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What is more badass than Samuel L Jackson?… An animated Samuel L Jackson. He is the inspiration behind the central character of Afro Samurai (you can also visit its original website). The anime features his voice along with other well known actor: Ron Perlman, who gives live to Hellboy.

The anime is about, well, a black samurai with a gigantic afro. He is in the quest to avenge his father’s dead and recover the Number One headband. Number One band was acquired by Justice (Ron Perlman) who took it from afro’s father before his eyes when Afro was a child.

The action sequences are incredible. The opening sequence of the first chapter is remarkable, but afro’s first ambush fight sequence is beyond any action I’ve ever seen in an Anime. Unlikely you’ve seen something like it. This is only in the first episode. I’ve yet to see the other four. There are five total. There seems to be an unrated film, and the one that was aired on TV last year.

This is the opening sequence…

The story in itself so far is not that great. But if the action continues like in this chapter, it doesn’t matter…

The music is also outstanding. The soundtrack kicks ass. Long list of hip hops auteurs are in the soundtrack produced by hip hop powerhouse The RZA.

Fury in my eyes is remarkable featuring Thea… her voice, as usual… amazing!.

Most of the soundtrack is available at youtube…

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It’s been since Mulholland Drive, Lynch’s puzzle, that I have been so lost at the end of a movie.

Primer is a mind puzzle thriller about a couple of techies that by accident build a time travel machine. As expected they get invigorated by its power and things happen as you can imagine. However figuring out exactly how it is happening its what makes it really enjoyable. I mean you can get the main idea at the end of the movie, you sort of understand what happens as you move along, but I, at least, could not really explained it.

So what did I do?… I watched it twice in a row, then jumped on their website, read many theories and I am dying to watch it again just to check which theory likely is right.

Primer won the jury award at Sundance 2004, and, as you, probably, I’d never heard of it. The movie is as low budget as likely possible. It is written, directed, produced, edited, music, and acted by the same guy Shane Carruth (KUDOS to him by the way). There are a couple, really a couple, of visual effects, sound isn’t great, acting outside the main two guys is very amateur at best. Dave Sullivan (the other main character) is very good. The script is sound, the storytelling is very good, good pace mostly, and it is, in my humble opinion, very well directed. Not anyone can pull it off with such a complicated story. The first 20 min or sort the first act is quite heavy on science lingo and it is hard to know what to make it out of the movie. Hang in there, the second act is quite strong, and a very good finish.

I won’t get into any details because I don’t want to spoil it for anyone that might read this…

Trailer at their website.

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It’s been a while since I wrote about the first three issues of this comic series. I was so disappointed at issue #3 (Sloth) that it took many trips to the comic shop to get the next three issues: Lust, Pride and Envy. Issue seven is still in the making.

As with the rest of the series, issues 4 through 6, are a roller coaster. Being Lust the best story telling and Envy the best art and character development I’ve seen this far. Pride is a bit boring, but not as bad, nothing could, as the story telling of Sloth.

In Lust, they give us a bit of the background on the religious upbringing that is quite consistent with the character we know. The art is good, but the story telling is what shines. We know of his mother and her relationship to his uncle, how the mother pushes him into a world of guiltiness (is that a word?), and how his teenager hormones had something to say about it. But not quite enough, so it all start making sense.

Pride is quite uneventful, a bit of cheese here and there, very cliche, nothing much to say… the art cover, as usual, is great.

Envy is perhaps the best issue thus far. It is actually what prompted me to write about the series again. It is what I’ve hoped the whole series would have been. It goes deep, it shows how John Doe cracks and we understand how he becomes vulnerable to the sin he is guilty of at the end of the movie. The writer, David Mack, found a story that makes sense. The art is very good and compelling. If you are not interested in the rest of the series, at least try this one.

It is said that by the end of the year they are going to put out the whole series in a graphic novel, so if you are reading this and you are tempted to get it, then just wait until the graphic novel hits the stand.

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Watched Fracture last nite. Hopkins is great as usual, though his character is not very different from his usual ones. Incredible smart, cinic, and just terrifying as a bad guy.

The plot is more or less that Hopkins’ character kills his wife and though he confesses to the fact, the guy plays the legal system in a way that the can get away with it. That is of course if go-get-at-it-always-win-lawyer, played by Ryan Gosling, can’t do something about it.

