It's virtually impossible to intentionally make a true cult film.
Since the advent of the "midnight movie" way back in the early 1970s, filmmakers and studios have tried again and again to unlock the magic formula which will result in a film gaining the kind of dedicated and manic following enjoyed by films like THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW, DEATH RACE 2000, and FASTER PUSSYCAT! KILL! KILL! Film historians generally agree that ludicrous concepts, excessive sex and violence, and offbeat (if sometimes unintentional) humor are the primary ingredients of cult flicks, but few would-be auteurs have been able to deliberately find the correct mixture of these necessary elements to generate a genuine underground sensation at will. For every BOONDOCK SAINTS that comes along, there are seemingly a thousand SNAKES ON A PLANEs or BLACK SNAKE MOANs which promise fringe-dwelling moviegoers a truly over-the-top thrill ride but crash land with a dull thud upon release.
It isn't even that these aspiring cult hits aren't enjoyable films - many of them are well-made and quite fun to watch. The problem is that cult movies are, by definition, entertainments which attract the sort of viewer who doesn't like to conform, and refuses to be told by critics, mainstream audiences, or (especially) studio execs what they should or shouldn't like. The moment the marketing stooges at Paramount or Universal tell me (in between ads for Taco Bell and Geico) that a new picture is too cool for school, the skeptic in me takes over like Edward Hyde on a coke spree. That's why even classic modern schlock like KILL BILL, INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS, GRINDHOUSE, and PIRANHA 3D (fantastic though they are) aren't likely to ever become true cult films, in the purest sense of the term - real oddballs just won't buy their non-conformity at Hot Topic, no matter how cool it actually is.
That said, I have no doubt that MACHETE will become a true cult film in the decades to come.
The reasons are simple. First, MACHETE has all of the elements of a great cult movie, in spades. It's violent as hell, ridiculous as all get out, loaded with hot girls in little or no clothing, packed with straight-faced self-parody, fully stocked with some of the most quotable dialogue ever written for the cinema, and it delivers on every single delightfully absurd moment promised in the faux trailer from which it was birthed. On top of all of this cheese-tastic goodness, it has a true franchise antihero, a modern-day Mexican Snake Plissken who, with scarcely fifteen lines of dialogue in 90 minutes and a backstory thinner than a tortilla, manages to leave a truly indelible mark on celluloid history. Like Clint Eastwood's Man With No Name in the 1960s, Shaft, Coffy, and Superfly in the 70s, and Rambo in the 1980s, Machete is a superhumanly cool, frighteningly badass SOB who audiences will want to see again.
And that's the main thing... Machete is exactly like a Mexican Shaft, or Slaughter (as in Jim Brown, not the 80s hair band), or Mr. T (as in the lead from TROUBLE MAN, not Clubber Lang/B.A. Baracus), or Hammer (as in Fred Williamson, not M.C.). He's a genuine 70s exploitation hero, in a movie that is genuine 70s exploitation. Yeah, there are cell phones and laptops and modern guns in the film. Yeah, the immigration plotline is ripped from today's headlines. Yeah, some of the actors in the film weren't even born then. But strip away these minor details and MACHETE is a movie that easily could have played in theaters in 1974, on a double bill with FOXY BROWN or HELL UP IN HARLEM. While KILL BILL, GRINDHOUSE, BLACK DYNAMITE, and PIRANHA 3D all very effectively emulate and satirize schlock cinema genres past, MACHETE authentically restores its genre to life. In the process of paying loving homage to your daddy's action trash cinema, Robert Rodriguez and company have created a film which can actually stand toe to toe with the ones it's celebrating. You can't watch Quentin Tarantino's INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS back-to-back with the original film bearing that title (or 1970's THE LOSERS, or THE DEVIL'S BRIGADE, or HUSTLER SQUAD, or...) and not see the glaring differences between the two. On the other hand, you could slip MACHETE right in between viewings of THE BORN LOSERS and BLACK CAESAR and not miss a single bone-crushing, blood-spattered, whitey-smashing beat. Watching it isn't like looking back on a better, bloodier time in cinema. Watching MACHETE is like being there.
