Nakamura's Place

Iron Man

2010-04-29T18:50:00.002+01:00

You know what movie opens in theaters this week? Yeah yeah, Nightmare on Elm Street, but not in Portugal, so think about another movie. Done? Then you know what I drew! Here's a sneak peek:

If you want to see the full drawing, just head on over to my new blog, or click here. Don't forget to follow me there, so you won't miss all the goodies!

Kick Ass sneak peek

2010-04-23T17:09:00.003+01:00

Well, I'm hoping to see Kick Ass over the weekend, so I took a little time this week to do a really quick piece of fan art. Here's a sneak peek:

What? You forgot I have a new blog AGAIN? Well, I have this picture fully posted there, so I recommend you go check it out here. It's now the home for my drawings (well, that and deviantart, and a couple of other places... but definitely, on the blogspot platform, that'll be where I post all my drawings) so keep an eye on it.

I'll do my best to update this soon with some reviews. I have been watching movies, you know? :)

Sketchcard 4 - Lion-O

2010-04-08T18:59:00.004+01:00

Greetings and salutations, my fellow bloggers! I just got done posting my progress shots of the fourth and final sketchcard I drew for Comics for Cures on my new blog. It's Lion-O! Who didn't like the Thundercats? Here's a little peek at the card for you:

If you want to see more photos, head on over to my new blog here, and check out the Lion-o post here. Don't forget to follow me there if you follow me here as well, everyone is welcome. Some of you are over there already, helping me make the place even cooler! I'll post a lot more goodies at the new blog instead of here from now on, so keep your eyes open for it!

Usagi Yojimbo on the Covered Blog

2010-04-06T11:44:00.002+01:00

Hello everyone! The piece I did for the Covered Blog found it's way into the interwebs yesterday.

Yeah, it's Usagi Yojimbo, because it's a super cool comic. You can go check out my version at the Covered blog, or have a better look at it on my new blog!

What? You forgot I have a new blog? Awww, you. I'll refresh your memory: it's here. And the Usagi post is here. Check it out and let me know what you think, don't forget to follow me there too!

New Blog!

2010-03-30T16:17:00.003+01:00

Hello, everyone.

So I went and created a new blog. This one is getting pretty cluttered, after many years of existing, and with plenty of things that aren't related to art or to what I do. I want the new blog to be exclusively about art! Since I've only now created the new blog, I'll probably upload some work that I already posted here, but I'll start uploading new stuff and gradually "moving" from here to there. I'm not saying I'll end this blog, I'm not planning to - but I'll keep most of my artwork in the other one. So, if you want to stay up to date with drawings, sketches and doodles, please come follow me at The Art of Carla Rodrigues!

See you there!

Sketchcard 3 - Bobba Fett

2010-03-30T15:54:00.003+01:00

And now, another post dedicated to a sketch card. This time, it was Boba Fett's turn! I had never drew Bobba Fett before, but since so many people like this character, I thought it would be a good pick for the card. After all, if you draw popular characters, there's a higher chance that people will buy them, and the whole point of this is to raise as much money as possible for charity.

Here is the inked version. As with Lobster Johnson, I forgot to take photos of the pencils, so we're jumping straight into the inks.

Next, I started laying down the colors, using colored pencils (like I did before). This photo didn't turn out great, I apologize for the weird lighting.

And here's the end result! Used a simple colored background, like I did before.

I hope you enjoy yet another post dedicated to a sketch card. There's still one more to go, so expect that one soon!

Scott Pilgrim

2010-03-25T21:32:00.004Z

Alright. I'm sure all of you know that the Scott Pilgrim vs. the World trailer was released today, and in case you're one of those poor souls that haven't watched it, go here and make your day.

I've seen it, and I loved it. I can not wait to see this movie. I know a lot of people are still unhappy with the choice of Michael Cera for the role of Scott, but I grew to embrace the choice and I think he did a pretty good job, from what I see in the trailer. Well, I could take more of the action and less of his whiny voice, but I'm sure the final product will be awesome. Since I loved it this much, I couldn't help but putting pencil to paper and coming up with a quick drawing of Scott to mark today's release of the trailer. Here is the quick piece I've done, hope you enjoy it!

Sketchcard 2 - Lobster Johnson

2010-03-17T20:45:00.003Z

One more peek at another of the sketchcards I produced to benefit the American Cancer Society. I hope it's not a boring idea and that you guys get a kick out of this instead of just seeing the finished product.
Well, this next card features Lobster Johnson, who's not an actual lobster - he's a character from the Hellboy world that I had never drawn before. I don't have as many photos of Lobster as I had of Terry Bogard, so we're jumping directly into inks. Or we can pretend I drew this with a pen, straight up, because I'm cool like that.

So here he is, looking a bit pouty. I wanted him to look "intense", but turns out he looks more pouty than anything.

Started laying down the colors. As with the previous card, I used colored pencils. I'd love to try out prisma markers sometime, but I have no idea where to get them here and I've been too lazy to hunt for them online. Also, I'm scared they'll be super expensive.

The colors are pretty much finished here. Added a simple background to make Lobster pop a little more.

Ta-da! Lobster is finished, and here he is next to Terry. It looks like he's disapproving of Terry being so smiley. Lighten up, Lobster. You'll make money for a good cause.

Hope you enjoyed this once again. If you did, I'll keep posting these!

Sketchcard 1 - Terry Bogard

2010-03-11T17:28:00.004Z

This year I had the pleasure of creating a small set of 4 sketchcards for Comics for Cures, to benefit the American Cancer Society. Artists donate sketchcards for the show. The sketchcards will then be part of a gallery show, and after that they're put on eBay, and all proceeds from the auction go to the American Cancer Society. It is pretty awesome, and whenever I have the chance of helping out with my scribbles, I'm glad to jump at the opportunity. The auction was supposed to go live on April 3rd, but I was just told that the date was moved to May 22nd, so it'll still be a while before you can bid on those cards.
Anyway, I've posted the cards over at deviantart, but I promised I'd post some progress shots over here. So, in an effort to put this blog to better use, here go some shots of the first card I did, Terry Bogard:

First, here are the penciled lines. Why did I go with Terry Bogard? Well, I love the game series King of Fighters, and Fatal Fury too, where this character is from. He's not one of my favorites from either game, but I had never drawn him before so I figured I'd give it a shot. Also, I think he's a popular character and so his card will probably sell well in the auction (I hope).

Here I've moved on to inks. I kept it pretty clean and simple. The cards are relatively small (about 6x9 cm.) and I'm not really used to drawing small, so the pose isn't very original or fresh, but I tried to make up for it.

Started laying down the colors with my mighty colored pencils. Well, I say mighty but in reality I hardly ever color with colored pencils. The scanner destroys the coloring and that made me almost quit coloring pencils a long time ago. But I enjoyed the practice, and I think I might have to keep going at it. I love the organic feeling of coloring traditionally as oposed to digitally.

Ta-da, the card is done here! Just added a simple background that makes Terry pop out a little more. As you can see it's a fairly simple process, and a lot of fun. I hope this card raises a lot of money for the good cause. Stay tuned, I may do similar posts of my other cards!

Hope you enjoyed this!

Release party of Zona Fantástica at Central Comics

2010-03-09T13:40:00.006Z

Last Saturday, March 6th, the release party for Zona Fantástica took place at one of the local comic shops, Central Comics. We weren't the only book being released, there was also "As Incríveis Aventuras de Dog Mendonça e Pizzaboy", a widely anticipated comic made by the collaboration between portuguese writer/producer Filipe Melo and 3 artists from Argentina, so we were in great company. The afternoon flew by, once again drawing and signing books, chatting with my fellow artists and with Filipe Melo (which was very cool, because I really admire him - he produced the first (and only, so far) portuguese zombie movie, which makes him pretty much the awesomest person around). This time the paparazzi was my lovely Cosmic-rocket-man, who took loads of cool photos, some of which I'll share on this post.

Can you spot Zona Fantástica there? This is the store front of Central Comics. I felt pretty excited to see a book with my cover there, I can't deny that. It was a good feeling.

The announcement of the two release parties taking place that afternoon. Hey, Green Lantern, stop stealing my thunder!

Here's the book for sale. Me and the rest of the gang signed all of these and plenty more.

This is me drawing on Central Comic's honor board. Whenever they host a special book release, they have the authors draw something on this board, and then they hang it in the store. It's pretty cool, especially since before I used to always look at the honor boards and admired the work on them, and now I have my very own drawing there too.

This is me, Fil and Rui Alex drawing. I wasn't signing a book at the time, I was drawing on that kid's moleskine per request. It was cool!

Still drawing for the kid. I drew a zombie, which I hope didn't scare him or anything. It was a nice zombie, it wouldn't bite anyone.

Still drawing, and joined at the table by Diogo Campos. Hey look, it's the Walking Dead!

Chatting with Filipe Melo, who we had the pleasure to meet! I got to draw him a nifty zombie. Wish I had had more time to really draw something kick ass, but Filipe still had to go to his book's release at Fnac, and so was short on time. He was a super cool guy.

Still drawing and chatting with Filipe. Ignore my stupid face, I don't know what was going on.

Moved tables, got joined by Pedro Nascimento, and continued drawing. It was an amazing afternoon. Drawing for hours, signing books and chatting with the people in a comic shop... could there be something cooler to do? I don't think so!
If you'd like to have a book, you can always go to the official blog for the project and order one via e-mail. Hope you enjoyed the photos!

Release of Zona Fantástica

2010-03-05T12:11:00.006Z

As you know - because I've posted about it earlier - yesterday was the release of the comics/illustration project Zona Fantástica, as part of Fantasporto - Oporto's International Movie Festival. It went very well and it was fantastic to hang out with all the artists and the people that went to the release! I drew a lot of zombies in a lot of books, predictably. I have to find something more fun to draw than zombies, quickly. Since I had my friend Mário take some photos, I'll take this chance to post a few of them.

This was the selling stand. You can see the book that was released, Zona Fantástica - as well as official t-shirts - and also the previous volumes, Zona Zero and Zona Negra.

This is me on the table. Next to me are Joana Afonso and André Oliveira, and we can see the back of Diogo Campos :)

Another shot of some artists at the table, this time with our "srs business" face. Left to right, you've got me, Joana, André, the Fantasporto presenter that made the opening speech, and Fil (who unfortunatelly got half-cut from the pic).

The lighting was not the best for photos, but here André and Fil were talking about the Hammer Killer, which was my comic. Look, there's my name on the wall!

This was at the end, when we were autographing and drawing on books. Clockwork from me are Hugo Teixeira, Diogo Campos, Fil, Pedro Nascimento and Raz.

And this photo was snapped by Joana, it's my very own Cosmic-Rocket-Man and André!

All in all, it was a great end of a day. Not only were we all happy with the book, it sold well, we drew a lot, and people also seemed to enjoy it. Another plus was hanging out with each other, since we all live pretty much scattered all over the country and don't get many chances to hang out.

I hope you enjoy the photos, and in some time I'll post the Hammer Killer I drew for this.
Keep rocking!

PS - Quem não pôde aparecer ontem, pode aparecer amanhã, dia 6, na Central Comics, depois das 17h, pois vamos ter uma festa de lançamento da Zona com alguns dos autores presentes (entre os quais eu) para sessão de autógrafos. E se quiserem apareçam ainda mais cedo e apanham o Filipe Melo e a festa do Dog Mendonça e Pizzaboy!

Brian the Artist

2010-02-24T14:40:00.003Z

So my boyfriend is awesome and gave me the 3 disc collectors' edition of Spaced, and we've been having a great time re-watching the series. I tell you, it is brilliant. Of course all this Spaced watching we've been doing had to end in me doodling something from the show, so here is Brian the Artist, Tim and Daisy's cheerful neighbor. The speech balloons are actually his reply in the first episodes, whenever someone asks him what he paints. I was informed that I misspelled "aggression", so I'm sorry about that mistake.
This is little more than a glorified sketch, but I wanted to update the blog with something. I really need to update this more, especially with art instead of movie reviews of craptastic flicks. Well, I hope you guys like it! And if you don't know Spaced, hunt it down and give it a watch. I promise it's awesome.

Zona Fantástica

2010-02-10T15:49:00.004Z

Yes, it has been a while without news, but now I'm here with some cool ones. I was lucky enough to participate on the most recent installment of the Zone! comic and illustrations project, called Zone Fantastic. I was responsible for the cover and I did a 3-page comic. Well, I can't show you the comic just yet, but I want to promote the project, so here's the cover:

The characters in the cover (one of them is mine) are characters you'll also find on the inside of the book, on comics or illustrations. I tried to give it an old, almost grindhouse poster style - since the book will be released in a movie festival mainly dedicated to horror and the fantastic, it seemed fitting. Here's a little introduction to the project:

"Zona Fantástica (Zone Fantastic) is an alternative magazine dedicated to the world of comics and illustration, the third of a project that has generated also Zona Zero (Zona Zero) and the Zona Negra (Zone Dark) (www.zonabd.blogspot.com), both released in 2009. This issue, devoted to "fantastic fiction" will be released in the Fantasporto 2010. It is the largest and most ambitious fo far: 80 color pages with the participation of 34 authors.
The aim of this project, almost fully developed through collaborations over the Internet, is to feature the work of new authors, as well as to promote the development of arts in Portugal. Thus, Zona Fantástica emerges as an important step that represents an increasing willingness for change in this context. "

You can visit Fantasporto's website on www.fantasporto.com

I will update you with news about the release. I know many of you are from far away, but if by any chance any of you guys are in Oporto on March 4th, at 18h30, you can drop by Rivoli, check out the book and talk with some of the authors! Good times will be had, I promise. But I'll keep pestering you about that.

Hope you like the pic!

The Room (2003)

2010-01-28T16:52:00.009Z

Oh hi, internet.

Last weekend I saw a movie. It wasn't a regular movie, you see. This film has been called everything, from "The Citizen Kane of bad movies", to "the best worst movie ever made", and let me tell you, the people who called it that are probably right. Never before has a movie so awful got etched so deep into my mind that I can't stop quoting it, I can't stop thinking about it, and I need to exorcize that, so I'm writing this review. I need to get it out of my system.

That movie, my friends, was Tommy Wiseau's magnum opus The Room.

Tommy Wiseau, a man with hopes and dreams of breaking through in the movie business, managed to somehow gather 7 million dollars and actually direct a movie from a script he wrote himself. He not only wrote and directed this movie, no, Tommy, as a true jack of all trades, also starred, produced and executive produced. Where he spent the 7 million dollars filming this turd is what I'd like to know, because this movie looks worse than most of the low budget horror movies I watch, and those are made with a few thousand dollars at best. This one was made with 7 million. It baffles me.
Another interesting thing about Tommy Wiseau is that no one seems to know exactly where he's from. He claims to be American, but his accent is as thick as they come (someone described the way he sounds as " like Borat trying to do an impression of Christopher Walken playing a mental patient" and that pretty much hits the nail in the head). Some people speculate he's actually from somewhere in Eastern Europe, but no one knows. The man is a mistery!

Now, on to the movie itself. The Room is a filme about a saintly man called Johnny (played by Tommy Wiseau) and his beautiful "future wife" Lisa (they never use the word fiancée, it's always "future wife" or "future husband"). Johnny is beloved by everyone, he is the kindest of men, has a successful career (something about the bank business... it's never really clear what exactly is it that he does) and showers his future wife with gifts and attention (saintly as he is though, I bet you'll be creeped out by him. His strange accent, hulking figure, and face that is a mix between Fabio and the melting Nazis from Indiana Jones, all blend together to form an avatar of creepiness that you'll start seeing in your nightmares). Lisa, for some incomprehensible reason, decides she's had it with Johnny and procedes to seduce his best friend Mark (don't worry if you don't get he's "Johnny's best friend" right away, they'll remind you of that fact every 5 minutes). This treacherous back-stabbing sends them, and everyone they know, into a spiral of drama, nonsense and hilarity so incredibly poorly acted, scripted and directed that you'll wonder just what the hell you are seeing.

Johnny and one of his many gifts for Lisa.

Don't worry, that's perfectly normal. At first you might think "Oh my god, I am definitely going mad, no movie can possibly be this bad", but no. I reassure you, your sanity is untouched. The movie really is astoundingly bad. Let's break down some of the things that are deeply wrong with The Room:

- Tommy Wiseau is easily the worst actor I've ever seen in a movie (and keep in mind I did see that abomination with Britney Spears). It's not just because of his accent and his haunting face - his delivery is unbelievable! He chuckles at the end of almost every sentence. He even laughs after his himbo best friend tells him the story of a girl who got beat up so bad she ended up in the hospital (something that shouldn't be funny at all). Also, he (and everyone else) seem to greet everyone as if they were LOLcats. When someone comes in the room, it's "Oh hi Lisa!", "Oh hi Mark", "Oh hi Denny", and so on and so forth (there's even a bit where he greets a dog by saying "Oh hi doggie!"). He has the most hilarious line in this film, the line that everyone knows, which is "YOU ARE TEARING ME APART, LISA!!". In this scene we see how badly this man wants to show emotion, and how much he fails.

Art by Fernando Lucas

- Lisa, the female lead, is always being called "beautiful", "sexy" and generally being worshipped as some kind of beauty goddess, but she's average at best. I mean, I'm not one to talk, but it's so exxagerated that it becomes hilarious. She has her hair colored in this unnatural shade of blonde, yet her eyebrows remain dark brown, and her neck seems to have this weird bulge sometimes when she talks. She's definitely a strange character. When engaging in conversations, Lisa commonly brings up subjects that, when asked more about, she claims to not want to discuss. It's always "I don't want to talk about it", or "It'll be fine". Lisa's mother drops by every god damn morning to have annoying quick conversations that never lead anywhere. The most famous part is when she does what would normally be a shocking and life-altering revelation, when she tells her daughter: "Well, the test results came back - I definitely have breast cancer". Lisa doesn't even bat an eyelid, says "It'll be fine", and the subject is never adress AGAIN.

- Denny, Denny, Denny. Denny is a huge enigma in this movie. He's sort of Johnny and Lisa's man-child neighbor. We know he's an orphan and that Johnny, angel on earth that he is, got him an apartment right next door and is paying for his college tuition. What a kind heart! Despite the fact we are told that Denny's in college, it's open for discussion if he has some kind of mental problem or not. He certainly looks and sounds as if he has one - he acts like a 5 year, despite being 18 or over - but we're never told anything that leads us to believe that. One of the creepiest moments of the movie is right at the beginning, after Johnny comes home from work with a new red dress for Lisa. She tries it on, and who should drop by but jolly boy Denny, who claims she looks very sexy. Johnny and Lisa then try to kick him out so they can go practice the horizontal tango, but Denny apparently can't take a hint. He sticks around, picks up an apple, and then sneaks into Johnny and Lisa's room, jumps in the bed with them and then, when try to kick him out again, he drops this bomb: "I like to watch you guys!". Way to go, sleazy perv Denny. Instead of being disgusted and horrified, Johnny and Lisa just laugh and push him out the door. And then... oh god, then...

