GERARD BUTLER AND STRINGER BELL IN "ROCKNROLLA."

After a few dismal little failures, Guy Ritchie just might be getting back to his old self.

"Rocknrolla" looks like it has all the colorful characters, cheeky humor and mayhem of Ritchie's first two films. And with none of the Madonna.

It hits theaters Oct. 31

Check its new MySpace trailer out my clicking HERE.

If i doesn't work contact me at kingamir1@yahoo.com .

Enjoy  

# First the title. I strongly suspect UTV has made a jibe at Ekta Kapoor's superstitious obnoxious obsession with the letter "K" or maybe they themselves believe in that. :)

# Second the cast and acting. Our protagonist is Shahid Kapoor aka Raj Malhotra. Yeah I know...such a cliched name!! Done to death by ShahRukh Khan. Oh by the way SRK has given a narrative voice over. The movie starts with the camera focussing unnecessarily atleast for 5 minutes on Shahid's well built muscular body. Ok we now know the chocolate guy is not so chocolaty anymore and has become a hunk. But his acting style is not original. He keeps on reminding of SRK most of the time. The stylist is to be complimented on trying to make Vidya Balan look young enough to be paired with Shahid by proper dresses and hairdos. But the media-hyped chemistry isn't there except for one scene on a cruise boat. But here also like Lage Raho Munnabhai, she runs an old age home. They could have used some other charity work atleast. I find Vidya's acting somewhat stifled. She seems conscious of camera and her body language doesn't seem that free. But of course she is better than some plastic dolls of Bollywood. Juhi Chawla is her chirpy self as a gypsy fortune teller who talks in rhyme. I have always liked her. Other prominent characters are Om Puri, Vishal Malhotra , Himani Shivpuri, Boman Irani. But its Shahid 's movie throughout. [Maybe Kareena should have waited one year more for Shahid to be a star. :P ]

# Third the story and movie (no spoilers). The college topper and most promising architect, Raj is going through a bad time in his life. He seems to be just out of good luck and is currently God's yo - yo. [Like someone I know :D ]. One day he literally bumps into Priya (Vidya Balan) and fights with her every time they meet. Meanwhile he consults a fortune teller Haseena Bano Jaan (Juhi) who points out that Priya is his lucky charm. But the catch is she runs an old-age home which is going to be to build a shopping mall by Om Puri. Raj hopes to get the contract for this same job with his lucky charm's help. Thus ensues Raj's efforts to keep Priya with him, Raj falling in love with her while doing that and eventually a light hearted movie classifiable as a love story and one time watchable with family or partner with no sexual innuendos or hot item songs. On the downside, the music isn't so great and there is negligible amount of comedy.

# Fourth my musings. Is there really something called a "good time" or "bad time"? SRK says in the beginning, if fate wasn't anything then why is it so only some succeed and some don't with equal amount of effort? Is it really that no matter how much effort one puts in, one cant succeed against adverse luck? This has always been a point of argument between me and one of my colleagues who believes totally in Kismat (Fate). Most of us believe in either lucky charms or omens. I don't know about boys' depth of belief and practice of superstitions but I have known many girls who had some lucky dresses which they wore to every exam or some lucky pen or even some lucky friends. I considered a teacher in my school as bad omen. Whenever she came as an invigilator in my Hindi exam, it went bad. I have never flunked though but Hindi scared the hell out of me. Kinda poor in that. But I have never considered anything or anyone as my lucky charm yet. Tell me what's your lucky charm?

Xzibit at X Files

Actor Xzibit attends the 20th Century Fox World Premiere of "The X Files: I Want To Believe" at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood

detroitnews.com

• The panel included actors Gerard Butler, Chris Bridges, Jeremy Piven, and Idris Elba.
• Guy Ritchie was asked if there was pressure from the studio to do a movie that resembled his earlier, more successful, efforts to which Ritchie replied with an enthusiastic, "Yup!".
• Piven revealed that he approached Ritchie for a part in the film with the intention of pursuing a role that would be distinguished from his Entourage role.  Previously the only Americans in the script were two black men.