That purity is what will gain MACHETE the sort of cult following that has eluded so many other films of its ilk since the drive-in days, in my opinion. The reason so many remakes, tributes, homages, rip-offs, knockoffs, reboots, etc., come down the pike these days is that Americans are desparate to recapture the lost joys of their youthful past, and movie studios have been trying in vain since the early 1990s to peddle them that nostalgic high at the multiplex. After so many attempts (some great, some awful, most just painfully mediocre), someone has finally made a film which is more than just a pale imitation of/winking nod to something we once loved. With MACHETE, Rodriguez has made an actual grindhouse film, the way they used to be made so long ago.
I can see Rodriguez making good on his promised sequels, and a small but fervent army of dedicated weirdos lining up on opening night to see them - some of them in full costume and carrying plastic machetes. I can see fan pages dedicated to the movie, and whole blogs filled with lurid (and mostly terrible) fan fiction about the titular hero and his gory exploits. I can see online comics, fan art galleries, and even homemade Youtube videos. I can see homemade t-shirts with slogans like, "I absolve you of all your sins. Now get the f@#% out of here!" and "Machete don't text!" showing up at comic conventions and movie marathons. With movies so readily accessible in this digital age, there aren't likely to be a lot of midnight theatrical runs. I can, however, imagine campus MACHETE parties, in which schlock lovers gather to watch the movie and take shots of tequila every time Machete nails a chick half his age or Steven Seagal takes out his bionic sword.
Twenty years from now, when the rest of the nostalgia trip reboots, re-imaginings, and rehashes are long forgotten by all but the most avid movie collectors, some film history books will dedicate at least a few sentences to MACHETE and its wonderfully earnest trashiness. Somewhere down the line, a celebrated Latin American public figure will confess to Katie Couric that MACHETE has been his favorite film ever since he first saw it as a child. Above all, MACHETE is the first film in this now decade plus wave of nostalgia which I believe someone will attempt to remake years from now, because it is so much its own, original entity that its nostalgic origins will eventually be overshadowed by its individual merits.
Whatever its longterm legacy, however, MACHETE was the most fun I've had in a theater in 2010. It may take the rest of the world 40 years to realize how great it is, but those of us with a true taste for old-fashioned, balls-out, boobs-and-bullets action will be celebrating it for the rest of our very strange lives. If not us, then who?

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Continue reading Neil Gaiman's 'Sandman' Gets Optioned ... Again
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Nathalie Baye and Sergi Lopez in UNE LIAISON PORNOGRAPHIQUE
If one is a fan of French cinema (c'est moi) and gaga over French movie stars (moi aussi), then the closing weekend of the Montreal World Film Festival is a gift from the cinema gods. Jetting into town for a series of talks and film presentations are actors Gerard Depardieu and Nathalie Baye, two formidable presences on the Gallic screen.
Nathalie Baye will receive a special Career Achievement Award at the screening later today of one of her signature performances in UNE LIAISON PORNOGRAPHIQUE (1999) by Frédéric Fonteyne. The Festival has been showing a slew of Baye films including such gems as LA BALANCE (Bob Swaim, 1982), NOTRE HISTOIRE (Bertrand Blier, 1984) and LE PETIT LIEUTENANT (Xavier Beauvois, 2005).
Gerard Depardieu will deliver a rare "master class" on the art of acting and his four decades of work on the big screen. Two of his great performances will also be showcased with free, outdoor screenings of THE RETURN OF MARTIN GUERRE (Daniel Vigne, 1982) and CYRANO DE BERGERAC (Jean-Paul Rappeneau, 1990).
For francophones and those smitten with le cinema francais, this is a weekend sent from heaven.......
Sandy Mandelberger, Festival Dailies Editor
HENRY OF NAVARRE (Jo Baier, Germany/France/Spain)
It is always tempting to ascertain a link or a thematic accent in the programming of a film festival. Threads are there but creating a strong argument in that direction is always a bit of a false road. In truth, film festivals come together based on the films that are made available to them. However, as with an individual, each Festival has its own distinct personality and interests. At the Montreal World Film Festival, an event that I have attended off and on for almost 15 years, the films can be said to represent their audiences. Montreal is known for its social tolerance and its opening arms to refugees…..this not only explains the multi-cultural experience of the city but harkens to its reputation as the “Amsterdam of North America”. If you’re different, oppressed, repressed or just plain bored, Montreal is the place for you. Lacing through this unique mix of disparate communities from all over the world is a strong sense of social justice and an intensive interest in the lessons to be learned from examination of the past.