- The soft-core sex scenes. Yes, there are 4 unnecessarily long, incredibly cheesy, horrifiyingly shot sex scenes in this movie. They are the worst thing I've ever seen. Afterwards I felt like washing my eyes with soap. Naked Tommy Wiseau is quite a vision. He's strangely muscular, but he just looks frightening, like Frankenstein's monster. I don't know if it seems that his muscles are in all the wrong places or what, he's weird. And then there are prolonged shots of his naked ass when he's humping what's, apparently, Lisa's belly button (all I know is he's not doing it in the right place). Terrifying. As if this wasn't enough, all the sex scenes have this horrendous R&B soundtrack. These are the cheesiest damn songs you'll ever hear and they'll make you want to vomit, be warned. The sight of Tommy Wiseau's ass combined with the gut-churning R&B songs is a spirit crushing experience, but hopefully you'll be at least laughing hard enough to muffle the sugary disgust of the R&B tunes. There's also a highly amusing sex scene between Lisa and Mark on a spiral staircase. Comfortable! I can't help wondering how she felt with the edges of the stairs lodged between her ribs.

Tommy Wiseau learned how to frame his shots in the best soap operas.

- The dropping of subjects. This movie is constantly bringing up problems and issues that never see any kind of resolution and instead are immediately dropped. I understand that Tommy Wiseau probably wanted to adress a lot of society's bigger problems now a days, - like cheating, drugs, cancer, job issues - but he just didn't know where to go with any of it. I already mentioned the cancer bit, but another famous instance is when Denny is bullied by a drug dealer of sorts (who I think was the best actor in the movie). This guy, Chris-R, points a gun at Denny and demands some money, but of course he's quickly subdued by our hero Tommy and his sleazy backstabber "best friend" Mark, leaving Denny to face the wrath and circular dialogue of Lisa's mother. Really, I swear, it's 5 minutes of the same dialogue just going back and forth. She asks what "that horrible man" wanted, Denny says he bought some drugs off him, she asks "WHAT KIND OF DRUGS?", Denny says it doesn't matter, she asks again, Denny says it doesn't matter again, and it goes on ad nauseum until Denny screams "You're not my fucking mother!!", which is a great line in this movie. After this, they all just go to dinner or something, and Denny and his drug problem are never heard from again.

I forgot to mention that there's some rooftop scenes which were very clearly shot with a green screen.

- The downright "WTF" moments, like the tuxedo football - in this one scene, Johnny and all his friends are shown dressed in tuxedos. You'd think it's Johnny wedding day - after all, why would they all be dressed like that in the same day - but it turns out it's not. Apparently the whole gang just likes to tux up once in a while and go out to play football. Yeah, they go to a dirty back alley to throw a football back and forth while dressed in tuxedos. Not to mention this one guy trips, falls and never appears on the movie again (so it's not only subjects being dropped, entire characters disappear suddendly). Also, why are there framed pictures of spoons on the Wiseau household? Why is the tv behind the couch? Why does Lisa's neck bulge? All these are questions left unanswered, and as such will haunt you for a long time.

It's "Tuxedo Thursday" in San Francisco.

Well, this is already a pretty long sum up of what goes on in The Room. The movie is incredibly bad, but what's truly astonishing about it is how Tommy Wiseau managed to create not just a mind-bendingly awful movie... but a hilariously entertaining one. You'll be laughing from beginning to end. Tommy is now marketing this movie as a "Black Comedy", but there's no doubt in my mind that he only chose to do so after attending many screenings where he watched people crying with laughter - it's clear when you see the movie that any comedy that's happening is unintentional. Poor Wiseau, he set out to do a deep study of human nature and interactions and ended up with a laugh riot. Well, it's better than nothing, since the movie now has a widely recognized cult status and enjoys several screenings all throughout the USA every month, always with an emphasis on audience participation (it's common to see people throwing plastic spoons at the screen, throwing footballs around, and screaming "YOU ARE TEARING ME APART, LISA!!"). Its popularity just keeps growing, and amongst its fans are people like David Cross, Paul Rudd and Jonah Hill.

I recommend, no, I urge you to see this movie if you have a good sense of humor. If not, you should stear clear, but if you're the kind of person who enjoys the "so bad it's good" kind of movies, you'll have a blast with this one. Trust me.

Zombie Painting

2010-01-21T19:20:00.005Z

In my quest of experimenting with acrylics, I made a painting of a zombie today. Yes, I broked the mold of my pixel paintings, I just felt like doing something different! And here's the little guy:

The photos are a little blurry, and I apologize. If any of you guys would like to have it, it's for sale! Just drop me a comment or an e-mail and give this poor zombie a nice home (and a nice set of brains for him to munch on).

The Amazing Joy Buzzards

2010-01-20T18:28:00.003Z

I'm back to being lazy in what concerns writing for this blog, and since it's been a while since I updated anything art-related, here is a finished piece I did the other day, a pinup of The Amazing Joy Buzzards - an extremely fun comic created by Hipp and Smith.

Enjoy, and give AJB a try!

Top 20 Favorite Horror Movies of the Decade

2009-12-30T20:21:00.009Z

The end of the year is fast approaching, and that means it's time to make some tops. I've pondered about what kind of top to make for a while, and finally decided to make a Top 20 favorite horror movies of the decade, with the help of my brother, since it's by far our favorite movie genre and we watch a ton of horror movies. Notice this is not a list of the best movies, merely our favorites.

Making a top is kind of a tricky business, and so there are a lot of movies we ended up leaving out, for a variety of reasons: we decided not to include horror-comedies that relied more on humor than on horror (and so we were forced to leave the likes of Shaun of the Dead - which I love dearly - and Zombieland out), to only include movies we had both seen (so a lot of movies that are potentially great, like Ils, The Orphanage, Á L'interieur or Martyrs don't fit the list, simply because we didn't get to see them yet), (and to try to stick to a more specific definition of horror, leaving out movies like Cloverfield, Battle Royale or Pan's Labyrinth, that despite having horror imagery or moments, are not straight up horror). Still, we did this just for fun, so check out the top, and let us know with what you agree or disagree.

20. The Eye - Gin gwai (2002)

The original, of course. It probably suffered from being another one in a wave of ghost movies that were popular in the early 00s, but it's an intensely atmospheric and creepy tale that definitely deserves to be watched.

19. The Last House on the Left (2009)

One of those remakes that are actually good. Tense, dark and violent, the movie is well-acted and crafted, and deserving of a place on this list.

18. Wrong Turn (2003)

Yes, we've all seen the "canibalistic inbred mountain family" movie made more than once. But a solid cast, tense atmosphere, and grisly deaths make this one a little better than most. It's not groundbreaking, but it's almost guaranteed it'll deliver horror entertainment. We can forgive it for having spawned sequels, the last of which is downright unwatchable.

17. May (2002)

Definitely one of those gems that deserve to be discovered by a bigger audience. Good story, great performances, especially by the lead, Angela Bettis, who manages to keep her character sympathetic even at the craziest parts of the movie. It's really best not to reveal too much about it, because it'll enrich the experience of watching it. Rent it, buy it, just make sure you give May a chance.

16. The Others (2001)

This is an extremely atmospheric movie, beautifully shot, and very creepy. It's also very subtle, and it will unsettle you without ever showing much.

15. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003)

A remake of the 1974 classic. A bit torture porn-ish at times, it does have some strong performances, especially by R. Lee Ermey, who plays the deranged sheriff, and all in all managed to be entertaining all throughout.

14. The House of the Devil (2009)

To me, this was one of the surprises of 2009. A highly atmospheric movie that is a throwback to 70's/early 80's horror. It's a slow burning movie that suffers from a rushed ending, but that didn't detract from the experience, and I highly recommend it (besides, I love all the posters for it). Maybe it should be a little higher on the list, but it does get tougher and tougher to pick favorites.

13. The Mist (2007)

A big-budget adaptation of a Stephen King story, The Mist had a strong cast and a very compelling script. I was totally immersed in this story and I was quite fascinated by the behavior of the group of people stuck in the supermarket.

12. Saw (2004)

I don't care what anyone says, the original Saw is a solid horror movie, which managed to both scare me and surprise me. Forget about all the sequels (most of which are horrendous), the first Saw definitely deserves a place on this list.

11. Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (2006)

A very entertaining dissection of the nooks and crannies of the slasher genre, anyone who is a horror fan should enjoy this. It does have some comedic elements to it, but it doesn't fully rely on comedy, so it was still able to make its way onto the list.

10. Dawn of the Dead (2004)

Even with the fast zombies (that I know a lot of people don't like at all), this was a solid zombie movie that, despite being a little more focused on action than on scares, pleased a lot of horror fans worldwide. It was energetic and fast-paced. It was also a good remake, that never wanted to outshine the original material, but instead gave it a different spin. The opening scene remains one of my favorite openings of any horror movie.

9. Splinter (2008)

Some may disagree with this movie being in such a high position, or even in the list at all, but we greatly enjoyed it, and it serves as a testament how sometimes straight-to-DVD movies are better than big-budget, theatrical release horror (as was the case this year with movies like The Haunting of Molly Hartley and The Unborn, which were beyond bad and still got significant theatrical runs).

8. Trick 'r Treat (2008)

Another movie that I honestly don't understand why was kept under wraps for so long, never seeing a theatrical release. It's been a while since the last horror anthology film came along, and Trick 'r Treat is a very solid revival of that sub-genre, in which all tales intertwine and play along with the various traditions of Halloween. Bound to become an Halloween classic.

7. The Ring (2003)

One of the rare cases when we prefer the remake over the original. It was tense, it was unsettling, creepy and scary. And on top of that, it was elegant and mature. It may have spawned a landslide of J-Horror remakes, but to this day it remains the best re-telling of the original story, and a modern horror classic.

6. Dead End (2003)

A family on their way to Christmas dinner decide to take a short cut. That's the premise of this movie, and that might get you thinking you've seen it done a hundred times before, but this is actually a pretty original take on the "wrong way" movies, with a hint of Twilight Zone, a solid cast, and gripping plot. The ending and the way it relies on twists was a bit disappoint, but the ride there was great.

5. 28 Days Later (2002)

While technically speaking this is not a zombie movie (it's more an "infected" movie), this compelling flick marked the return of the zombie sub-genre, and, not only that, still remains one of the best entries on it. Unrelenting, vicious and a fantastic horror movie.

4. Drag me to Hell (2009)

Hands down my favorite horror movie of 2009, Drag me to Hell marks the return of Sam Raimi to the horror genre. His directing style is almost like a character in the movie. Raimi combines horror and gross-out humor like almost no other (I wish Peter Jackson would also return to his roots!), and the result is an amazingly fun movie that makes us laugh and gag in turns.

3. Paranormal Activity (2007)

I already discussed this movie at length so I won't do it again. All I will say is: this movie scared the bejeezus out of me, and so it definitely deserves to be on this list.

2. The Descent (2005)

One of the most claustrophobic movies I ever saw. This movie manages to be tense and scary at almost every turn, it literally keeps you in the edge of your seat. Filled with dread and very unforgiving, this is horror at its best, from this, or any, decade.

1. [REC] (2007)

If the hand-held camera style was ever used to its full potential, this movie was the one that did it. It throws you right into the middle of an apartment building where a zombie outbreak is taking place, and the acting is so good that it's easy to forget you're watching a movie. From then on, it doesn't stop. It may not be the most thought-provoking movie, but it's incredibly visceral and, most of all, it is scary and it'll stay with you long after it's over.

And so we conclude this list. Like I said in the beginning, there are some movies that didn't make the cut for one or other reason, but there are plenty other horror movies that were good this decade. Let's hope the next brings us more of the good, and less of the bad!

Happy New Year to everyone!

Paranormal Activity

2009-12-09T10:36:00.004Z

As you know, I don't really like reviewing most current movies I see in my blog. I think there are far better writers and reviewers out there that undertake the task of tackling the newest box office hits, and so I don't really need to do it. I prefer to write my occasional review on old or poorly known movies that people may enjoy knowing about.

Anyway, sometimes I feel like breaking the cycle and this is one of those cases. What caused it? The much hyped and talked about Paranormal Activity.

Like I already mentioned, this movie was super hyped. It reminded a lot of people of the Blair Witch Project, a comparison pushed even further by the hand-held camera style that most of the movie was shot on (although, in my opinion, the publicity for Blair Witch was a little more complex - the directors even created a documentary totally separated from the movie, created all these websites and basically bet a lot of resources into tricking people to believing the events they would eventually see on camera were real). But, to be honest, I disconnected from a lot of the hype. I'm not one to jump in bandwagons, and when I start hearing about a movie left and right I get really turned off to it most of the times. Especially when the movie gets branded with labels such as "scariest movie of all time", like this one was. It pretty much just makes me want to dismiss it as a bag of bullshit. I didn't even see the full trailer. Still, when the movie opened in theaters in Portugal and opinions started rolling in on twitter, I got curious again. A couple of people there mentioned how they thought the movie could be more effective if watched at home... and that, coupled with me being a little sick, led to me watching this movie at home, in the dark. I was pretty torn about it, because I knew the version I had featured a different ending from the current version, but curiosity just spoke louder, so I settled in with my boyfriend in the bedroom and we popped in Paranormal Activity.
I think most of you are probably familiar with the setup: Micah and Katie are a young couple who started living together a little while ago. They start experiencing an array of weird events in their house and, since Katie reveals that she has suffered paranormal experiences on and off since she was a kid , Micah decides to go out and get himself a camera to document whatever is happening in their house. He gets a full set up together in the bedroom, not just the camera but devices to capture EVP and all sorts of gadgets like that. What we see is what they got on camera over the course of about 3 weeks.

You guys know I love horror movies, and I watch all sorts, from every subgenre out there, old, new, doesn't matter: I watch them all, I watch a LOT of horror movies. Not that much scares me anymore. But Paranormal Activity managed to scare me. Maybe it's because I'm a little bit of a scaredy cat in real life, when it comes to weird noises around the house and stuff like that. That door creeking, those faint footsteps you can't really place, that bump you think you hear... all of that freaks me out. I mean, I'm not really a believer in paranormal things, but it freaks me out and I actually love to read books about it, or watch documentaries, whatever I can get. I guess I like being scared. Well, along with me, I think a lot of people share the same deep-rooted feelings of being alone, freaked out in their house by unidentified noises, and that's where I think Paranormal Activity comes in as effective. The things you will see will make you wonder , deep down, if it has ever happened to you but you just don't know about it because you didn't set up a camera in your bedroom to record it. That, and the unseen, are the biggest things playing in favor for this movie. It was effective for me, it might not be for other people but to me it was.
The movie develops pretty slowly. In the beginning you kind of think "Well, that's not really that scary", but things definitely take a turn for the worse and it becomes increasingly terrifying, in a very effective way. Katie becomes desperate and Micah becomes borderline idiotic, making bad decision after another. I almost wish his character wasn't as full-blown alpha-male as he was, but well. They were believable to me, they may not have been the best actors ever, but they mostly came across as a believable couple. Katie's friend, for example, didn't work well for me at all, and whenever she was on screen she kind of took me off the movie - fortunatelly she was only there for a short time.
The filming style worked very well for me. I know a lot of people have problems with the hand-held camera, but I honestly believe if this movie was made any other way it wouldn't have been as effective. There's not a lot of shaky cam because plenty of times the camera is set on a tripod, so you get a stable shot. And, when the characters are carrying the camera around the house, you're actually scared again by what could appear when the camera is swiping left to right, to the dark corners of the house. The camera didn't detract from the movie at all, in fact it contributed a lot to the feeling of reality of the movie. I can tell you that watching it with my boyfriend, in a set up pretty similar to that of the movie, in the dark, it almost felt voyeuristic, almost like we were really watching a lost home movie from a real couple. It made it all feel very palpable, very real. And very creepy.

You know those internet games that were pretty popular a few years back, where you were asked to focus on a photograph, or look for something, or listen to a song very attentively, just to stand there like a jackass for 30 seconds and then have something jump at you? That scared the shit out of you, didn't it. Yeah, it scared the shit out of me too. A lot of parts in this movie reminded me of that - especially the parts at night, in the bedroom. The director managed to create such tension, you're just there thinking "oh my god, something's going to happen right NOW", but then it's never a cheap jumpscare, like you'd expect. It's just continuing tension, and anxiety. You're bracing yourself for that scare, but then it's never what you think. It really gets on your nerves and you only imagine how those people can even sleep in that fucking room, I know I wouldn't be able to sleep. There is some fantastic, I mean fantastic creepy imagery here. Things so simple that you think for sure someone must have used this before - but no one did, and it works perfectly. I won't say what it is because I don't want to spoil it, you'll have to see it and try to guess what I mean.
There were a few things that I didn't like all that much. To everyone who's seen it, the "Diane" plot point and the way it's shown in the movie was overkill for me. That took me right out of the movie - up to that point everything felt pretty real to me, but that didn't look real to me and it made me think of another movie, which is not good, when you're reminded of a movie that is superior to the one you're watching. But that's probably all I can think of, off the top of my head. I've heard people mention pacing issues, which I can understand, but to me it worked perfectly, I wasn't bored for a second.
The movie ending I saw was the original one, not the Paramount/Spielberg cut, though I have now seen both endings. Both are good - but I don't know if it's because I saw it first or if it's geniunely better, but I lean towards prefering the original ending. They're both good, shocking and very bleak.
All in all, I really, really liked this movie. I don't know if it lives up to the hype, but it comes damn close and it sure deserves the recognition that it's getting. It's pretty remarkable that a movie made with only 11.000 dollars is getting a worldwide distribution, and I hope it continues succeeding at the box office, because it's probably one of the best horror films to have come out this year, or in the last 10 years for that matter. It IS scary. Watch it in the dark, try watching it alone, in your house, and see if it doesn't stick with you. You'll be wanting to sleep with the door closed. 4 out of 5 stars from me.

Geocaching T-shirt

2009-11-04T16:01:00.005Z

Do you like Geocaching? Do you like cool t-shirts (and, hopefully, the show LOST)? Well, that's awesome, because this t-shirt is now available for pre-order:

Good ol' Jack is not lost, contrary to everyone's beliefs, he's just having some fun geocaching. Created by me and Kasovitz, this t-shirt will be available in sizes S, M and L, and stay tuned for a girl's version of this tee. The price is 10.90€, plus shipping, and if you'd like to order one, you can leave me a comment right here, e-mail me at shirakawa_otori@yahoo.com, or go to this page or e-mail ferreiranet@msn.com.

Hope you like it!

Halloween Picks 2009 - Splinter (2008)

2009-10-30T15:14:00.005Z

A lot of horror films are released directly to DVD these days, and most of them are a heaping pile of crap. It's tough to search through all these movies and find one that is remotely well done and worthy of your time, but there are certainly some gems out there that deserve to be found, and last year's Splinter is one of those movies.

Directed by Toby Wilkins, Splinter starts with a sympathetic couple, Seth and and Polly, who are celebrating their anniversary with a camping trip. Since this is a horror movie, you know things have to start going wrong, and they do, when Seth and Polly are carjacked by Dennis and his cokehead girlfriend Lacey. Turns out that being crajacked really ruins the mood, and, obviously, having two armed robbers in your car is enough to disturb your focus on the road. They end up running over a dog. They stop to check on the animal, but what they find is more of a mangled mass of hair and blood, with black splinters sticking out of it. Unfortunately, contact with this dog gets one of them infected with the spikey-like thing (turning into a sort of zombiefied, violent, bloody, walking sea-urchin) and, soon, they have to barricate themselves on a gas station and try to avoid getting infected by the splinters.

