New Year, New Hopes

This is only a short post as my new years resolution was to keep this blog updated.

So here we go, 2013 has arrived and with it some interesting movies.


Evil Dead (2013) From the Guy who did... Ataque de Pánico!(2009)

Now i for one am a massive fan of Sam Raimi's original The Evil Dead.
First time feature director Fede Alvarez has been chosen to helm the remake and by the looks of the trailer he's the right man for the job. All reports suggest that CGI has been kept to a minimum, which for me was a pleasant surprise. Lets hope that for once this is one remake that doesn't sour the taste of the much loved original.  


If you haven't seen Alvarez's short film Ataque de Pánico!(2009)
check it out below. Made for $300 dollars in his hometown of Montevideo Uruguay. 

Wrong (2013) From the Guy who did... Rubber (2010)

Electronic music pioneer  Mr Oizo real name Quentin Dupieux follows up 2010's truly insane telekinetic Tyre movie Rubber with the utterly bonkers Wrong.
I'm not going to try and explain whats going on. So just sit back and enjoy.
For any of you that are fans of Mr Oizo keep your eyes peeled for a special little cameo.




Stoker (2013) From The Guy Who Did... I'm A Cyborg, But That's Ok (2006)

This is to be Korean film maker Chan-Wook Park's first English language film. To many times has a director that had shown so much promise in his natural surroundings, been loured in and spat out by the steamroller that is Hollywood. Lets hope they don't suck the soul out of Park and this dark psychosocial horror.

Great Directors = Great Movie - Terrible Hollywood Movie

John Woo = The Killer (1989) - Hard target (1993)
Nicolas Winding Refn = Pusher (1996) - Fear X (2003)
Jee Woon-Kim = I Saw The Devil (2010) - The Last Stand (2013)
Tsui Hark = The Blade (1995) - Double Team (1997)

The list could go on.

The New.....

After a quick search of movies on YouTube, you will soon find everyone is looking for the next big thing.
The problem i find, there always billed as the new version of something we already have. Studio executives are so scared of taking a risk in advertising they have to tag an existing name to anything new!! Only today i saw an advertisement for Rian Johnson's Looper (From the guy who did.... The Brothers Bloom). "This years Matrix" it read.

Now, i'm a big Martial Arts fan. I have to admit this is probably the genre of movies that has the most "New" Stars.

Lets start in the present,

The Raid: Redemption's lead Iko Uwais. In my eyes is the next big thing in martial arts movies. In the media's eyes hes the new Tony Jaa. When Ong Bak came out in 2003 he was the new Jackie Chan.

Donnie Yen and Jet Li in there time were the new Bruce lee. Both actors embracing this with remakes of Fist of Fury (1972). Yen's Legend of the Fist - The return of Chan Zen (2010) was more of a sequel than a remake. Li's Fist of legend in 1994 was what propelled him to international stardom.

Today I saw the trailer for Swordsman (the original title is Wu Xia) staring Donnie Yen and Takeshi Kaneshiro. Now this is being billed as the 'New' One Armed Swordsman! reading the synopsis it sounds nothing like the original. Is this again just marketing hype? Is the only similarity that Yen's character loses an arm?
Check out the trailer below or if you have seen the movie please let me know.


By the looks of it most people are happy to watch the same thing over and over again. Hollywood has rammed the same rubbish down our throats for years.  I'm always looking for an innovator. A trend setter, someone bringing something original.

Something truly NEW!!!

The Man With The Iron Fists

From The Guy Who Did... Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) (1993 Album)




Wu-Tang Clan Member The RZA's first foray into feature film direction. Truth be told he couldn't be in better company. Presented by QT and written by The RZA and Eli Roth over 2 years.

If you have listened to any of the Wu-Tang's music you will already know about there obsession with old-skool kung fu flicks, by the looks of the trailer he's stuck with what he knows.

With a first cut of over 4 hours, lets hope this Shaw Brothers influenced actioner hasn't lost any of its punch. 

If you like the look of this try...
14 Blades (2010)
or Azumi (2003)

My Most Anticipated Movies For The Rest Of 2012

After a quite disappointing start to the year i thought Prometheus was going to be the big turning point. It arrived with a lot of studio backing but it ultimately ended as an anticlimax.

Its not all been bad.
The Raid - Redemption brought us a new action maestro, Wes Anderson returned to form with the delightful Moonrise Kingdom and to some extent The Avengers did something to salvage the superhero movie.

So what do we have to look forward to for the rest of 2012 i hear you ask? well

The Dark Knight Rises (20/7/2012)
From the guy who did... The Prestige (2006)

Christian Bale and Gary Oldman return in the final part of Christopher Nolan's Batman Trilogy.
Tom Hardy, Joseph Gordan-Levitt and Anne Hathaway all join the cast of what could be the greatest comic book movie of all time?