Maybe because I also share this interest and have tended to view films that fit into this category, it seems that a strong number of titles at this year’s Festival are confronting the shadows of history. Film is, by its nature, artifice so any high-minded look at the historical past is really just an interpretation. The “truth” of what occurs is, as it must be, totally dependent on the perspective of those involved. However, film, with its sense of immersion and its ability to tease the mind and examine the soul, offers a unique perspective of real events and personalities. And since any history is colored by those who have written it, these historical films offer up a kind of truth that is meant to be useful in the present (since the past, no matter how glorious or tragic, can never be revived).
LITTLE ROSE (Jan Kidawa-Blonski, Poland)
Two films that grasp for the existential truth of their moments in time are, ironically (or perhaps not) from Poland…..a country that has only had true freedom of expression for 20 odd years. However, Polish filmmakers seem intent on examining their past (horrors and all), in order to forge a new identity that allows a future with more potential and flowering. In VENICE, written and directed by Jan Jakob Kolski, the first weeks of the invasion of Poland by the Nazis in September 1939 upsets the balance of tranquility and gentility at a country villa and its bourgeois family inhabitants. In LITTLE ROSE by Jan Kidawa-Blonski, the time period shift to almost thirty years later, when the first sparks of dissent in the Soviet bloc spawns a zealousness of political suppression. In this specific case, in the Warsaw of 1968, surveillance of suspected dissidents merges with an intense anti-semitic fervor that culminates in tens of thousands losing their jobs, their homes and their citizenship. These very Polish tales have obvious resonance for all cultures and for all times.
CATERPILLAR (Kaji Wakamatsu, Japan)
In a pair of Japanese films viewed here, the fervor of exposing injustice is also a strong theme. In BOX – THE HAKAMADA CASE by Banmei Takahashi, a famed case of wrongful accusation and imprisonment from the 1960s shatters the dictates of the Japanese legal system and continues to influence civil rights legislation in that country. A young boxer is accused of murdering a landlord and his family and falsely sentenced to death. A crusading judge believes in the man’s innocence and spends over 30 years in an obsessive search for justice. In CATERPILLAR, set during Japan’s war with China in the months before Pearl Harbor, director Kaji Wakamatsu offers an impassioned indictment of right-wing nationalism in the tale of the wife of an injured soldier who openly speaks out about the absurdities and the costs of war.
NANNERL, MOZART’S SISTER (René Féret, France)
Although considerably glossier in detail, the historic pageantry of several European films illuminate the passions and the politics of their times. In NANNERL, MOZART’S SISTER, French writer/director René Féret offers a fascinating portrait of the equally musically gifted sister of the composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, illuminating the young woman’s talent and the social structure that thwarted her musical ambitions. In the similarly themed CHRISTINE CRISTINA, the directorial debut of iconic Italian actress Stefania Sandrelli, a gifted woman poet in the Middle Ages must contend with the powers of the state and the church that cannot accept the accomplishments and ambitions of the lowly female of the species. Conflicts, both secular and religious, are also at the heart of the Chinese/Hong Kong co-production CONFUCIUS by Mei Hu, a glossy biopic of the poet/philosopher, whose wisdom and compassion introduced notions of equality, human dignity and fairness into tradition-bound Chinese hierarchical culture
THE PRINCESS OF MONTPENSIER (Bertrand Tavernier, France)
In the German/French/Spanish co-production epic HENRY OF NAVARRE by German director Jo Baier, the 16th century court of the French king comes alive, with all its decadent splendor and the religious tension between the ruling Catholics and the rebel Protestant Huguenots, to make a point of the costs of religious conflicts both then and now. That same conflict is given another point of view in the Festival’s closing night film THE PRINCESS OF MONTENSIER by veteran French director Bertrand Tavernier. A beautiful aristocrat is promised to marriage to one man but is in love with another. This romantic triangle is intertwined with the religious war between Catholics and Protestants, offering a counterbalance between the power of love to elevate and the power of hate to destroy.