The movie starts out pretty slowly, but once it gets going it doesn't stop. Since the story is set mostly in a gas station, with only a handful of characters, it could get pretty boring, but the characters are actually interesting and well developed enough to keep you interested. They also don't make stageringly dumb decisions, like so many horror movie characters: their ideas make sense most of the time, and they really work with all they've got to keep the monster at bay. The setting is also effective, because imagining yourself alone, in a gas station in the middle of nowhere, trying to keep a splinter monster from killing you, is pretty scary.

Effects-wise, the movie is a low budget, but pulls off the gore really well. When a person is infected with the parasite, you'll see bones break, joints bend in ways they weren't meant too, bodies cracking, and it'll make you squirm in your seat. All of that is really well achieved, especially keeping in mind this is an indie, low-budget film.

To sum it up, Splinter is a great indie effort, and deserves its praise. With so many washed up horror remakes coming out these days, it's refreshing to see an original horror movie that, although it has its flaws, manages to present solid characters, a suspenseful story and a disgusting monster. It gets 3.5 out of 5 Splinters from me.

Halloween Picks 2009 - Wild Zero (2000)

2009-10-28T21:57:00.003Z

Asian cinema is a wonderful thing. When you think you've seen it all, asian cinema comes around and kicks you in the ass with all kinds of weird stuff you never thought you'd see in this lifetime. I've had plenty of "WTF" moments related to asian cinema - notably with Takashi Miike's trilogy Dead or Alive, or with any of Takashi Miike's movies, for that matter - but I don't think any of those were as much fun as Wild Zero.

This movie is just unbelievable from start to finish. It's a rock and roll movie with zombies, aliens and everything else in between. There's no real point in explaining the plot, because that doesn't really matter. Guitar wolf and his band just basically walk around being the coolest, most bad-ass guys ever. Besides, this movie is so over the top that it's not constrained by vague notions of plot. It laughs in the face of good editing and logical continuity. All you need to know is that this movie has loud music, cheesy acting, zombies, aliens, exploding heads, guitar swords and shuriken-like guitar picks. To quote a reviewer from Spill.com: " It honestly doesn’t get better than this! It’s like watching Rock 'n Roll High School if the filmmaker was on acid while directing". It is stupid, yes, but the good kind of stupid. It'll make you laugh and it'll make you wonder just what the hell you're seeing. And that's why I recommend it - while it's not a horror movie, it has horror elements (the main element of the "plot" is a zombie plague, after all) and it's pretty hilarious and crazy, so it's a guaranteed good time. I give it 3.5 out of 5 guitars.

ROCK AND ROLL!

Halloween Picks 2009 - Demons (1985)

2009-10-24T14:07:00.006+01:00

Well, it's that time of the year again. The temperature drops, the leaves fall and you start feeling an uncontrollable urge to watch horror movies. Yes, Halloween steadily approaches, and, seeing as last year my Halloween Picks section was somewhat successful, I decided I'd do it again this year. Except I'll just make one recommendation per post - time is a precious thing, and this days I haven't had a lot of it free to spend blogging. So let's dive right in into the first recommendation, which is...

Dèmoni (in english, Demons) Lamberto Bava's 1985 classic.
The story is quite simple: a group of people go to the cinema to see a movie about a group of young adults that find a tomb and, with it, a prophecy to the end of the world. The catch is that what is happening on screen, soon starts happening in real life, and these people find themselves trapped in the theater, with more and more of them turning into revolting, violent demons (one bite, one scratch was enough to turn anyone into a demon).

Simple enough, and maybe that's why it works. We never get an explanation as to why these people turned into demons in the first place, what's behind the strange mask in the lobby or how exactly they got trapped in the theater in a matter of minutes - but none of that matters. The action on screen is so unrelenting that all this never crosses your mind. It's just craziness on top on more craziness. This is a splatterfest in the best sense of the word, the gore level is crazy: it's a rollercoaster of mutilations and gross-out moments, with pus and blood flying everywhere on screen. This movie preceded some of my favorite humorous gorefests, like Evil Dead 2 and Braindead, and it's easy to see that those movies drew some kind of inspiration from Demons.
The characters are an interesting blend of people: we get the somewhat likeable main characters (the two girls, Cheryl and Kathy, and the two boys they meet at the cinema) , and in addition to them we get such colorful characters as a bickering couple, a blind man and his cheating, shameless wife, and, my favorite, a pimp that I swear is straight out of a grindhouse movie. His acting and his lines were always delivered in such an over the top way that he was incredibly funny and I found myself rooting for him to stick around for longer.

The plot is, of course, sort of ridiculous, but the movie is so repulsive, hilarious and exciting that it doesn't really matter. It's rare this days to see a horror movie so incredibly fun an entertaining (Drag me to Hell is the most recent example that comes to mind, despite it being fairly tame when compared to Demons), so this is a welcomed trip back to the non-sensical hilarity of the 80s.
If you like gore and 80s style horror - look no further. I guarantee Demons will be right up your alley. It gets 4 out of 5 Demons from me.

(500) Days of Summer

2009-10-08T21:05:00.006+01:00

Last weekend me and Cosmic watched a total of 3 movies: Sexy Killer - Morirás por ella on Saturday, (500) Days of Summer on Sunday, and Dragon Wars on Monday. While the first one was a nice little horror/comedy romp from the neighboring country of Spain and the third one was a senseless, ilogical turd with giant snakes and dragons, the middle one was just right. (500) Days of Summer not only immediately won a place in my list of favorites from this year, it is in my permanent list of favorites, period.

In a time where Hollywood craps out counteless vapid, empty and stupid romantic movies a year, it's movies like (500) Days of Summer that remind you that some filmmakers do have a beating heart and actually know how humans act and feel. This movie was funny, moving, and above all, relatable. I think that anyone can see this movie and find something that speaks to them: be it the elation of falling and being in love, the pain of loss and unrequited love, and everything in between (I know this all sounds horribly cheesy and lame, but you couldn't be more wrong). The writing was fantastic, the acting was really good, with great chemistry between the leads (Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel), and the non-linear way the movie is "told" works awesomelly well.

I can't talk about this movie without mentioning the soundtrack, that is absolutely brilliant. I haven't stopped listening to it. With a mix of Regina Spektor, The Smiths, Wolfmother, The Temper Trap and Hall & Oates (yes, those Hall & Oates) the soundtrack takes you on a journey through the movie again and again.

This all being said, I needed to do a little drawing of this movie, so I quickly whipped this up.

The likenesses are super-off, but I had to get it out of my system!

All in all, (500) Days of Summer was a beautifully crafted, tender movie about love. I definitely recommend this to everyone, even if you're not convinced by my pseudo-review: this movie deserves to be seen and praised.

And allow me to be cheesy now...
I love you, Cosmic <3 "You make my dreams come true!" :)

D-9

2009-10-01T10:24:00.004+01:00

I went to see District 9 last weekend.
The whole hype around the movie made me a little fearful. I thought that it probably wouldn't live up to its expectations and it would just ultimately disappoint. But boy, was I wrong. District 9 turned out to be a fantastic sci-fi movie, with a great story to tell and some of the best action sequences of the last years. More astounding even when you realize this movie was made with "only" 30 million dollars: the special effects are fantastic and really pull you into the movie. You actually get the feeling that these can creatures exist outside the screen, something that rarely happens with something created by CGI. I don't mean to write a full review, just say that I enjoyed it a LOT, and that I definitely recommend it. It was one of the best movies to hit the big screen this year, that's for sure.

Since I liked it so much, I couldn't help to put pencil to the paper and do a little sketch. I know, it's a bit lazy... but it's all I had time for. Enjoy!

Zona Negra @ MOTELx

2009-09-19T00:14:00.005+01:00

I know, I know, I've been abandoning the blog again. I don't mean to do it, but I've been so incredibly busy with college work that I can hardly breathe, let alone blog. But this deserved to be posted.

On September 4th the official release of the illustration/comic project Zona Negra, in association with MOTELx - Lisbon International Horror Movie Festival, took place. I was very excited to be able to attend, and it surpassed my expectations. Not only did the presentation go very well, but I got to meet a fantastic group of talented people that were, on top of talented, extremely nice and fun to talk with. The whole experience boosted my will to improve myself, to learn more and draw better, so I can keep showcasing my work alongside other artists. I'm very happy to have contributed, and all I wish is to keep contributing to Zona in the future.

Here are some photos from the event:

This is boyfriend Cosmic and me, paying attention to the speaker. Notice our geek t-shirts. I even look like I could do the truffle shuffle.

Unfortunately not all the authors could be present, but this was the group at the presentation. Fom left to right: Raz, Cosmic, me, André Oliveira, Paulo Marques, João Maio Pinto, Fil and Maria João Careto. Make sure you give them all a visit.

This is me (once again, looking about 1 second away from truffle shuffling), Cosmic and Paulo, holding proudly our Zona issue. Doesn't it look great?

I'll finish by saying that if you want an issue for yourself, you can order one at the Zona blog, here.
Thank to everybody who made this possible :)

And I promise I'll try to update this more regularly. Maybe even with some sketches! (or is that wishful thinking? hmmm...)

Zona Terror

2009-08-12T22:36:00.003+01:00

The project ZONA came from the mind of author and editor FIL, who created this anthology as a way to showcase his and other artists work in the world of comics and illustrations. The first installment came out this year and it was a success, filled with great works from many portuguese artists.
Now, in association with MOTELx – Lisbon International Horror Film Festival, a new edition of ZONA will be released, this time under the theme of Horror.

This is the cover, done by the artist Eduardo Monteiro.

I wanted to contribute, not only because I am very passionate about horror movies, but mostly because this is an awesome publication and a one of a kind way to contribute to something with some portuguese artists whose work I admire. I made an illustration for it, and you can see a sneak peek here:

A lot of kick ass artists contributed for it, like my cosmic boyfriend Pedro Carvalho, Hugo Teixeira, Roberto Macedo Alves and many others.

This special issue will be released in September and some of the artists (me included, probably) will be in Lisbon, at Cinema São Jorge, for the launch, but more details on that soon - that way, if you're in Lisbon in September, you can drop by, have a word with me and the gang, see a movie and buy a ZONA!

A Scott Pilgrim side-scrolling old-school beat-'em-up game? YES PLEASE

2009-07-24T15:02:00.006+01:00

In what is probably my favorite piece of news to leak out of Comic Con this year, Oni Press announced that UbiSoft will be developing a downloadable Scott Pilgrim side-scrolling beat-'em-up game to coincide with the release of the movie. Since it's downloadable, I imagine the game will be pretty short and simple, but still, I'm excited. I always thought that with all the gaming analogies present in the comic, a Scott Pilgrim game would be nothing but adequate, and it seems the good people at Oni Press felt the same. Hooray!

Go here to check out the video announcement at Attack of the Show, along with a few more comic-related news.

First look at the new Freddy Krueger

2009-07-23T00:40:00.008+01:00

And it's pitch black.

I do get that it's a teaser - but isn't this a little too much? I want to know how the new Freddy looks already. I'm secretly hoping it doesn't step too far from the original - I can see the outfit is the same, the only difference I can tell from this is that new Freddy seems to have a smaller build.

I don't know why I'm so interested in this, because I feel pretty reticent about this remake. Nightmare has always been my favorite horror franchise, I own all the movies in DVD and I can find something to like even in the ridiculous mid-installments of the series, when Freddy is basically a one-liner spewing clown, so it's only natural that I'm afraid "they"'ll ruin the whole thing with a remake. On the other hand, I think it will be interesting to see how Jackie Earle Haley plays Freddy - no one will ever beat Englund, but after seeing Haley play Rorschach, I know this guy can pull off a very creepy Freddy and I'm kind of anxious to see it. Plus, it will be fun to see a Nightmare movie in the theater, because the only one I got to see on the big screen was Freddy vs. Jason, and I don't really count that as part of the series.

We'll see how this develops.

RoboGeisha

2009-07-02T12:39:00.006+01:00

I know I watch a lot of crazy, nonsensical movies all the time, but the craziest ones I watch always come from the mind of our asian friends. Not necessarily the best kind of crazy, just the "what the fuck am I watching" kind of crazy. I think it was Story of Ricky that really made me parcial to them, and now I have a soft spot for these movies.

I don't know what's going on lately, but they seem to be coming out at a faster pace than before - that, or they're just getting more publicity in movie blogs and slowly crawling out of obscurity. I've seen Machine Girl last year (that, to me, didn't live up to the hype), and Tokyo Gore Police a few months ago, and already there's a new movie in the works called RoboGeisha. Yeah. It'll be hard to top Tokyo Gore Police in terms of sheer ridiculousness of what goes on on-screen, but since the main character in RoboGeisha seems to transform into a tank and there are bleeding skyscrapers, I think it's safe to say this might be a little more insane than TGP.

Check out the trailer at /Film (I can't seem to be embedding it properly here) and let me know what you think!

PS - I'm hoping I can write a new review here soon. I've been seeing a fabulous batch of bad movies lately, and really want to write a few words either on Troll 2, or Manos the Hands of Fate... Hopefully I get time for that soon.

Thriller

2009-06-26T16:28:00.004+01:00

I confess I was never a big fan of Michael Jackson. Yeah, I liked a few of his songs, but I don't have any of his albums and those songs, although excellent in beat, melody and danceability never left a mark on me.

However, one of his videos did. Few things scared me more in my life than the Thriller video. I remember watching it at a friends house and just being petrified. You know when you're a kid and things terrify you but fascinate you at the same time? Well, I'll always think back to when I first watched zombie Michael dancing with a zombie horde with a smile. In that sense, Michael really did make a mark on me - especially since now I love zombie and horror movies, and that was most likely my first exposure to it.

Maybe in the end, it was the dancing I was scared of.

(the sketch is a little old, yes)
We should all dance the thriller now.

*Cause this is thriiiilleeeeer... Thriiiilleeeer night*

Night of the Living Dead: Reanimated

2009-06-04T15:26:00.006+01:00

As you may or may not know, I've been working, along with many artists worldwide, on an animated re-envisioning of Romero's zombie classic Night of the Living Dead. Curated by Mike Schneider of Neoflux Productions, this project features a wide range of styles and techniques, which makes it very interesting and appealing to horror and art fans alike. It's been a few months since I started working on this, producing illustrations, and now I'm working in post-production, actually created an animated sequence (my very first!), and it's being challenging but very exciting, and Mike has been of great help.

The project has been recently mentioned on Fangoria's website, here, and the first teaser poster has been released. It's a great poster and a few more will be released, so just wait and see because there will be more eye candy. Here is the poster:

There is one of my drawings in there, Ben, which you may recognize after I post a couple of other illustrations I did for the movie.

You can find these and some others on my redbubble store, here. They're for sale as prints as official merchandise for the movie, so go over there and snoop around all you want!

As always, go to the movie's official website to know more about the project.

BRAINS!

Nightmare City (1980) Review

2009-06-01T18:04:00.004+01:00

Well, well, well. This weekend I saw a movie that made me want to write a good old fashioned long review. What movie was it, you might think? Was it "Choke"? Was it "The Ruins"? Was it "Let the Right One In"? No, it wasn't any of these, although I saw them all - and actually felt like reviewing The Ruins just to really dwell on how impossibly dumb it was. The movie I saw that made me want to spend a few minutes writing in the internet about it like anyone actually cares was... Nightmare City.

Nightmare City is an Italian horror movie, also known as Incubo sulla città contaminata, City of the Walking Dead or, my personal favorite, Invasion by the Atomic Zombies. Being a lesser known Italian zombie movie, you know you have to expect horrible acting, atrocious dubbing, muted colors, and lots of gore and boobs, and this movie delivers on all of this. If you're not yet convinced that this movie is an awesome pile of cheese, check out the tagline:

"An airplane exposed to radiation lands, and blood drinking zombies emerge armed with knives, guns and teeth! They go on a rampage slicing, dicing, and biting their way across the Italian countryside."

If by now you still don't want to see this movie, go away. We can't be friends anymore.

Directed by Umberto Lenzi, Nightmare City begins when a reporter and his cameraman head to the airport to interview a very famous nuclear scientist, who is about to arrive there. The plane he's traveling in does not respond to the airports requests for identification, so the crew prepares a landing strip for an emergency landing. The plane lands, and immediately the airport's security heads there, shouting to the pilot to open the doors to the plane and to come down and explain why he didn't respond to the control tower. They eventually notice there is no one in the cockpit, and in a matter of seconds a whole military squadron is in situ (as well as the reporter - who happens to be our hero - and the cameraman). There is still no answer from inside, even though now there is some high patent military guy shouting to the plane. After a few minutes of shouting, the door of the plane starts descending, and... out bursts a gang of, I guess, zombies, armed with machine guns, knifes, revolvers and whatever else, and they just start butchering the military (which is ridiculous, because these military dudes, supposedly expert shooters and what not, can't kill a zombie for shit. Really, they just don't hit them! Shoot them, you fuckers, geesh!!). You have realized by know that these are not ordinary zombies, because they are really fast, they punch you, shoot you, strangle you, and stab you instead of just gutting you with their teeth or whatever zombies usually do. They run, plot and scheme. They also drink blood, which makes them a weird mix of zombie and vampire. But they don't eat the victims, they just leave their dead bodies on a trail through the airport. I guess these zombies aren't very hungry, they crave blood instead of brains.

Since we're on the topic, I'll take this chance to say that this has to be the worst zombie make-up I've ever seen. In most of the cases they just look like some mud (best case cenario) was thrown on their faces, and in most of the cases their hands don't even have make-up, so you're looking at a bunch of dudes with brown faces and clean hands. It's just stupid.

Back to the plot, the reporter and his cameraman manage to escape the maiming, and head to the TV station, where some sort of dancing program is being broadcast. I think the director was really gung ho on making sure we knew there was a dancing program going on, because there must be about 5 whole minutes of just these guys and girls dancing in blue spandex, to the sound of some of the cheesiest music I've ever heard. The show has no host whatsoever, just these guys and girls dancing on a stage. Fascinating. At one point, they stop dancing and actually talk to each other, which I found hilarious because the movie is dubbed in english, but the dubbers somehow found it was necessary to try and make voices with Italian accents!

Well, when the reporter gets there, he orders some guy to interrupt the Dancing broadcast because he needs to make an emergency news broadcast. The guy obbeys and the reporter starts saying that some shit went down on the airport, but his job description apparently didn't include "interrupt the awesome Dancing show", because 10 seconds in, his annoucement was cut again and the TV was back to broacasting the Dancing show (to the delight of thousands of viewers, I'm sure). He goes around shouting for a while, until his boss, along with another dude from the military, tell him that he shouldn't cause panic in the population until they were sure of what was going on. DAMN THE GOVERNMENT!
Our brave reporter (who, by the way, is one of the worst actors I've ever seen in my life - his emotional range is zero, I've seen cardboard boxes with more emotional versatility than this guy) thinks the public had the right to know, he resigns his job because he is all badass and the government can't tell him to do, and then decides to go look for his wife so they can flee to the countryside. And so, the movie goes on.

I won't describe the whole movie here because that would probably ruin any pleasure you might derive from watching this, but what happens is probably what you're guessing - the zombies just go around killing while the survivors try to escape the overun city. Yeah, pretty much that. I won't even describe the ending, but I can tell you you'll probably want to stab the director in the eyes with a fork, because it's so outstandingly lazy and lame.

