one of those guys who could read a phone book and still keep you enthralled. A little bit creepy (as Walken can only do in his own inimitable way) but incredibly funny stuff.

Scorsese's Top 11 Scariest Horror Films

This is a bit late, but better late than never... last week Martin Scorsese shared with The Daily Beast his Top 11 favourite horror flicks. Cool to see less-recognised titles like Dead of Night and The Entity in there with the usual suspects. Also dig his line about Psycho - "the shower... the swamp... the relationship between the mother and son" - it's a film that's so often imitated and lampooned people tend to take for granted its under-the-skin creepiness. This here is a man with taste.

Most of them are available to rent from fatso:

1. The Haunting

2. Isle of the Dead

3. The Uninvited (where's the DVD dammit!)

4. The Entity

5. Dead of Night

6. The Changeling

7. The Shining

8. The Exorcist

9. Night of the Demon

10. The Innocents

11. Psycho

Luxo Goes Nutso

This is a darkly funny parody of Pixar's logo intro from CollegeHumor where Luxo the Lamp goes homicidal. Don't think we'll be seeing this one gracing the start of any Pixar film anytime soon...