What these historical films offer is not only an attention to detail but a recreation of the passions and the tragedies of earlier times in a way that is more vivid than any book or historical document. Whether they are 100% accurate is not the point. They arouse our interest, our emotions and our minds. And they make clear that events in the recent or distant past are part of our legacy as human being and are still coursing through our veins. We are them, and they are us. For more on these and other films, visit: www.ffm-montreal.org
Sandy Mandelberger, Festival Dailies Editor
Nathalie Baye and Sergi Lopez in UNE LIAISON PORNOGRAPHIQUE
If one is a fan of French cinema (c'est moi) and gaga over French movie stars (moi aussi), then the closing weekend of the Montreal World Film Festival is a gift from the cinema gods. Jetting into town for a series of talks and film presentations are actors Gerard Depardieu and Nathalie Baye, two formidable presences on the Gallic screen.
Nathalie Baye will receive a special Career Achievement Award at the screening later today of one of her signature performances in UNE LIAISON PORNOGRAPHIQUE (1999) by Frédéric Fonteyne. The Festival has been showing a slew of Baye films including such gems as LA BALANCE (Bob Swaim, 1982), NOTRE HISTOIRE (Bertrand Blier, 1984) and LE PETIT LIEUTENANT (Xavier Beauvois, 2005).
Gerard Depardieu will deliver a rare "master class" on the art of acting and his four decades of work on the big screen. Two of his great performances will also be showcased with free, outdoor screenings of THE RETURN OF MARTIN GUERRE (Daniel Vigne, 1982) and CYRANO DE BERGERAC (Jean-Paul Rappeneau, 1990).
For francophones and those smitten with le cinema francais, this is a weekend sent from heaven.......
Sandy Mandelberger, Festival Dailies Editor
HENRY OF NAVARRE (Jo Baier, Germany/France/Spain)
It is always tempting to ascertain a link or a thematic accent in the programming of a film festival. Threads are there but creating a strong argument in that direction is always a bit of a false road. In truth, film festivals come together based on the films that are made available to them. However, as with an individual, each Festival has its own distinct personality and interests. At the Montreal World Film Festival, an event that I have attended off and on for almost 15 years, the films can be said to represent their audiences. Montreal is known for its social tolerance and its opening arms to refugees…..this not only explains the multi-cultural experience of the city but harkens to its reputation as the “Amsterdam of North America”. If you’re different, oppressed, repressed or just plain bored, Montreal is the place for you. Lacing through this unique mix of disparate communities from all over the world is a strong sense of social justice and an intensive interest in the lessons to be learned from examination of the past.
Maybe because I also share this interest and have tended to view films that fit into this category, it seems that a strong number of titles at this year’s Festival are confronting the shadows of history. Film is, by its nature, artifice so any high-minded look at the historical past is really just an interpretation. The “truth” of what occurs is, as it must be, totally dependent on the perspective of those involved. However, film, with its sense of immersion and its ability to tease the mind and examine the soul, offers a unique perspective of real events and personalities. And since any history is colored by those who have written it, these historical films offer up a kind of truth that is meant to be useful in the present (since the past, no matter how glorious or tragic, can never be revived).
LITTLE ROSE (Jan Kidawa-Blonski, Poland)
Two films that grasp for the existential truth of their moments in time are, ironically (or perhaps not) from Poland…..a country that has only had true freedom of expression for 20 odd years. However, Polish filmmakers seem intent on examining their past (horrors and all), in order to forge a new identity that allows a future with more potential and flowering. In VENICE, written and directed by Jan Jakob Kolski, the first weeks of the invasion of Poland by the Nazis in September 1939 upsets the balance of tranquility and gentility at a country villa and its bourgeois family inhabitants. In LITTLE ROSE by Jan Kidawa-Blonski, the time period shift to almost thirty years later, when the first sparks of dissent in the Soviet bloc spawns a zealousness of political suppression. In this specific case, in the Warsaw of 1968, surveillance of suspected dissidents merges with an intense anti-semitic fervor that culminates in tens of thousands losing their jobs, their homes and their citizenship. These very Polish tales have obvious resonance for all cultures and for all times.
CATERPILLAR (Kaji Wakamatsu, Japan)
In a pair of Japanese films viewed here, the fervor of exposing injustice is also a strong theme. In BOX – THE HAKAMADA CASE by Banmei Takahashi, a famed case of wrongful accusation and imprisonment from the 1960s shatters the dictates of the Japanese legal system and continues to influence civil rights legislation in that country. A young boxer is accused of murdering a landlord and his family and falsely sentenced to death. A crusading judge believes in the man’s innocence and spends over 30 years in an obsessive search for justice. In CATERPILLAR, set during Japan’s war with China in the months before Pearl Harbor, director Kaji Wakamatsu offers an impassioned indictment of right-wing nationalism in the tale of the wife of an injured soldier who openly speaks out about the absurdities and the costs of war.