This movie is filled with vapid, one-dimensional characters trying to act natural but appearing fake as hell. There is a lot of moralizing dialogue about how we cause all this crap by living in out concrete jungles or something, but it all falls in deaf ears because by this point the movie is so utterly devoid of plot and coherent dialogue that you just have to laugh at the drivel the characters spill out from time to time. It also stars the most incompetent military I've ever, ever seen. It's hilarious.
The soundtrack is another remarkable source of cheesyness, it's so bad that some of the times I didn't even know if we were listening to the "music" or just to shit falling around on set.

All in all, this movie really has to be seen to be believed. I don't think you can tell how cheesy and bad this flick really is just by a blog post - you need to go out and get it. Bad as it was, it's awfullness was hilarious and actually entertaining - which is more than you can say for some big budget horror movies of these days like, oh I don't know, The goddamned Ruins. And if you are at all a fan of zombie or cheesy flicks, gather around a bunch of friends, pop this on and I guarantee 100% that you will have a laugh riot. Me and my boyfriend sure laughed a lot :D

White Winter Hymnal

2009-05-28T00:35:00.003+01:00

A very quick and sloppy sketch done after listening to Fleet Foxes' White Winter Hymnal. It's late and I don't even know why I'm posting this crap, to be honest. Brain Fart! :D

"I was following the pack
all swallowed in their coats
with scarves of red tied 'round their throats
to keep their little heads
from fallin' in the snow
And I turned 'round and there you go
And, Michael, you would fall
and turn the white snow red as strawberries
in the summertime... "

Dead Snow sketch

2009-05-20T15:58:00.001+01:00

That movie was asking for it. Just a puny little doodle on my sketchbook.

Latest Movies I've Seen part 1003

2009-05-20T14:32:00.005+01:00

Ah, I miss those times when I had time to get over here and write lengthy reviews about all the movies I've been watching. I've been swamped lately, and with little patience to write, but at the same time I feel the urge to post about what I've been seeing, if only for my own future reference. So here is the list of the past few weeks, along with bite-sized reviews.

1. X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Blatant continuity issues, too many characters for its own sake (some of them very poorly handed, others just plain ruined), Wolverine was too "softy"... What can I say? I really like Hugh Jackman, but he played a better Wolverine on the X-Men movies. This one was just a disappointment. 2 adamantium claws out of 5.

2. Star Trek

This, on the other hand, was awesome. Very well handled reboot, with great visuals (even with all those lens flares), compelling acting by most of the cast (I especially liked the new Spock, and the old Spock played by Leonard Nimoy), and a solid story. It was very entertaining and I had a great time. 4 out of 5 Spocks for this one.

3. Fright Night

Classic vampire movie from the 80s, so you know what you're getting into. It's super cheesy, unintentionally funny at parts, with a ridiculous storyline, but it entertains you and there are actually a couple of scenes with cool special effects for the time. If you're into 80s cheesy horror, definitely give this one a look, you'll have fun. 3 out of 5 shapeshifting vampires.

4. Once

This may seem like the outsider on this list, but it was probably the one I enjoyed most. It's easy to be entertained by spaceships, outlandish aliens, mutants and whatnot, but when the simple story of two people connecting through music really gets you, then you know you're watching something special. Once is wonderful: very touching, very human, and with a beautiful soundtrack. Definitely recommend it, and give it 4.5 out of 5 Irish singers.

5. Dead Snow

Ah, my home turf. A zombie movie. But not just any kind of zombie movie: the kind with Nazi Zombies. Yeah. Let that concept sink in. This norwegian movie managed to be one of the best zombie movies I've seen lately (I think the last I had seen was Virus Undead, which was crap), with the right balance of humor and gore (reminding us of Evil Dead and Braindead, although much inferior to either one). I really enjoyed it, and I'm giving it 3.5 out of 5 zombies.

What have you been watching?

Scott Pilgrimage

2009-05-07T17:19:00.005+01:00

If you've been reading my blog lately, you probably already realized that I think Scott Pilgrim is awesome.

You also may know that there is a movie in the works, directed by none other than Edgar Wright (awesome director of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz). Well, Mr. Wright has a flickr account that he has been updating everyday with new shots of the cast and sets of the movie "Scott Pilgrim vs. The World", so I thought I'd share it with you guys. Worry not: the photos are pretty un-spoilerish, and they're a lot of fun to browse through. Head over to Edgar Wright's flickr by clicking here.

Bryan Lee O'Malley, Scott's creator, also has a flickr account, that he regularly updates with convention sketches, comic thumbnails, con photos and lots of other cool stuff. I've had a blast going through the gallery, and I hope you do too, by clicking here.

And, since we're on the Scott subject, I'm taking the chance to pimp myself out and show you the Scott Pilgrim piece I finished a few days ago (in case you still didn't see it on my deviantart).

If you want to see more of my drawings, be awesome and click here, hopefully you'll enjoy it!

Comics

2009-05-06T19:11:00.007+01:00

Almost a month without updating this time... have I really been that busy? I guess so.

Either that, or I haven't been watching a lot of interesting movies to write about. This month I mostly re-watched some bad movies with my boyfriend Cosmic (I made him do it... I think it's important to see some crap once in a while, so you value good movies even more), but the ones I watched I already talked about in older posts so it's not worth doing it again. I could talk about Wolverine, but that was a disappointment, and, funnily enough, I don't feel like ranting today, for some weird reason. So, what can I possible update on? Let's see... comics. I'm going to let you know what I've been reading these days. Hopefully you find one or two good recommendations.

1. Wolverine: Logan

So, since I mentioned the Wolverine movie, I'm starting out with this one, penned by Y: The Last Man's Brian K. Vaughn (also writes some stuff for Lost, but I've totally fallen out with that show... but Y: The Last Man is awesome, though) and with art by Eduardo Risso, this isn't exactly a groundbreaking Wolvie story (it's hard to make one these days, because it seems like every angle of his misterious past as already been explored...), but it's very interesting anyway. It's set on World War II, and Logan was captured by the Japanese army while serving on the Canadian parachute batallion (or something along those lines). There he meets and american soldier and a japanese woman what will change his life. The writing is solid, but what especially caught my attention was Risso's art, that I though was absolutely kick ass. I never read 100 Bullets (the comics he's most famous for) but I just might have to look it up after this, because the guy kicks ass. 3.5 out of 5

2. Scott Pilgrim Gets it Together

Ah, Scott! These books are always a little bundle of joy to me. Scott and his gang had me on the first volume, and it's just been getting better. I love both Bryan Lee O'Malley's writing and his art, that while apparantly simple, is very dynamic and endearing. Scott's journey is filled with bumps on the road that we all can relate too, and his relationship with his friends, his girlfriend, his band, is a pleasure to follow and it almost makes you feel like you know those people (stupid thing to say, I know). His combination of slacker/hero is one of the things that makes this comic so great, and little things like a pannel showing him melting in the heat of his house playing Nintendo and still being too lazy to get up and get some water really make me smile. Plain and simple, these books make me smile and I'd recommend them anytime, anywhere. Can't wait to read number 5... I'm just delaying the pleasure a little, and trying to make the wait for number 6 less excruciating. 4.5 out of 5

It had been a while since I read a manga of any kind, but since this book was recommended to me and my boyfriend by someone who knows his comics (working in a comic shop kinda comes with that, I guess), he bought it and I read it first, because I'm a little leech like that :B Anyway, this was a pretty good surprise. And I really mean surprise, because I had no idea what this book was about. Turns out it was a cleverly written sci-fi/mistery story, that deals with a group of childhood friends, now adults, that must dig deep into their memories to try and stop the impending end of the world. It was a very enjoyable read, and it was pretty cool to see the storyline jumping back and forth from the 60's to the 90's. The childhood bits almost reminded me a little of Stand By Me... which is good. The characters were well-developed and endearing, the story was suspenseful and... well, I have to know what happens next. This definitely has my attention, and I'll try to get my hands on volume 2 soon. 4 out of 5

Mark's already a familiar face around my comic book shelves, and it's great to see he's still able to keep my interest fueled after all this time. It never ceases to amaze me how good the story is (and considering it's Robert Kirkman who also writes The Walking Dead, well, it's amazing how the guy keeps such consistent quality writing on such different styles...), how incredible the art is and how with each volume I just wish I had the next one to pick up and read right after. Invincible is one of my favorite comics ever, it has rightfully earned that spot, and if you're not reading it, you're missing out terribly. 4.5 out of 5

Last but not least, the best zombie comic to ever see the light of day is up to it's 9th TPB and keeps all the intensity that we're used to. After volume 8, this felt a little bit slow and uneventful, but it was pretty unrealistic to imagine that every book after 8 would keep that pace - I think people would die from art attacks just reading it. Don't get me wrong - this book still is rich in emotional intensity and action. The story is progressing on a very interesting direction, and I can't wait to see what comes next, because I feel like this was almost the calm before the storm. But sadly, the next volume will probably take a while to hit the shelves.

Besides this, I've been reading a lot of Sin City issues and other miscelaneous comics that my boyfriend awesomely lent me, so I can't complain about my comic life at all.

And I won't complain about movie life either... after all there are some decent movies coming out these next weeks.

What have you guys been reading? Any recommendations?

Where the Wild Things Are

2009-04-02T17:57:00.003+01:00

IN MY HEAD! THEY'RE IN MY HEAD!

...No, they're not in my head. At least not today, I've taken my meds already. What I'm talking about here is the upcoming Spike Jonze project based on a classic kid's book, Where the Wild Things Are. I admit I never read this book, not even as a kid (I don't assume it's very popular in Portugal), but the trailer for this movie looked great and won me over. I'm actually pretty excited to see this movie now.

Power to the imagination :)

Latest Movies I've Seen part 1002

2009-04-01T13:49:00.008+01:00

As you may or may not know, I had a little break for a couple of weeks, that I dedicated to spending time with my boyfriend Cosmic, having fun and watching a lot of movies. There were a lot of them, and I'm not including the ones I re-watched, except one, that I hardly remembered. I'll only include very short reviews, but check out the list and share your thoughts too!

Here we go:

1. Transporter

After having tons of fun watching Crank, me and Cosmic decided we should check out Jason Statham's most famous franchise: Transporter. It was a pretty decent action movie, and we were entertained, and that gets it 2.5 out 0f 5 shirtless Jason Stathams from me.

2. Tokyo Gore Police

I wanted to see this movie ever since I saw the trailer, that was basically a montage of crazy shit going on. The movie was a tad disappointing because, let's face it, the story was stupid and the actors were crappy and the fx could be tons better, but it was still fun to see what comes out of the japanese minds. Really, once you see a dude with a penis shooting shurikens or something, snail women, and an amputee with swords instead of arms and legs, you can't complain about plot. It's just random insane-ness. 3 out of 5 engineers, just because of the sheer crazyness.

3. The Big Lebowski

Once I saw this, my only regret was that I had not seen it earlier. The story's ups and downs are amazingly fun to follow, and the characters are brilliant, just made me want to draw them all. 4.5 out 0f 5 bowling balls.

4. Transporter 2

Like almost every sequel, this one sucks. Not that the first movie was some work of sheer genius, but here they just threw everything to hell and had Jason Statham do the craziest, most impossible shit, and sometimes that works (example: Crank), and sometimes it just doesn't. Still had a few good moments though, and Statham is pretty good in his action roles (even if apparently he always plays the same guy, but I don't mind), so that makes me give it 1.5 out of 5 car chases.

5. Eden Lake

I was pretty curious to see this thriller, I had heard good things about it and let's face it, a decent horror thriller is not easy to come by. I thought it was pretty solid, it actually made you care for the main characters instead of just throwing a bunch of horny teenagers in a house in the woods, and the killers were far more scary than any Jason or Michael, because they felt real. Also, pretty unexpected ending. 4 out of 5 pocket knives.

6. Moulin Rouge

Yeah, believe it or not I had never seen Moulin Rouge before. Musicals are not my thing, and Romeo and Juliet kinda put me off Baz Luhrman stuff, but I have to say Moulin Rouge was very enjoyable. I really liked the eccentric visuals, the songs, and Ewan McGregor's dorky smile. I even teared up once or twice. 4 out of 5 penniless writers.

7. 9 Songs

Well, what to say about this one... No plot, firstly. Hardly any dialogue. Just a lot of (good) music and sex. Kinda felt like a fancy porn. I wish they had put in a litttle more character development, instead of leaving you guessing what the hell was going on after all. 2 rock songs out of 5.

8. Species

This is the one I had seen before, but the only things I remembered about it were that it starred Forest Whittaker, and that scene were Sil was kissing that dude and impaled his skull with her tongue. It was cool to watch it again, and I thought it was a pretty decent creature/sci-fi movie - at least up until the end. The end totally lost me. 3 out of 5 combined DNAs.

9. In Bruges

Me and Cosmic had been meaning to watch this movie for a while, and finally got around to it. I'm glad we did! The movie was great, I loved the dialogue, the characters, the story really sucked you in and managed to have great comic moments intertwined with dramatic ones too. A real treat, and a work of fine cinema. And, despite what Colin Farrel's character keeps saying, I thought Bruges looked like a lovely place. 4.5 out of 5 midgets.

10. Step Brothers

Say what you will, but I love a good Will Ferrel movie. Unfaithful ones should give stuff like Anchorman or Talladega Nights a chance. True, some of his latest stuff has been far from brilliant, but Step Brothers was actually pretty funny for the most part, and him and John C. Reilly have great comedic chemistry. The ending, once again, was weak, but the first 3/4 of the movie were great fun and did made me laugh out loud. 3.5 out of 5 drumsets.

11. Gran Torino

I confess I wasn't too excited to see this one, but I'm glad Cosmic took me anyway. The story can be looked on as a simple one, but the character development and relationships are great to follow all throughout, and you'll walk away feeling like you watched something great, and you did. 4.5 out of 5 chow meins.

"It's a joke. It's all a joke."

2009-03-13T22:49:00.005Z

Last weekend, after leaving the Watchmen screening in the theater, me and Cosmic were itching to draw something Watchmen related. The only problem for me was to decide who to draw. I felt pretty torn between Rorschach, the Comedian and Nite Owl II... but Cosmic said it'd be pretty cool if I drew the Comedian. So I left Nite Owl II for him and took the Comedian for myself. Peep it out below! And also keep in mind I finished this while fighting with a cold or flu or whatever I have that is making me walk, sound and feel like a zombie. So it might not be as great as it potentially could, but it was the best I could do haha (excuses, I love 'em!).
Head on over to my deviantart to see a bigger version and lots more geeky stuff.

My incredibly talented boyfriend knocked his Nite Owl II out of the park, complete with the comic suit and everything. Rocking out never looked this much fun! Check out more of his art at his page and prepare for awesomeness.

Still about Watchmen, the guys over at /film did a podcast review of the movie with special guest Kevin Smith. I listened to it and thought it was pretty cool, so head over to their page and download the thing. It's kinda long but it'll be worth your time.
I've spent the whole week talking about Watchmen with different people. Is that normal? It's been a while since I saw a movie that sparked so much discussion, and it feels great. I hope to catch the movie again this weekend. There are many things I want to see again, many things I want to pay more attention too, and the movie deserves it.

Watchmen Review

2009-03-10T13:25:00.005Z

ZOMGWTFBBQAWESOME!!

...

I had to let that little over-excitement out on the first sentence, because otherwise I fear this review will get riddled with immature internet slang.
As you can probably guess, I've seen Watchmen. I pondered a long time on wether I should review it or not, because it's already been reviewed like a gazillion times, but when I realized I spent the whole weekend talking about it with my boyfriend Cosmic, emphasizing the little tidbits we liked the most, and what could have been better, I decided that I still need to talk about the movie a little more. So here we go.

Should I even say what the story is? Doesn't everybody know already? No? Oh well, okay. Watchmen” is set in an alternate 1985 America in which costumed superheroes are part of the fabric of everyday society, and the “Doomsday Clock” - which charts the USA’s tension with the Soviet Union - is permanently set at five minutes to midnight. When one of his former colleagues is murdered, the washed up but no less determined masked vigilante Rorschach sets out to uncover a plot to kill and discredit all past and present superheroes. As he reconnects with his former crime-fighting legion - a ragtag group of retired superheroes, only one of whom has true powers - Rorschach glimpses a wide-ranging and disturbing conspiracy with links to their shared past and catastrophic consequences for the future. Their mission is to watch over humanity… but who is watching the Watchmen?”

First off, I need to say this... I loved the movie. I liked it a lot when I saw it, but as the hours and days passed, it grew even more on me.

Having read the book a while ago, some of the stories details were a little blurred in my head, but even so the fidelity of the adaptation was so clear in every shot that it amazed me. First thing me and Cosmic did when we got home was pick up Watchmen and we just marveled at how so much of the comics detail was put into the film. Even little things that could easily go unnoticed, like the poster outside Hollis Mason's house, or the graffiti on the wall, it's exactly like in the comic.
Sure, a few things needed to be changed - the end immediately comes to mind. In theory, the ending in both the movie and the comic is the same. But the way they get to that ending is a little different. I don't want to spoil anything, but I have to say that I agree with what they did, the comic ending would probably be a little too far-fetched for film... maybe people who didn't read the comic would just think it was ridiculous and would feel alienated by it. I don't know. But in my opinion, the events they chose to lead to that ending were a little more plausible in the movie and it worked pretty well. I think the ending dialogues worked better in the book (I preferred the Ozymandias/Dr. Manhattan conversation, than the Dr. Manhattan/Silk Specter II we got in the movie) but it was impossible to keep it between those same characters, since the events were different and just wouldn't make much sense. Also, I feel like the ending needed a little more impact, because in the comic it was very intense. I don't want to bastardize things saying it needed "more gore", but in the comics the events end pretty graphically, and the movie ending is very toned down, especially since the movie didn't shy away from gore and violence before. There should have been a bigger sense of horror, I feel. But even so, it had nice touched. I loved the shot of the newspaper guy and the comic-reading kid (the two Bernards) hugging, just like there is in the comic. One more example of Zach's faithful adaptation. So, all in all, the ending was, let's say, tweaked, in a graceful and effective manner. I liked it.

I've seen people mention they would have liked to see some subplots, like the prison psychiatrist's family troubles, and the two Bernards, but that would have made the movie too loaded with things and it wouldn't work, it would just deviate from the main plot and slow the pace down too much. Maybe those will be on the director's cut (I don't know if there'll be something about the two Bernards on the Tales of the Black Freighter DVD).

Just like the comic, the movie didn't have much action, since that's not the core of the story. But let me tell you, the action it DID have, was awesome. It was violent, well choreographed, gory and in your face. I loved watching Nite Owl and Silk Spectre II break arms and legs, not to mention Rorschach's antics. And when Dr. Manhattan made people go "pop!"... well, it was damn cool. Some will say the comic was not this violent... but I feel like it worked very well on the big screen. The action scenes were very well balanced with the rest of the film, so you didn't have a lot of fighting, but you knew that when you had, it was going to punch you in the gut and really have an impact, without making the movie look like a cheap action movie.