Synopsis
Guy Ritchie returns to his roots with RocknRolla, a crime comedy in the spirit of his early films Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch.

RocknRolla hits theaters on October 3, 2008.

I wasn’t familiar with the Savannah College of Art and Design until I came across This short called Pencil Face a while back. (A higher resolution version is available here.)

I watched the other shorts hosted by ScadShorts.com, but this one really stood out to me for several reasons. The biggest is that it didn’t at all feel like a student film. The sound, lighting and camerawork are all very good. Director Christian Simmons did an excellent job with this project.

Also, it has a distinct Burtonesque feel, which, for me at least, is a big selling point. Pencil Face keeps tension going with eerie music and by really not explaining anything.

At any rate, hope you enjoy.

The duo also shot down a re-appearance of Megatron: "Didn’t he get thrown into the bottom of the ocean?" Kurtzman laughed, with Orci adding, "That would be silly" in regards to the characters return.

Lastly, Orci revealed that while the first film was about a boy and his car, this one is "about being away from home. It’s a few years later and Sam is going to finally go to college and he’s going to face being away from home just as the autobots are having to deal with being away from Cybertron."

more graph humor and song chart memes

more graph humor and song chart memes

more graph humor and song chart memes

more graph humor and song chart memes

more graph humor and song chart memes

Three posters from the 2009 grindhouse movie, Bitch Slap were released at Comic-Con.  Check them out after the jump.

Synopsis
“Bitch Slap” is a post-modern, thinking man’s throwback to the “B” Movie/Exploitation films of the 1950’s - 70’s as well as a loving, sly parody of same. Inspired by the likes of “Dragstrip Girls,” “Faster Pussycat, Kill, Kill,” “Kung Fu Nun” and the pantheon of Blacksploitation films, “Bitch Slap” mixes hot girls, fast cars, big guns, nasty tongues, outrageous action and jaw-dropping eye candy with a message… don’t be naughty!

At its core, “Bitch Slap” follows three bad girls (a down-and-out stripper, a drug-running killer and a corporate powerbroker) as they arrive at a remote desert hideaway to extort massive booty from a ruthless underworld kingpin. Things quickly spin out of control as allegiances change, truths are revealed, other criminals arrive for the score, the fate of the world hangs in the balance and they are forced to confront a villain much worse than they ever expected… themselves. It’s the ultimate morality tale as, one by one, they realize the whole “she-bang” was a set-up and one of the film’s characters may not even be human...

What makes “Bitch Slap” different is a “B” Story device that runs throughout the film to illuminate character, backstory and relationship histories not previously revealed. Like the movie “Momento,” these scene flashbacks take place in reverse; so by the end of the film, the audience has a wholly different take on who these women are and why they are behaving so badly. “Bitch Slap” also employs a mysterious Female Narrator who comments periodically on the folly of humanity, the plight of the human condition and the vagaries of life and love through quoting the likes of Dostoevsky, T.S. Eliot, Sun Tzu and even Buddha. Bet you never heard THAT in “Jailbait Babysitter!”

So grab your popcorn and fasten your crotch restraint. With “Cult Classic” written all over it, “Bitch Slap” is the cat-fighting, girl-banging, pile-driving, go-go dancing, bronco-busting, bumping & grinding, philosophy-touting, breast-augmenting, femme-tastic f%@#-fest-fight-fantasy of epic proportions you’ve been waiting for.

Bitch Slap hits theaters in 2009.

(click to enlarge)

Source: MoviesOnline.ca

So enjoy these Spike commercials [via /Film].

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[vodpod id=ExternalVideo.641518&w=425&h=350&fv=flvbaseclip%3D2996498%26]

""The Dark Knight" became the fastest ever to cross the $200 million mark in five days. An additional $20.87 million on Tuesday has pushed up the total to $203.8 million since its opening on Friday..." (full details)

"Ian McKellen has confirmed that will be reprising his role as Gandalf the Gray in "The Hobbit" saying "Well, I haven't had the contract yet but it's everyone's intention that I play Gandalf so yes, I will be returning to the role. Although it's not until 2010, I'm very much excited about returning"..." (full details)

For some reason, this also reminded me of a series of videos by Dr. Jim Kakalios (who wrote the book The Physics of Superheroes) in which he talks about some of the science in comics.  Here's the video where he discusses the death of Gwen Stacy in Spider-Man;  Kakalios is a great presenter, and it's a fun topic, so give it a watch.