NANNERL, MOZART’S SISTER (René Féret, France)
Although considerably glossier in detail, the historic pageantry of several European films illuminate the passions and the politics of their times. In NANNERL, MOZART’S SISTER, French writer/director René Féret offers a fascinating portrait of the equally musically gifted sister of the composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, illuminating the young woman’s talent and the social structure that thwarted her musical ambitions. In the similarly themed CHRISTINE CRISTINA, the directorial debut of iconic Italian actress Stefania Sandrelli, a gifted woman poet in the Middle Ages must contend with the powers of the state and the church that cannot accept the accomplishments and ambitions of the lowly female of the species. Conflicts, both secular and religious, are also at the heart of the Chinese/Hong Kong co-production CONFUCIUS by Mei Hu, a glossy biopic of the poet/philosopher, whose wisdom and compassion introduced notions of equality, human dignity and fairness into tradition-bound Chinese hierarchical culture
THE PRINCESS OF MONTPENSIER (Bertrand Tavernier, France)
In the German/French/Spanish co-production epic HENRY OF NAVARRE by German director Jo Baier, the 16th century court of the French king comes alive, with all its decadent splendor and the religious tension between the ruling Catholics and the rebel Protestant Huguenots, to make a point of the costs of religious conflicts both then and now. That same conflict is given another point of view in the Festival’s closing night film THE PRINCESS OF MONTENSIER by veteran French director Bertrand Tavernier. A beautiful aristocrat is promised to marriage to one man but is in love with another. This romantic triangle is intertwined with the religious war between Catholics and Protestants, offering a counterbalance between the power of love to elevate and the power of hate to destroy.
What these historical films offer is not only an attention to detail but a recreation of the passions and the tragedies of earlier times in a way that is more vivid than any book or historical document. Whether they are 100% accurate is not the point. They arouse our interest, our emotions and our minds. And they make clear that events in the recent or distant past are part of our legacy as human being and are still coursing through our veins. We are them, and they are us. For more on these and other films, visit: www.ffm-montreal.org
Sandy Mandelberger, Festival Dailies Editor
The prestige movie season officially begins at Toronto International Film Festival Seattle Times And movie watchers, after a summer of popcorn, will turn their gaze northeast to get an inkling of what titles we just might be hearing about this fall and ... and more » |
'Meek's Cutoff' shows women's view of West The Associated Press He is a central figure in the new movie "Meek's Cutoff," which premiered Sunday at the Venice Film Festival in competition for the Golden Lion. ... and more » |
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LOST LOVE MURDER (Shoji Kubota, Japan)
The Montreal World Film Festival, which is now in its final weekend, has always been a bridge for Asian films coming to North America. Films from this part of the world resonate with Montreal audiences and juries. In the past ten years, the number of Asian films winning the Festival’s top prize is more consistent than at any other major film event. This year, this trans-ocean love affair continues.
Japan is the country with the strongest Asian presence. A record 15 films will be showcased over the Festival’s 12-day stretch. In BOX – THE HAKAMADA CASE by Banmei Takahashi, a famed case of wrongful accusation and imprisonment from the 1960s shatters the dictates of the Japanese legal system when a young boxer is falsely accused and sentenced for a crime he did not commit. In CATERPILLAR, set during Japan’s war with China in the months before Pearl Harbor, director Kaji Wakamatsu offers an impassioned indictment of right-wing nationalism in the tale of the wife of an injured soldier who openly speaks out about the absurdities and the costs of war. The Japanese penchant for samurai dramas and historical epics is represented by such titles as ABACUS AND SWORD by Yoshimitsu Morita and SWORD OF DESPERATION by Hirakyuki Hayarama. In TOROCCO, a culture clash drama by writer/director Hirofumi Kawaguchi, a mother and her two sons who travel from their home in Tokyo to deliver the ashes of her dead husband to a remote mountain village in Taiwan. Contemporary subjects are also on tap, including the sexually provocative LOST LOVE MURDER by Shoji Kubota; the recession-era thriller THE INCITE MILL by Hideo Nakata; and relationship drama SWEET LITTLE LIES by Hitoshi Yazaki.
