Waiting in Transit…

The Placebo soundtrack on the trailer really drew me in.  That and the tag line "The Matrix meets 28 Days Later." Overall, it was following the recent trend i.e. normal vampire movie with a twist.  Not very engaging. The only link to the Matrix was tehir se of humans to survive… for blood this time, obviously.. not being used as batteries.  The Matrix had it done better though… they had a plan in place to replace dead humans… here the dead humans just die… leaving a blood shortage.

Anyway… it was a filler movie. something you can waste your time with and would be just as good if you got it on DVD or waited for it come on TV.

What was great about it was the colouring and the cinematography. It was noir in a  modern way and the soundtrack fit the movie really well.  Also, Ethan Hawke makes a really good vampire. On the plot… I like how they put in all the normal stuff that happens after being a vampire becomes normalised.  Things like the economy, class systems, food shortages, etc. start to take over the agenda.

I’d give the movie a 6/10 :) Enjoy.

written by Muhammad \\ tags: Daybreakers, Movie, Review

Best Agency Christmas Present I ever received… so far.

"So what the hell does that mean?" is probably going through your head. Well here’s the rub… the Poster design for Inglourious Basterds was akin to having a great shot of a fishfinger on a pack of… well.. fishfingers.  No differentiation, nothing to build the brand. Bland. Blends into the background. Status quo. Following Market conventions… Don’t agree? Let me prove it.

Exhibit A: The Inglourious Basterds Poster (Mainstream)

Exhibit B: The Valkyrie Poster

Spot the difference. None… design-wise anyway. Now you can see Brad Pitt in typical fish-finger style… blending into the background of mediocre poster history.  Why would Tarantino bow down to corporate pressure like this and risk his almost instantaneously recognised style and colouring for mass-produced crap like this?

To be fair… there were incredibly great-looking posters made alongside this one… the issue I have is that the mass-produced poster was the most ubiquitous. Which was a shit move, marketing-wise. I’d fire whoever approved it, and am highly disappointed with Tarantino for condoning it.

Anyway… here’s the great ones…

So there you have it.  On the mass poster, Brad Pitt is a fish-finger. That poster should not have been made, let alone be put up as the main attraction.  The movie was fucking awesome, regardless.

written by Muhammad \\ tags: Analysis, Branding, Cool, Design, Inglourious Basterds, Marketing, Movie, Tarantino

Please don’t waste your time with this movie… to be nice to it would say it’s “fuckin’ retarded.” Which is a quote from the movie itself by the way.  With the advent of the 3D Cinema, some really good movies have been made which fit the new technology brilliantly… this movie is not one of them.

It is one of those really bad horror movies you know is bad when you see the movie poster, but are somehow intrigued to go and watch it anyway because of the “3D” tag to the whole thing.  Please do not be fooled by this.  After going through the whole schpiel and having some gory scenes displayed, in all their 3D glory, by the time you get to the climax of the movie, the 3D doesn’t factor into anything conciously… you’re mostly being gored out of your mind.

The most irritating of all though, is the extremely bad screenplay, predictable story-line and absolutely atrocious acting.

From a 3D Cinema perspective… I learnt something.  I think the technology is just a tool and another cool way to bring the entertainment to life.  The core still matters though, so if the story-line is shit, the rest will not make up for it.  It’s sugar coated excrement.
Link

written by Muhammad \\ tags: Movie, Review

Coming from the World Premiere of “Behind the Rainbow“, which was held last night at Maponya Mall in Soweto, one can’t shake the feeling of how the media has actually shaped the perceptions of the man on the street with regards to South African politics and especially with regard to the personalities behind the politics.

Behind the Rainbow, directed by the seminal Jihan El-Tahri, covers South Africa’s political history focusing on the internal struggles and challenges faced by the ruling party, the ANC.  One can’t help being moved by the understanding of the conflicts within the party as we see very different personalities coming up against each other; each with their own way of working and their own visions of the future of their organisation and their country, even though they subscribe to the same Charter.