Here's some of the other ones as well:

This is director Apoorva Lakhia’s take on terrorism showing the gory face of terror, the mask of inhumanity and the ugly side read more

Then boy, are you in luck:

NASA AND INTERNET ARCHIVE LAUNCH CENTRALIZED RESOURCE FOR IMAGES

WASHINGTON -- NASA and Internet Archive, a non-profit digital library based in San Francisco, made available the most comprehensive compilation ever of NASA's vast collection of photographs, historic film and video Thursday. Located at www.nasaimages.org, the Internet site combines for the first time 21 major NASA imagery collections into a single, searchable online resource. A link to the Web site will appear on the www.nasa.gov home page.

The Web site launch is the first step in a five-year partnership that will add millions of images and thousands of hours of video and audio content, with enhanced search and viewing capabilities, and new user features on a continuing basis. Over time, integration of www.nasaimages.org with www.nasa.gov will become more seamless and comprehensive.

"This partnership with Internet Archive enables NASA to provide the American public with access to its vast collection of imagery from one searchable source, unlocking a new treasure trove of discoveries for students, historians, enthusiasts and researchers," said NASA Deputy Administrator Shana Dale. "This new resource also will enable the agency to digitize and preserve historical content now not available on the Internet for future generations."

How many images are we talking about? Over 100,000 at present. Completely searchable. The homepage is broken down into several categories (Universe, Solar System, Earth, Astronauts) and contains an interactive timeline of the space program going back 50 years. Each search generates a page of thumbnail images - Titan calls up almost 1,500 - leading to photos, animations, audio files, and artist's renderings.

Wow. Just wow.

Damn, and I have work I need to get done this afternoon . . .

Jim Downey

(Via MeFi.)

"Restul e tacere" este, în opinia autorului său, Nae Caranfil, "o poveste de dragoste şi ură între artist şi producător, între artă şi bani".

Some rhetorical (in that I don't expect answers but wish to express them anyway) questions:
* Do mental institutions usually have mostly unsupervised patients wandering through all the halls? I mean seriously.
* Were Brad Dourif, Danny DeVito, and Christopher Lloyd ever this young? Geez.
* Why did they insist on using catsup for blood in 70s movies? Was Technicolor that new?
* Is electroshock therapy that painful for that long after a single jolt?
* If you try to strangle the head nurse, would they really give you a dual frontal lobotomy in 1963?
* Why give Jack Nicholson an Oscar for being himself?

But what is normal and what is crazy? The baseline is decided by (or measured against) the majority, and dictated by the tyranny? Yes. So behave or you get treated as insane, have your human rights revoked, and become the playthings of sadistic nurses. Although some people enjoy that sort of thing.

This was the 150th of the 250.

It deals with man’s exploration of the universe. I grew up on 2001, Alien, Aliens, Alien 3 even, are movies that I kind of love, but they have kind of steered science fiction towards horror. I want to bring the genre of space travel back to contemporary science fiction. The movie starts with a murder in zero gravity and goes from there.

A TRIP to the cinema with my 16-year-old son was just the thing to cheer me up this morning, so, at his prompting, we bought tickets to see "The Dark Knight".

Great film, but take my advice: do not go to see this if you think it'll be a laugh. Heath Ledger is brilliant as the Joker (genuinely sinister, as opposed to Jack Nicholson, who played it strictly for laughs in Tim Burton's 1989 version), and Christian Bale is... well, he's Christian Bale. He's well enough cast in the lead role, but you can't help feeling that he's going through the motions. His "impassive, strong and silent type" acting just comes across as a bit lifeless.