Five films from China and Hong Kong are being presented. Competing for a prize in the First Films Competition, director Gao Feng evokes the austerity of the rural Kazakh region in a story of family loyalties and community dissension in the film AN ETERNAL LAMB. In the equally rural BLUE KNIGHT, love and family ties are put to the test in an exotic Mongolia, as written and directed by Zhuo Gehe. A glossy biopic of poet/philosopher CONFUCIUS by director Mei Hu provides a powerful vehicle for actor Chow Yun-fat who illuminates the influence and the humanity of the religious leader. In EAST WIND RAIN, director Liu Yunglong spins a noirish tale of state secrets and double crosses set in 1941 Shanghai. One of China’s best known directors, Zhang Yimou brings a saucy energy to this reimagining of the Coen Brothers’ BLOOD SIMPLE, with ritual swords replacing handguns and the violence of choice. India is represented by two films. In ASCENSION by writer/director Pinaki Chaudhuri, a traditional patriarch is in conflict with his only son, who has married outside his caste and settled abroad. Bollywood movie clips and songs create a kaleidoscopic appreciation of India’s unique cinematic achievement in the entertaining documentary INDIA BY SONG by Vijay Singh.
Other Asian films include DOOMAN RIVER, South Korean writer/director Zhang Lu’s dramatic evocation of the desperation and the courage of the hundreds of thousands of North Koreans who have crossed the treacherous ice flows of the Dooman River to escape into China; YOU ARE SERVED, a compelling Indonesian documentary by Jorge Leon about young women who leave their homeland to find economic opportunity in the Middle East as maids, but are kept as virtual slaves subject to harsh punishment and economic fines if they try to leave; and NARGIS: WHEN TIME STOPPED BREATHING, a Myanmar-German co-production about the devastating effects of a 2008 cyclone on the people of Myanmar’s Irrawaddy Delta (with over 140,000 killed) and the repressive military government’s stubbornness in letting in international aid.
Asian cinema is one of Montreal’s specialties and the audiences among the most enthusiastic on the film festival circuit. In other words, there are many discoveries, both dramas and documentaries, to be found this year. For more information on these and other titles, visit: www.ffm-montreal.org
Sandy Mandelberger, Festival Dailies Editor
Ann Harding makes a comeback in new book, "Ann Harding: Cinema's Gallant Lady" Wicked Local Provincetown By Staff reports There's a new book on the stands that might interest some of the folks in Provincetown, “Ann Harding—Cinema's Gallant Lady” (BearManor, ... and more » |
The Passion Variety An 01 Distribution release of a Fandango production, in collaboration with Rai Cinema. (International sales: Fandango Portobello, London. ... and more » |
By now we're used to notable directors pausing from their cinematic schedules to whip some short and fancy advertisement for everything from perfume to cars. David Lynch. Martin Scorsese. Wes Anderson. Terry Gilliam. Kathryn Bigelow. Michel Gondry. Even Frank Miller got into the trend this year.Filed under: Trailers and Clips
Continue reading Watch This: Harmony Korine's Fashion Short, 'Act Da Fool'
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Getting film tax credits can be taxing Detroit Free Press When local filmmaker Adrian Walker set out to make his first movie in early 2009, he mistakenly assumed that obtaining a Michigan film production tax credit ... and more » |
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| Sept 6: Nigel Westlake (1958) | ![]() |
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| Sept 6: Patrick O’Hearn (1954) | ![]() |
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| Sept 6: William Kraft (1923) | ![]() |
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| Sept 7: Leonard Rosenman (1924) | ![]() |
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| Sept 7: Mark isham (1951) | ![]() |
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| Sept 9: Eric Serra (1959) | ![]() |
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| Sept 11: Herbert Stothart (1885) | ![]() |
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I wish I was an actor in 1950s-60s: Aamir Times of India "To me the 1950s-60s were the golden period of Indian cinema. During that time the creative talents be it director, actor, lyric writers, composers, ... and more » |
![]() Washington Post | On Movies: How myth-makers distorted Tillman's death Philadelphia Inquirer Bar-Lev wants to make it clear that The Tillman Story is not a political film. What happened under the Bush administration with Tillman and Lynch - the ... 'The Tillman Story': a director and a family question a nation's portrait of a manOregonLive.com (blog) Film Review: Amazing Saga of 'The Tillman Story' Has Lasting PowerHollywoodChicago.com Film Review: The Tillman StoryRantRave | Published Opinion. San Diego Union Tribune all 227 news articles » |
SNYDER SKEPTICAL Governor's race outcome could affect film credits Detroit Free Press "Films bring a lot of money to Detroit that normally wouldn't be spent here," said Cal Hazelbaker, business representative for the 400-member International ... and more » |
Cuban Zombie Film Signals Lightened Censorship IndyPosted A flesh eating zombie film is being produced in Cuba with a budget that is huge by Cuban standards but quite modest almost everyplace else. ... and more » |
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It's a global crime wave at American movie theaters Dallas Morning News Also, with the exception of Mesrine, a French biopic with the feel and story arc of a classic American gangster movie, they fall well outside the stylistic ... and more » |
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A drive-in cinema, the Admiral Twin in Tulsa, Oklahoma was destroyed by a fire on September 3, 2010 the cinema was showing the recently released Eli Roth produced The Last Exorcism. No one was injured in the fire thankfully and authorities are baffled as to how the fire started, but an investigation is underway.