The acting... there was some great embodiement of characters. The one most people will talk about is Rorschach, and rightfully so. He was my favorite from the comic - so driven and dangerous, with loosely grounded sanity, black and white views of the world and a maniac will to punish evil, he was one of the most complex and fascinating characters. From the second he showed up on screen and we heard his narration, I felt like he had just jumped out of the comic. I had already heard his voice on the trailer, but it surprised me again, it was exactly like I imagined. Plus, his dialogues and sentence structure were straight out of the comic, which was awesome. I mean, almost all dialogues were straight out of the comic, but Rorschach has a very particular way of expressing himself and it was a joy to hear. Total nerdgasm.
Next, I have to emphasize The Comedian. Once again, great casting and acting job. He looked and acted like The Comedian, it was fab.
Dr. Manhattan surprised me for once again being exactly like I imagined him - eerily calm, slowly dettaching himself more and more from mankind and his own humanity. His backstory was probably my favorite in the movie. I think it was pretty well-handled and even a little heartbreaking.
Dan Dreiberg was also great - nerdy, awkward and sort of boy-scout-ish, I liked him better than I liked the character in the book. I didn't like him that much in the book - it's always easier for the darker characters to be more interesting - but he really grew on me in the movie.
Ozymandias and Silk Specter II were the more so-so characters for me, in the movie, but they were decent I guess. I feel Silk Specter II was there more for eye candy than anything else, but it didn't detract that much for the movie and all in all she was okay.

Next, to mention the soundtrack. I enjoyed it a whole lot. I've seen people mentioning how the song placement was weird and it "ruined" the mood, but I disagree. From the moment "Unforgettable" started playing in that particular bit at the beginning, I knew we'd see some great moments for songs. Speaking of which, I MUST mention the credits. Without exagerating, these were probably my favorite credits ever in a movie. It condensated a lot of history in there and suceeded in showing the temporal progression. Little details like the recreation of the famous Alfred Eisenstaedt photo, the Last Supper and cameos by David Bowie and Andy Warhol's look-alikes were a joy to see. It was beautifully done and the music couldn't be better. I'm not ashamed to say I had a little tear in my eye. Another bit I particularly liked was the inclusion of the song Hallellujah when Nite Owl II and Silk Spectre II had sex on Archie (the owl ship). To me, that scene could have been a little soft-coreish but the inclusion of the song just made it a little lighter and added something to it. I know a lot of people hated it - but I liked it.

In a movie with such outstanding special effects and all, I did find it weird how bad Nixon's makeup was. That me cringe a little whenever he showed up. I don't know, they could have made him appear mostly with his back-turned (like it happened on the comic, where we mostly saw his silhouetter) and only showing his face on the posters and such, because I really didn't like his face at all. Other thing I want to mention, Bubastis kind of shows up out of the blue. On the comic, she appears a lot sooner, so I don't know if this was weird at all to someone who didn't read the comic. I wasn't expecting her to appear at all, but then all of a sudden there's Bubastis! They'll probably introduce her earlier on the Director's cut. We'll see.

All in all... yeah. Loved it. Just like the book, it managed to introduce us to a world where masked heroes are as double-sided and troubled as the rest of us and raises a lot of moral questions about justice, about means justifying ends, and about humanity in itself. It was an exciting movie, and a brilliant adaptation, dark, violent, and rich, completed with compelling characters and beautiful shots. I will be seeing it again very soon, and I already can't wait to get my hands on the DVD. 9 masked vigilantes out of 10.

I'll leave you with the brilliant initial credits and, if you didn't see the movie yet, go as soon as you can.

What if Watchmen was an 80s saturday morning cartoon?

2009-03-05T23:06:00.003Z

Just because I'm not watching Watchmen's premiere, doesn't mean I can't be watching Watchmen related stuff (and writing annoying sentences with too many repetitions of one word and its variations). So, if you ever wondered what would Watchmen be like as an 80s Saturday morning cartoon, wonder no more, here is your answer.

PS - I rofl'd so hard with this.

Today is the day...

2009-03-05T11:10:00.004Z

...of the Watchmen premiere. After such a long a wait, the movie is finally opening! You guys must be relieved, after being bombarded with post after post of Watchmen trailers and promotional photos and posters. I'm starting to get really excited, but also nervous - after all this time and with such high expectations, will the movie live up to it? What if it sucks? What movie will I look forward to, in this borderline obsessed way, next?

Well, despite all my geekyness, these questions will have to wait until Saturday to be answered, because I won't see the movie today. Not that I wouldn't want to - but because reasons bigger than myself prevent me from watching it today. Saturday is a day as good as any to see Watchmen!

Anyway, to mark Watchmen's opening day, here is a sketch I did of Rorschach.

It's been ages since I posted a sketch, huh?
To those of you that are going to see the movie today: have fun, and I hope it's as awesome as it promises to be *nods*

Latest Movies I've Seen part 1001

2009-02-25T18:10:00.003Z

I also took a trip back to the 80s last weekend. The 80s, that wonderful decade of colorful spandex, weird hairdos, and amazingly cheesy horror movies. House in one of them. I had ever only heard faint mentions to it in horror forums and such, and when Cosmic mentioned the movie to me yet again, I knew I had to see it. So we did

House revolves around, quite obviously, a haunted house of sorts. Roger Cobb is a successful writer with a traumatizing past: a Vietnam vet, he lost his only child in a freak event at his aunt's house, and ultimately ended up divorcing his wife. He never knew what happened to the kid: the police and the FBI never found out anything, and all his aunt could tell him was that the house took the child. She believed the house to be haunted, but everyone else thought she was just bananas. One day, she showed up dead, hung by the neck in her bedroom, and her death was dismissed as suicide. Roger took the chance to move up to his aunt's house, hoping to find the solitude and peace of mind he needed to write his new book, but we quickly find out he should have just stayed home.

Obviously, this is a haunted house movie. But the haunting is pretty weird - it's supposed to be ghosts, but all the things that Roger finds in the house are this sort of strange looking monsters made of rubber that are anything but ghosts. Demonic entity? Mischievous goblins? They could have named them something better than ghosts. But that's me nitpicking.

The movie's atmosphere is distincly 80-ish, and the top contributor to that is, in my opinion, the score. The music just made me giggle most of the time, but it gave the movie an enjoyable cheesy vibe that made everything else make sense, in a weird way, because it just brought the whole cheese factor together. There were bits that were pretty funny (a couple of them involving music - to hear Dedicated to the One I love when Roger is burying what he thinks is the freshly-killed demonic version of his wife is pretty hilarious), and I would have loved to see the movie pursue the funnier side, like Evil Dead for example, because when it tried to be serious it kinda fell flat.

Still, I enjoyed this movie a lot. I knew what to expect from it and it didn't disappoint, because I took it with a grain of salt. It was an 80s cheesefest just the way I like it, and it's a shame that horror movies nowadays almost always take themselves too serious. It takes 2.5 out of 5 demons from me.

A few days ago, the Friday the 13th reboot made its premiere in the movies. It's not like I was hyper-excited to see it, but it was a horror movie, so everyone knows I'd end up watching up. Friday was never my favorite classic horror series, so that presented an advantage to me, since I wasn't afraid of "them" ruining it. Also, regarding "them", the team behind this was the same team that handled the remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and that was a pretty gruesome movie that I enjoyed, and I thought this one would be in a similar vein.

The story tried to go back to the beginning of things, although it never really explains where the hell Jason comes from, but that's okay because I think it didn't explain that in the original movies either. It crams up elements from the first movies of the series: we get a bit with his mother (which was probably more rewarding for people who had seen the original), then we get Jason with the burlap sack on his head, and finally the Jason everyone knows with the hockey mask.

So we get the usual group of young adults in a horror movie, going to a house in the middle of nowhere to bang each other and get high out of their minds. They're all pretty stereotypical and predictable in behavior, but it's excusable, no one is expecting brilliant character development. Then, a random guy named Clay decided to rain on their parade and keep pestering them, asking them wether they had or not seen his sister, who disappeared 6 weeks before. Alfa-male Trent thinks it's better to give him the boot, but his girlfriend disagrees and decides to tag along with Clay and look for his lost sister. Predictably, they bump into Jason, and then things go awry when they have to get back to the house and protect themselves and their friend from the killer.

What everyone wants to know in a movie of this kind is: the killings. They're not bad. Some are pretty brutal and will make you cringe (one of the first, in Jason's old camp house, comes to mind) but others are pretty un-Jason like (the sleeping bag comes to mind). The gore is decent, I mean, there's no blood flying around everywhere, but this is not Braindead after all.
One thing that bothered me a little was that the directors tried to "cash in" again on the redneck type for this movie. It worked in the Texas Chainsaw remake for obvious reasons, but it seemed a little out of place here. Well, at least the cop wasn't a jackass, as they usually are, and he did try to go help when the kids called the police - which I was thinking he wouldn't, it would be pretty typical. I was pretty unhappy by the ending, but I see what they meant to do with it. Didn't really work this time around, for me at least.

All in all, I enjoyed the movie. It's not like I was expecting much, but it turned out to be a decent movie, and in my opinion much superior to the latest installments of the Friday series (Jason X? Seriously, what was that??). It has little substance, plot, or character development... but it has Jason and his machete. And that's what the crowd wants. I give it 2.5 out of 5 machetes.

Stay tuned for a couple more reviews. This week has been rich in movies.

Latest movies I've seen part 1000

2009-02-25T16:30:00.003Z

You might have noticed I haven't talked about any of the movies I saw before the Oscars ceremony because yeah, like every common mortal, I shed my b-movie lover cover and watched a few of the nominees - namely the big (and fair) winner Slumdog Millionaire. I confess I disagree with the dude who called it "the feel-good movie of the year", but whatever, it ended in a moderatelly happy way and I guess that Bollywood-style dance at the end made up for all the crap that happened to Jamal throughout the movie. It was really good, nonetheless.

The reason why I haven't talked about them is that, besides me being lazy, I think there are already plenty of good reviews about those movies, done by knowleadgeable people whose writing doesn't resemble that of a monkey with ADD. But what about crappy movies? Who reviews those? Well, I DO. That is my job in this world. So I have to cut back on the amount of good movies I review in favor of bad movies. Those need loving too.

Anyway, this was a great weekend of movies. I did watch a good one, and I guess that's the one I'll get out of the way right now. I'm talking about Coraline.

Coraline is a stop-motion animation movie directed by Henry Sellick - yeah, the same guy who did the wonderful Nightmare Before Christmas. He hasn't done anything in 8 years, but it seems the little sabatical did him good because Coraline is quite astonishing work. I saw it in 3D (complete with dorky glasses) and the 3D was very impressive, but even more than that I was awed by the animation (as I had already been in Nightmare before Christmas). The amount of detail in this movie, from the characters expressions to their environment, clothing, everything, is amazing. I can't begin to imagine the amount of work it takes to do one scene, let alone a whole movie.

The story goes that a little girl named Coraline (and not Caroline!) has just moved, and is incredibly bored on her new house. She doesn't know anyone, has no friends, and her parents always seem too busy to play with her. One day, after investigating her new house and listing how many windows and doors there are on that place, Coraline finds a tiny door hidden behind the wallpaper. The first time she opens it, the door is shut with bricks... but the second time she tries, she finds out the door leads to an alternate world where her button-eyed replica parents cater to her every wish. The food is better, there are magical gardens, new clothes and games... but is it all that good? It's not. And Coraline will find that out the hard way.

I loved the incredible visuals in this movie. Did I mention the crazy amount of detail? Yeah. The characters are all well-designed, albeit probably not as iconic as the ones in Nightmare, except perhaps the final look of the Other Mother. The stuff that happens is quite unbelievable, it almost looks like a drug trip (I can't imagine what it would be like watching this high haha). It's not exactly a kid's movie, as I'm sure a lot of kids will be freaked out by what's going on on the screen, but it has a childish magic and appeal to it that one can't deny. Besides, being scared as a kid builds character - and now I sound like Calvin's dad.
I've heard a lot of comparisons to Alice in Wonderland, and I guess I have to agree, at the core they are pretty similar stories. But Coraline is filled with details of its own that give the movie its identity.
It was a great tale of adventure and mystery and it takes 3.5 bouncing rats out of 5.

As you may, or may not, know, the Oporto International Film Festival (Fantasporto) is currently taking place. It's usually one of my favorite times of the year, and I always try to catch a few movies there, especially if those are movies out of the commercial circuit. This year's first was a german zombie movie called Virus Undead.

(crappy poster, I know. The movie wasn't much better also.)

Virus Undead tries to cash in on the bird flu panic that went around a short time ago. An old scientist called, er, Mr. Whatshisface, is trying to find out a cure for the flu when he stumbles upon a mutation of the virus. Sadly, he is killed by none other than a flock of birds, in his own massive mansion. His grandson Robert has to go back to his grandfathers village to take care of the inheritance paperwork and decides to take his "friends" (I say "friends" because not once in this movie do we feel any tingle of real friendship or any kind of relation between them.) Patrick and Eugen along for the ride, and hopefully spend a weekend of great fun in his dead grandfather's mansion. When they stop at a gas station to buy supplies, they run into Robert's ex-girlfriend (still baffled and hurt at why he ever left her) and into her co-worker, Miss Tits McGee, and of course horny James Dean look-alike Patrick decides to invite them over to the house. Things start going awry when people eat infected bird meat and start turning into zombies.

Well, well. Where do I begin? Maybe with the zero character development. These characters are cardboard cutouts. You have the responsible, level-headed one (Robert), the horny, careless one (Patrick) and the poor picked-on geek (Eugen). The girls are just another cliché, and an excuse to show some boobage. They are such stereotypes that I think the movie would have beneffited a lot from playing with this humorously, because taking the characters serious was nearly impossible. There was also a cliché cop, unprofessional dude always munching down on donuts, but there was a great moment when the cop, already turned into a zombie (oops spoiler), tries to keep eating the donuts, only to end up spitting it out. It was a good gag that poked fun at the stereotype, and it worked - now if only they had done it more! We could have a cool splatter comedy, but this way we only had a suckfest. The way these characters act is ridiculous and predictable, and Eugen suffers the quickest mental breakdown I ever saw in a movie.

The story tries to take a fresh turn with the bird flu thing, but it basically just comes down to being another zombie movie. And what zombies... these are super strong and fast zombies, a kind I'm not too fond of. I prefer the slow ominous zombie. But I can't deny it, the bits with the zombies were the best. There was a LOT of cheeseball action, and the gore was not bad either! Not bad for a low budget movie. The ending sucked, in my opinion - the "climatic" fight was just ridiculous and I could have done without those stupid CGI birds. We never find out what happened to Tits McGee, but she went out with a bang, her final part was one of the stupidest and yet funniest things about this movie. Sure made the audience laugh, and I think that's good because it means we're actually being entertained instead of just being bored out of our minds. Yes, we were laughing at the movie instead of with it, but that's better than nothing.

All in all, this movie was pretty bad, but I still gotta give props to it - for a low budget horror and with all its character and plot flaws, it managed to keep me mildly entertained, and that's more than I can say for a lot of big-budget hollywood shit. My biggest gripe with it is that it could have been much, much better if it didn't take itself as seriously. It takes 2 out of 5 burning zombies from me.

Stay tuned for part 1001 for a couple more reviews!

My card on the Geek Fight Trading Card Game

2009-02-17T19:23:00.004Z

This post will be a little bit of shameless promotion, forgive me :D

You love the Angry Videogame Nerd. You laugh with the Nostalgia Critic's reviews. But you weren't happy with just the Final Battle video. What now? Well, I am happy to announce that Diving Dragon Games rounded up a team of great artists, that I am proud to be a part of, to bring an AVGN vs. Nostalgia Critic trading card game.

That's right! Your very own deck with an amazing variety of cards, creatures and powers you can use to battle. I was lucky enough to contribute with art for this awesome game. My card? Well, it's the Nostalgia Zombie. Couldn't be better suited for me :D

You can see the video announcement by the AVGN right here:

And go to Diving Dragon Games to place your order, HERE.

The first 10,000 preorders will receive beautiful Limited Edition foil printings of the Angry Video Game Nerd and Nostalgia Critic cards. You’ll never see these cards printed in foil again, so reserve yours now!

I'm really proud to be a part of this project. So please, fuel my drive (and my wallet!) by ordering this kick ass card set that is guaranteed to show you a good time.

A bunch more Watchmen photos

2009-02-13T11:40:00.004Z

The Watchmen release date is coming closer, and so the filmmakers are starting to release the final production shots to promote the movie to regular people, and to reinforce the geeks opinion that it will be totally awesome. I don't think that can be reinforced in me any further, but thanks for trying Zach Snyder!
The new shots are, as always, pretty cool, and you can check out all of them over at /Film.

Minutemen arcade-style game

2009-02-12T15:50:00.002Z

As you probably all know, before the Watchmen, there was a previous group of heroes called the Minutemen. And as of these days, they have their very own arcade-style game you can play on your browser. The character choice is very limited, you can only play as the original Nite Owl or Silk Spectre, but the game is pretty cool and adequate for a few minutes of fun.

So don't stay here much longer, go here and play it for yourself!

Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World to feature good old hand drawn animation!

2009-02-04T18:11:00.004Z

That's true fellas, folks at /Film report that the movie will feature sequences of traditional animation.
It is unknown which part of the film will be animated, but I agree with the speculation that it will probably be the fights Scott has to engage in with Ramona's evil ex-boyfriends. In the comic, the fights play out a lot like a video game, with special moves and the enemies being turned to coins after being defeated, and it could look silly if it was all live action. Honestly I think this is an ingenious move on Edgar Wright's part and it has the potential to make the movie that much cooler.
Traditional animation! Weeeeeee!

Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008)

2009-02-04T17:12:00.007Z

Last weekend I had the pleasure of watch this movie with Cosmic. After browsing through the list of movies currently showing at a nearby multiplex, we decided on Vicky Cristina Barcelona for simple reasons: it was Woody Allen, and it looked like a nice movie - neither of us had great expectations or ideas about it, it just looked... well, nice.

And what we got was somewhat more than that.

Vicky Cristina Barcelona tells us the story of two American friends (the sensible Vicky and the free-spirited Cristina) who spend the summer in Barcelona. Vicky is engaged to be married and is working on her master's thesis on Catalan Studies, and thinks she knows what she wants out of life and love until one night, she and Cristina meet Juan Antonio, a local painter, who makes them an unusual proposal. Despite initial refusal, Vicky decided to go along with it mostly to protect the impulsive Cristina from potential harm, and this will lead them in a spiral of feelings, relationships, and complications, especially when Juan Antonio's troubled and fiery ex-wife, Maria Elena, steps back into the picture.

Where can I start? First things first, the acting. Javier Bardem is a great actor, and he is brilliant in this. He plays his Juan Antonio in such a seductive and enigmatic way that he just keep you glued to the screen whenever he's on it. Penelope Cruz (Maria Elena( also does a great job, as does Rebecca Hall (Vicky), but my absolute favorite was Javier Bardem, no doubt. He is charming, he is sexy, he has one hell of a presence. Scarlett Johansson does not particularly stand out, but she does a pretty decent job.
The writing and dialogue is perfect. It's very wordy and lengthy at times, but so sharp and witty that it charms you, and you wish you could hear these people talk for hours.
I do have to point out something else: the setting. The city of Barcelona was the perfect choice for a movie like this. Everything looks beautiful, charming and golden... I always loved Barcelona, and after seeing this movie I wished I could travel there the next day. It's almost like a character in itself.

It turned out to be a great surprise, because it was a very fullfilling movie, and not just "nice". It was funny, sad, poignant, sexy, and gave you something to think about. An highly enjoyable movie, and I definitely recommend it.

4.5 out of 5 spanish painters.