Like its predecessor, "The Dark Knight" tries to be all serious, dark, violent and threatening, and it is all those. But once again I'm left wondering whether making a serious movie based on a comic book superhero is worth the candle.

But I did like it. Honest.

PS. On the way home, having foolishly turned my phone back on, I received a call from a journalist friend. "What are you up to?" he asked. "On my way home from 'The Dark Knight'," I reply.

"You talking about last night?" Oh, what a wag!

Anne Bancroft was an American Academy Award-,Golden Globe-,Tony-,and Emmy-winning method actress.

Anne Bancroft was born Anna Maria Louisa Italiano,the daughter of Mildred (née DiNapoli), a telephone operator, and Michael Italiano, a dress pattern maker. Anne Bancroft's parents were both children of Italian immigrants.

Anne Bancroft graduated from Christopher Columbus High School in the Bronx in 1948, and attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, the Actors Studio, and the American Film Institute's Directing Workshop for Women at UCLA. After appearing in a number of live television dramas under the name Anne Marno, she was told to change her surname for her film debut in Don't Bother to Knock in 1952.

Anne Bancroft was a contract player in the early days of her career just as the studio contract system was ending. Anne Bancroft left Hollywood and returned to New York due to the quality of roles she was being offered.

In 1958 she appeared opposite Henry Fonda in the Broadway production of Two for the Seesaw, for which she won a Tony Award, and another in 1962 for The Miracle Worker. Anne Bancroft took the latter role back to Hollywood, and won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1962.

A highly acclaimed television special, "Annie: the Women in the Life of a Man" won her an Emmy award for her singing and acting. Anne Bancroft is one of a very select few entertainers to win an Oscar, an Emmy and a Tony award.

Anne Bancroft as Mother Miriam Ruth in Agnes of God Other major film roles were in The Pumpkin Eater, 7 Women, and what is unquestionably her best-known role, Mrs. Robinson, opposite Dustin Hoffman in the film The Graduate. Ironically, Anne Bancroft, then only 36 years old, played opposite a 30-year-old Hoffman. Although Anne Bancroft is now iconically identified as Mrs. Robinson, she was not the first choice for the role; Patricia Neal(who had recently suffered a stroke), Doris Day and Jeanne Moreau turned it down. Anne Bancroft was ambivalent about her appearance in The Graduate; she stated in several interviews that the role overshadowed all of her other work.

In 1980, she made her debut as a screenwriter and director in Fatso, in which she starred along with Dom DeLuise. Anne Bancroft was also the original choice to play Joan Crawford in the 1981 movie Mommie Dearest, but backed out at the 11th hour, and was replaced by Faye Dunaway. Anne Bancroft was also a front-runner for the role of Aurora Greenway in Terms of Endearment, but declined in order to act in the remake of To Be or Not to Be (1983).

From 1 July, 1953, to 13 February, 1957, she was married to Martin May. The marriage produced no children.

In 1961, Anne Bancroft met Mel Brooks in a rehearsal for the Perry Como variety show. Mel Brooks bribed a studio employee to find out where she was having dinner so he could meet her again. Once Anne Bancroft met Mel Brooks, she went to her therapist and told him they had to conclude the therapy as fast as possible because she had met the man she was going to marry.

They married on 5 August, 1964, in New York City Hall and were together until her death. They had one son, Maximillian, in 1972. They were seen 3 times on the screen together: once dancing a tango in Brooks's 1976 Silent Movie, in Brooks's 1983 remake of To Be or Not to Be, and in the episode entitled "Opening Night" of the HBO show Curb Your Enthusiasm. Mel Brooks produced the 1980 film The Elephant Man, in which Anne Bancroft acted. Mel Brooks also executive-produced the 1987 film 84 Charing Cross Road in which she starred. Anne Bancroft is on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6368 Hollywood Boulevard.

Anne Bancroft was survived by Mel Brooks, their son, a grandson, her mother and 2 sisters. Anne Bancroft is interred at the Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, New York, near her father, Michael Italiano. A white marble monument with a weeping angel adorns her grave.

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