The cinema was built in 1951 and has become a local landmark in the community, the future of the drive-in is uncertain at this time.
The fire could have quite easily have been started by faulty wiring or some form of electrical fault, but maybe it was the wrath of god that destroyed the drive-in or it could have been the work of Satan.
It wouldn't put it pass me if it was arson, possibly a disgruntled punter that was filled with false hope, after all the advertising and hype behind The Last Exorcism that the person couldn't take it anymore and tried to destroy the movie which has got negative reviews by the majority of our horror community here.
Above: The Drive-in cinema engulfed in flames.

Above: The aftermath of the fire at the drive-in cinema, a landmark that is now just charred remains.
Source: DailyMail
Cold Fish, written and directed by Shion Sono (Suicide Club) is an upcoming Japanese serial killer movie which is loosely based on true events. The case is known as "Saitama serial murders of dog lovers" which involved two convicted killers known as Gen Sekine and his ex-wife Hiroko Kazama, they are former dog breeders.
They killed their victims by poisoning over pet sales and money trouble, some of the victims include a chauffeur and a gangster. They dismembered the victims bodies, burned them and scattered the remains in a forest and a river, they murdered 4 people in total. In 2001 both murderers Sekine and kazama were sentenced to the death penalty.
The movie Cold Fish stars Mitsuru Fukikoshi (Guinea Pig 4: Devil Woman Doctor) who plays the role of a tropical fish seller who gets involved in a string of brutal murders after a deranged couple kidnap his daughter.
Synopsis:
"Shamoto runs a small tropical fish shop and leads a boring, but stable life. His second wife, Taeko, does not get along with his daughter, Mitsuko, and this worries him. He also feels somehow unfulfilled and dissatisfied with what his life has become.
One day Mitsuko is caught shoplifting at a department store. There they meet a friendly man named Murata, who helps to settle things between Mitsuko and the store manager. Since Murata also runs a tropical fish shop, Shamoto establishes a bond with him and they become friends; Mitsuko even begins working for Murata and living at his house, to avoid conflicts with her stepmother.
What Shamoto doesn't know, however, is that Murata hides many dark secrets behind his friendly face. He sells cheap fish to his customers for high prices with his artful lies. If anyone detects his fraud or refuses to go along with his money-making schemes, they're murdered and their bodies disposed of by Murata and his wife in grisly ways. Shamoto is slowly taken in by Murata's tactics, and by the time he realizes that Murata is insane, and a serial killer who has made over fifty people disappear, he is powerless to do anything about it. But now Mitsuko is a hostage at Murata's home, and Shamoto himself has become the killer's unwilling accomplice!
Meanwhile, the murders, without any trace of the bodies, continue unabated. The police have long suspected Murata and try to get information about him from Shamoto; Murata quickly senses the danger and threatens Shamoto not to report anything to the police.
In the end, the conflict between Shamoto and Murata will result in murder, insanity, and an ordinary man being driven to the edge of the abyss."
Cold Fish is showing at this years Toronto International Film Festival and is scheduled for a Japanese release before the end of 2010.
Check out the trailer below:
Source: FarEastFilms

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