Friday, January 29, 2010

Trailer: Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps

I don't see Oliver Stone returning any sort of substantial form here, but this has the potential to be great trash. Super-slick production, sharp suits, Douglas chewing scenery, and CHARLIE SHEEN (and how about DTV-sounding title?). I fear though, that An Education's Carey Mulligan might get a little lost in all the male-dominated dog-eat-dog corporate shenanigans. There's only a split second shot of her; what is she? Mousy secretary (or Shia LeBeouf's gal?) who discovers Gekko's scheming? Probably. Best trailer moment: the brick mobile phone. Click on the poster to see it:

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Let's Enhance

Forgot to post this one a while back... in the spirit of the brilliant No Signal, check out Let's Enhance:

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Lost meets 24

So what's better than a mash-up? When two of your favourite things are being mashed-up, which in this case, is Lost being given the real-time, split-screen 24 treatment. Kinda clever, the actual plane explosion is particularly well-done. Naturally, spoilers for Lost if you haven't seen the show.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Saul Bass on Making Beautiful Things

Dig this inspiring little clip of groundbreaking graphic designer Saul Bass talking about Commerce vs. Aesthetics. He pretty much highlights the problem with a lot of things that pass as cinema these days. A truly great artist...

R.I.P Jean Simmons (1929 - 2010)

The 80-year-old actress, one of the most prominent leading ladies of the 1950s and '60s, had been battling lung cancer and passed away at her Santa Monica home on Friday. Great obit by The Guardian's David Thomson here. Key films to check out: Spartacus, Great Expectations, Black Narcissus and Guys and Dolls.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

In The Mood For Love

Having trouble thinking of a nice Valentines Day movie to watch with your significant other this year? Here's a list of our top V-Day Staff Picks guaranteed to get something going...

Aaron Yap - Site Content Manager/Movie Buyer

1. Brief Encounter
2. Dogfight
3. Manhattan
4. WALL-E
5. Magnificent Obsession


Cathy King - Customer Service Rep

1. Across the Universe
2. Bridget Jones's Diary
3. Some Kind of Wonderful
4. Pretty Woman
5. Wild Orchid


Steve Austin - The Six Million Dollar Dispatcher

1. Harold and Maude
2. Grosse Pointe Blank
3. (500) Days of Summer
4. Before Sunrise
5. 9 & 1/2 Weeks


Ngaire Mason - Office Administrator

1. My Man Godfrey
2. Breakfast At Tiffany's
3. Lars and the Real Girl
4. The Castle
5. WALL-E


Michael Quartly-Kelly - CSR/Movie Geek

1. In The Mood For Love
2. Dangerous Liaisons
3. True Romance
4. Queen Margot (La Reine Margot)
5. Star Wars - Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back

The Wire with a Laugh Track

A brand new perspective on your favourite gritty crime show:

Monday, January 18, 2010

2010 Golden Globe Awards

Huzzah! It's time for my favourite awards show of the season. To celebrate the Fatso staff will be holding a ballot to establish who our biggest TV & Movie buff is. If you would like to do the same thing at your office simply go here for a printable version of the official GG ballot. But be quick, the show starts in just under an hour!

Here are my picks for who will win this year..

Best Motion Picture – Drama
The Hurt Locker

Best Actress in a Motion Picture
Sandra Bullock (The Blind Side)

Best Actor in a Motion Picture
Jeff Bridges (Crazy Heart)

Best Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical
The Hangover

Best Actress – Comedy or Musical
Meryl Streep (Julie & Julia)

Best Actor – Comedy or Musical
Matt Damon (The Informant!)

Best Animated Feature Film
Up

Best Foreign Language Film
Broken Embraces (Spain)

Best Director – Motion Picture
Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker)

Best Screenplay – Motion Picture
Quentin Tarantino (Inglourious Basterds)

Best Television Series – Drama
True Blood

Best Actress in a Television Series – Drama
Julianna Margulies (The Good Wife)

Best Actor in a Television Series – Drama
Michael C. Hall (Dexter)

Best Television Series – Comedy or Musical
Glee

Best Actress in a Television series – Comedy or Musical
Edie Falco (Nurse Jackie)

Best Actor in a Television Series - Comedy or Musical
Alec Baldwin (30 Rock)