Arrested Development movie happening this year

2009-01-29T17:10:00.004Z

Or so says Jeffrey Tambor, otherwise know as George Bluth Senior.

The Arrested Development movie has been on the mouths (or fingertips) of movie bloggers for a while, and the reason why I haven't been posting updates is that the whole thing is so full of "he says, she says" that it seemed everything was hypothetical and it was just giving us AD fans false hopes.
Now, there still is no official confirmation as to the movie actually being MADE, but Jeffrey Tambor went on record to say that Michael Cera, the final cast member holding out, was in for the ride, and that being the case the movie is set to go forward. Except that there is no script yet or anything, but those are minor details. Head over to /film for more details on the whole thing.

I really hope the movie gets made, and that it is good. Even if I've been trying not to get my hopes up, I can't help but feel excited for it - Arrested Development was hilariously brilliant and I'd definitely want to see the whole disfunctional Bluth family together again. What are your feelings about the AD movie?

Current Readings

2009-01-26T19:12:00.009Z

You may, or may not (depending on how well you know me or how long you've been reading this blog) know that, as well as a movie fan, I am a huge book fan. I love to read, I think it's wonderful to immerse yourself in a book and let your imagination run wild and your feelings be touched for a few days.
When I was younger, I used to juggle a lot of books at the same time, since I had a lot of time to read and got my hands on every new book I could. Nowadays, with less time, more responsibilities, and more ways to spend money, I don't read as much anymore. But recently, thanks to December being the month of gifts and thanks to my wonderful Cosmic who lends me so many books, I've been building a respectable stack of books on my bedside table.
And now you ask, what have I been reading? And what am I about to read? Well, don't go away, 'cause I'll tell you right now.

Comics-wise, this week started off awesome, as I read volume 2 of Scott Pilgrim, "Scott Pilgrim vs. The World" and volume 6 of Invincible's trade paperbacks, "A Different World". Scott Pilgrim is still great, I enjoy the writing and the art so, so much, and one of the things I love the most about this book is the underlying nerdiness of it. A lot of things play out like it's a game - catching items, leveling up, learning skills, and it's pretty fresh and awesome. Invincible is one of my favorite books, I just wish I had more money because everytime I'm finished with one TPB I want to move on to the next one. Volume 6 had more of the usual twists and turns, hooking you even more into the story - Robert Kirkman sure know how to write - and more of the brilliant art Ryan Ottley got us used to. One of my favorite things about these TPB is the few pages of sketches and layouts at the end of the story, and this volume is no exception. Great stuff.

On other books, I'm almost finished with a wonderful book I'm reading courtesy of Cosmic. It's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, by Jonathan Safran Foer. This has to be one of my favorite books of the last few years, and I haven't even finished it yet. I just know that this book is making me feel so much, and I think it takes a brilliant writer to press the emotion buttons like that. I think the last book that touched me in a similar way was Blankets (that is, by the way, perfection in the shape of a graphic novel), although the book's subjects are very different. In this one, we follow Oskar, a 9-year old depressed inventor, astrophysicist, scientist and all around brilliant kid, on a quest to feel closer to his father, who died in the Twin Towers on 9/11. Oskar's journey makes his path intertwine with a lot other people, and brings us stories of joy, sadness, failure, hope, making for a heartbreaking but very sweet and moving book. Foer's writing is excellent, and I love his little experiments with images and typography. I'm close to finishing, but I really didn't want to - it's one of those books that's so great you just don't want it to end.

Fortunatelly, once I finish Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, I have more reading material to pay attention to.

Also courtesy of Cosmic, I have Chuck Palahniuk's Choke. I'm pretty curious to read this one because I think that after Fight Club, it's Mr. Palahniuk's most famous work, and as such I'm eager to see what awaits me on those pages - besides, the movie's coming up and I want to be an informed reviewer when I see it.

One of my good friends also lent me Nightwatch, by russian writer Sergei Lukyanenko. I enjoyed the movie (I didn't see Daywatch, which I heard was pretty ridiculous), and books are almost always better than movies, so I'm bound to like this one (plus, the cover I have is not nearly this cheesy).

Last but not least, I have what was a birthday gift from some of my friends that I still couldn't find the time to start: A Game of Thrones, by George R. R. Martin. The first of a series of 7 books, I'm also very curious to start reading this one. Seems to be in the same fantasy vein as Lord of the Rings (that I loved, back when I read it, a good bunch of years ago), and I miss reading quality literature of that kind (last books of the sort I read were Eragon and Eldest, and honestly I didn't think they were that good).

Did you read any of these books? What did you think of them?

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World fills up its cast

2009-01-22T16:06:00.003Z

For those of you who don't know, Scott Pilgrim is a comic book series by canadian author Bryan Lee O'Malley, that revolves around the character of the same name.

"The series is about 23-year-old Canadian Scott Pilgrim, a slacker, hero, wannabe-rockstar, who is living in Toronto and playing bass in the band "Sex Bob-Omb." He falls in love with American delivery girl Ramona V. Flowers, but must defeat her seven "evil ex-boyfriends" in order to date her."

I just recently finished the first volume of the series and found it to be a very well-balanced mix of coolness, nerdyness, and wittiness. It was great and I can't wait to read more volumes. Now that I read some Scott Pilgrim, I feel a little more excited to see a movie about it - especially directed by Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz).

As fas as casting goes, Michael Cera ("Juno", "Arrested Development") has been attached to play Scott for a while, and I don't really see him as such. He's really gonna have to break out of his awkward-kid shell to be Scott, because Scott Pilgrim is geeky, yes - but cool, self-assured and a rocker at that. We'll see.
Kieran Culkin will be Wallace Wells (Scott's roommate) Mary Elizabeth Winstead will play Ramona Flowers (Scott's love interest); Ellen Wong will be Knives Chau (Scott's girlfriend at the time he met Ramona Flowers) plus Chris Evans and Brandon Routh will both play two of Ramona's evil ex-boyfriends.

It's a diverse casting, and I hope it works so we'll see a great movie later on this year.
While we're at it, I recommend you read the comic... the art is great, and the writing is very clever and witty. Give it a chance!

Chocolate

2009-01-22T15:38:00.004Z

No, not the one with Johnny Depp and Juliette Binoche.

Chocolate is a movie directed by Prachya Pinkaew (the same guy we have to thank for making Ong Bak) about an autistic girl with a penchant for martial arts. It may sound ridiculous, but look at the trailer. Just look, I tell you!

It's all mellow, and lifetimey, till about 1:15 minutes in, and then she starts kicking and elbowing anything that moves and letting the bodies it the floor.

And even if it wasn't awesome, I think the publicity lines alone would make me want to see it: "A special needs girl with a special need to kick ass"? If that isn't poetry, I don't know what is.

Portuguese only - Fantasporto

2009-01-22T15:28:00.002Z

O Fantasporto está quase aí, e, se forem como eu, hão-de querer saber que filmes catitas vão passar por lá este ano. Pois bem, a programação provisória dos Auditórios do Rivoli já está online e podem vê-la aqui (para o Grande) e aqui (para o pequeno).
Ainda tenho de as investigar com mais atenção, mas posso já dizer que me saltaram de imediato dois filmes para ver: Choke... e Tokyo Gore Police. A sério, olhem para este trailer.

Espero que seja tudo o que o badalado Machine Girl não foi.

Crank (2006)

2009-01-17T12:28:00.005Z

After watching the trailer for Crank 2 and nearly cracking up with the ridiculous concept of the movie and the gratuitous violence and cussing it promised, I realized it was a huge flaw on my bad movie fan resumée that I never watched the first Crank. I've always heard a lot about it, so why had I not seen it yet? It was time to finally give Crank a chance, so last night me and Cosmic prepared ourselves for some brainless fun and popped in Crank.

The makers of Crank found the golden ticket for being able to inject a movie full of senseless violence and thrills, and at the same time have no one question what happens. The story revolves aound a hitman called Chev Chelios, who finds out he's been injected with some crazy Chinese poison that slows his heartrate and will ultimately kill him... unless he keeps his adrenaline pumping at extremely high levels. That explains all that needs to be explained in his movie: why is Chelios driving high-speed through a mall? Why, he can't stop the adrenaline. Why is Chelios standing bare-assed on top of a moving police motorcycle? Obviously, to keep his heart rate has high as possible. There's a lot of crazy stuff going on in this movie, but that's all the explaining you need: Chelios is trying to stop death.

Jason Statham does what he does best, which his punch guys in the mouth/shooting guys in the head while looking crazy as all hell and swearing his mouth off. He does pratically the same part in all of his movies, but no one expects him to be Daniel Day-Lewis. As long as he's punching dudes, it's alright. The pace of the movie is as fast as Chelios needs his heart to be - it never slows down. The story is pretty unexistant, but who would see Crank for the story anyway? The editing was actually pretty nifty, superior to what one would expect to see on such a brainless action flick.

All in all, Crank is like GTA embodied in a movie: fast-paced, violent, insane and hilarious. I was laughing for the most part of the movie at how crazy and ridiculous everything was - but entertaining at the same time. It was a cool action movie, and a great pick for a brainless Friday night.

Also, since I already knew about Crank 2, the ending failed to surprise me. But I wasn't in it for the story anyway.

Keanu Reeves to be Spike Spiegel

2009-01-16T14:53:00.004Z

And because the world isn't made of good news, I came to know this morning that Keanu Reeves will be playing Spike on FOX's live action adaptation of the anime Cowboy Bebop. The same FOX who is doing such a lovely work with the Dragon Ball adaptation. The same cardboard Keanu Reeves we're used to.

Now, while I think the anime is a little easier to adapt to live action than Dragon Ball, and thus less prone to ridiculous cheesy dialogue (especially because the anime was richer story-wise than DB) and wire-fights, I don't really believe they'll do a good job (I mean, FOX has such a record of ruining stuff that's good, it's hard to trust them anymore). Plus, I think Keanu Reeves as Spike is just downright bad casting. Bad news, overall - I think they should leave Cowboy Bebop well enough alone.

"Watchmen" is safe!

2009-01-16T14:45:00.003Z

Fellow geeks, its time for us to release a collective sigh of relief, because our main movie for 2009 is safe and sound. Fox and Warner reached an agreement over the Watchmen case yesterday, which means that the release date of March 6th is secured. It's only a couple of months away and I can't express my joy - now if you'll escuse me, I'll be jumping up and down in my bed, squeaking "Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" for a few hours.

Sex Panther now for sale!

2009-01-13T21:09:00.003Z

Not specific movie news, but it's something movie related. And related to one of my favorite comedies, of all things!

Good news for all you Anchorman fans and bad news for anyone with a sharp olfactory sense: there's a real Sex Panther cologne now for sale! If you want to wave 30 bucks out of your wallet, go here to purchase. But be warned: Sex Panther is a manly cologne, and you must not dare wear it if you're not manly, or don't have a moustache.

Those of you who've seen Anchorman clealy know what I'm talking about, but to those of you who don't I say: boooo. You should see Anchorman. But, kind as I am, I leave you with a video of Sex Panther in action. Enjoy!

(hopefully the subject of today's post will get a lot of hits on this blog muahaha)

Steven Seagal + Vampires = Awesome (or maybe not)

2009-01-08T18:31:00.002Z

Just in case you were wondering what straight-to-DVD flick is Steven Seagal starring in these days, I've got the answer for you. It's called Against the Dark and it is, of all things, a vampire movie - imagine that! Steven Seagal trying to emulate Wesley Snipes and approaching the subject of vampire killing. The plot goes like this:

"Katana master Tao (Steven Seagal) leads a special ops squad of ex-military vigilantes on a massacre mission, their target: vampires. On the post apocalyptic globe, sucked dry by bloodthirsty vampires, a few remaining survivors are trapped in an infected hospital. Tao is their only hope and he knows the only cure is execution. Now it's time for the last stand against the flesh-eating vampires and there's nothing left to lose but the last of humanity. "

Flesh-eating vampires? Aren't vampires only supposed to drink blood? Or is this some weird zombie-vampire mash-up?
Anyway, call me old-fashioned, but I'm not that much into vampire movies where people are shooting bazookas or something like that at the vampires (I prefer the old "stake through the heart" thing), but this has Steven Seagal, the greatest actor alive, and I definitely want to see him portray his long range of emotions while offing some bloodsuckers. I'm going to get my hands on this puppy, because it's going to be cheeseballin' awesome .

Yep, you guessed it - another Watchmen Post

2009-01-07T18:06:00.004Z

My computer is back, and consequently I am back to blogging. I apologize for not even wishing you guys a Happy New Year, but I really just wanted to post that featurette quickly and before I forgot to do it, because I wasn't even on my computer. That being said, I hope you had a lot of fun and didn't throw up (too much).

Also, sorry about the flop that was my Christmas-songs-a-palooza thing, but I failed to find most of the songs available to embed. You didn't want to listen to them anyway, but who knows, maybe next year I'll get more than two songs in here.

Now! Time for a new post. And about what could it be? Watchmen, of course. And what could be geekier than anything Watchmen related? Well, if it's JAPAN related as well! Huzza! Well, here you have the Watchmen japanese trailer, that has some new footage, so make sure your geek friends don't get too ahead of you and watch this already.

Quick post - Watchmen Featurette

2009-01-03T00:23:00.004Z

My computer is, once again, momentarily absent, but I couldn't resist sharing this with you.

I just hope the recent lawsuit deal doesn't hold back the opening too much... I want to see this movie so bad. Don't screw with us, FOX!

Trailer Post: Wolverine

2008-12-16T22:12:00.002Z

The final trailer for the X-Men Origins: Wolverine movie was released recently - it aired before The Day the Earth Stood Still in the USA - and it looks better than the previous one, so it made its way into my privileged Trailer Post section.

(Actually it's not that privileged, now that I think about it. I keep posting trailers of that turd fest know as Dragonball Evolution.) But I digress. Here goes Wolverine:

X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE HD

Although my excitement level for Watchmen is pretty much overshadowing my anticipation for any other 2009 movie, I'm pretty curious to see this Wolverine movie. Wolverine was always my favorite out of the X-Men Universe, and I'm glad he's the first to get his spin off. Besides, we finally get a look at Gambit, who I think always deserved a place in the movies - I'm not that satisfied with his characterization, but at least they didn't butcher him into oblivion, like they do in other movies *cough*dragonball*cough* - and plenty more characters, like Sabretooth, Deadpool and Blob.
All in all, I definitely want to see this. I just hope it's not a total cheesefest.

Trailer Post: Dragonball Evolution and Terminator Salvation

2008-12-11T14:14:00.005Z

Two more trailers for you today.

First we have Dragonball Evolution (yeah, apparently it's how its called now).

The good news about this is that Piccolo looks a little more green, at least from a certain angle. The bad news is that pretty much everything else is still shit. It looks slightly better than the previous trailer, but that's like saying a piece of crap with a cherry on top looks better than a piece of crap by itself. I think I'm desensitized enough that this new trailer didn't make me want to stab my eyes with a fork, but that doesn't mean it didn't make me suffer on the inside. Oh well.

Next up, Terminator Salvation.

Rise of the Machines was a weak movie in my opinion, and I don't think it fits very well in the franchise, but I hope this 4th sequel proves superior and refreshes the Terminator universe. The trailer looks good, other than that I don't know what much to say... certainly didn't blow me away, but I'm giving it the benefit of the doubt. More than that actually, because it stars Christian Bale, and I'm confident he'll do a great job as John Connor. So even if the movie is not all that, I'm sure it'll have at least ONE good performance.

What other trailers have you been watching?

Christmas Songs-a-Palooza 2

2008-11-26T19:32:00.002Z

First off, this Christmas songs thing I wanted to have going on may be cut a little shorter because most of the songs I wanted to post are nowhere to be found on any site that allows embedding of their players. I'm just that underground (yeah, right). But I'll try to keep it up moderately and introduce you to a few new christmas songs.

Today I'll leave you with Relient K's version of the 12 Days of Christmas. It's from the 2007 album "Let it snow, baby... let it Reindeer", built up of Christmas songs all throughout. This song doesn't hold a candle to Fairytale of New York, but then again Fairytale of New York is so awesome that very few songs would be an honorable follow-up. Everyone is familiar with the song 12 days of Christmas, even if you don't know the lyrics, so this is a decent, upbeat and fun cover of that holiday classic.

12 Days Of Christmas - Relient K

Also, here's a new digital sketch for today's post. I basically did the same as in the previous one, very quick, cutesy lines and sloppy coloring to give it a really rough and sketchy look. The sketch stars my boyfriend, Mr. Cosmic, with some Iron Man flair, because if there is one guy cooler than Tony Stark, it's Cosmic for sure ;)

Time for a random sketch

2008-11-22T12:27:00.003Z

Being without access to photoshop for a month left me a little rusty, so I've been trying to pick up my slack and practice a little.
I sketched up this little guy yesterday, with my trusty Stumpy Pencil tool (that's why it looks like pencil lines... I kinda love that brush for some reason), and threw some quick color farts on it. I didn't mean for it to look good, I just wanted to really just DO something, really quickly, try and use different brushes, etc. So, here it is!

It was also the first time I drew a fully digital complete picture. Woohoo for me or what? :B

Trailer Post: Coraline and Astro Boy

2008-11-22T12:09:00.004Z

More trailers for you, this time dedicated to animated movies.

First off, Coraline.

Based on a novella by Neil Gaiman and directed by Henry Sellick, Coraline tells us the story of a little girl who unlocks a mysterious door in her house that takes her to a parallel universe, very similar to her, but also that much more fantastic, surreal and... dangerous?
I never read the book, but this trailer really made me curious. It looks like a fantastic tale with great animation, and definitely made me want to see it. Thanks to Captain Chants for the trailer tip!

Next, we have Astro Boy.

Astro Boy needs no introduction, but anyway... Created by " god of manga" Osamu Tesuka in the 1950's, Astro Boy is a robot kid, created to replace a scientist's deceased son. Being a robot, he is abandoned by his creator, and later adopted by the head of the Ministry of Science, who gives him a family and also calls him up when the earth and humanity need saving from a variety of threats.
I'm not very familiar with the Astro Boy manga or anime, having only seen a couple of episodes, but the trailer is looking good and I bet there's going to be a lot of people seeing it if only for nostalgia sake. And, who am I kidding, I might also be there too, if the next trailers keep being good.

What other trailers are catching your eye lately?

Christmas-Songs-a-Palooza 1

2008-11-20T21:02:00.005Z

The stores are putting out their christmas decorations, the streets are all lined up with lights and the malls all have their Christmas trees and fake Santas lined up to hear the kid's wishes for this year while blasting "Last Christmas" on the sound system - and all this means that, wether you like it or not, Christmas is creeping up upon us. And I don't know about you, but to me, t'is the season to start listening to a few Christmas songs. Not the usual run-of-the-mill ones, but covers of the classics or, even, totally original and maybe innapropriate stuff. I thought it'd be useful to keep erratically suggesting Christmas songs for you guys, so you could all make your very own unusual Christmas mixtape you can blast on your stereo while having dinner with your whole family on the 24th.

For suggestion numero uno, I'll leave you with one of my favorite Christmas songs ever: Fairytale of New York. The original is by the irish band The Pogues (awesome), and kick ass as it is, I'm going to have to suggest the cover by classic punk-rockers No Use for a Name. Why? Because it's still pretty cool and it has a 70% more chance of making your family uncomfortable with the noise.
If you don't know this song, you should go back to the rock you've been living under, but anyway, here is the No Use for a Name version. Feel free to listen to it and let that holiday spirit start rolling while you listen to this tale of a drunken man on the streets of New York, on Christmas eve.