Though the plot is well developed and Hopkins’ scenes are good in the Hopkins’ way, you can figure out the twist about a third into the movie. We could have told it to the lawyer and save him a bunch of troubles.

The sequence where the twist is unveiled is quite good. It is perhaps the sequence in which the lawyer shines. I can’t say the same for him for the rest of the movie. There are a couple of subplots but the script doesn’t allow them to flourish.

All in all it was worth the $4…

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Michael Gondry is not your usual director. If you’ve followed some of his stuff that goes from a long list of music videos to very successful motion pictures, I am sure you’ll agree with me.

The Science of Sleep is his latest movie, released recently in DVD. Actors are Gael Garcia Bernal and french lead actress Charlotte Gainsbourg, and a realy good cast of french actors, unknown to me.

Gael Garcia Bernal plays Stephane whose character mixes dreams and reality. He falls for his neighbor and the movie is about him dealing with rejection and getting his relationship to this woman on track.

If you know a bit about Michael Gondry, then you can imagine how interesting the dream sequences ought to be, and you won’t be dissapointed. The sequences are great!. It is incredible how such a complex set up of storyline and character can make so much sense. Any description I give you about a given part won’t make sense on its own but in the context is so meaningful.

Watch the trailer in youtube.

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If you thought Rocky Balboa or Rocky VI was testing our patience for sequels, think again. Die Hard 4, with a 52 year old Bruce Willis is here:

At least he has the sense to play the father of a teenage girl. The girl gets kidnapped by, get this, an Internet-based (whatever the hell that means) terrorist organization and all hell breaks loose with the loose cannon that is John McClane. And speaking of Rocky, our buddy Stallone (age, 60) is not satisfied still. He’s reprising his other action hero, Rambo in John Rambo (what’s with the full name of characters in movie titles?) aka Rambo IV, due next year. I can’t wait.

Did I mention Indiana Jones IV, Shrek III, and Pirates of the Caribbean III? At least with Indy IV, they made a good decision by casting the wonderful Cate Blanchett. I just hope there are no love scenes between her and grandpa Ford.

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To many, this is a must-watch movie. I went to it without reading the comic, not because I had planned it that way. This is the third comic based movie (other than superheroes) I haven’t read prior to watching the movie. Sin City and V for Vendetta being the other two.

The movie is highly enjoyable, the war sequences are great, the cinematography is amazing, art design is superb, and most of the characters are, though bit shallow, interesting.

SPOILERS PARAGRAPH - STOP READING IF YOU DON”T WANT TO KNOW KEY THINGS ABOUT THE MOVIE

Two of the best action sequences are Leonidas’ fight with the big monster guy and the fight of Astinos just before he gets his head cut off. Two other great sequences are Xerxes’ moral decay while convincing Ephialtes to betray the Spartans, and the sequence I like the most when Leonidas’ wife Queen Gorgo addresses the Council and kills Theron upon his betrayal. I learnt that the story of the Queen addressing the council is not actually part of the original comic book.

END OF SPOILERS

Not everything was great though. I have some issues with the flow of the movie. This is not the first time this happens to me while watching a comic based movie. The transition in the speeches is spotty in many cases which I presume coincides with the layout of the comic. This was the case with Sin City at least. It appears that the more accurate the adaptation the more prone for this to happen. I believe here is where not having read the comics actually help to analyze the movie by itself. The acting was a bit marginal with the exception of the Queen, Theron and Xerxes. The poor acting could have been a consequence of the flow problem I was referring to before, and that I can’t imagine getting the bodybuilder types to actually do acting (if not look at the governator and Sylvester Stallone). Most of the Spartan warriors characters are a bit flat. Leonidas perhaps being the exception but not quite conveying successfully the depth of the character.

There is a bit of the abuse of the slow-fast-slow camera effect. I mean it works most of the time, but it gets a bit old as the movie progresses. A friend of mine relates this to emphasize certain frames as a comic book would… perhaps he is right!… nevertheless there is no need to abuse it, what works in the comic doesn’t necessarily work in film. I was a bit annoyed by the music. Seems a bit forceful imposing over the visuals which is usually not a great idea in a film.