Thursday, January 14, 2010

The Greatest Story Ever Rolled

With all the Dirty Dancing/Road House fan-love (I hate to say "re-evaluation") following the recent passing of Patrick Swayze, it's probably a good time as any to remember his first acting role in the awesome 1979 roller disco kitsch-fest Skatetown, U.S.A. The film came out shortly before Roller Boogie and Xanadu - perhaps the most notorious film of this short-lived craze - and although it's no classic, it's terrific dopey nonsense that deserves a second life on DVD, which unfortunately hasn't happened yet. Swayze is so badass in this ("I take home the trophy, the dough AND the women"), he could've walked off The Warriors. And it looks like he had all those moves pat down even this early in the game, doing a fair bit of skatin' and dancin', with a roller-rink centrepiece that involves lashing a belt around like nunchucks, and bare-chested no less.

Toss in TV actors like Scott Baio (Happy Days), Maureen McCormick (The Brady Bunch) and Melissa Sue Anderson (Little House on the Prairie), and a dozen other familiar character faces slummin' it, lots of glittering mirror balls, gaudy outfits, crappy, eye-rolling comedy (Playboy Playmate Dorothy Stratten ordering pizza that never arrives! Ha!) and laughably dated vibes, and you have a great, stupidly charming, neon-laden party-starter of a film. Of course, the trailer is fantastic:

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

CineAsia Spotlight: Bodyguards & Assassins

Here's another big screen-worthy CineAsia title that almost slipped under my radar! It may be a bit late to plug this now - it appears its SkyCity Cinema run is coming to an end - but if you're an Asian cinema fan reading this, Bodyguards & Assassins is well-worth 2.5 hours of your time. It's a BIG-budget historical epic set in 1905 about a group of ragtag bodyguards assigned to escort the arrival of revolutionary leader Dr. Sun Yat-sen when he visits Hong Kong with plans to overthrow the Qing Dynasty. Think Seven Samurai meets 16 Blocks. The star wattage on this production is off-the-charts, a practical who's-who of HK cinema - Donnie Yen, Simon Yam, Leon Lai, Nicolas Tse, Tony Leung Ka Fai, Eric Tsang, Xueqi Wang, Philip Ng - and there's some brutal, hair-raising action in the second half of the film that'll get your heart pumpin' after a solid hour of character/plot build-up (no, it's not a straight-up kung fu movie a la Ip Man). Ok, so it's melodramatic and fist-pumpingly nationalistic (though not unexpectedly), but it's also entertaining, well-acted and emotionally involving, one of the better Chinese historical flicks of late. Here's the trailer:

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

One for the Dogs

It seems after a brief career resurrection with Pulp Fiction, John Travolta has gone back to his old Look Who's Talking days. I guess it's been 15 years since that comeback, so it's not such a big surprise, but I think he's hit rock bottom here. Watch this music video (a cover of Bobby Brown's "Every Little Step"!!!) Travolta did with daughter Ella Bleu for his "family" comedy Old Dogs and weep. It's one of the cringiest famous-people-do-headslapping-things I've seen in a while:

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Before They Were Stars: Michael Cera

Long before he was crowned the Prince of Awkward Geek Chic, here's Michael Cera playing a "mind assassin" in an episode of La Femme Nikita (is that show as bad as the clip makes it out to be??):

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

The Lost Supper

At the moment there's nothing more exciting out there in film/TV/entertainment-land for me than the arrival of Season 6 of Lost. Scheduled to premiere in the US on February 2nd, this will be the last season of the series, which finished on such a cracker of a cliffhanger in Season 5 it has left the minds of the show's loyal fans buzzin' and reelin', trying to predict where the story will be heading next.

Since they really delivered in a big way in Season 4 and especially, Season 5, I trust that producers Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof and their stable of writers will end things satisfyingly and in line with the emotional and narrative logic that the show's established so far. Click here for a Q&A with them. They don't reveal too much, but it's an interesting read.

ABC's already rolled out their online marketing teasers, notably this recreation of Da Vinci's The Last Supper featuring the main cast (see any hidden clues?):

Here's the trailer:



More Lost craziness: How about a Lost Theme Park?

Nic Cage as... Everyone

Welcome back! First post of 2010 and it's going to be a mindless one, since we're only getting back into the swing of things and all that.

This site is just too funny...

A comment on Cage's versatility perhaps? (or maybe just a lot of skilled photoshoppers with too much time on their hands...)

Also have a peek at the red-band trailer for Cage's upcoming film, Kick-Ass, which looks, appropriately, more kick-ass than the teaser.