Fairytale Of New York - No Use For A Name

Trailer Post - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and Star Trek

2008-11-20T14:31:00.003Z

Last week finished on a high note, trailer wise, with the release of a bunch of great movie trailers. Watchmen was the first, but Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince and Star Trek followed right after.

1. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

The first teaser for this movie was such a blatant disappointment that I was ready to quit on Harry right then and there. I mean, a teaser is supposed to TEASE, and I don't know about you, but watching a black screen for 15 seconds certainly doesn't make me want to see the movie. The full-length first trailer was actually neat and rekindled my hopes, but it was this one that really made me feel like I want to see this movie. Bad. The effects are great, and it looks like it's going in the dark direction that it should. I know that a ton of stuff will be cut from the movie, I'm not one of those fans that is shocked when they can't cram everything from a 500-paged book into a movie, but I hope they do a good adaptation and I'm looking forward to see it.

2. Star Trek

I think I already mentioned I was never much of a Trekkie, but I ocasionally followed the campy adventures of Kirk, Spock and the Enterprise crew, and seeing as this adaptation gives us the younger versions of characters we're all familiar with, it should be a decent movie-going experience. I admit it does look a bit strange to see such young versions of the crew, but they look faithfull to their characters - especially Spock, I love the way Zachary Quinto talks - and the whole thing looks like it's going to provide us with quality sci-fi entertainment.

Seeing so many awesome trailers at once just made me feel sorry for the slow movie season we're having - is it just me or there's hardly any movie on right now that REALLY makes you want to see it?

Watchmen theatrical trailer

2008-11-14T13:58:00.002Z

I had planned to write a few more posts between Halloween and today, but I've been kinda busy, so I'll leave my opinions on Quantum of Solace and Dark City for another day. The thing is, the new theatrical trailer for Watchmen was released today and I have a moral obligation to share it with anyone that casually drops by this blog. This movie is seriously looking more and more awesome and I can not wait to see it!

Watchmen and Muse? Nerdgasm.

This year's Halloween was...

2008-11-03T19:15:00.005Z

Brilliant :)

Watched a couple of horror movies that, while fun to watch, were not all that good. Me and Cosmic had about a million and one movies to pick from, but ended up going with Pumpkinhead and Zombi 2 (also known as Zombie Flesh Eaters, a title I can't help but feel is a bit redundant).

1. Pumpkinhead (1988)

I don't really understand what the "fairy tale" part of the tagline refers to, but oh well. Maybe because there's a witch in the movie? We all know fairy tales are crawling with witches. Moving on.
Pumpkinhead starts with a flashback. It shows us a man desperately running from something evil through the woods, until he gets to a house. He pleads for the people inside to help him, but the mother, father and child that are inside do not move. As the man doesn't go away, the family's patriarch grabs his shotgun and threatens he will shoot him if he doesn't leave the area. The man eventually runs away, and, through the window, the child sees a monster in the shadows killing the man who previously pleaded them for help.

Fast-forward a few years, and we find that kid all grown up: he's now an adult hillbilly, with a son of his own, a little cute blonde boy with oversized glasses. They live quietly in the country, until one day, a bunch of city teenagers stop by their grocery store on their way to a cabin in the woods. You just know something bad is going to happen, and when dad has to leave the store, one of the city folks 8the asshole of the bunch) runs over the little boy with his motorbike. Despite his friends want to help the poor boy, Biker Dude has been drinking, and if he gets caught, his ass will go to jail. So he ends up making his friends hostages in said cabin, stopping them from getting help for the dying kid. When dad comes back to find his young boy dead in the field, his only thought is revenge, and with the help of the local witch, he conjures up a demon, Pumpkinhead, to carry out his revenge for him.

It was directed by the special effects wizard Stan Winston, so you know the creature looks really good - although I heard that due to his directing duties he actually couldn't supervise the creature effects as much as he wanted. The plot is not bad, and it had great potential, but to me the movie kind of fell flat. The acting was, for the most part, pretty campy, and I don't have much against that in a horror movie, but there was almost zero suspense. The creature was scary, but that wasn't explored enough (although some shots of it lurking on the foggy forest were effective), and the killings were pretty boring, in my opinion (I know I'm sounding like those video fanatics from the League of Gentlemen...). The sound effects were really over-the-top cheesy, and made me laugh when they were supposed to scare me or make me feel unsafe. The cinematography was decent, and I actually think the blue and orange filters used in this movie really helped set the mood on different locations.

All in all, it wasn't the worst movie I ever saw, but it hardly impressed me. I think that, had I seen it a few years earlier, I'd probably dig it a whole lot, but for some reason, it just didn't do it for me this time. It was fun to watch though, and we laughed a whole lot.

2 out of 5 demons

2. Zombi 2 - Zombie Flesheaters (1979)

Oh wow.

Being a horror movie fan, I've heard a lot about Lucio Fulci, the italian zombie-master. His movies are not exactly easy to find, so I had only seen one of his movies before: Paura nella città dei morti viventi, or City of the Living Dead (just sounds fancier in italian, doesn't it?), and that didn't impress me much. But Zombi 2 is his most well-known movie, so I was pretty curious to see what the fuss was all about. Little sidenote: Zombie 2 was marketed in Europe as a sequel to Romero's Dawn of the Dead (marketed in Europe under the title Zombi), but it's absolutely unrelated to Romero's work. Well, except that it has zombies, of course.

The story starts with a boat sailing along the East River, apparently without any passengers or crew. When two coast guards go on board to check it out, we see there is actually a zombie inside. He kills one guard, and is then shot by the other, falls into the water - and we somehow know that's not the end of it. Next thing we know, the boat owner's daughter wishes to find out what happened with her father. On the boat, she finds a note stating her father is in the island of Matool and, teaming up with a jornalist currently investigating the case, heads up to Matool to find out just exactly what is going on there. They catch a ride from a couple on vacation and start looking for the uncharted, mysterious island. Matool happens to be a damned place, where the dead come back to life, and the 4 of them are in for more than just an investigation.

I can see why this is a classic. Despite the non-existing plot, the bad acting, and the lack of coeherence or logic, the violence is pretty high for 79's standards, and no doubt caused a lot of waves. By today's standards it's nothing that would make you flinch - but in 79, it could. It also has a lot of boobs.

Still, being a classic doesn't make it good. Yeah, it was fun seeing all the two-dimensional characters, the plot holes, the one prop-hand that was apparently used in all the scenes and the bad make-up job in so many of the zombies, but honestly I expected more. Not Citizen Kane, but you know, something better than a zombie fighting a shark. Yes, that does happen, and no, it's not as freaking awesome as it sounds - believe me, I thought I was going to see the coolest thing ever, but it just turned out to be kind of stupid and boring. The characters act in the most ridiculous ways possible, especially the women: they just stand there, screaming, whenever a zombie pops up. What, they're Banshee now, and will destroy them by sound? Heaven's sake, move those legs already. I also learned that when you throw a Molotov cocktail at a bunch of zombies, the flames go out once it hits the floor, which kinda defies the logic of the whole thing. The gore is okay, not much to complain about in that department. It's mildly entertaining trash.

All in all, there are FAR superior zombie movies out there that you should watch. I don't really recommend Zombi 2 to anyone but horror movie apreciators, or zombie fans who like to take a peek at the birth of the zombie genre.

1.5 out of 5 zombies

Let me know what movies you watched this Halloween.

Halloween Picks - The Descent (2005) and Young Frankenstein (1974)

2008-10-31T13:36:00.005Z

Well, here are the two last movie picks for Halloween 2008. It hasn't been easy to narrow down all the movies I wanted to recommend to this little list, so I might just keep recommending horror movies every once in a while - after all, Halloween is like Christmas, you can have it everyday.

1. The Descent (2005)

I consider The Descent to be one of the best horror movies of the last years, and I'm sure time will make it a classic.

Directed by Neil Marshall, The Descent tells us the story of a group of 6 women who go spelunking 1 year after Sarah, a member of the group, lost her daughter and husband on a car accident. Juno, Sarah's best friend, leads the group further and further into a previously unexplored cave, and it soon becomes apparent that they won't all make it out of the cave... if anyone will at all. Revealing more would be a little sinful.

The plot is tight, and the characters are very well fleshed out, making it very interesting to see their relationships change, tear and fall apart. The suspense keeps building from the beginning, and when the action unfolds it's truly like a rollercoaster ride. The cave and the tension make this movie crazy claustrophobic, and if you're anything like me, you'll feel like you're out of breath inside that dark, ominous cave along with the 6 characters. There's a constant feeling of dread and foreboding. The Descebt will make you uncomfortable, and it will scare you, which is not something a lot of horror movies successfully pull off. If you're looking for more than a couple empty jumps, for Halloween, go with this one.

2. Young Frankenstein (1974)

Ok, so, this is not horror. It's a comedy movie - but it's a parody of some of Universal's earliest and biggest classics (Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, and so on), and it's definitely worth a mention. And, more than 30 years after its making, it stands as one of my favorite comedies of all time.

Young Frankenstein gives us the tale of Dr. Frederik Frankenstein (ir's pronounced Fronk-en-steen!), a somewhat crazy college professor who happens to be the grandson of famous mad scientist Victor Frankenstein. His grandfather passed away and left Frederik his castle in Transylvania. He travels to Transyvalnia to claim his inheritance and stumbles upon a book detailing his grandfather's earlier projects of trying to create life from dead body parts. Despite deeming his grandfather insane in the earlier parts of the movie, he decides to give Frankenstein senior's projects a try. Along with him for the ride are the iconic hunchback lab assistant, Igor (pronounced Eye-gore); a young nurse named Inga, and the castle's scary caretaker, Frau Blucher.

Mel Brooks has made some of the funniest comedies ever (notably Blazing Saddles, Spaceballs and Robin Hood: Men in Tights), and Young Frankenstein ranks high on my laugh-a-palooza list. Once the laughter starts, it's hard to stop it, not only because of a great script, but thanks to the brilliant acting by the cast, particularly Gene Wilder, who is perfect as Frederik Frankenstein, and Marty Feldman, who delivers a truly hilarious performance as the hunchbacked Igor. Shot in black and white and using a lot of the same props made for 1931's Frankenstein, the movie successfully reflects the style of the Universal classic, while at the same time being side-splitting hilarious. It's one of the best spoof movies ever made, and I guarantee it'll make for a really fun Halloween night.

Well, these were my suggestions. Let me know if you choose any of these movies to keep you company tonight, and have a kick ass Halloween!

Halloween Picks - Re-Animator (1985) and The Faculty (1998)

2008-10-30T18:20:00.009Z

Once again, as promised, here are a couple of fun suggestions for your Halloween Night.

1. Re-Animator (1985)

As you can see on the poster, Re-Animator is the adaptation of one of H. P. Lovecraft's tales. I am a big fan of Lovecraft's horror writings, but I never got to read Re-Animator, so I'm not in a position to judge its faithfulness to the source material - although I would risk saying it detours from it a whole lot. Lovecraft's writing is not exactly filled with the kind of gore and nonsense you find in this movie.

Directed by Stuart Gordon (a man who directed at least two other feature film adptations of Lovecraft's tales, plus two episodes of Masters of Horror, also Lovecraftian stuff), Re-Animator tells us the story of Herbert West, your token mad scientist, who found out a way of re-animating dead tissue, and is itching to try it on humans, instead of on little lab animals. Brilliant as he is, he's not very modest or personable, and after he lands on Miskatonic Medical University, he immediately makes an enemy in Dr. Carl Hill, when they disagree on the subject of brain death. Herbert ends up moving to the Dean's daughter house, that she shares with her boyfriend Dan, and uses their basement to further his research. In need of a helper, he takes a chance when Dan's cat dies, and re-animates it in hopes of bringing Dan to aid him in his quest. Hill ends up stumbling on West's experiments and finds them an excellent way to put pressure on the genius: he threatens to blackmail him if he doesn't hand over the secret of his re-animating serum. And the rest is history.

The movie is pretty twisted, perverted, and gory, but everything is so over-the-top and cartoonish that it gets really funny. The script is great, and so is the directing and the pace of the film (that by the way, at under 90 minutes in length, is pretty short). Jeffrey Combs performance as Doctor West is brilliant, he has to be one of my favorite mad scientists to ever grace the screen, and the rest of the cast is pretty solid as well.

It's so difficult to find a movie nowadays that makes you cringe and laugh at the same time, but Re-Animator successfully does so, without dumbing the viewer down. Give it a chance, or you'll be missing out.

2. The Faculty (1998)

When the teen horror genre resurfaced in the nighties, some movies were lost amidst the Scream and I know What You Did Last Summer franchises. The Faculty was one of those movies, and while I don't consider it to be "all that" when it comes to horror movies, I'm picking it mostly for nostalgia-based reasons. See, I was a wee teen when this movie came out, and I have to tell you that the possibility of my teachers beings aliens was something that lightly crossed my mind at times. Since that is the premise of this movie, we shared a bit of a kindred spirit.

Directed by the "too cool for school" Robert Rodriguez, The Faculty whirls around an unlikely group of students that come together to fight an alien invasion taking place in their high school. As the alien's posess more and more teachers, it's up to them to find the origin of the infection and stop it, before it overruns their whole town and, eventually, the world.

Think Breakfast Club meets Invasion of the Body Snatcher's - kinda cool, huh?

The movie doesn't get too extreme, gore and scare-wise. In my opinion, the lack of scares can be because an high school isn't exactly the most terrifying setup you can think of for an alien invasion - although it does offer a nice, palpable sense of paranoia. It's also a very stylish movie, and that's what appealed most to the young crowd: the cast is made of clean cut, pretty-face actors, who face the everyday problems of high school... plus aliens; and they actually make a good job. The script is solid enough (penned by Kevin Williamson), with nice dialogue, a pronounced sense of humor and various references to sci-fi material that inspired this movie.

As a horror movie, it doesn't do too much. But as a teen horror movie, it's a few notches above most of the stuff that came out recently, and it's worth at least one viewing. So if you feel nostalgic of simpler times and are looking for a thrill or two, look into The Faculty and it may just be the kick you need.

Stay tuned for the two final recommendations tomorrow! Oh man, I wish it was Halloween every week.

Halloween Picks - Hatchet (2006) and Tesis (1996)

2008-10-29T17:46:00.005Z

I had fun yesterday thinking about these Halloween picks, so why not be a little generous and sugest two movies a day instead of just one? I know, I know, I'm too cool, so here go the TWO-for-one picks of today.

Keep in mind that I'm trying to think about movies that aren't tool well known, and that's why I'm not refering the classics - I don't think anyone needs to recommend The Exorcist, The Shining or Shaun of the Dead, because everyone already knows they're brilliant. Read on!

1. Hatchet (2006)

You know, the tagline pretty much says it all. Hatchet is a movie that takes you right back to the 80's american slashers: it has a deformed, inbred gigantic and inhumanly strong killer; it has
the same teenage characters we've seen in these movies over and over again (poor sap dumped by his girlfriend and trying to forget her, drunk jocks, token black guy, slutty cheeleader types, and the one girl who knows too much) and the plot is entirely forgettable. So why am I suggesting this, you ask?

Because it actually WORKS. Hatchet knows what it is, and makes fun of itself at all times. It doesn't take itself seriously, the director knows this is not the next big thing in horror, but he wants people to have a good time watching it, and Hatchet delivers.

The plot, forgettable as it is, revolves around a group of people that go on a tour of a supposedly haunted swamp in New Orleans. That's where things go awry, after their boat crashes and they find themselves stuck in the swamps with the unwanted company of a mutant serial killer.

The cast gets picked off one by one, in a lot of different, violent, gory ways - we're talking impalement, dismemberment, blood squirting in impossible amounts, the whole deal. Interestingly enough, Hatchet features cameos by famous stars of horror movies, like Robert Englund (Nightmare in Elm Street), Kane Hodder (Friday the 13th) and Tony Todd (Candyman), providing little Easter Eggs for horror fans.

I can't say anything about this flick is fresh or original, but in my opinion, that was the whole point: poking loving fun at the slasher genre while keeping things interesting with splatter comedy and mayhem. It's a B-movie and it knows it, and it works very well as both an homage and a parody. Best watched with a group of friends you can laugh along with.

It's been successful enough to warrant a sequel: Hatchet 2 is supposed to hit screens next year.

2. Tesis (1996)

Moving on from a goofy movie to a more serious one, Tesis is my second pick of the day. Despite being more of a thriller than straight up horror, it's a great movie and deserves to be better known.

I am a big fan of spanish horror movies (the best horror movie I've seen this year was [REC], and it's spanish, as I'm sure you know), so I was pretty curious when I heard of this earlier work of Alejandro Amenábar, who more recently directed The Others - one of the best and most chilling supernatural horrors I've seen. Tesis was Amenábar's debut movie, written while he was still in college. And what a debut it was.

Tesis tells us the story of Ángela, a college student who is writing a thesis about violence in film and in the media. Helping her is Chema, a classmate who because of his obsession about horror movies and extreme films, has a massive collection of said material, that Ángela uses on her research. Meanwhile, Ángela's thesis advisor, Prof. Figueroa, discovers a snuff film where a girl is beaten and brutally murdered on camera, and he dies while watching this film. Ángela and Chema get their hands on the movie, and Chema recognizes the dead girl as a former student of their university. Together, they set out to find out about the snuff underworld and who is murdering people on camera to satisfy a sick fascination with violence.

The movie is very suspenseful and successfully keeps a mood of building tension, without resorting to extreme gore and violence (like some of the earlier picks I made). Intense directing, great cinematograpy and solid performances from the cast are a couple other reaons that make this movie stand out, in my opinion, and definitely worthy of a recommendation. Go get it.

Keep enjoying Halloween's week, and don't forget to check back tomorrow, when 2 new suggestions will be up.

Halloween Picks - Braindead (1992) and Dead End (2003)

2008-10-28T14:43:00.005Z

As you may have noticed, I've been a little absent from the blogging world lately, and while that has happened before for reasons connected to my rampant lazyness, this time it's nothing like that: my computer had to go to the PC Doctor a couple of weeks ago, and I still haven't got it back, and that's pretty much a pain in the ass (it's delaying about half a dozen works I should have ready by now).

So I've been computerless, but this is HALLOWEEN week, and I had to find a way to post on this baby and give you guys some movie recommendations for your Halloween night. Hopefully you'll find some movies you haven't heard of here, and have a good scare at their expense.

I'll post two today, because I meant to have started the list yesterday and keep it up at one suggestion a day until Halloween.

1. Peter Jackson's Braindead (1992) (also known as Dead Alive in the USA).

That's right. Before Peter Jackson gave us the best epic fantasy movie trilogy ever, he made movies with far less elves, and much more zombies. Braindead was his 3rd movie. It became a cult favorite, and gained fame as the goriest movie ever made, and to this day, it holds its own as one of the funniest splatter-fests of all time.