Of particular interest to me was the focus on the very recent events in which Thabo Mbeki (ex-President of South Africa) went up against his life-long friend and fellow comrade in the struggle for th ANC, Jacob Zuma.  Two very different personalities by all accounts and the events which lead up to these two going up against each other at the Polokwane conference in 2007 and the recent “re-calling” of Thabo Mbeki by the ANC.  Everything is covered… Corruption, The arms deal, Jacob Zuma’s Rape Accusation, the un-wielding support of Jacob Zuma by ANC members, the mindset behind the ANC Supporters and the Youth of the ANC in general, Black Economic Empowerment, etc. All of which give you a holistic understanding of what the ANC faced as they were put into power.

Many members of the ANC were present at the premiere itself… Mac Maharaj, Andrew Feinstein and some others who were featured in the documentary as well.  The personal interviews with both Mbeki and Zuma, as well as personal perspectives of Members within the ANC make the documentary more personable than any other recent documentary done on the ANC and its internal workings.  The fact that the documentary covers aspects right up until the recent appointment of current President Kgalema Motlanthe (who is also featured prominently in the documentary), shows its relevance to the here and now.

Overall, it was a very well researched documentary on the current state of South African Politics and the direction was nothing short of brilliant.  It doesn’t slow and make you lose interest in any way and keeps you hooked onto pertinent topics without straying or becoming boring.  The points hit home hard, everything we’ve read in newspapers, seen on tV and analysed among friends is covered and criticised by the ANC members themselves.

A definite must-see for any South African interested in the past, present and future of the country they live in.

Directed by: Jihan El-Tahri

Produced by: Steven Markovitz

Behind the Rainbow – Trailer

Technorati Tags:
Jihan el-Tahri, Behind the Rainbow, Documentary, South Africa, Politics, Jacob Zuma, Thabo Mbeki, Nelson Mandela, Chris Hani, Andrew Feinstein, Mac Maharaj, ANC, African National Congress, Polokwane, Steve Markovitz

written by Muhammad \\ tags: Movie, Politics, Review, South Africa

For all the comic book fans and especially those of Alan Moore’s absolute classic comic/graphic-novel “Watchmen”, the highly anticipated movie version is set to launch in 2009. Directed by Zack Snyder(300), the trailer has already been getting comments across the blogosphere for having extremely cool graphics.

Not all’s good in Watchmen land though, the series creator, Alan Moore, doesn’t support the comic being adapted to the big screen…

“I would rather not know [about the movie],” said Moore. “[Zack Snyder] may very well be [a very nice guy], but the thing is that he’s also the person who made 300. I’ve not seen any recent comic book films, but I didn’t particularly like the book 300. I had a lot of problems with it, and everything I heard or saw about the film tended to increase [those problems] rather than reduce them: that it was racist, it was homophobic, and above all it was sublimely stupid. I know that that’s not what people going in to see a film like 300 are thinking about but… I wasn’t impressed with that… I talked to Terry Gilliam in the ’80s, and he asked me how I would make Watchmen into a film. I said, ”Well actually, Terry, if anybody asked me, I would have said, ‘I wouldn’t.”’ And I think that Terry [who aborted his attempted adaptation of the book] eventually came to agree with me. There are things that we did with Watchmen that could only work in a comic, and were indeed designed to show off things that other media can’t.”

Zack Snyder’s comments on what he thinks of Alan Moore’s reaction to him making the movie…

“We all want to please Alan, and I think that’s a noble thing to want to do. There’s nothing wrong to get the guy who frickin’ created the thing to not hate it, I don’t think that’s an outrageous thing to want,” said Snyder. “I think the approach is to assume that the movie is better, and that’s a mistake. I would never make any assumptions.”

He also has told fans at Comic Con last year that the best he can hope for is that Alan Moore will someday watch the DVD and say, “You know, they didn’t fuck it up that bad.”

In terms of the character line up we have Billy Crudup as Dr. Manhattan, Patrick Wilson as Nite Owl, Matthew Goode as Ozymandias, Jeffrey Dean Morgan as the Comedian, Malin Akerman as Silk Spectre, and — in an inspired bit of news — Jackie Earle Haley as Rorschach.

So far the movie looks to be about 3 hours long, which is pretty long for a super-hero epic, but I can understand the length from just reading the comic book and the mazing amount of detail that went into it. What is interesting is that the “Tales of the Black Freighter”, which is the story-within-a-story in the Watchmen comic, is set to be released as a seperate DVD (obviously to make more money off the fans). either way I’d buy it, I just hope that, as Zack had mentioned, they don’t fuck it up too badly.