That was the end of my complaints…

Most definitely a movie for the theater, as long as you are not grossed out by the violence, which by the way it doesn’t feel gratuitous in any form, you should be able to enjoy it. I want to watch it again after reading the comic, or the graphic novel should I say.

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Virgin Comics is the brainchild of Richard Branson, Deepak Chopra and Shekhar Kapur (of “Elizabeth” fame). One of their ultra sleek comic book characters is “The Sadhu” penned by Chopra’s son, whose name Batman fans would be happy to know, is Gotham. According to Variety, Oscar winner Nicolas Cage is set to star in the movie based on the comic.

This is an interesting blend of the East and the West.

During my formative years, I had subscriptions to “Amar Chitra Katha,” “The Phantom,” “Tarzan,” and had collected the entire Asterix and Tintin sets of comics. I did not have easy access to Marvel Comics in those days but I still managed to get myself a few. My interest in comic books have been kick-started again due to the constant persuasions of fellow blogger josecaldera. He has been trumpeting all sorts of Adult (I don’t mean X-rated) comic series such as “Buddha” and “The Last Man.” I have to admit, I am slowly getting hooked again. I am yet to check out any of the Virgin Comics material. The premise here is to “tap into The vast library of [Indian] mythology and re-invent the rich indigenous narratives of Asia in a unique, compelling, and entertaining way.” The graphics are definitely a significant improvement over the Amar Chitra Katha comics.

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It’s  been a while since I’ve gone twisting in my chair while watching a movie. While watching “100 scariest movies”, a Bravo TV show in Halloween, we spotted in position 11 a japanese movie called Audition. I watched it last night, and man oh man, if you are a horror lover this is a must see. It has nothing to do with the movies like Ringu, Ju-on (The Grudge), or the eye, which now we are used to from the japanese crowd.  This one is truly a horror flick.

The first three quarts of the movie are the build up for the last 20 min or so. You’ll believe that nothing much is happening, and that the movie is slow and boring, which is actually pretty true, but hang on in there. It is the right start for such strong finish. The first part is designed to create a mood of slowness, loneliness, and allow you to care abouth the characters. But when you get to the last part, grab your seat, because as we say in Venezuela: “lo que viene es joropo”, meaning that what you paid for is coming, painful watching of characters suffering. The words “kiri kiri kiri” which translates “deeper deeper deeper” will have a whole different meaning from now on.

This is by far one of the best horror movies I’ve seen in my life. I never thought something good would have come from one of those Best 100 shows.

enjoy, oh and if I were you I wouldn’t eat while watching that last part.

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One of the things associated with parenthood is NOT going to the movies, at least when kids are really young as mine are, and when your family leaves far away… anywho… though this is a rare ocassion, there was this movie, I knew nothing about, but it was recommended to me, so we watched it on video: Lucky Number Slevin . In my pre-kids days I’d have not missed such a cast (among them: Bruce Willis, Josh Harnett, Morgan Freeman, Ben Kingsley, Lucy Liu, Stanley Tucci). Director is Paul McGuigan. a quick IMDB search and still don’t know who he is, though he has an adaption of Irvine Welsh’s The Acid House. That could be pretty interesting, it is a weird but rather entertaining book. Then again, Irvine’s books are not particularly normal.

Back to Slevin though…

Harnett plays Slevin, a guy that happens to be in the wrong place, at the wrong time. He goes to visit a friend, who owes money to two of the big rival warlords in LA (or is it somewhere else?). When one of the warlords (Morgan Freeman) asks to see Slevin’s friend, this is not in the house, but Slevin is. From then on Slevin becomes the crux of the two warlords (being the other Sir Kingsley) rivalry. The first warlord (Freeman) asks Slevin to kill the other warlord’s son, in retaliation for the death of Freeman’s song who was supposedly killed by Kingsley mob side. Things get a bit more complicated from here, but it reaches a happy closure.

It is just a fun movie to watch, it is carefully made, though the twist is predictable, it doesn’t matter, every detail is covered nicely. The script is pretty good and the acting, even from Harnett, is great. Ben Kingsley, Willis, and Stanley Tucci are excellent as usual. The story is at the beginning a bit convoluted but it starts make sense more and more throughout the movie.

Watch for the details.

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