Braindead tells us the story of young man Lionel, who lives with his smothering, controlling mother. In his attempt to have something that resembled a normal life, Lionel starts dating Paquita, much to the grief of his mother. When he takes Paquita out for a walk in the local zoo, his mother decides to follow them, and gets bit by a strange creature called the Sumatran Rat Monkey. The bite causes her to start falling apart and, eventually, die, but that's not the last we see of her, as she comes back to life as controlling and obnoxious as always, but this time with a taste for human flesh. It's up to Lionel to try and stop his mother from spreading the undead infection, while maintaining a normal household as much as possible - unfortunatelly he doesn't really succeed, and next thing we now, that little kiwi town is overrun with blood thirsty zombies, and the fun starts!

The gore in this movie is something I guarantee you've never seen before. Literally gallons of bloods and guts of all sort keep flying around the screen, and the corpses decompose in a miriad of disgusting ways. In the final scene of the movie, over 300 liters of fake blood were used. 300 liters. That is a shitload of blood, and if that's not awesome, I don't know what is.

It borrows a lot of the splastick seen on movies like Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn and exagerates it even further, to levels I never thought possible. Zombie sex, zombie babies, a nazi veterinarian, a kung-fu priest and body parts with a mind of their own are only a few of the things you can expect to see in this crazy, over-the-top gorefest. It's hilarious, it's bloody, it's violent, it blew my mind away when I first watched it and it continues to do so. I couldn't recommend it more.

2. Dead End (2003)

Directed by unknowns Jean-Baptiste Andrea and Fabrice Canepa, Dead End is a pretty straightforward movie about a family on their way to a Christmas dinner at their grandmother's house. There's a little tension going on, and the dad, anxious to shorten the drive there, takes a shortcut, something he had never done in 20 years. We soon learn he would have done better to keep with the traditional road, because the new shortcut is apparently never ending, and filled with unexplainable forces, out to cause the family harm.

The set-up is pretty simple, and I think that's why it ends up working so well, since it helps to keep the focus on the characters and the situation. The atmosphere of the movie is great, very dark, very bleak and eerie, and as the movie develops, you get the feeling of hopelessness of that family, as they realize they won't make it out of the shortcut. That was my favorite thing about Dead End, because scarewise I can't say it scared my pants off or anything (most of the times, when something happened, you could see it coming a few minutes in advance), but there was such a dark mood that I was unsettled for most of the movie, even getting a few old-fashioned chills, the kind that make the hairs on your arms stand up. Don't expect much gore, because most of the horror is actually unseen - being, in my opinion, all the more effective. It really lets you use your imagination and doesn't spoon-feed your brain.

There are some moments of deep weirdness and even humor, as the family turns out to be a little more dysfunctional then you thought they would be, with the humor actually providing a welcome balance, at times. The cast works very well here, and the dialogue is witty and above average for a horror movie. I have to say the ending failed to captivate me, but I definitely enjoyed the ride and I forgive the less than perfect ending.

I confess: after seeing this movie, I was creeped out when I saw a black car on the road at night, and if you give this a try, I think you might be too.

These are the suggestions for today, stay tuned for a brand new one tomorrow!

Michael Bay is a genius

2008-10-09T20:12:00.003+01:00

No, I did not bang my head on a wall or something, but I had to share one of the funniest things I stumbled upon the web lately.
Some (genius) guy set up a Twitter account as Michael Bay and posts some funny tidbits about his thought process, his dreams with Megan Fox and Shia LaBeou'fs tantrums on the set of Transformers 2. Go check it out here, I promise it's funny.

Dragon Ball Teaser Trailer

2008-10-03T19:35:00.002+01:00

I must really hate myself to keep posting stuff about this train wreck of a movie, but anyway. The teaser trailer for Dragon Ball leaked online earlier this week, but it was bootlegged, and it looked like it was filmed from a man's ass, and even I have a too much self respect to post that here. But today, the good quality teaser hit the web, and if I suffered watching it, you must all suffer with me.

I seriously don't know what to say. This looks mind-blowingly bad. I keep expecting it's all a big joke, but it gets worse everytime. Oh well...

Super Mario on eBay

2008-09-16T12:18:00.002+01:00

And now, for a bit of shameless self-promotion, I leave you with a link to the eBay auction for the Super Mario acrylic painting I did a while ago. Go here and bid bid bid! :D

Thanks Mr. Cosmic for the video ;)

Movies + Kung Fu Panda intro

2008-09-15T19:30:00.005+01:00

I'm starting to procrastinate in this blog again, so today is day for a new post.

I've seen a few movies lately, but none really worth a good old long post. Last week I saw Mamma Mia!, and that was mostly a totally harmless movie - I mean, what you see is what you get: people singing and dancing for two hours. You get to see Meryl Streep jump around with ten times the energy I have (and I am 23, that made me feel bad), Pierce Brosnan trying to sing, and Colin Firth's character having a ridiculous twist towards the end. But like I said, it's pretty harmless and I'm sure you can extract some fun out of it if you're into Abba at all (which I must admit I am. I know, I know, but who can resist those sugary melodies?? gah!).

This weekend I saw Babylon A.D. with my Mr. Cosmic, and that movie was baaaad, but not even funny bad, just boring bad. It didn't hold my attention for more than 5 seconds! If only it had been bad in a FUNNY way... but no. So I don't advise seeing it for the laughs, because there won't be any.

Anyway, today I colored that Kung Fu Panda pic I posted a while ago. Here it is:

And in honor of this (and because I forgot to do it before) I'm posting the intro to Kung Fu Panda. It was one of the coolest intros ever, I loved it. Check it out below, and while you're at it, put "watch kung fu panda" on your to-do list.

Zack and Miri Make a Porno: red band trailer

2008-09-07T12:17:00.006+01:00

Kevin Smith's new movie released a red band trailer around the end of August, but since I was away, I'm only going to post it now. It's actually in good timing, because I hope this will make you smile after my last post made you - most likely - cry, or throw up bile.

I'm a fan of most of Kevin Smith's work, and this honestly looks pretty funny, so yeah, color me excited for this one.

Keep in mind it's a red band trailer, so you'll find swearing and bla bla and don't see it if you're under 18 or something (who am I kidding, see it anyway, just don't say you found it here).

Dragon Ball Screenshots

2008-09-05T12:33:00.006+01:00

Well, I'm back, and what better subject for a new post than one that makes me want to kick Hollywood in its fat, rich ass.

A few more screenshots from the upcoming Dragon Ball movie have been released, and guess what, they SUCK. I don't know how I can possibly still be surprised by the suckiness of this pictures, because I'm entirely convinced the movie will be awful, but still, here I am, surprised and sad to see what they're doing to one of my all-time favorite franchises.

Why the hell did they turn Piccolo into an albino sort-of vampirish freak? He's green people! And at least give him his little antennas! And I hate his uniform, god damn I hate it. He looks so bad. I promised I won't mention anything about Master Roshi, because that have been discussed enough. But Piccolo, I can't get over it. What's going on with that red velvety jacket? When did we ever see Piccolo on his bath robe or something?
Bah...
I promise I'll be less bitter on the next post.

Paintings for sale!

2008-08-14T15:50:00.004+01:00

Before going on holidays, I thought I might as well advertise it here along with DA.

I have a couple of acrylic paints up for sale. They're Mario and Link, sprite-style, done in 18x24 cm. canvases, with acrylic paint.

Since they're small, the price will be relatively small as well. If I don't sell them on DA, or to anyone here who's interested, I'll try putting them up on e-bay and then I'll blog the link to the auction as well. Anyway, if you'd like to have them, leave me a comment with your e-mail and we'll make the arrangements!

I won't be posting new stuff for the next couple of weeks, but I'll be checking back for comments, so feel free to leave them! :)

Bully

2008-08-14T15:25:00.005+01:00

Thanks to my lovely Mr. Cosmic, I've been in contact with lots of new (to me) games on the Playstation 2. I've been having a ton of fun catching up with games I never had the chance to play intensely before, namely Resident Evil 4, Driver, God of War, among others. The one I've been playing more and more of, however, is Bully (also known as Canis Canem Edit).

The game, created by Rockstar Vancouver, follows the story of Jimmy Hopkins, a 15 year old boy that is sent to a boarding school while his mother goes on a year long honeymoon with Jimmy's new stepfather. Bullworth Academy is not exactly heaven, and is filled with bullies, preps, nerds and greasers, all apparently ready to kick the new kid's ass. It's your job to stand up to them and, through various missions, prove yourself as the new tough kid.

Since you're in school, you need to go to class as well. When you successfully attend a class, you unlock new abbilities or moves that will probably come in handy in the future, so it is convenient to attend at least a few classes.

You need to complete your missions to advance in the game, but besides those missions, you have a big world that you can explore and interact with. It's a lot of fun to get new weapons, enter in bike races, or go to the carnival play all those "games within the game".

Apparently this game has been the center of a lot of controversy (at least when it came out), but I can't say I agree with that. Sure, it's called BULLY, and you have to fight a lot throughout the game, but in most of the missions you even have to protect the weaker kids from other bullies. I don't see the game as condoning bullying in any way, but I guess videogames have always been an excellent scapegoat for this kind of issues.

I'm yet a long way from finishing it, but I've been having a lot of fun with it!

I'll leave you with a video review I found.

If you were a Zombie...

2008-08-07T18:50:00.003+01:00

So, the surge of Wacthmen-related news seems to have slowed down, leaving me with next to nothing to post (what are you saying, that other movies exist besides that one? no they don't, shut up.). This leads me to posting today about a little site about zombies I stumbled upon.

It's called "If you were a zombie..." and essentially it gathers zombie videos, zombies news and, the best, zombie postcards. Whenever shopping for postcards, I always find myself frustrated by the sight of row upon row of postcards filled with cuddly teddy bears, cute macroshots of dogs' snouts, or kitties playing with balls of thread. I needed something with zombies, and now my needs have been fulfilled. It's nice to know I can let people know how I feel about them with zombie cards, because, just like it says on the site, "Once they're a zombie, it's too late to say you care".

So waste no more time, and go send your loved one a postcard: If You Were a Zombie.

Enjoy the breakdancing zombie's mesmerizing moves until next time!

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

2008-08-04T18:11:00.007+01:00

After hearing much hype about this little series created for the web, I decided to check it out, and I can say it was a pleasant surprise.

Created by Joss Whedon (famous for his work on Firefly and Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and his brothers during the writer's strike of earlier this year, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog is a 3-part series that tells the story of evil scientist wannabe Dr. Horrible, who longs for acceptance on the Evil League of Evil, and for the love of a good-doing girl named Penny.
In the words of the creator, it's "The story of a low-rent super-villain, the hero who keeps beating him up, and the cute girl from the laundromat he's too shy to talk to."

The characters are all played in a campy, fun way (especially Captain Hammer, Dr. Horrible's nemesis), the story is simple and nicely developed, and the songs (because yes!, it is a musical) are all nice and catchy enough. This was obviously done on a super low-budget, so nothing is entirely brilliant and the songs are simple in their execution, but that's all part of the charm. There's a nice balance of humor/drama, though it is pretty humorous and funny for the most part.

I recommend this if you have an extra 40 minutes of free time, and want to check out something simple and fun. It's likely you'll have a good time along Dr. Horrible and his horrible machinations :)

Go here to see the whole thing, or download on iTunes if you wish to support it with a bit of your money.

More Watchmen stuff and Dragon Ball

2008-08-01T23:31:00.005+01:00

This time, it's because I stumbled upon an interesting detail. The new character posters are actually modeled after the original 1986 promotional ads for the comic. Check it out below, and go to Newsarama for more pictures and a nifty article.

To finish up today's post, here's a simple colored sketch of everyone's favorite monkey-tailed alien, Son Goku, riding his cloud Kinton.

Have a nice weekend!

Watchmen on Empire

2008-07-31T18:22:00.011+01:00

I'm kinda sorry that my blog is starting to resemble a Watchmen promotional vehicle, because boy am I going to look like a bloody idiot if the movie ends up sucking (so it better not, Zach Snyder!!). But I gotta be honest, I'm more excited for Watchmen everyday, and every photo that comes out looks impossibly cool and I can't stop myself from posting.

This time, the Watchmen movie is on focus on Empire. Next month they even have two different covers dedicated to it, and a new set of images.

First cover features Silk Spectre, Dr. Manhattan, and Nite Owl. Ttry not to look at Dr. Manhattan's crotch too much (ah, you just did it! I saw you do it. Come on, now.).

Second covers features Ozymandias, The Comedian and Rorschach. I have to tell you that I'm not sure about the Robin-styled mask Ozymandias is sporting, but anywho. Looks awesome regardless. I love The Comedian in this shot.

Revel in the awesome new images now.

I really love this next one of The Comedian. It's the character, spot on.

The source for all these images was Empire.
Looks great or what? Shame that this movie only comes out next year. I want to see it NOW!

New Watchmen Posters

2008-07-30T19:39:00.006+01:00

Apparently, during the San Diego Comic Con, there were a bunch new Watchmen character posters unveiled. They look pretty cool, and hey, it's Watchmen, so you know I'm gonna post them. Enjoy!

1. Rorschach

2. The Comedian

3. Silk Spectre

4.Nite Owl

5. Dr. Manhattan

6. Sally Jupiter

7. Ozymandias

Source: Omelete

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Trailer

2008-07-30T11:07:00.005+01:00

The trailer for the new Harry Potter movie has hit the web - and I mean the REAL trailer, not that piece of crap teaser that was released a couple of weeks or so ago(by the way, that was the worse teaser I ever saw. It's like they don't even try, they just know us nerds will go see the movie anyway, but we deserve to be teased, do we not? Don't just give us a black screen and a title, for heavens sake).

My excitement towards trailers has already been largely spent this year on the Watchmen trailer, so this one only left me mildly excited.
There's very little of Harry, it focus more on Tom Riddle, and it's darker than usual, which is good. This next movie should be dark (despite all the teenage love affairs), so I consider it a good sign. I guess we'll have to wait until November 21 to know for sure.

Wolverine Trailer

2008-07-28T14:48:00.003+01:00

The trailer for X-Men Origins: Wolverine was presented at the San Diego Comic Con, and thankfully there was a nerd there with a cellphone that filmed it, for the other nerds around the world to see. And here it is:

The quality is all you'd expect from something filmed with a cellphone, but it still looks pretty cool. It even has Gambit! I don't know how well they'll tie all these character's stories, but I hope they make a good movie. Wolverine certainly deserves it.

The Dark Knight

2008-07-28T12:35:00.005+01:00

I finally saw it. And I realized that the hype around this movie existed for a reason: The Dark Knight really is damn good.

It reaches way beyond the "superhero movie" genre. In this movie you will find, of course, action, but also drama, suspense, tension, and even humor, all so delicately balanced that you just have to let yourself go with the flow. It's a movie with the classic themes of good vs. evil, order vs. anarchy, sanity vs. madness, and it's amazing to see how they manage to include characters so nuanced and elaborate that they tip-toe in the fine lines between, and sometimes even slip up, to make you aware that things are just not black or white.

Gotham never seemed so real. It's dark, gritty and dangerous. Criminals lurk in the shadows, but someone lurks there with them: Batman. Batman strives to clean up Gotham, but crime seems to rise more than ever, as the Joker gains a central role amongst Gotham's mob. With his evil machinations and love of anarchy, the Joker will try to twist and turn Batman's ideals of justice by proving everyone can be corrupted, and that the only right to live is without any rules.

The plot is great. Like I mentioned before, it's a bundle of different elements, all intertwined, and it works very well. I loved how dark and tense the movie gets at some points: I won't give examples because I would hate to spoil anything.

The performances were all very good, but I have to point one out. And yes, you already know who it's going to be.

Heath Ledger was brilliant as the Joker. Everything they've been saying is true. He plays a terrifying, insane, maniac, nervous, and even funny Joker. He is so evil and disturbing, and still he makes you laugh along with him. His voice and laughter are purely unnerving, and his moves and quirks are something to be seen. It was a fantastic performance, and everything the Joker should be. There have been talks of an Oscar nomination for Ledger, but I don't know if this is the kind of role valued by the Academy; probably, if Heath hadn't passed away, he'd not see a nomination for this. But we'll never know. What I DO know is that his Joker ruled. It was a pleasure to watch, albeit a bittersweet one, because it's sad that it was his last role. I would have liked to see him in many, many more movies.

Aaron Eckhart was great as Harvey Dent as well. This is a character that suffers major changes throughout the movie, and Aaron was convincing all the way. He was a great surprise.

Christian Bale was awesome, as always. His Batman is always a little strange because it takes a little time to get used to his voice, but he can make it work. Plus, I love how he slips in and out of Batman, he is a great Bruce Wayne, really embodying the rich playboy and fooling everyone around. The changes he, as Batman, goes through in this movie are also very interesting to watch.

Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine play Lucius Fox and Alfred Pennyworth, and they're really good, as it would be expected. Maggie Gylhenhall does a decent job and Rachel, definitely better than Katie Holmes, but it's still not a very compelling character. Gary Oldman is still a great Comissioner Gordon, another character that sees his trusts and beliefs shaken to the core by the brilliant machinations of The Joker.

Another thing that needs to be mentioned is the cinematography. Everything looks brilliant and, most of all, REAL. The action is palpable, and it feels actually dangerous. Thankfully the movie relied on organic rather than on CGI effects, and the result is amazing.

All in all, this is a blockbuster, yes, but a great one, with feelings, substance and quality, not just some popcorn brainless entertainment.
Superhero movies watch out, your bar has just been raised to new heights.
I give it 5 out of 5 stars.

Gotham Knight

2008-07-26T14:57:00.003+01:00

Tonight, I will finally (and hopefully!) see a little movie that you might have heard of, called The Dark Knight. I'm pretty anxious for it, since everyone raves on and on about how brilliant it is and I have yet to hear one bad thing about it. Well, not only because of THAT, but I admit that the fact everyone is loving it that much is making me a bit more curious.

Since I knew this would be the movie pick for the weekend, I saw Gotham Knight over the week. Gotham Knight is a project that consists in 6 animated shorts, each by a different director, and that takes place between the events in Batman Begin and Dark Knight. It's sort of like what they did with Animatrix.

The varying animation styles and stories make it interesting throughout, and it never gets boring. Some shorts have outstanding animation, others are not that great, but they're all pretty entertaining. I like how they focus on different things and elements of Batman's world but still keeping it centered around Batman himself - the first short comes to mind, it's about the different perceptions that different kids have of Batman. I really liked the concept and I guess it ended up being my favorite, in a way. I definitely recommend Gotham Knight to Batman fans, especially if they like animation and if they want something to "cool" their curiosity until Dark Knight comes out (I know in some countries it'll still take a while).

Thank you to Mr. Cosmic for providing me with this! ;)

Star Trek

2008-07-24T22:19:00.003+01:00

I've never been much of a Trekkie (or Trekker, or whatever they like to be called). Sure, I saw the ocasional Star Trek episode back when they consisted of Captain Kirk beaming into some planet's surface and seducing an alien female, a random federation member dying and Spock being logical; but I've never been a hardcore fan.

That being said, I'm kind of curious as to what J. J. Abrams will do in the new Star Trek movie. The cast is pretty interesting, and J. J. Abrams always finds some cryptic way to make movies and plots more interesting
The new poster is being distributed on the San Diego Comic Con. It's actually made of four different pieces, and each person will only get one (source: I Watch Stuff).

Look at Kirk's seductive look and Spock's pointy ears! Live long and prosper! *does Vulcan thing with her hand*

For today's sketch, I did a crappy Krillin on MSPaint. If you don't know who Krillin is, get out of here before I use the Vulcan Nerve Pinch on you.

I mean it.