D’oh! Missed Hostel 2, but free screenings of Go-Bots and Starblazers!

So we had planned on attending the Hostel 2 advanced screening in the city, with Eli Roth in attendance, but as luck would have it I had my dates mixed up. In fact, the screening actually started about an hour ago. Oh well.  We’ll try to get a review up sometime around it’s release in a week or so.
Some other cool items though. If you haven’t already checked out SFIndie’s Another Hole in the Head lineup, you really should. The festival starts Friday, and there are a lot of great films playing this year. Check out the schedule here, as well as our reviews of Murder Party, [...]

MOVIE REVIEW . Owl’s Castle

While a huge hit in its native Japan, the American response to Owl’s Castle so far can be characterized as lukewarm at best. One might attribute this to the fact that the film’s director, Masahiro Shinoda (Samurai Spy, Double Suicide), epitomizes classical Japanese cinematic sensibilities, while at the same time being a bit of an [...]

You’re right! I do look like that!

So I was at Fry’s this lunch break attempting to pick up a videogame advertised on sale. The game wasn’t there — in fact the shipment never came in — so I went about getting a rain check. The sales person I enlisted to help me took a bit of a time getting the rain [...]

MOVIE REVIEW [SCREENER] . The Man from Earth

If a friend you’ve known for 10 years suddenly made plans to leave town without saying goodbye, wouldn’t you be a little alarmed? If he was leaving a new promotion, a budding relationship, a slew of colleagues and comrades, wouldn’t you be a teensy bit suspicious? What if he told you he was [...]

Murder Party movie review he-said-she-said screener!

Murder Party
SHE SAID:
Somewhere there is a man who looks like Chris Elliot, but you will actually care if he dies. Chris Sharp plays Christopher S. Hawley, a totally blah, totally random alprazolam-popping traffic cop whose sorry socialization solely involves interactions with his cat. One Halloween, when the battle for the armchair is again lost to [...]

Severance movie review

It’s no secret. The American horror scene is all but dead. The ultra corporatization of the horror film has stuffed our cineplexes with remakes, sequels, and tired “re-imaginings” on a near weekly basis. Take The Hills Have Eyes 2, Black-Christmas, Hostel, and Rob Zombie’s upcoming empty-headed Halloween remake for instance. The British horror [...]

MOVIE REVIEW [SCREENER] . Id

Directed by Kei Fujiwara (Organ), Id is a an avant-garde exploration of the darker corners of the human psyche, of rage, madness, lust, envy, and general sin, told against the backdrop of a slaughterhouse for swine. As the title (and pedigree) would suggest, it is a film of instinctual rather than logical connectives; its narrative [...]

MOVIE REVIEW [SCREENER] . Aachi & Ssipak (aka: Achi-wa ssipak)

Aachi & Ssipak has no shame. The Korean animation touches upon almost every taboo subject and exaggerates it, which can make it comical for some, perturbing for others. They got yer violence, drugs, bondage, and something you don’t see too often in cartoons: poo. In fact, the entire plot revolves around the [...]

Hazard movie review screener!

Hazard
Sion Sono is proving impossible to pin down. After the blood-spattered proceedings of his semi-supernatural Suicide Club, and the opulent erotic-grotesqueries of Strange Circus, Sono has opted for a stripped down, near-Dogme 95 style tale of rebellious youth and stereotypical American frontier ferocity.
Despite the best efforts of American travel ambassadors, the international perception of [...]

Who’s on Top? Jaslene’s on Top! ANTM Cycle 8 finale

Sooooo.. it was down to rancorous Renée, sassy Jaslene and naïve Natasha. I don’t have much to say this season.. I liked Natasha’s bubbly attitude even though it was completely devoid of humility, but Jaslene took the best photos. I’m not sure why self-proclaimed “Cha-Cha Diva” seemed like she was on valium as [...]

ANIME DVD [EARLY] REVIEW . Afro Samurai Director’s Cut 2-Disc Edition

Being that I’ve already written a number of articles on Afro Samurai, including my first impressions of the series, and a full review of the Director’s Cut of the series, I think I’ve completely exhausted all I can say about the Afro Samurai story. For the sake of a cohesive DVD review, I’m reprinting the [...]

But Brokeback Mountain IS educational

Something about this case makes me chuckle. Chicago eighth graders were subjected to the horror that is forbidden rural man love when a substitute teacher slyly popped in Brokeback Mountain to educate the kids. “What happens in Ms. Buford’s class stays in Ms. Buford’s class,” the makeshift mentor allegedly said as the door [...]

MOVIE REVIEW . Limit of Love: Umizaru

Judging by the poster for Limit of Love: Umizaru, you might expect it to be a rock-n-roll romantic ruckus the likes of Miike’s City of Lost Souls. The reality, however, is far more tame. Limit of Love: Umizaru (aka: Umizaru 2: Test of Trust) is a simple theatrical sequel to a television adaptation of [...]

Yahoo! News . Be Better, Go Green, Win Cabs and Bulbs

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if zero emission vehicles were the norm? Well at least hybrids are gaining popularity, even though some owners are cited as “holier than thou” snobs.

Vancouver Canada’s Andrew Grant was the world’s first hybrid taxi driver back in 2000. Two ex-City lawyers recently started London-based Green Tomato Cars replete with [...]

Google News . New SRP on the rise

Not everyone will be able to see this new Google SRP (or Search Results Page aka: SERP/Search Engine Results Page), so I’ll just post it up here. It’s actually pretty fresh and I’m happy to see they’re venturing out of the “quicker is better” mentality and exploring a bit more, even though coworkers insist [...]

Yahoo! News . Kiss “the sky”, not “this guy”

According to wikipedia, a “mondegreen is the mishearing (usually accidental) of a phrase in such a way that it acquires a new meaning”, you know like “’scuse me while I kiss this guy” in lieu of “’scuse me while I kiss the sky” in Jimi Hendrix’s famous Purple Haze. There are abundant mondegreens at [...]

Another Hole in the Head Festival Lineup ‘07

The Festival Lineup for SF Indie’s annual Horror Fest, Another Hole in the Head, has been published. This year the festival will run from June 1st through the 14th, and will feature the following films:
FEATURES

Aachi & Ssipak http://youtube.com/watch?v=w14kQlT8hjg
Automaton Transfusion http://youtube.com/watch?v=sk6N69lXWBs
Blood Car http://youtube.com/watch?v=YiQTOL6XTkE
Driller http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZgJInsBdGeQ
El Muerto http://youtube.com/watch?v=mkCz3mLGdIg
The Forbidden Zone http://youtube.com/watch?v=GY1XmUKPjFc
Hazard http://youtube.com/watch?v=x0-zMw2OojI
ID  http://youtube.com/watch?v=XVLED-nWYrA
Last House In The Woods http://youtube.com/watch?v=4y21FZ-xo5c
Living [...]

Japanese New Wave Cinema on Stanford Campus

This is a bit late, but the Stanford film society is screening a series of Japanese New Wave classics, Friday nights through the first week in June. All screenings are free, held in Cubberly Auditorium on the Stanford Campus, and all films presented on best available 35mm prints. The film list is presented [...]