Michael Bay homage

There's one constant that makes Hollywood great - big f@#king explosions. And no other director does big f@#king explosions better than Michael Bay, director of such hits as "Playboy Video Centerfold: Kerry Kandell" and "Meatloaf Bat Outta Hell II: Picture Show". Bay has proven time and time again that in a town full of swinging dicks, his is the swingingest. Most recently, Bay was challenged to a dick measuring contest by Terminator Salvation director McG which he later won by forfeit.

But one contest he lost was the chance to direct his vision of the Dark Knight. A shame really. Okay, this is pretty old now but for those who haven't seen it, here's the rejected script "found" by Spill.com.

And of course, here are some big f@#king explosions:

Terminator Salvation footage (10min)

Credit for this post has to go to www.geektyrant.com who have put up 10 mins of footage from the new Terminator film. It shows a lot of the story so if you don't want to know too much about the movie I would suggest you don't watch it. If, on the other hand you want to geek out on a chunk of footage before you get the chance to check out the movie itself, go for it.

FOOTNOTE: Terminator Salvation ended up being a huge disappointment.

Thirst

Tarantino's "Inglorious Basterds" might be soaking up a lot of the limelight in Cannes at the moment but another film that's screening that should be taken note of is "Bakjwi" ir "Thirst" by Oldboy director Chan-wook Park. The vampire movie is his follow-up to 2006's comedy/drama "I'm a Cyborg, But That's Okay" and looks to be taking the Korean director back to his revenge trilogy roots, in terms of style, anyway. After "Let The Right One In" I'm defitely in the mood for any vampire movie that threatens to break from the norm and "Thirst" looks to do that. It's gotten mixed reviews but then again, I don't really read reviews anymore. Check out the trailer below:

Radiohead 15 Step music video

Very cool anime video for 15 Step by Radiohead. Directored by Mizuki Totori who is based in Shibuya. I don't know too much about him at this point but I intend to change that. He's a graphic designer by the looks of it. There's an article in Ping Mag about him here. As far as I can work out the Radiohead video is based on or maybe uses some of the animation from a 3-minute anime called Drop. Totori was one of the winners of a competition that Radiohead held with independent animation netowrk Aniboom. You can find more videos here. (Too be honest I haven't looked at them all yet so I might be posting a few more soon.)

Here's Mizuki Totori's website: http://muzika.jp/fla/index.html

Moon

I'm starting to see somewhat of a pattern developing with my posts here. I suppose I am a sucker for good sci-fi stories. Moon, which is the debut feature film for commercial director Duncan Jones (aka Zowie Bowie - David Bowie's son), will premiere around Septemb er this year. The film stars Sam Rockwell, probably one of my favorite actors alive today. The film is about a miner (Rockwell) who after 3 years working in isolation on the moon is about to return to Earth. His only companion is his ship's computer (voiced by Kevin Spacey). Things start getting a bit hairy towards the end of his stay...

Check out the trailer:

District 9 trailer

Something I didn't expect to see when I went to check the Apple Trailers website today was this film - District 9. I had no idea that this was even in production. I have to say that I'm pretty excited. The film is directed by Neil Blomkamp, a young director that I have been a big fan of for some time. Blomkamp is probably best known for his work in advertising (You might have seen his dancing Citroen C4 transformer) but it's his short films that caught my attention a while back. District 9 is a feature length version of his Alive in Joburg short, mini fake doco about aliens living as second-class citizens in Johannesburg, South Africa. It mixed camcorder footage with photo-realistic 3D effects way before JJ Abrams' Cloverfield was conceptualised. This was a technique that went on to become a signature of his work. It's one of the best examples of how the limitations of your equipment can be turned around to be an advantage.

Check out Distict 9 trailer below:




And "Alive in Joburg":



Yellow:



And the Halo shorts:

Breaking Bad opening scene

Okay so I guess we get onto things a bit slower over here but, anyway...

Best opening scene to a TV show (or movie for that matter) that I've scene in ages. From the pilot for the series "Breaking Bad." Great series starring Bryan Cranston who I didn't recognize for the entire first episode. He's the dad in Malcolm in the Middle, which is another show I love. Cranston is totally unrecognizable as the main character Walt White, a chemistry teacher who runs into a few problems. Anyway, won't spoil it for anyone who hasn't read anything about it. I would just recommend you to watch it whenever you get the chance.