Lawless (7/09/2012) From the guy who did... The Proposition (2005)

Director John Hillcoat brings back Nick Cave (The Proposition) on scriptwriting duties following the slightly disappointing The Road. Lawless is a tale of a small time family of bootleggers set in depression era Virginia. Tom Hardy, Shia LaBeouf and Jason Clarke play the Bondurant brothers who don't take to kindly to a corrupt official wanting a cut of there business. As always Cave provides the soundtrack as well.

Killing Them Softly (21/092012)
From the guy who did... Chopper (2000)

Brad Pitt stars as Jack Coogan in Andrew Dominik's adaptation of George V. Higgins's novel Coogan's Trade. Pitt plays an enforcer who is brought in after a mob protected card game is heisted.
The last time these two worked together was on the visually stunning Assassination of Jessie James By The Coward Robert Ford for which Brad Pitt won best actor at the Venice film festival.






Gangster Squad (9/11/2012) From the guy who did... Zombieland (2009)

2011's man of the year Ryan Gosling returns with Emma Stone (Crazy, Stupid, Love) in what looks like the untouchables meets Public Enemy. This could be the coolest gangster flick you've seen in ages. Lets just hope the Jay-Z style hip hop track is just for the trailer.

Sean Penn says it all "Back east i was a gangster. Out here, I'm God"

The Grandmasters (Asia 18/12/2012)
From the guy who did... Ashes of Time (1994)

Tony Leung and Crouching Tiger's Zhang Ziyi star in Wong Kar-Wai's take on the legendary Ip Man story. The film has been in limbo for about 3 years but if the trailer is anything to go by it will blow Donnie Yen's version out of the water. I for one can't wait.








Django Unchained (USA 25/12/2012) From the guy who did... Reservoir Dogs (1992)

Does this need an introduction? probably not.
Check the trailer out here

Only God Forgives (2012/2013) From the guy who did... Bronson (2008)

A Bangkok police lieutenant and a gangster settle their differences in a Thai-boxing match.
Sounds interesting!
Only time will tell if Nicolas Winding Refn and Ryan Gosling can re-kindle the magic of last years super cool Drive.  I'm going with a confident YES.


Take a gamble on... Red Lights.
Rodrigo Cortés follows the blistering Buried with a tale of faith healing, psychics and murder.
Stars Robert De Niro, Cillian Murphy and Sigourney Weaver.

Plus, don't forget about Rian Johnson's Looper.

The Raid : Redemption - Review

The Raid : Redemption  4 out of 5

From the guy who did... Merantau (2009)

When I first heard about The Raid, the latest Southeast Asian martial arts epic. I was extremely surprised to hear it was from Indonesia, a country not really known for its movie making and helmed by an relatively unknown Welsh director.

Gareth Evans may have only directed one previous martial arts film. The overly sentimental 2009 Pentak Silat actioner Merantau, if this was Evans's practice run boy was it was worth every penny.
If your wondering, what is Pentak Silat? it's the indigenous martial art of Indonesia. A brutal fighting style that contains lightning fast knee, elbow and knife strikes to devastating effect.



Rama, a rookie S.W.A.T team member is thrust into the action as his elite squad "Raid" a derelict apartment building in a no-go area of Jakarta's slums. Like a computer game boss, Tama sits at the top of his empire, watching and listening to everything unfold. As the ever decreasing number of Rama's team fight there way through each of its 30 floors the story and action unfolds.
After the short opening set up, we jump straight some bone crunching action and it doesn't let up till the end credits start rolling!!  

Iko Uwais (Rama) and Yayan Ruhian (Mad Dog, Tama's unhinged right hand man) choreographed all the fight scenes and you can just see the hours and hours of hard work pay off. The set pieces are extremely well thought out and the fluid camera work lets you see and feel all the bone breaking action.
Uwais is defiantly a star in the making and for me could easily eclipse Tony Jaa. I'll be watching his career with eager anticipation.

This is the action film I have been waiting years for and will be telling people to watch for years to come.
If you liked this check out...

Pana Rittikrai's - Ma Lui (Born to Fight) (2004) and John Woo's - Hard Boiled (1992)

Django Unchained trailer premiers online.

 From the guy who did... Pulp Fiction.

Looks like were all in for a treat this Christmas.

The trailer for Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained has hit the internet yesterday.
Leonardo Dicaprio looks in fine form as QT pays homage to the western genre. 

Looper

From the guy who did... Brick















Bruce Willis and Joseph Gordon-Levitt star as Joe in Rian Johnson's time traveling hit man movie.
 I don't want to give to much away, so your just going to have to check the trailer out for yourselves.
Lets hope we can forget the fun but disappointing Brothers Bloom and Johnson can live up to the promise shown in his stunning debut feature.