From what I’ve seen in the trailer though, at least it looks cool. For everyone reading this, get the comic, I very highly recommend it.

Link
: Watchmen, Comic, Graphic Novel, Alan Moore, Zack Snyder

written by Muhammad \\ tags: Books, Comics, Movie

Coke in the UK is doing a tie-in with the New James Bond Movie, Quantum of Solace. How cool is the Coke Zero Artwork for the tie-in? I Love it, I’d drink that.

from Adage.com

Coca-Cola Great Britain has teamed up with Sony Entertainment to help promote the upcoming James Bond film, “Quantum of Solace,” by renaming the Coke Zero brand as Coca-Cola Zero Zero 7.
In addition to the name change, which will last for the duration of the tie-in, Coca-Cola Zero Zero 7 will have specially crafted bottles featuring the 007 logo, a picture of star Daniel Craig and the new film’s title. (Bond fans will most certainly note the gun-barrel detailing on the Coke bottle’s familiar contour.)

…

Coke Zero will be seen in the film, but traditionalists will be pleased to learn that James Bond will not be drinking it — Agent 007 is sticking with his martini.

…

Coca-Cola Great Britain is just one of many sponsors to have poured around $100 million of marketing money into “Quantum of Solace,” the 22nd instalment of the Bond franchise. Other marketers include Heineken, Ford, Sony Ericsson, Sony Electronics, Smirnoff, Omega, Virgin Atlantic and Bollinger.

: Coke Zero, Quantum of Solace, Coke Zero Zero 7, James Bond, UK

written by Muhammad \\ tags: Branding, Cool, Movie

I just love the typography of this poster, and it’s sucha drastic move from traditional movie posters, I love it. The movie itself is going to be a killer. I can’t wait to see this one. Apparently Oliver Stone went all out in making it an extremely powerful satirical look at the Bush Administration.

Link: Screenhead
: GW Bush, Oliver Stone, Movie Poster

written by Muhammad \\ tags: Humour, Marketing, Movie

Chuck’s fiction is one of my favourites, he has this twisted look at the world based on some of the worst things human beings get up to and forces you to re-evaluate your take on humanity and also take a long hard look at yourself. I can’t wait to see these when they come out. I loved David Fincher’s direction of Chuck’s first novel “Fight Club” (It’s on my best-movies-of-all-time list). I love the visuals on the poster for “Choke” too. Classic.

Here’s the trailer…

Also… Lullaby

and the spectacularly eerie trailer for it…

I just love this Dark, Eerie stuff :)

Link: Screenhead

Technorati Tags: Chuck Palahniuk, Books, Cool, Movies, Trailers, Choke, Lullaby, Eerie, Dark

written by Muhammad \\ tags: Books, Cool, Movie

Alex : There was me, that is Alex, and my three droogs, that is Pete, Georgie, and Dim, and we sat in the Korova Milkbar trying to make up our rassoodocks what to do with the evening. The Korova milkbar sold milk-plus, milk plus vellocet or synthemesc or drencrom, which is what we were drinking. This would sharpen you up and make you ready for a bit of the old ultra-violence.

I wonder if this little toy will give kids nightmares? Awesome movie, Awesome story, Classic Book, Really Weird Looking Potato.

link

written by Muhammad \\ tags: Books, Cool, Dark, Movie, Nostalgia

Akira, the 1988 Classic Anime movie which defined the genre, has been announced to hit the big screen in 2009. The project is still in the scripting phase being written by Katsuhiro Otomo (who created the manga) and Garry Whitta.

Rumoured to be included in this classic production is Leonardo DiCaprio and Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Brick, The Lookout). Leonardo DiCaprio is also Producing the film along with Akira’s creator Katsuhiro Otomo as the Executive Producer.

This project is also only part one of a two part adaptation of the Classic Manga movie. I guess we’ll know more after Akira (Part one) goes into production.

For those not familiar with the manga or the classic movie (which movie addict wouldn’t be?), the plot is simply that of a leader of a biker gang trying to save his kidnapped friend from a powerful supernatural experiment. Yup, Classic manga story-line too… philosophy, contemplation and complexity.

As we know, most times books are better than their movie adaptations, I just hope this doesn’t disappoint.

btw… for all you Akiraphobes, they have actually CREATED Kenada’s Bike!

written by Muhammad \\ tags: Cool, Movie